Development of a Civil Defense Awareness Scale for CBRN Threats and Evaluation of Its Psychometric Properties

In today's world, where technology, knowledge, and equipment capabilities are rapidly evolving, CBRN incidents have the potential to seriously affect the lives, health, and well-being of many individuals at both the regional and national levels. The aim of this study is to test the validity and reliability of a measurement tool to measure the level of civil defense awareness of individuals in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats. In this context, a methodological study was conducted using survey data collected from 788 individuals over the age of 18 living in Turkey between May–August 2024. The Civil Defense Awareness Scale (CDAS) is at an acceptable level in terms of content and construct validity. According to the explanatory factor analysis, the scale consisting of 18 items and three sub-dimensions explains 63.68% of the total variance. In addition, the fit indices obtained from confirmatory factor analysis support the structural validity of the model and are at an acceptable level.