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Measuring public knowledge on nuclear weapons in the post-Cold War: dimensionality and measurement invariance across eight European countries
[journal article]
Abstract Research on public opinion and international security has extensively examined attitudes toward nuclear weapons, but the diffusion of basic knowledge about nuclear weapons among the everyday citizens has nevertheless been mostly missed. This study proposes a working definition and advances a measure... view more
Research on public opinion and international security has extensively examined attitudes toward nuclear weapons, but the diffusion of basic knowledge about nuclear weapons among the everyday citizens has nevertheless been mostly missed. This study proposes a working definition and advances a measurement model of knowledge on nuclear weapons in the general public. It analyzes data from two novel surveys conducted in 2018 (N = 6559) and 2019 (N = 6227) where respondents from Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom answered a web survey on attitudes and factual knowledge on nuclear weapons. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic models are used to examine the dimensionality and to assess the measurement invariance of a scale of knowledge about nuclear weapons. A bifactor measurement model, where a strong general factor represents the construct of interest and specific factors account for the presence of testlets due to questionnaire design, is established and validated. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance are established across the eight samples. The findings indicate that knowledge about nuclear weapons in the general, non-expert public can be reliably measured cross-nationally.... view less
Keywords
Italy; Netherlands; Sweden; public opinion; nuclear weapon; measurement; Federal Republic of Germany; questionnaire; Belgium; knowledge; attitude; international comparison; France; international security; Poland; Great Britain; data capture
Classification
Methods and Techniques of Data Collection and Data Analysis, Statistical Methods, Computer Methods
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 1-19
Journal
Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences, 3 (2021)
ISSN
2523-8930
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed