Scales of Voluntarily Simplicity Life Style: Scale Development Study

Abstract

Purpose – This study’s objective was to develop a voluntary simplicity lifestyle scale in order to determine individuals’ voluntary simplicity lifestyle behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – At the first stage, a large item pool, a candidate for final inclusion in the scale, was created, and questions in the item pool were evaluated for content validity by experts in the field. At the pilot study stage, it was applied to 600 individuals who were 18 years of age and over, who lived in Altındağ, Çankaya, Etimesgut, Gölbaşı, Keçiören, Mamak, Pursaklar, and Yenimahalle districts of Ankara province, had a regular income or were a housewife and used their family income. After the questions in the item pool were applied to the subjects, the scale’s structure was examined with exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Results – The first EFA found that the scale items were collected under 12 factors. The variance explained by these 12 factors with regard to the scale was 59.316%. Here, it was observed that very few items were loaded on some factors, some items were loaded on more than one factor, and some loading values were below .30, and these items were removed from the scale and EFA was repeated. The analysis showed that the remaining 46 items were collected under 4 factors and the variance explained was 43.156% in total. Data analysis and evaluation were performed, and a Voluntary Simplicity Lifestyle Scale, consisting of four subscales Material Simplicity, Ecological Awareness, Self-Sufficiency, and Personal Development, was obtained. Discussion – Upon reviewing the dimensions and items in the scale development studies on voluntary simplicity lifestyle in different nations in the literature (Iwata, 1997; Leonard-Barton, 1981; Shama & Wisenblit, 1984), differences and similarities are observed. Consequently, it can be said that the scale developed is a reliable and valid measurement tool.