Development and Validation of Life Safety Awareness Scale of High School Students and Analysis of Interindividual Differences

Life safety awareness level diagnosis is necessary for customized safety education and continuous safety awareness. As the starting stage of safety education for each life cycle, a scale that has verified the reliability and validity of high school students' life safety awareness has not yet been developed. In this context, the purpose of this study is to develop and validate the life safety awareness scale of high school students and to analyze interindividual differences. Questionnaire data was collected from April to June 2022 from 834 students in the first, second, and third grades of high schools in △△ city in Jeollabuk-do. A final 25-item scale was developed using the preliminary survey, preliminary test, the main test, descriptive statistical analysis, and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. This scale consists of four sub-factors: 'safety prevention', 'safety knowledge', 'safety preparation', and 'safety protection'. Good reliability and validity were verified by analysis of content validity and construct validity. The generalizability of the scale was verified by crossover validation between the search group and the crossover group. Based on the interindividual differences analysis, although there was a difference between genders in life safety awareness, there was no difference by grade level and academic achievement. This study is significant in developing the first valid scale that can measure high school students' life safety awareness and providing the necessity and rationale for life safety education by life cycle considering individual gender differences.