Development and Validation of Media Exposure to Terrorism Scale: A Mixed-Method Approach

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to develop an original, valid, and reliable measure of Media exposure to terrorism (METT) that could adequately measure the effects of METT on adolescents’ mental health who have been exposed to the Army public School Peshawar (APSP) terrorist attack through media. Previously available measures on METT have some limitations. The scale was developed through a systematic process where in Phase I qualitative data acquired from Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) conducted with adolescents ( N = 45) -who came to know about the event through media- were subjected to content analysis for item generation. Phase II was the tryout and validation of the developed scale. The developed scale was validated through exploratory factor analysis (N = 380), confirmatory factor analysis (N = 332), convergent validity, contrasted groups, calculating Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimates and item-total correlation coefficient (N=716). Sample of the study was based on student population (12-17 years) selected from 7 different cities of Pakistan. The results revealed that developed measure is valid, parsimonious, and reliable enough to be used in quantitative study to reveal the effect of METT on adolescents’ mental health.