Developing an attitude scale for university students who perceived scientists as social media phenomena during the 2020 and 2021 Covid-19 pandemic

The aim of this study was to develop a measurement tool that would determine university students' attitudes toward the phenomena of scientists on social media during the period of Covid-19 pandemic. The sample of the study included 780 students studying at different departments and programs of universities in Turkey. The Scale of Students' Attitudes on Scientists as Phenomena on Social Media was developed in this study as a 5-point Likert scale with 27 items and 5 factors: Actuality of the shared post, Effect of the shared post on personal development, Credibility of the shared post, Dissemination of the shared post and Recognition of the scientist. Considering the overall reliability of the scale, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated as 0.957 and test-retest reliability coefficient as 0.942. As a result of the confirmatory factor analysis, the fit index values were found to be x2/sd=1.998, RMSEA=0.070, S-RMR=0.062, IFI=0.97, NNFI=0.97, NFI=0.95, CFI=0.97, GFI=0.92, AGFI=0.88, PNFI=0.83 and PGFI=0.67. These values examined in relation to the model's adequacy were determined to be perfectly acceptable.