Development of an Earthquake Anxiety Scale for Children

Abstract The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to assess anxiety levels in children following earthquakes. Accordingly, the Earthquake Anxiety Scale for Children was designed and psychometric analyses were conducted on data collected from 2,089 participants. Preliminary analyses with the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) test and Bartlett’s test of sphericity confirmed the suitability of the data for factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a five-factor structure consisting of traumatic thoughts and memories, avoidance and environmental fears, physiological responses, feelings of insecurity, and anxiety/fear symptoms. The overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was .898, indicating high internal consistency, while the subscales also demonstrated acceptable reliability coefficients. Descriptive analyses showed that children experienced moderate levels of earthquake-related anxiety. The findings suggest that the scale is a reliable and valid instrument for multidimensional assessment of earthquake anxiety in children. This tool can contribute to identifying psychosocial needs, guiding the development of intervention programs, and evaluating the effectiveness of psychological support following disasters.