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Political Efficacy Short Scale (PESS)
Groskurth, K.; Nießen, D.; Rammstedt, B.
Abstract: The Political Efficacy Short Scale (PESS) is the English-language adaptation of the German-language Political Efficacy Kurzskala (PEKS); it measures perceived political e ... mehr
Publikationsjahr: 2021
Anzahl Items: 4
Sprache der Items: English, German (source)
Instruction
“In the following we are interested in your opinion concerning politics. You can agree to the statements below to a greater or lesser extent. Please indicate to what extent you agree or disagree with each of the statements.”
Items
Table 1
Items of the English-Language Adaptation of the Political Efficacy Short Scale (PESS)
No. | Item | Subscale |
1 | I am good at understanding and assessing important political issues. | Internal |
2 | Politicians strive to keep in close touch with the people. | External |
3 | I have the confidence to take active part in a discussion about political issues. | Internal |
4 | Politicians care about what ordinary people think. | External |
Note. Internal = internal political efficacy, external = external political efficacy.
Response specifications
Items are answered using a 5-point rating scale ranging from do not agree at all (1) to completely agree (5).
Scoring
The Political Efficacy Short Scale (PESS) consists of two items covering the two aspects of the political efficacy, namely internal political efficacy and external political efficacy. The English-language items are displayed in Table 1 (for the original German items, see Beierlein, Kemper, et al., 2014b). As in the German source instrument, all items are formulated positively in the direction of the underlying aspect. The scale score of political efficacy is computed separately for each subscale (internal and external political efficacy). For this purpose, the unweighted mean score of the two items of each subscale is computed. We suggest that individual answers should be aggregated to the scale level only if there are no missing values.
Application field
PESS is the English-language adaptation of the German-language Political Efficacy Kurzskala (PEKS); it measures perceived political efficacy with four items. PESS comprises two subscales—internal and external political efficacy—with two items each. Internal political efficacy refers to the belief in one’s own political effectiveness; external political efficacy refers to the belief in the responsiveness of the political system to citizens’ concerns. Completion time for all four items is less than 30 s. The items of the German-language source version were translated into English using the TRAPD approach. The present study empirically validated the English-language adaptation (PESS) based on a heterogeneous quota sample in the UK. The results show that the reliability and validity coefficients of the English-language adaptation are sufficiently high and that they are comparable to those of the German-language source version. In addition, the scale showed strict measurement invariance (i.e., equal loadings, intercepts, and uniquenesses) when comparing the UK and Germany, which indicates the comparability of manifest scale scores (means and variances) and correlations across the two nations. As a short scale, PESS lends itself particularly to the measurement of political efficacy in survey contexts in which assessment time or questionnaire space is limited. It is applicable in a variety of research disciplines, including political science, sociology, psychology, and economics. PESS/PEKS is typically self-administrated, such as via paper-and-pencil or online questionnaire. However, provided slight adaptations to the instructions, an oral administration in a personal interview or telephone interview is also conceivable.