Development of the literacy scale for excellent traditional Chinese culture among college students.

BACKGROUND

The Literacy scale for Excellent Traditional Chinese Culture (ETCC-LS) is an important measurement instrument for assessing college students' cultural accomplishment and the effectiveness of university cultural education. Nevertheless, existing measurement tools show limited contextual suitability for Chinese college students. Based on the Knowledge-Attitude-Practice (KAP) framework, this study aimed to develop the ETCC-LS for the assessment of excellent traditional Chinese culture literacy among college students.

METHODS

Using a cross-sectional design with convenience sampling, an item pool was generated through literature review and expert consultation, then administered to college students across six universities in Fujian Province, China. Of 1,424 questionnaires distributed, 1,345 valid responses were retained and screened via item analysis before being randomly split into an exploratory subsample (n = 672, EFA) and a validation subsample (n = 673, CFA); internal consistency was assessed via Cronbach's α and composite reliability.

RESULTS

The final ETCC-LS consisted of 11 items covering three dimensions: knowledge of traditional culture, attitude toward cultural openness, practice of cultural dissemination. The respecified three-factor model yielded acceptable fit: χ 2/df = 4.869, RMSEA = 0.076, CFI = 0.984, TLI = 0.984. Standardized factor loadings ranged from 0.748 to 0.989. Cronbach's α was high and stable across two subsamples (total scale α = 0.948-0.951), at or above the 0.95 redundancy risk threshold flagged for the knowledge of traditional culture and practice of cultural dissemination subscales. All dimensions met criteria for convergent validity (AVE > 0.50, CR > 0.70). Despite the high latent correlation (r = 0.893) between knowledge of traditional culture and practice of cultural dissemination, Fornell-Larcker criteria supported acceptable discriminant validity.

CONCLUSION

The KAP-based ETCC-LS showed acceptable reliability and validity. It serves as a reliable measurement tool for assessing college students' literacy of excellent traditional Chinese culture.