Development and validation of a scale for measuring Multiple Motives toward Environmental Protection (MEPS)

•Multi-motives toward Environmental Protection Scale: Development and validation.•Good scale reliability and evidence of construct validity.•A comprehensive motivation model that extends the existing literature.•Contribution: Inform policy strategies focusing on environmental behavior. The current study aimed to establish and validate the Multi-motives toward Environmental Protection Scale (MEPS) to assess the various reasons that motivate individuals to engage in environmental behaviors. The scale development process included four steps: extensive literature review on environmental incentives, generation of an item pool, evaluation of the initial item pool by a panel of experts, and administration of the final item pool to a population sample to test the psychometric properties of the scale. We collected five distinct samples to: (1) explore the factorial structure of the MEPS using Exploratory Factor Analysis (Study 1); (2) confirm the proposed structure using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and assess reliability and validity (Studies 2 and 3); (3) examine test-retest reliability (Study 4); and (4) evaluate the MEPS in a representative sample (Study 5). The overall findings supported a seven-factor structure for the 28-item MEPS, revealed good scale reliability and provided evidence of construct validity in terms of discriminant and convergent validity. The scale exhibited criterion-related validity as suggested by the correlations observed between each MEPS subscale and other outcome variables. Results showed that configural, measurement and latent mean invariance were established across gender groups. The MEPS comprises a comprehensive instrument that makes a significant contribution to the motivation literature within the environmental conservation context. The proposed measure gives rise to future research in the environmental psychology field and may inform behavior change strategies by policymakers that wish to promote environmental behavior.