ScholarWorks@경상국립대학교

초록

This study developed and validated a curriculum‐ aligned health literacy scale for adolescents grounded in the 2015 and 2022 Revised Science (Biology) Curricula. A 30-item preliminary instrument was constructed through a three-round Delphi review with 19 experts and by adapting relevant items from the HELMA framework to reflect core biological concepts such as human physiology, homeostasis, disease prevention, and health-related decision-making. A total of 869 adolescents in Gyeongsangnam-do (444 middle school and 425 high school students) participated in the survey. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using a polychoric correlation matrix and parallel analysis on a randomly selected subsample (n = 400) supported a two-factor structure —Health Knowledge and Health Information and Behavior— with 64.9% explained variance and strong internal consistency (α = .91 and .96). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using WLSMV estimation with the remaining sample (n = 469) demonstrated excellent model fit across the total, middle school, and high school samples, confirming the stability of the factor structure across developmental stages. Multigroup CFA further established configural, metric, and threshold invariance, indicating that the scale functions equivalently for middle and high school students. Curriculum alignment analysis showed that all items correspond meaningfully to the science and biology achievement standards, supporting the scale’s theoretical coherence and educational relevance. This study provides empirical evidence for a curriculum-based assessment tool capable of diagnosing adolescents’strengths and weaknesses in biologically grounded health literacy and supporting the design of instruction aligned with national curricula. Future research should refine the instrument using item response theory (IRT), expand sample diversity for standardization, and examine additional forms of validity.

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