Designing and Validating a Scale of Attitudes towards the National Police, for Colombian Samples

Abstract

This study’s design was empirical and quantitative. In addition, it was psychometric, under instrumental study criteria. Its main objective was to design and validate a scale of attitudes towards the National Police for a Colombian sample. To do so, a theoretical review was performed and a table of specifications was created, which allowed identifying the amount of items required to cover the six main functions of said entity. Subsequently, the items were submitted to validation by judges. Some suggested adjustment were made to the scale, and the survey was given to 566 Colombian citizens between the ages of 18 to 82. The average age was 26. The population was accessed by means of non-probability, snowball sampling. Moreover, an exploratory factor analysis was performed, which regrouped the reactive items into four factors: thoughts and beliefs regarding the National Police, feelings and emotions towards the National Police, the Police’s own actions, and the Police’s actions in light of brawls and fights. In addition, a confirmatory factor analysis that refers to proper goodness of fit indices was performed. The results of the statistical analyses demonstrated that this instrument has high internal consistency and reliability, which is reflected in the general Cronbach’s alpha of 0,875 and proper validity, since the items have appropriate extraction indices and the four factors in which they were grouped explain 47,140% of total variance

El estudio buscó identificar el significado que estudiantes observadores de intimidación escolar tienen del fenómeno. Se empleó metodología cualitativa y grupo focal como estrategia de recolección de información. Las narrativas fueron analizadas con el programa NVivo e interpretadas con redes temáticas. Se identificaron cinco temas globales: intimidación como maltrato, intimidador como víctima, ejercicio de poder, naturalización de la intimidación y percepción sobre alternativas de solución. Se discute que los observadores no diferencian las situaciones de intimidación de otras situaciones conflictivas, perciben que profesores y padres de familia legitiman la intimidación escolar y que las medidas institucionales no son efectivas, indicando claves para orientar la prevención e intervención