Development and standardization of scale for measurement of attitude of farm women towards agriculture as an enterprise

Abstract

Farm women constitute a vital segment of the rural workforce and play a decisive role in agricultural development. Recognizing agriculture as an enterprise requires a favourable attitude supported by risk-taking ability, innovation, managerial skills, and economic orientation. The present study was undertaken to develop and standardize a reliable and valid scale to measure the attitude of farm women towards agriculture as an enterprise. The study was conducted during 2022 in Akola and Washim districts of Maharashtra, with a total sample of 240 respondents. Following a systematic scale construction procedure, statements were generated, screened, and subjected to relevancy testing and item analysis. Initially, 98 statements were formulated based on literature review and expert consultation, of which 79 were retained after editing. Relevancy testing by 91 subject-matter experts resulted in the selection of 46 statements. Item analysis using the critical ratio (‘t’ value) led to the final selection of 35 statements, comprising 28 positive and 7 negative statements, covering seven dimensions: risk aversion/taking, innovational attitude, social attitude, managerial attitude, economical attitude, stressfulness, and satisfaction. The reliability of the scale was established using the test-retest method, yielding a high reliability coefficient (r = 0.823), significant at the 0.01 level. Content validity was ensured through comprehensive coverage of the construct and expert judgment. The developed scale is a standardized, dependable instrument that can be effectively used in future research and extension programmes to assess and compare the attitude of farm women towards agriculture as an enterprise.