FACTOR STRUCTURE OF PARTICIPATORY COMMUNICATION RELATED TO PUBLIC PARTICIPATION IN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT IN THAILAND

Abstract

This study aimed to analyze the confirmatory factor structure of participatory communication of the public in environmental impact assessment in Thailand. The sample consisted of 460 members of the public who had participated in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process. The research instrument was a five-point Likert-scale questionnaire, with item discrimination values ranging from .551 to .849 and an overall reliability coefficient of .901.  The results of the data analysis indicated that the developed model was consistent with the empirical data, with goodness-of-fit indices as follows: c²=.18, df = 1, p-value = .67022,  c² / df =  .18,  RMSEA = .000,  RMR = .0024,  SRMR = .0027,  CFI = 1.00, GFI = 1.00  AGFI = 1.00, CN = 16791.35  The findings revealed that participatory communication of the public consists of four components: communication and content, communication channels, audience participation, and evaluation and reflection. The standardized factor loadings (λ) of the components ranged from .61 to .89, which were statistically significant at the .05 level. In addition, the reliability of each component, as indicated by R² values, ranged from 37% to 79%.