Development and Validation of a Scale for Assessing Second-Hand Clothing Preferences Within a Sustainability Framework

The increasing environmental impact of the textile industry has heightened interest in sustainable consumption practices, particularly second-hand clothing consumption. However, instruments assessing attitudes toward second-hand clothing remain limited. This study aimed to develop a scale to assess university students’ perceptions, sustainability orientations, values, and attitudes toward second-hand clothing consumption and to provide evidence of its psychometric properties. An initial pool of 45 items was generated through a literature review and focus group interviews with students from 14 universities representing different geographical regions of Türkiye. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted using data from 244 university students. After removing nine items, a 36-item, eight-factor structure accounted for 66.43% of the total variance. The factors were labeled Saving, Fashion, Social Interaction, Spiritual Well-Being, Brand Orientation, Sustainability, Trust, and Nostalgia. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) performed on an independent sample supported the proposed structure and demonstrated an acceptable model fit (χ2/df = 2.16; CFI = 0.854; TLI = 0.838; RMSEA = 0.069; SRMR = 0.074). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged from 0.712 to 0.913. Overall, the findings indicate that the proposed scale demonstrates acceptable psychometric properties and has the potential to assess university students’ attitudes toward second-hand clothing consumption in future research.