Perceived Safety Scale

1

I am trying to find out if anyone know of a Perceived Safety Scale. I will need to apply it in English and in Portuguese.

2

Hi could you please provide more information? For example, are you interested in tourism or emergency responding? Or people’s attitudes about their home environment?

3

I am researching intermediate spaces - semi-external - such as arcades, pocket parks, cloisters in densely occupied urban areas.

4

Dear Filo

Welcome to the forum :slight_smile:

How about the two scales, according to Lester(2013), designed to measure Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. The scales don’t seem to have been validated but they contail safety and security subscales.

The second looks better.

This is the link for Lester (2013)

Tim

5

hi Tim,
thanks for this, will look through them tomorrow - terrible troubles with my computer this evening.

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6

Hi @Filo , this is in English and the article does not include the actual items, but I would suggest emailing the authors of this manuscript (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/15568318.2019.1641577) to see if they would be kind enough to provide the items they refer to at the top of page 894:
“Overall safety perceptions of streets and perceptions of
specific physical street settings shown in the photo-
graphs (six questions): the three areas were rated based
on daytime and nighttime scenarios using a five-point
Likert scale, followed by open-ended questions asking
for explanations for each rating.”

Also (and @timtak) I wouldn’t suggest using something like Maslow’s heirarchy of needs to assess perceived safety in specific urban environments. If you would like more information please follow up thanks!

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7

Hi Paul,
Thanks for this, I am reading the article and will try and contact the authors.
It is helpful…many thanks

8

Dear Paul and Filo

I agree a scale designed for use in specific settings would be better than the general (and unvalidated, I think) scales, or rather sub-scales that I suggested. That said, I wonder how much the items (plural?) vary.

I was thinking that Filo might change the items to make them specific to a location, in the way that for instance Cousins (1989: made famous by Markus and Kitayama, 1991) changed the TST question to make it context specific.

Original items from Lester (1990)
I think the world is a pretty safe place these days.
I would not walk alone in my neighbourhood at night.
My anxiety level is high.
I feel secure about the amount of money I have an earn.
I feel safe and secure.
I am afraid to stay in my house/apartment alone at night.
My life is orderly and well defined.
I can depend on others to help me when I am in need.
I am often worried about my physical health.
My life has a nice routine to it.

Items from Lester (1990) adapted to be place specific
I think this space is a pretty safe place these days.
I would not walk alone in this place at night.
My anxiety level is high when I am in this space. / My anxiety level would be high if I were in this space.
XXI feel secure about the amount of money I have an earn. XX
I feel safe and secure in this space. / I would feel safe and secure in this space.
I am afraid to stay in this space alone at night. / I would be afraid to stay in this space alone at night.
XXMy life is orderly and well defined. XX
I can depend on others to help me when I am in need in this space. / I would be able to depend on others to help me when I am in need in this space.
I am often worried about my physical health in this space. / I would be worried about my physical health in this space.
XXMy life has a nice routine to it. XX

If there is only one item in Park and Garcia (2018), Filo might, imho, consider using some of the above.

Tim

Cousins, S. D. (1989). Culture and self-perception in Japan and the United States. Journal of personality and social psychology , 56 (1), 124.

9

Hi Tim and Paul
Thanks to you both.
I am trying to look at items that could relate to Prospect and Refuge. I found studies that discuss this but not an actual scale. Two items that appeared to be influencing participants from my qualitative study were ‘refuge’ and ‘feeling safe’ and this was associated with the ‘view’
In case you came across Prospect & Refuge questions this would be an approach that could work.

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10

that’s a neat idea

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