Table 1 Comparison of the internal structure of several published versions of the MATE

Original MATE (Rutledge & Warden 1999)

United States of America

20

.98

One factor extracted (71.6%). The authors stated that items were developed following seven fundamental concepts stemming from the theory of evolution and categorized the acceptance of the evolutionary theory as the factor

MATE adaptation for undergraduate students (Rutledge & Sadler 2007)

United States of America

20

.94

No mention of factor analysis or variance explained. The authors classified items into six concepts and explained that a high Cronbach’s alpha indicates that the items are highly related and that they measure the same psychological construct: acceptance of the evolutionary theory. Concepts and items:

1: Process of evolution (items 1, 9, 18, 19)

2: Scientific validity of evolutionary theory (items 2, 10, 12, 13, 14, 20)

3: Evolution of humans (items 3, 15)

4: Evidence of evolution (items 4, 6, 8, 16)

5: Scientific community’s view of evolution (items 5, 17)

6: Age of the Earth (items 7, 11)

MATE of Greek education students (Athanasiou et al. 2011)

Greece

20

.79

The authors explained that the MATE was translated and adapted to Greek by Athanasiou. No additional description of this process was provided. Thus, there is no information on factor analysis or total variance explained. Authors used Rutledge and Sadler’s (2007) concepts for the item categorization on the Greek translation and adaptation. Cronbach’s alpha was reported for the entire instrument and for each subscale

1: Process of evolution (α = .71)

2: Scientific validity of evolutionary theory (α = .75)

3: Evolution of humans (α = .71)

4: Evidence of evolution (α = .69)

5: Scientific community’s view of evolution (α = .83)

6: Age of the Earth (α = .65)

MATE translation and adaptation to German (Lammert 2012)

Germany

16

.83

Four factors were extracted (48%). The author eliminated three items due to low factor loadings and eliminated an additional item due to high factor loadings on two factors. Cronbach’s alpha was reported for the entire instrument and for each subscale. Author categorized factors as follows:

1: Positive statements about the theory of evolution (α = .75)

2: Negative statements about the theory of evolution (α = .71)

3: Time dimensions (α = .70)

4: Development

(α = .64)

MATE translation and adaptation to Turkish (Tekkaya et al. 2012)

Türkiye

18

.94

The authors summarized a translation, adaptation, and validation process previously presented via a poster in a conference. Authors eliminated two items corresponding with Rutledge and Sadler’s (2007) concept of the age of the Earth due to low factor loadings. No additional information on factor analysis, total variance explained, or factor categorization is discussed