Survey for Assessment of a Person’s Legal Consciousness: Development and Preliminary Validation

The results of the development and preliminary assessment of the psychometric properties of the questionnaire of legal consciousness of a person are presented. Theoretical justification is given for the structure of the questionnaire containing six subscales. One scale relates to the individual’s awareness of constitutional rights and freedoms, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Constitution of the Russian Federation (personal, economic, political, cultural and social rights). The other five scales relate to the importance of constitutional rights and freedoms for the subject. The content validity of the tool was confirmed by expert assessments of professional lawyers—specialists in constitutional law—and the results obtained with semi-structured interviews (n = 30). The construct validity of the tool was established using exploratory factor analysis and tested by confirmatory factor analysis for student sample (n = 100). Cronbach’s alpha indicated high degree of internal consistency of the subscales. Currently, we continue improving the psychometric characteristics of the measure. The questionnaire obtained as a result of this work can be used to assess the level of a person’s legal consciousness development, and in particular, during the professional personnel selection for the state and civil service. The results of large-scale studies carried out with the help of this tool can be implemented in the activities of public authorities in order to improve the legislative process, taken into account by public organizations and authorities involved in the spread of legal education and legal culture in the framework of state policy on the development of legal consciousness and legal culture.