Development and validation of the civil aviation occupational gender stereotype scale and its impact on professional identity and self-efficacy among chinese civil aviation majors.

Introduction: This research aimed to develop and validate the Civil Aviation Occupational Gender Stereotype Scale (CA-OGSS) and investigate its associations with professional identity and self-efficacy among Chinese civil aviation majors, thereby providing an empirical foundation for fostering gender equality in the field. Methods: In Study 1, an initial 15-item pool was generated and refined through a literature review, interviews, and expert evaluation; its factor structure and reliability were examined using exploratory factor analysis (Sample 1, Results: The CA-OGSS demonstrated a stable two-factor structure, explaining 73.12% of the total variance in EFA. The final CFA model showed acceptable fit comparative fit index = 0.995; Tucker-Lewis index = 0.989; root mean square error of approximation = 0.072 [90% CI: 0.062, 0.084]; standardized root mean squared residual = 0.013), although the χ Discussion: The findings indicate that CA-OGSS is a valid and reliable tool and underscore the importance of gender stereotypes in relation to the outcomes of civil aviation students, suggesting that future interventions to promote gender equality must account for these differential effects across genders.