scholarly journals Construction and Validation of Academic Stress Scale for University Students

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saima Noreen ◽  
Saba Ghayas ◽  
Shaista Khalid ◽  
Shumaila Mazhar Awan

Present study aimed to construct and validate an instrument to measure the academic stress among university students of Pakistan. Item construction of this instrument was based on literature review, interviews from university students and expert’s opinion. After pilot study exploratory factor analysis was performed on a sample of477 student (226men and 251 women), recruited from different departments of University of Sargodha, Pakistan. 26 items were retained after exploratory factor analysis with three well defined factors(1, Personal, Parental and Teachers’ attitude, 2. Perception of workload and examinations, 3. Concerns about education system and management)Range of Alpha coefficients for scale and its subscales was .72 to .87.Results of Confirmatory factor analysis performed on an independent sample revealed excellent model fit to present data. Three factor structure of Academic stress scale was confirmed by CFA. Convergent validity of Academic Stress Scale was proved by finding its positive correlation with UCLA Loneliness scale, Depression scale and Brief Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale. Excellent reliability and validity evidences proved this scale as a promising measure of academic stress.

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 127-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura K. Johnson ◽  
Rachel A. Plouffe ◽  
Donald H. Saklofske

Abstract. The Dark Triad is a constellation of three antisocial personality traits: Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Recently, researchers have introduced a “Dark Tetrad” that includes subclinical sadism, although others suggest considerable overlap between psychopathy and sadism. To clarify the position of sadism within the Dark Triad, an online study was conducted with 615 university students. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that a six-factor solution fit the data best, representing Machiavellianism, psychopathy, physical sadism, verbal sadism, narcissism, and vicarious sadism. Furthermore, convergent validity was supported through sadism’s correlations with the HEXACO personality traits. The results support sadism’s inclusion within the Dark Tetrad as a unique construct but with some conceptual overlap with psychopathy.


Author(s):  
Zahra HOSSEINKHANI ◽  
Saharnaz NEDJAT ◽  
Mahboubeh PARSAEIAN ◽  
Fatemeh VEISI HAMPA ◽  
Hamid-Reza HASSANABADI

Background: Academic stress is one of the factors affecting the health of adolescents. The aim of present study was to design an academic stress questionnaire for Iranian adolescents with regard to the cultural and educational system of the country. Methods: After reviewing the literature and identifying available tools in 2018, Iranian adolescents' views on academic stress were extracted. Similar questions have been used in other tools. According to expert opinion, the results were overviewed and the initial version was designed. The steps of content validity and instrument reliability were carried out. Internal consistency was investigated with Cronbach's alpha (α) and repeatability with Intra Class Correlation (ICC). After dividing the data into two randomized samples, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with 899 subjects and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 717 subjects were performed. The association between this tool and the Morgan and Jink’s Self Efficacy Scale and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire questionnaires was investigated. Data were analyzed using SPSS and Mplus softwares. Results: The Iranian Adolescent Academic Stress Questionnaire (IAASQ) was designed with 57 questions. Relevancy and clarity of the whole tool were obtained as 0.81 and 0.83, respectively. In different domains, Cronbach's alpha was in the range (0.58-0.85) and ICC (0.80 (95% CI:0.66-0.90)). In the EFA, 9 factors were extracted. CFA confirmed the suitability of the model in another sample. Discriminant and convergent validity tool was approved. Conclusion: The IAASQ questionnaire has acceptable reliability and validity. This tool is recommended for use in related studies in the Iranian community.


Author(s):  
R. Devisree ◽  
C. Nirmala ◽  
P. S. Indu ◽  
S. Remadevi

Background: Psychosocial stress in pregnancy, defined as, “the imbalance that a pregnant woman feels when she cannot cope with demands is expressed both behaviourally and physiologically”. The purpose of this study was to develop a culturally appropriate and locally relevant scale for measuring antenatal psychosocial stress.Methods: Cross sectional design was used for the study. Participants were antenatal women attending outpatient department of both government and private sector. Twenty-nine item questionnaires to identify psychosocial stress among antenatal women was developed by conducting focus group discussions and in-depth interviews among socioeconomically diverse population and different parity and among uncomplicated and complicated pregnancies. By administering the questionnaire among 190 participants, Reliability and Validity were estimated. Factor analysis was done for item reduction. Poor loading, wrong loading and cross loading items were removed from the questionnaire. Convergent validity assessed with prenatal psychosocial stress scale among 55 antenatal women.Results: The final questionnaire has 10 items. Item-total correlation was found to be greater than 0.2 for all the items. The internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach's alpha) for the 29-item questionnaire was 0.878. Test-retest reliability was 0.98 (95% CI 0.96-0.99). Further, factor analysis was done to demonstrate construct validity. The interrater reliability was 0.98 (95% CI- 0.96-0.99).Conclusions: Based on analysis of psychometric properties, the conclusion is that the 10 items questionnaire is a reliable, simple, valid and easy to administer tool for use among antenatal women of all settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 73 (suppl 5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haylla Simone Almeida Pacheco ◽  
José Wicto Pereira Borges ◽  
Angelina Monteiro Furtado ◽  
Malvina Thais Pacheco Rodrigues ◽  
Márcio Dênis Medeiros Mascarenhas ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Objective: to verify the reliability and validity of the health promotion behavior scale, of the Nursing Outcomes Classification, in university students. Method: methodological study carried out with 324 university students from a federal institution, based in a city in the Northeast of Brazil. Internal consistency was verified using Cronbach’s alpha and item-total correlation. Validity was performed through exploratory factor analysis via main components. Results: the scale showed a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.83, showing good reliability. The item-total correlations remained above 0.3 for most items, only items 01, 13, 19 and 20 were below this mark. In the exploratory factor analysis, two components were extracted whose variances explained 44.54% of the instrument’s composition. Conclusion: the health promotion behavior scale showed good reliability and validity, demonstrating that it can be applied to the population of university students.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gayatri Kotbagi ◽  
Laurence Kern ◽  
Lucia Romo ◽  
Ramesh Pathare

Abstract. Physical exercise when done excessively may have negative consequences on physical and psychological wellbeing. There exist many scales to measure this phenomenon. The purpose of this article is to create a scale measuring the problematic practice of physical exercise (PPPE Scale) by combining two assessment tools already existing in the field of exercise dependency but anchored in different approaches (EDS-R and EDQ). This research consists of three studies carried out on three independent sample populations. The first study (N = 341) tested the construct validity (exploratory factor analysis); the second study (N = 195) tested the structural validity (confirmatory factor analysis) and the third study (N = 104) tested the convergent validity (correlations) of the preliminary version of the PPPE scale. Exploratory factor analysis identified six distinct dimensions associated with exercise dependency. Furthermore, confirmatory factor analysis validated a second order model consisting of 25 items with six dimensions and four sub-dimensions. The convergent validity of this scale with other constructs (GLTEQ, EAT26, and The Big Five Inventory [BFI]) is satisfactory. The preliminary version of the PPPE must be administered to a large population to refine its psychometric properties and develop scoring norms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 869-897
Author(s):  
Atiqa Rafeh ◽  
Rubina Hanif

The present study was intended to develop a scale to measure perceived weight stigmatization among people with obesity. The study was conducted in five steps. In first step, three focus group discussions were conducted with female obese university students to get the first-hand information related to weight stigmatization. Step two involved four interviews which were conducted with male obese university students to collect detailed information about weight stigmatization experiences of men. Step three included content analysis of qualitative data for item generation. In step four, judge’s opinion was taken, and a committee approach was carried out to select the items for the initial form of the scale. Items for final form of the scale were selected through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis in step five. For exploratory factor analysis, 150 university students (men = 61, women = 89) were included in the sample, whereas, for confirmatory factor analysis, another group of students (men = 78, women = 72) participated in the study. Principal Component Factor Analysis revealed three meaningful structures including Self-Perception, Perceived Social Rejection, and Perceived Impact containing 43 items. Confirmatory factor analysis confirmed this factor structure and all 43 items possessed factor loadings greater than .40. Moreover, results indicated that perceived weight stigmatization had high internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha = .96) with three subscales having internal consistency .95, .83, and .92 respectively. Therefore, Perceived Weight Stigmatization Scale turned out to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring perception of weight stigma in adults with obesity.


BMC Nursing ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Haitao Yu ◽  
Tong Tong ◽  
Ye Gao ◽  
Hui Zhang ◽  
Huijuan Tong ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Advances in technology and the expansion of nursing roles have led to complex ethical issues in nursing. Nursing students are the future clinical nursing workers and practitioners. The ethical sensitivity of nursing students is very important to the professional development of nursing students, which can strengthen the ethical cognition of nursing students, improve the ethical decision-making ability of nursing students, and is beneficial to the development of nursing students in the process of clinical practice and nursing education. However, there are no instruments to evaluate the ethical sensitivity of nursing students in China. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Chinese version of the Ethical Sensitivity Questionnaire for Nursing Students (ESQ-NS). Methods After obtaining the authorization of the author of the original scale, the study used the Brislin back-translation method for translation. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to examine the underlying factor structure of the translated questionnaire. The Cronbach alpha coefficient, the test-retest reliability, and the corrected item-total correlation were calculated to verify the internal consistency of the scale. Results The Chinese version of ESQ-NS retained 13 items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) extracts four common factors, and the cumulative variance contribution rate is 62.479%. The CFA reached the adaptive standard, and the discriminant validity of the scale was good. The Cronbach alpha coefficient of this scale was 0.821, and 4 dimensions were between 0.708 and 0.738. The results of the test-retest showed that Pearson’s correlation coefficient of the overall ESQ-NS was 0.814. Corrected item-total correlation ranged from 0.337 to 0.542. Conclusions The Chinese version of the ESQ-NS has good reliability and validity, which can be used to evaluate the level of ethical sensitivity of nursing students in China.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2010 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa L. O'Connor ◽  
Susan H. McFadden

This study employed qualitative construct mapping and factor analysis to construct a scale to measure attitudes toward dementia. Five family caregivers, five professionals, and five college students participated in structured interviews. Qualitative analysis of the interviews led to a 46-item scale, which was reduced to 20 items following principal axis factoring with two different samples: college students () and certified nursing assistant students (). Confirmatory factor analysis was then conducted with another sample of college students (). The final scale, titled the Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS), essentially had a two-factor structure; the factors were labeled “dementia knowledge” and “social comfort.” Total-scale Cronbach's alphas ranged 0.83–0.85. Evidence for convergent validity was promising, as the DAS correlated significantly with scales that measured ageism and attitudes toward disabilities (range of correlations = 0.44–0.55; mean correlation ). These findings demonstrate the reliability and validity of the DAS, supporting its use as a research tool.


2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 68-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qaisar Iqbal ◽  
Siti Hasnah Hassan ◽  
Noor Hazlina Ahmad

Infollution management is a substantial dilemma in this century. There is lacking empirical evidence about infollution management. Perceived infollution has been explored based on information quality. This study aims to identify the factors of perceived infollution (information pollution) and validate those factors using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Researchers have personally collected data from employees of the banking sector. Factor analysis was performed to explore the factors using Statistical Package for the Social Science, and CFA was conducted to check the reliability, validity, and the model fitness in SmartPLS. The scale developed in this study has exhibited high values of reliability and validity and ensured the presence of both discriminant validity and convergent validity. The newly developed scale of perceived infollution provides a basis for most of the academicians and researchers to empirically investigate the relationship of perceived infollution with individual’s performance and organizational effectiveness, which is considered an important area of interest among the academic researchers in recent years. Extent literature review suggests that it is the first study conducted to develop measurement scale of perceived infollution (information pollution).


2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 331-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal Iddris

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of innovation capability construct measures in the context of supply chain and to objectively identify the key dimensions for stimulating focal firms’ innovativeness. Design/methodology/approach The scale items for this research were obtained from extant literature. The data were collected from homogenous sample of 117 Ghanaian middle level managers (respondents). Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the main dimensions of innovation capability. Based on the statistical analysis, four dimensions were obtained – idea management, idea implementation, collaboration and learning – and the convergent validity, discriminant validity, nomological validity and reliability tests indicate that the scales are valid and reliable Findings Four dimensions (factors) of innovation capability were identified from the exploratory factor analysis. These dimensions were labelled as idea management, idea implementation, collaboration and learning. The results indicate that the integration of the dimensions of innovation capability may stimulate a focal firm’s innovativeness. Research limitations/implications First, the measurement scale might not capture all the important dimensions of innovation capability. Second, the judgmental sampling used in this study means that the result cannot be generalised to the entire supply chain population, third, the sample was drawn from one geographical location using non-probability sampling technique. Practical implications The measures provide supply chain managers with a better approach of understanding the innovation capability in their supply chain. For instance, the measurement of supply chain’s innovation capability should help supply chain managers to determine the important innovation areas that need attention most and to permit them to respond to challenges posed by any kind of innovation capability dimension that needs to be enhanced. Originality/value The unique contribution of this paper is the development innovation capability measurement scale in the context of supply chain.


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