Mostert Karina, de Beer Leon T, de Beer Ronalda
Management Cybernetics Research Entity, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
WorkWell Research Unit, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Afr J Psychol Assess. 2023 Mar 24;5:130. doi: 10.4102/ajopa.v5i0.130. eCollection 2023.
This study focused on a positive construct of well-being, namely flourishing. In a multicultural and diverse country such as South Africa, it is a legal requirement to provide evidence that measures of psychological constructs, like flourishing, are fair, unbiased, and equivalent for diverse groups in the country. The aim was to test the psychometric properties of the Flourishing Scale, a purpose-made scale that measures positive functioning across various areas of life. This study tested the factorial validity, item bias, measurement invariance and reliability of the Flourishing Scale in a sample of 1088 South African first-year university students. A unidimensional structure was confirmed. Although three items showed statistically significant uniform and total bias for language and campus groups, the magnitude and practical impact were negligible. No evidence of bias across gender groups was found. Configural, metric and partial scalar invariance were established for language and campus groups. Full measurement invariance was established across gender groups. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.91, indicating high reliability. The study provided promising results for using the Flourishing Scale among South African university students to measure flourishing as an aspect of well-being.
This study contributes to the field of student well-being in South Africa. No studies could be found that test for item bias or measurement invariance of the Flourishing Scale, specifically for South African first-year students. This study is the first to test these psychometric properties of a Flourishing Scale in a multicultural setting for students from different languages.
本研究聚焦于幸福的一个积极构念，即蓬勃发展。在南非这样一个多元文化且多样化的国家，有法律要求提供证据证明诸如蓬勃发展这类心理构念的测量工具对该国不同群体而言是公平、无偏见且等效的。目的是检验蓬勃发展量表的心理测量特性，该量表是专门设计用于测量生活各个领域积极功能的量表。本研究在1088名南非大学一年级学生的样本中检验了蓬勃发展量表的因子效度、项目偏差、测量不变性和信度。确认了单维结构。尽管有三个项目在语言和校园群体方面显示出统计学上显著的一致性和总体偏差，但偏差的程度和实际影响可忽略不计。未发现性别群体间存在偏差的证据。为语言和校园群体建立了构型、度量和部分标量不变性。在性别群体间建立了完全测量不变性。克朗巴哈α系数为0.91，表明信度较高。该研究为在南非大学生中使用蓬勃发展量表来测量蓬勃发展作为幸福的一个方面提供了有前景的结果。
本研究对南非学生幸福领域有贡献。未发现有研究针对蓬勃发展量表的项目偏差或测量不变性进行检验，特别是针对南非一年级学生。本研究首次在多元文化背景下针对不同语言的学生检验了蓬勃发展量表的这些心理测量特性。
