Development and Psychometric Validation of the Psychological Well-being of Student Aspirants Scale at the Secondary Level of School Education

Abstract

This article describes the entire methodology for the development of a scale to measure the psychological well-being of student aspirants (PWB-SA). In India, the growing number of suicides among students preparing for competitive entrance examinations, the huge rush for these examinations, and the concurrent competitive preparation and regular schooling among secondary-level adolescent students have made it imperative to pay serious attention to the psychological well-being of these students and to develop a context-specific measurement scale for this purpose. Initially, seventy-three items were constructed drawing on theoretical perspectives of psychological well-being and adolescent development. The items were validated by experts using the content validity ratio (CVR) method and revised accordingly before being administered to a sample of secondary-level student aspirants. Exploratory factor analysis and item purification yielded a final 26-item scale and six dimensions. The psychometric properties of the scale showed good reliability and validity with a CVR of .90 and a Cronbach’s alpha of .896. The factor structure was further examined through structural equation modeling, which indicated an acceptable model fit. The developed scale provides a reliable and contextually relevant instrument for assessing the psychological well-being of secondary-level student aspirants preparing for competitive entrance examinations alongside their regular schooling.