This study examined the factor structure of a Korean version of the Perceptual Learning Styles Preference Questionnaire. The instrument was developed to measure the learning-style preferences of students of English as a second language and English as a foreign language and has gained wide currency as a classroom diagnostic tool and survey…

In, "Idiographic Filters for Psychological Constructs," Nesselroade, Gerstorf, Hardy, and Ram study patterns of variation within individuals. In this context they make an important suggestion: to test for invariant relations among latent variables, but to allow the relations between these latent variables and their indicators to vary between…

Although well-used and empirically supported, the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) has a questionable factor structure and includes reverse-scored items with questionable utility. Here, using samples of undergraduates and a sample of clients with social anxiety disorder, we extend previous work that opened the question of whether the…

The purposes of this study were to (a) assess the measurement of school engagement in prior research that used the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), (b) systematically develop an improved measurement model for school engagement, and (c) examine the measurement invariance of this model across racial and ethnic groups.…

Although previous studies have questioned the factor structure of the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS), it continues to be one of the most prominent measures used to assess child social skills. Previous examinations of the SSRS have been conducted on samples that differ demographically from the standardization sample. The present study presents…

In the 4 studies presented (N = 1,939), a converging set of analyses was conducted to evaluate the item adequacy, factor structure, reliability, and validity of the Disgust Scale (DS; J. Haidt, C. McCauley, & P. Rozin, 1994). The results suggest that 7 items (i.e., Items 2, 7, 8, 21, 23, 24, and 25) should be considered for removal from the DS.…

Background: Research evidence seems to suggest that the social and cultural environments influence students' approaches to their study. This social and cultural contention has led to the rethinking and reconceptualization of theories (e.g. Biggs, 1987; Marton & Saljo, 1976) pertaining to student approaches to learning (SAL) in academic…

The study aims at validating the Temporal Satisfaction With Life Scale (TSWLS; Pavot et al., 1998, "The Temporal Satisfaction With Life Scale", Journal of Personality Assessment 70, pp. 340-354) in a non-western context. Data from 646 Chinese university students (330 females and 316 males) supported the three-factor structure of the…

The psychometric properties of a scale assessing the writing self-efficacy of 1,258 students from Grades 4 to 11 were analyzed with exploratory factor analysis. Two factors emerged, 1 designating basic grammar skills and 1 designating more advanced composition skills. The Writing Self-Efficacy Scale (F. Pajares & G. Valiante, 1999) functioned…

Research in the behavioral and health sciences frequently involves the application of one-factor analysis of variance models. The goal may be to compare several independent groups of subjects on a quantitative dependent variable or to compare measurements made on a single group of subjects on different occasions or under different conditions. In…

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques are compared, and how to conduct a confirmatory factor analysis is reviewed. A sampling of "fit" statistics and suggestions for methods to improve models for testing are also presented. Exploratory factor analysis is used to explore data to determine the number of the nature of…

Rotation is used in almost all exploratory factor analysis (EFA) studies. There are numerous rotation strategies that can be employed in these various applications. This paper reviews the various rotation choices in EFA studies, including confirmatory rotation, and presents criteria useful in selecting rotation methods in various analytic…

The central objective of factor analysis is to explain the greatest amount of variance in a data set with the smallest number of factors. Higher-order analysis is an invaluable tool that offers the benefit of parsimony provided by first-order analysis with the opportunity to make data-based generalizations beyond the first-order. Higher-order…

Logistic regression was used for modeling the observation-to-indicator ratio needed for the standard error scree procedure (SEscree) to correctly identify the number of factors existing in generated sample correlation matrices. The created correlation matrices were manipulated along the number of factors (4,6), sample size (250, 500), magnitude of…

Assumptions underlying the multifaceted, hierarchical structure of self-efficacy previously hypothesized by R. Shavelson, J. Hubner, and G. Stanton (1976) for the construct of self-concept were tested. The self-efficacy interpretation of the Science Self-Efficacy Scale (H. Kennedy, 1996), a relatively new measure, was studied with 331 (151 female…