Adaptation and validation to Portuguese of the reasons for higher education dropout scale

Abstract

Background: School dropout is a problem education systems struggle with, which disputes the quality of the educational institution and the education system itself. Objectives: To adapt and validate the psychometric qualities of the Reasons for Higher Education Dropout Scale for Portuguese higher education students. Methodology: Quantitative, transversal, descriptive, and correlational study. A sociodemographic characterization questionnaire and the Reasons for Higher Education Dropout Scale were applied to a sample of 891 students, mostly female (68.2%), with a mean age of 19.68 years. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was used. Results: The scale, consisted of 30 items, is organized into 4 dimensions: Organizational; Life management; Professional; and Relational. It presents an explained variance of 46.5% and a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.959. Conclusion: The results support the psychometric adequacy of the scale for the Portuguese population and indicate that it can be used in future studies in this area and allow the implementation of measures to prevent dropout.