Psychometric Analysis of a Scale to Assess Social Participation of Chinese Adults

Abstract

The Social Participation Scale (SPS) is a 17-item questionnaire to assess the social participation of Chinese adults. It was developed using a multimethod approach applying in-depth interviews, qualitative analysis and quantitative psychometric evaluation for construct, convergent validity and internal reliability. In-depth interviews and an expert review panel suggested content validity. Exploratory factor analysis, Confirmation factor analysis, and intercorrelation between dimensions supported construct validity. The SPS was positively correlated with a prosocial tendencies measure and negatively associated with a material values scale, contributing to convergent validity. Internal reliability was also high. These results suggest that SPS has sufficient reliability and validity for use in future research investigating social participation in China and other countries with a few civil organizations.