Valid and reliable instrument for measuring Malaysian talented students social support

Tuan Zahrah Tuan Mat

Abstract


Social support is an essential protective factor against the risk of talent development failure, especially in the catastrophic situation, i.e COVID-19 pandemic and endemic phase which is still a significant research topic. This study aimed to test the validity and reliability of social support instruments specifically for talented sports students in Malaysia. Content Validity Index (CVI), exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and internal consistency are the methods used to ensure thatmeasurement instruments are appropriate for use in local contexts and cultures. A total of 268 form four talented sports students aged 16 years were selected by purposive sampling in this study. The content validity of the instrument involved seven experts. The study found that the instrument had good content validity, with all the items reaching the minimum level of CVI value and exceeding the recommended cut-off point of 0.78. Factor analysis found that the final measurement model has three factors, namely (1) family support, (2) friends support, and (3) coach support, with factor loading ranging between .49 and .89. Correlation matrix was also measured through the KMO and Bartlett test of sphericity. All three factors had internal consistency values of .83 for coach support and .85 for family and friends support. The social support instrument is considered valid and reliable for assessing the social support needed among talented sports students in Malaysia.

Keywords


Validity; Reliability; Social support; Content validity index; Exploratory factor analysis

References


N. Chen, 2021, May 19, “US hits record high with nearly 500,000 COVID-19 cases in a single day”. Available at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-cases-hit-record-high-us/http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n3161.

M. Vaishnav, P. K. Dalal, and A. Javed, “When will the pandemic end?”, Indian Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 62, no. 3, pp. S330–S334, 2020.

A. J. Willingham, “Five things to know for August 3”. Available: https://edition.cnn.com/2020/08/03/us/five-things-august-3-trnd/index.html. [Accessed: May 20, 2022]

WHO. “WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19”. Available: https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19 [Accessed: March 11, 2020]

S. Tian, and G. Sun, “Relationship between self-concept clarity, mental toughness, athlete engagement, and athlete burnout in swimmers during and after the COVID-19 pandemic”, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, pp. 1-18, 2023.

T. McGuine K. Biese, S. Hetzel, A. Schwarz, C. Reardon, D. R. Bell, A. Brooks, J. Dickman, and A. M. Watson, “A multiyear assessment of the effect of sport participation on the health of adolescent athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” J. Athl. Train., vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 44–50, 2023.

J. W. Ripley-Gonzalez, N. Zhou, T. Zeng, B. You, W. Zhang, J. Liu, Y. Dong, Y. Guo, Y. Dun, and S. Liu, “The long-term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on physical fitness in young adults: A historical control study”, Scientific Reports, vol. 13 (15430), pp. 1-10, 2023.

A. Watson , K. Haraldsdottir, K. Biese, A. Schwarz, S. Hetzel, C. Reardon, M. A. Brooks, and D. R. Bell, “Impact of COVID-19 on adolescent athletes' physical activity, quality of life and mental health: A year evaluation of over 17000 athletes”, British Journal of Sports Medicine, vol. 57, pp. 359-363, 2023.

A. Rasmussen, and C. Ydesen. Cultivating Excellence in Education: A Critical Policy Study on Talent. Switzerland: Springer, 2019.

J. González-Hernández, C. López-Mora, A. Yüce, A. Nogueira-López, and M. I. Tovar-Gálvez, “Oh my God! My season is over!,” Front. Psychol., vol. 12, (p. 622529): 1-8, 2021.

Wan Nurlisa Wan Ahmad, Mohd Azrul Hisham Mohd Adib, Irdayanti Mat Nashir, Mon Redee Sut Txi, Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh, and Jing Rui Tang, “Anxiety status of junior archers in COVID-19 during training isolation period towards the shooting performance”, International Journal of Public Health Sciences, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 361-370, 2023.

I. G. Sarason, H. M. Levine, R. B. Basham, and B. R. Sarason, “Assessing social support: The Social Support Questionnaire”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 127–139, 1983.

S. E. Taylor. The Oxford Handbook of Health Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011, pp. 189-214.

T. A. Wills. Prosocial Behavior. California: Sage Publishers, 1991, pp. 265-289.

R. M. Berns, Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support, 9th ed. Canada: Nelson Education, 2012.

S. Cohen, “Social relationships and health,” Am. Psychol., vol. 59, no. 8, pp. 676–684, 2004.

P. S. Chu, D. A. Saucier, and E. Hafner, “Meta-Analysis of the relationships between social support and well-being in children and adolescents,” J. Soc. Clin. Psychol., vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 624–645, 2010.

M. Barrera, I. N. Sandler, and T. B. Ramsay, “Preliminary development of a scale of social support: Studies on college students,” Am. J. Community Psychol., vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 435–447, 1981.

C. Schaefer, J. C. Coyne, R. S. Lazarus, “The health-related functions of social support”, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 381–406, 1981.

C. H. Tardy, “Social support measurement”, American Journal of Community Psychology, vol. 13. no. 2, pp. 187–202, 1985.

G. D. Zimet, N. W. Dahlem, S. G. Zimet, and G. K. Farley, “The multidimensional scale of perceived social support”, Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 52, no. 1, pp. 30–41, 1988.

Azlina Mohd Khir, Nor Aina Syahira, Amna Md Noor, Wan Munira Wan Jaafar & Mohammad Mujaheed Hassan, “Social support, self-esteem and depression among university students”, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities (MJSSH), vol. 5, no. 11, pp. 33-42, 2020.

T. Cnen, Y. Chiu, and Y. Hsu, “Perception of social support provided by coaches, optimism/pessimism, and psychological well-being: Gender differences and mediating effect models,” Int. J. Sports Sci. Coaching, pp. 1–9, 2020.

G. S. Pushkarev, G. D. Zimet, V. A. Kuznetsov, and Yaroslavskaya, “The multidimensional scale of perceived social support (MSPSS): Reliability and validity of Russian version”, Clinical Gerontologist, pp. 1545-2301, 2018.

A. K. Wittenborn, B. K. Natamba, M. Rainey, C. Zlotnick, and J. Johson, “Suitability of the multidimensional scale of perceived social support as a measure of functional social support among incarcerated adults with major depressive disorder”, Journal of Community Psychology, pp. 1-17, 2020.

A. Osman, D. A. Lamis, S. Freedenthal, P. M. Gutierrez, and M. McNaughton-Cassil, “The multidimensional scale of perceived social support: Analyzes of internal reliability, measurement invariance and correlates across gender”, Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 96, no. 1, pp. 103–112, 2014.

F. Nearchou, A. Davies, and E. Hennessy, “Psychometric evaluation of the multi-dimensional scale of perceived social support in young adults with chronic health conditions,” Irish Journal of Psychological Medicine, pp. 1–5, 2019.

Okki Dhona Laksmita, M. Chung, Y. Liao, and P. Chang, “The multidimensional scale of perceived social support in Indonesian adolescent disaster survivors: A psychometric evaluation”, PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 1-12, 2020.

A. M. Trejos-Herrera, M. J. Bahamon, Y. Alarcon-Vasquez, J. I.Velez, and S. Vinaccia, “Validity and reliability of the multidimensional scale of perceived social support in Colombian adolescents”, Psychosocial Intervention, vol. 27, no. 1, pp. 56-63, 2018.

S. T. Cheng, and A. C. M. Chan, “The multidimensional scale of perceived social support: Dimensionality and age and gender differences in adolescents,” Pers. Individ. Dif., vol. 37, no. 7, pp. 1359–1369, 2004.

V. Robu, A. Sandovici, and M. Ciudin, “Measuring perceived social support in Romanian adolescents: Psychometric properties of the multidimensional scale of perceived social support”, Journal of Innovation in Psychology, Education and Didactics, vol. 24, no. 1, pp. 65-90, 2020.

J. Zhang, and J. M. Norvilitis, “Measuring Chinese psychological well-being with Western-developed instruments”, Journal of Personality Assessment, vol. 79, no. 3, pp. 492–511, 2002.

J. Canty-Mitchell and G. D. Zimet, “Psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support in urban adolescents,” Am. J. Community Psychol., vol. 28, no. 3, pp. 391–400, 2000.

J. M. Dambi, L. Corten, M. Chiwaridzo, H. Jack, T. Mlambo, and J. Jelsma, “A systematic review of the psychometric properties of the cross-cultural translations and adaptations of the Multidimensional Perceived Social Support Scale (MSPSS),” Health Qual. Life Outcomes, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 80, 2018.

P. Chelladurai. Managing Organizations for Sport and Physical Activity: A Systems Perspective. 4th Edition. New York: Routledge, 2017.

D. I. Alexe et al., “Measuring perceived social support in elite athletes: Psychometric properties of the Romanian version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support,” Percept. Mot. Skills, vol. 128, no. 3, pp. 1197–1214, 2021.

G. Breslin et al., 2020, Nov. 24, “Advice for athletes during COVID-19”. Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/sites/www.bps.org.uk/files/Policy/Policy%20-%20Files/Advice%20for%20athletes%20during%20Covid-19.pdf.

J. Kegelaers, and P. Wylleman, “Exploring the coach’s role in fostering resilience in elite athletes,” Sport Exer. Perform. Psychol., vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 239–254, 2019.

V. Gouttebarge, R. Jonkers, M. Moen, E. Verhagen, P. Wylleman, and G. Kerkhoffs, “The prevalence and risk indicators of symptoms of common mental disorders among current and former Dutch elite athletes,” J. Sports Sci., vol. 35, no. 21, pp. 2148–2156, 2017.

H. S. Kim, D. K. Sherman, and S. E. Taylor, “Culture and social support,” Am. Psychol., vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 518–526, 2008.

C. G, Ng, Nurasikin Mohamad Shariff, H. S. Loh, Anne Yee & Zainal, “Factorial validation of the Malay version of the multidimensional scale of perceived social support among psychiatric patients”, Malaysian Journal of Psychiatry Ejournal, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 1-11, 2012.

Siti Marziah Zakaria, Ruzaini Ijon, Wan Yusoff Wan Shaharuddin, and S. S. Yin, S. S, “The relationship between career satisfaction, cohesion, and social support on the life satisfaction of middle-aged working women in Kuala Lumpur”, Online Journal of Language, Communication, and Humanities, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 1-13, 2019.

Harris Shah Abd Hamis, Badar Salim Saleh, Feezyha Azmi, H. J. Doan, L. X. Jing, L. J. Yee, Nurul Saira Alina Che Sakari, O. G. Sim, and Y. S. Jie, “Validation of the self-compassion scale in a Malaysian sample”, International Journal of Education, Psychology and Counselling, vol. 4, no. 25, pp. 22-32, 2019.

Nur Fatihah Zainuddin and Faridah Mydin Kutty, “The relationship between self-motivation and social support on the psychological well-being of university students”, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 1-14, 2022.

J. R. Fraenkel, N. E. Wallen, and H. H. Hyun, How to Design and Evaluate Research in Education, 10th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2018.

J. W. Creswell and J. D. Creswell, Research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method approaches. 5th ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2018.

D. F. Polit, and C. T. Beck, “The content validity index: Do you know what is being reported? Critique and recommendations”, Research in Nursing and Health, vol. 29, no. 5, pp. 489–497, 2006.

D. F. Polit, C. T. Beck, and S. V. Owen, “Focus on research methods: Is the CVI an acceptable indicator of content validity? Appraisal and recommendations”, Research in Nursing & Health, vol. 30, pp. 459-467, 2007.

M. S. B. Yusoff, “ABC of content validation and content validity index calculation,” Educ. Med. J., vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 49–54, 2019.

J. F. Hair Jr., W. C. Black, B. J. Babin, and R. E. Anderson, Multivariate Data Analysis, 8th ed. United Kingdom: Cengage Learning EMEA, 2019.

J. Surzykiewicz, K. Konaszewski, and G. Wagnild, “The Polish version of the Resilience Scale (RS-14) is a validity and reliability study in three samples”, Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 9 (2762), pp. 1-16, 2019.

S. Graupensperger, A. J. Benson, J. R. Kilmer, and M. B. Evans, “Social (un)distancing: Teammate interactions, athletic identity, and mental health of student-athletes during the COVID-19 pandemic,” J. Adolesc. Health, vol. 67, no. 5, pp. 662–670, 2020.

A. Hill, A. MacNamara, D. Collins, and S. Rodgers, “Examining the role of mental health and clinical issues within talent development,” Front. Psychol., vol. 6(2042), pp. 1–11, 2016.

M. K. Kitano, and R. B. Lewis, “Resilience and coping: Implications for gifted children and youth at risk,” Roeper Rev., vol. 27, no. 4, pp. 200–205, 2005.

D. B. McCoach and D. Siegle, “Factors that differentiate underachieving gifted students from high-achieving gifted students,” Gifted Child Q., vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 144–154, 2003.

U. Bronfenbrenner. Making Human Beings Human: Bioecological Perspectives on Human Development. Thousand Oaks: SAGE, 2005.

S. I. Pfeiffer, and M. Shaughnessy, “An interview with Steven Pfeiffer: Thinking about giftedness and talent development: What are the issues?”, North American Journal of Psychology, vol. 22, pp. 373–382, 2020.

S. I. Pfeiffer, “Optimizing favorable outcomes when counseling the gifted: A best practices approach”, Gifted Education International, pp. 1-6, 2020.

M. B. Petzold, A. Bendau, J. Plag, and L. Pyrkosch, “Risk, resilience, psychological distress, and anxiety at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany”, Brain and Behavior, pp. 1-10, 2020.

R. F. DeVellis, Scale Development Theory and Applications, 4th ed. London: SAGE Publications Inc, 2017.

R. M. Furr, Scale Construction and Psychometrics for Social and Personality Psychology. London: SAGE Publications Inc, 2014.

L. Cohen, L. Manion, and K. Morrison. Research Methods Educucation. New York: Routledge, 2018.

H. Taherdoost, “Validity and Reliability of the research instruments: How do they test the validation of a questionnaire/survey in research?”, International Journal of Academic Research in Management (IJARM), vol. 5, no. 3, pp. 28-36, 2016.

G. Darusalam and S. Hussin, Methodology Research in Education: Practice and Analysis of the Study, 2nd ed. Kuala Lumpur: University Malaya Publishing, 2018.

J. W. Creswell, Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, 4th ed. Boston: Pearson Education, 2012.

T. Rutherford-Hemming, “Determining content validity and reporting a content validity index for simulation scenarios”, Nursing Education Perspectives, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 389–393, 2015.

Zulasri Piting, and Marsitah Mohd Radzi, “Evaluation of public housing quality of life instruments for the urban poor using the content validity method”, Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, vol. 7, no. 4, pp. 1-7, 2022.

M. R. Lynn, “Determination and quantification of content validity,” Nurs. Res., vol. 35, no. 6, pp. 382–385, 1986.

G. E. Gilbert and S. Prion, “Making sense of methods and measurement: Lawshe’s content validity index,” Clin. Simul. Nurs., vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 530–531, 2016.

V. Zamanzadeh, A. Ghahramanian, M. Rassouli, A. Abbaszadeh, H. Alavi-Majd, and A. R. Nikanfar, “Design and implementation content validity study: Development of an instrument for measuring Patient-Centered Communication”, Journal of Caring Sciences, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 165-178, 2015.

H. E. Tinsley, and D. J. Weiss, “Interrater reliability and agreement of subjective judgments”, Journal of Counseling Psychology, vol. 22, no. 4, pp. 358–376, 1975.

L. R. James, R. G. Demaree, and G. Wolf, “Estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without response bias,” J. Appl. Psychol., vol. 69, no. 1, pp. 85–98, 1984.

L. L. Davis, “Instrument review: Getting the most from a panel of experts,” Appl. Nurs. Res., vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 194–197, 1992.

I. B. Rodrigues, J. D. Adachi, K. A. Beattie, and J. C. MacDermid, “Development and validation of a new tool to measure the facilitators, barriers, and preferences to exercise in people with osteoporosis”, BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, vol. 18 (540), pp. 1–9, 2017.

A. J. Smith, A. Thurkettle, and F. A. de la Cruz. Use of intuition by nursing students: Instrument development and testing, Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol.47, pp. 614-622, 2004.

D. Kovacic, “Using the content validity index to determine content validity of an instrument assessing health care providers’ general knowledge of human trafficking,” J. Hum. Trafficking, pp. 1–9, 2017.

Noraini Idris. Research in Education. Selangor: McGraw Hill, 2013.

W. L Neuman. Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson, Allyn, and Bacon, 2014.

U. Sekaran. Research Methods for Business: A Skill Building Approach, 4th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2003.

B. G. Tabachnick, and L S. Fidell. Using Multivariate Statistics. 6th ed, Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2013.

R. B. Kline, Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling, 4th ed. New York: The Guilford Press, 2016.

D. George and P. Mallery, IBM SPSS Statistics 26 Step by Step: A Simple Guide and Reference, 16th ed. New York: Routledge, 2020.

W. P. Brinkmann. “Design of a questionnaire instrument handbook of mobile technology research methods,” in Handbook of Mobile Technology Research Methods, 2009, pp. 31–57.

D. M. G. Rubio, M. Berg-Weger, Q. S. Tebb, E. S. Lee, and S. Rauch, “Objectifying content validity: Conducting a content validity study in social work research”, Social Work Research, vol. 27, no. 2, pp 94-104, 2003.

L. J. Burton and S. M. Mazerolle, “Survey instrument validity part 1: Principles of survey instrument development and validation in athletic training education research,” Athl. Train. Educ. J., vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 27–35, 2011.

Zainudin Awang, L. S. Hui, and Nur Fairuza Syahira Zainudin. A Simple Approach to SEM. Bandar Baru Bangi: Publisher MPWS Rich Resources, 2018.

R. J. Cohen and M. E. Swerdlik. Psychological Testing and Assessment: An Introduction That Tests and Measurements, 9th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2018.

K. L. Chou, “Assessing Chinese adolescents’ social support: The multidimensional scale of perceived social support,” Pers. Individ. Dif., vol. 28, no. 2, pp. 299–307, 2000.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.11591/edulearn.v20i3.22863

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Copyright (c) 2026 Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn)
p-ISSN: 2089-9823; e-ISSN: 2302-9277
Published by Intelektual Pustaka Media Utama (IPMU) in collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science (IAES).

View EduLearn Stats