Validation of instruments investigating the relationship between stress, psychological strengths, coping and overall psychological well-being among school-going adolescents in the Cape Metropole.
Year: 2023
Type: dissertation
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Adolescence is documented as a time inevitably characterized by stress and turmoil.From international research, there seems to have been an increase in scholarly attention to aspects of the mental health and psychosocial well-being of the adolescent population.However, literature in this field documents a lack of instruments measuring mental and psychological health validated in the South African context, especially among the children and adolescent population.Numerous calls have been made to develop reliable and valid measures of these issues in late childhood and adolescence.In line with this, the aim of this study was to validate multiple selfscreening scales within the South African context and additionally, to investigate the relationship between stress, psychological strengths, coping, and overall psychological well-being among high school-going adolescents from Grades 8 to 11, and aged between 13-19 years in the Cape Metropole.Using a quantitative research approach, this 2-phase study used a cross-sectional validation design on a sample of 220 (in addition to the first 30 participants who partook in the initial cognitive testing phase) school-going adolescents, aged 13 to 19 years (M =15. 25 years, SD = 1.46).Validity theory and the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping (TTSC) developed by Lazarus and Folkman were used as the theoretical frameworks to guide the study.A Demographic questionnaire, Beck's Depressions Inventory -Second Edition (BDI-II), Beck's Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck's Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Coping Strategy Indicator (CSI), Multi-dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), Child and Adolescent Resilience Measure (CYRM-12), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and Psychological Well-Being (PWB) instruments were used.The statistical software package of SPSS (version 28) and MPlus (version 7) were used to conduct statistical analyses.The results confirmed satisfactory reliability and validity for these instruments in the South African context.Structural equation http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ xvi modeling hypotheses-testing also demonstrated an acceptable fit between the theoretical model and observed/empirical data.Additionally, the results indicated direct relationships among someof the study constructs.For example, a significant negative relationship between stress and psychological strengths, a significant positive relationship between psychological strengths and coping, and a significant positive relationship between psychological strengths and psychological well-being.The findings also demonstrated that psychological strengths served as a mediator between stress and psychological well-being, and between stress and coping.These findings suggest that interrelationships (direct and indirect) exist between the study constructs.
Author: Dumani, Noxolo
Language: English
Topic: Student Stress and Coping
Subfield: Developmental and Educational Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220887855