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Chilean adaptation of the EPOCH Adolescent Well-being Scale[1]
Paulina Alejandra Ortiz -Correa[2]
Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, Chile
E-mail: paulinaalejandra.ort@edu.uai.cl
Alejandro Nicholas Proestakis -Maturana[3]
Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile
E-mail: aproesta@ucn.cl
José Leiva-Gutiérrez[4]
Universidad Católica del Norte, Chile
E-mail: jleiva02@ucn.cl
Para citar este artículo /To reference this article /Para citar este artigo
Ortiz –Correa, P., Proestakis –Maturana, A & Leiva-Gutiérrez, J. (2020). Chilean adaptation of the EPOCH Adolescent Well-being Scale. Revista Electrónica en Educación y Pedagogía, 4(7), pp-pp. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15658/rev.electron.educ.pedagog20.05040603
Received: February 14th, 2020 / Reviewed: March 11th, 2020 / Accepted: April 02nd, 2020
Resumen: Existe en la actualidad un creciente interés de la promoción del bienestar en los contextos educativos, lo que ha llevado a diversos autores a proponer modelos para evaluar el bienestar y la creación de instrumentos en esta línea. Uno de los instrumentos utilizado para evaluar bienestar adolescente es la escala EPOCH, basada en el modelo PERMA y que comprende las dimensiones de engagement, conectividad, felicidad, optimismo y perseverancia. La presente investigación tuvo por objetivo adaptar la Escala de Bienestar Adolescente EPOCH elaborada por Peggy Kern, Lizbeth Benson, Elizabeth A. Steinberg y Laurence Steinberg (2016). Se recolectaron datos de 1558 estudiantes entre 11 y 18 años de edad, pertenecientes a cuatro establecimientos educativos de la región de Antofagasta, Chile. Se estudió la capacidad discriminatoria de los ítems, así como también la estructura factorial del instrumento. Los resultados obtenidos muestran un comportamiento psicométrico aceptable y una estructura similar a la planteada por las autoras. Podemos concluir que la escala EPOCH es una herramienta útil para la evaluación del Bienestar de Adolescentes, en contextos educativos chilenos.
Palabras clave: Bienestar del estudiante (Tesauro); bienestar adolescente; bienestar; educación positiva; psicología positiva (Palabras clave del autor).
Chilean adaptation of the adolescent wellbeing scale, epoch
Abstract: Nowadays, there is a growing interest in promoting well-being in educational contexts, which has led several authors to propose models to assess well-being and the creation of instruments. One of the instruments used to evaluate adolescent well-being is the EPOCH scale, based on the PERMA model that comprises dimensions such as engagement, connectivity, happiness, optimism and perseverance. This research aimed to adapt the EPOCH Adolescent Welfare Scale developed by Peggy Kern, Lizbeth Benson, Elizabeth A. Steinberg and Laurence Steinberg (2016). Data were collected from 1558 students between 11 and 18 years of age from four educational institutions from Antofagasta (Chile). The discriminatory capacity of the items was studied, as well as the factorial structure of the instrument. The results obtained show acceptable psychometric behavior and a structure similar to that proposed by the authors. We can conclude that the EPOCH scale is a useful tool to assess adolescent welfare, in Chilean educational contexts.
Keywords: Student well-being (Thesaurus); adolescent wellness; wellness; positive education; positive psychology (Author's keywords).
Resumo
O interesse na promoção do bem-estar em contextos educacionais tem crescido nos últimos anos. Isso tem levado diversos autores a proporem modelos de avaliação do bem-estar e a criação de instrumentos. Entre os instrumentos utilizados para avaliar o bem-estar do adolescente encontra-se a escala EPOCH, baseada no modelo PERMA, que inclui as dimensões de “engagement”, conectividade, felicidade, otimismo e perseverança. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo adaptar a Escala de Bem-estar do Adolescente EPOCH, elaborada por Kern, Benson, Steinberg e Steinberg. Para tanto, foram coletados os dados de 1558 alunos, com idades entre 11 e 18 anos, pertencentes a 4 instituições de ensino da região de Antofagasta, Chile. Foram analisadas a capacidade discriminatória dos itens, bem como a estrutura fatorial do instrumento. Os resultados mostraram um comportamento psicométrico aceitável e uma estrutura fatorial semelhante à proposta pelos autores do instrumento. Conclui-se, assim, que a escala EPOCH é uma ferramenta útil para avaliar o Bem-estar de Adolescentes em contextos educacionais chilenos.
Palavras-chave: Bem-estar do aluno; bem-estar-estar do adolescente; Bem-estar; Educação Positiva; Psicologia Positiva
Introduction
Well-being has been a phenomenon studied for decades and currently there has been an increased interest in its measurement, to incorporate it into public policies and evaluations at the national level. Traditionally, well-being was defined through economic prosperity, however, this perspective did not reflect its broad spectrum (Helliwell & Barrington-Leigh, 2010) because it did not include the well-being perceptions of the individuals themselves. Currently, there is a consensus on the need to measure well-being, however, there is no universal definition and there are still disagreements on how to evaluate it (Smith, Fleeson, Geiselmann, Settersten & Kunzmann, 1999). Based on literature, two traditional views are evident in the study of well-being: the hedonic and eudaimonic approaches, and the models of human flourishing have been progressively incorporated, those are feeling good and functioning satisfactorily (Huppert & So, 2013).
Thus, numerous models and instruments of human flourishing have emerged. For example, Diener, Wirtz, Tov, Kim-Prieto, Choi, Oishi & Biswas-Diener (2010) propose an eight-item instrument to measure flourishing based on psychosocial success in several areas of life, such as: self-esteem, optimism, relationships and purpose. As well as to complement the instruments that evaluate emotions and satisfaction in life. Huppert and So (2013) include a 10-element flourishing model: competence, engagement, emotional stability, meaning, optimism, positive emotions, positive relationships, vitality, self-esteem, and resilience. Finally, from positive psychology Martin Seligman (2011) suggests the PERMA model, which is based on five principles: positive emotions, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment These theories argue that well-being must be considered as a multidimensional construct and, therefore, be evaluated through various domains (Huppert, 2014; Huppert & So, 2013; Forgeard, Jayawickreme, Kern, & Seligman, 2011). It should be noted that with respect to adolescent flourishing there are limited empirical findings (Witten, Savahl, & Adams, 2019).
Currently, well-being measurements in children and adolescents have been a focus on development, considering the emphasis on the benefits of including positive education in schools to ensure the mental health and flourishing of children and adolescents. Taking into account that mental health is the main cause of disability of the youth population (World Health Organization - WHO, 2017). Statistically, by the age of 25, one out of four young people will have experienced a strong episode of mental illness (Slade, Johnston, Oakley-Browne, Andrews & Whiteford, 2009; WHO, 2017). In addition, young people are not performing properly because of the problems caused by these situations (Suldo, Thalji & Ferron, 2011).
Chile seems to be no exception. 17% of young people over 15 years old present signs of depression. Also, the suicide rate in adolescents has doubled in the last 20 years (Guajardo, 2017). Therefore, younger people who experience mental illnesses will have a greater predisposition to develop some disability, frequent repetitions and negative experiences throughout their lives, for example, leaving school, delinquency, few social relationships and mental and physical problems (Kessler & Bromet, 2013).
However, educational institutions are in charge of assisting children and adolescents when mental illnesses occur, because they can prevent them or reduce their impact (Kern, Waters, Adler & White, 2015; White & Kern, 2018). In this way, schools are appropriate contexts to provide preventive programs for mental health and well-being. This is based on the fact that children and adolescents spend a large part of their time in the educational context and even spend more time there than with their families. Also, the relationships they develop with their peers and different members of the educational community are relevant to their own well-being. Finally, parents and educators are interested in promoting well-being and abilities among students (Bernard & Walton, 2011; White & Waters, 2015; Seligman, Ernst, Gillham, Reivich, & Linkins, 2009). In conclusion, schools play a fundamental role in the integral development of students since the prevention of mental illnesses in children and adolescents is essential, as well as enhancing their mental health and well-being (Kern, Park, Peterson & Romer, 2017; Waters & White 2015).
It is important to notice that educational institutions can teach both skills associated with academic performance and well-being (Seligman et al., 2009). This idea is based on positive psychology in which well-being is not limited to the absence of mental illnesses but is also based on the scientific study of what goes well in life (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).
The implementation of positive psychology in educational contexts has been called positive education, which includes the implementation of scientifically validated programs and interventions that have an impact on the well-being of students (White & Waters, 2015). Likewise, it promotes the work of social, emotional, thinking skills and character strengths which enhance learning and academic performance (Bernard & Walton, 2011; White & Murray 2015). At the same time, these programs prevent the incidence of mental illness in students and promote and increase well-being (Waters & Loton, 2019). Consequently, the incorporation of initiatives to promote the well-being of students in educational establishments would provide a strategy to prevent depression, enhance life satisfaction, develop creativity and better learning, as well as enhance the sense and social cohesion of students in society (Seligman et al., 2009; Waters, 2011). Finally, positive education allows the development of self-management and self-assessment skills, which leads to adolescents moving into adulthood with better self-awareness and emotional intelligence skills in long-term (Waters, 2014).
Based on the above, the evaluation of students’ well-being in educational contexts allows to provide teachers and health professionals with information on the students’ strengths and weaknesses, as a complement to academic measurements, to obtain a comprehensive perspective of the youth population (Kern, Waters, Adler & White, 2014; White & Kern, 2017).
Considering the theoretical proposal of Martin Seligman (2011) in his PERMA well-being model with its five pillars that sustain it, Kern et al. (2016) suggest a multifaceted model to assess well-being in adolescents incorporating elements of the theory of positive adolescent development. Thus, the model considers five characteristics that influence the domains of PERMA model, likewise, the positive development of these characteristics will allow human flourishing in adulthood. Based on this model, the measurement of adolescent well-being is created, called EPOCH, in which our research study was based.
The EPOCH adolescent well-being scale is a self-report questionnaire that allows the measurement of adolescent mental health and function based on the PERMA adult human flourishing model. The instrument is made up of twenty items that are grouped into five dimensions of positive psychological traits, such as: engagement, connectedness, happiness, perseverance and optimism. Each item is evaluated from one to five points, considering the categories that are ranged from never to always. Additionally, scores are calculated for each dimension (Rose, Joe, Williams, Harris, Betz & Stewart-Brown, 2017).
The instrument was tested in a population of adolescents from the United States and Australia, presenting evidence of adequate psychometric properties (Kern et al., 2016). In addition, its validation was carried out with the Chinese population, considering 11 samples from urban and rural areas in northern, central and southern China, including a total of 17,854 adolescents. The confirmatory factor analysis supported the structure of five internally consistent factors, and in general, it was demonstrated convergent and divergent correlations expected with similar and different constructs, which supported the measurement of EPOCH as a useful instrument to evaluate positive adolescent functioning (Kern & Zeng, 2019).
It should be noted that the EPOCH instrument has been used to evaluate positive education interventions in Peru, Mexico and Bhutan, however, the statistical analysis of its validation is not presented (Adler, 2016). Lastly, a validation was carried out with the Indonesian population and this has been the only reliability analysis presented.
EPOCH model and its measurement
The EPOCH model is based on the research developed by Kern, Benson, E. Steinberg and L. Steinberg (2016) to evaluate adolescent well-being based on the conceptual framework of the PERMA model, considering a multifaceted approach (Adler, 2017). The model consists of the following five factors:
● Engagement: It is the ability to be immersed and focused on what is being done. A state of Flow reflects high levels of engagement in an activity and the use of skills to their maximum potential (Csikszenmihalyi, 1997).
● Perseverance: Reflects the ability to work hard to achieve goals, despite the difficulties. Perseverance includes Grit as the main element which considers passion and perseverance as fundamental dimensions to achieve long-term goals without being concerned about recognition or reward during the process (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews & Kelly, 2007).
● Optimism: It represents having confidence and hope about the future. In general, it’s about evaluating situations in a positive way and negative events as temporary and specific to a certain non-long-term situation (Kern et al, 2016).
● Connectedness: It refers to developing satisfactory relationships with others and feeling that others provide a feeling of support, love, and appreciation (Kern et al, 2016).
● Happiness: In this model is a positive state of mind and feeling happy with life, rather than reflecting a momentary emotion (Kern et al, 2016).
● To evaluate this theoretical model, an instrument of 20 questions was developed which considers 4 items for each dimension (Kern et al., 2016).
The instrument was tested through a series of 10 samples with more than 4000 adolescents from the United States and Australia. Its psychometric properties are adequate including a five-factor structure, it also has a satisfactory internal consistency and retest. Finally, the instrument presented convergent, divergent and predictive validity.
The specificity of the information delivered through instruments that evaluate well-being in a multidimensional way, such as the PERMA and EPOCH models, allow information to be delivered for every evaluated domain and allow educational communities to meet students’ needs in a better way (Kern et al., 2016).
In Chile there are not adapted or validated instruments to assess adolescent well-being in a multidimensional way so far. In response to this situation and the need to address adolescent well-being, this study proposes to implement the psychometric adaptation of the EPOCH adolescent well-being instrument, established by Kern et al., (2016), to students from an educational network in the city of Antofagasta, Chile which has fostered different initiatives in positive education to promote and strengthen the well-being of the entire educational community.
Methodology
Design and type of study
The study was carried out with a non-experimental cross-sectional design. It is a psychometric type of study since its main objective is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the EPOCH scale in the Chilean population.
Participants
In the first stage, a total of 224 students participated, called by means of an intentional sampling, since complete courses from four educational establishments in a city in northern Chile were surveyed; the ages of the participants ranged from 11 to 18 years.
In the second stage, a total of 1,334 students from different courses from the same four educational institutions were surveyed.
It was considered all the students of the selected courses whose parents signed the written consent for their children to answer the questionnaire and those young students who agreed.
Procedure
The participants were contacted through these institutions and the principals invited the students to answer the questionnaire. For the first sample, two courses were randomly selected. The parents were informed and were given an explanation about the conditions of participation of their children, they were also asked for authorization to survey them through an informed consent. The students also had to give their consent before the application of the questionnaires to participate in the research. In the case of the second sample, all the students who did not participate in the first stage were surveyed, they went through the same procedure.
In both cases, the students had to answer the printed questionnaires personally without third parties which could see their answers in order to respect the privacy of the information.
Later, the data was placed into a database and consecutively processed. The factor analysis was carried out in two stages. The first was an exploratory factor analysis with the initial evaluation (sample 1). For factor extraction, the analysis was forced in order to form the predetermined number of dimensions the instrument should have. The extraction method used was the Maximum Likelihood. Consequently, the direct Oblimin rotation was used which is the most used when the dimensions of a construct can be related to each other.
The confirmatory factor analysis was executed with the data from the second sample, this was the second stage. To estimate the coefficients, the Maximum Likelihood method (ML) was used. In order to evaluate the overall fit of the model, the coefficients of the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) were used.
All the data was collected in an Excel spreadsheet, to be processed later. The exploratory factor analysis was processed in SPSS v.21 software. On the other hand, the confirmatory factor analysis was studied in the software Mplus v.7.
Results
Exploratory factor analysis
First, some sample adequacy tests were implemented to examine whether the data is appropriate for an exploratory factor analysis. Regarding the Kayser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) index obtained was .887 which is placed in an appropriate range (> .70). On the other hand, regarding the Bartlett sphericity test, a χ2 = 1679.002, p <.05 was obtained, which means that the inter-item correlation matrix is significantly different from the identity matrix, that is, each question only correlates with itself and nothing else. Fulfilling these assumptions, the exploratory factor analysis was made.
Since the proposed structure was known in advance, the analysis was forced to yield five factors.
Table 1.
Exploratory factor analysis
|
Ítem |
Dimension |
Factor |
||||
|
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
||
|
4 |
Happiness |
.689 |
|
|
|
|
|
20 |
Happiness |
.607 |
|
|
|
|
|
15 |
Optimism |
.602 |
|
|
|
|
|
13 |
Optimism |
.582 |
|
|
|
|
|
18 |
Optimism |
.519 |
-.458 |
|
|
|
|
8 |
Happiness |
.488 |
|
|
|
|
|
6 |
Happiness |
.411 |
|
|
.331 |
|
|
3 |
Optimism |
.377 |
-.376 |
|
|
|
|
17 |
Perseverance |
|
-.772 |
|
|
|
|
2 |
Perseverance |
|
-.590 |
|
|
|
|
7 |
Engagement |
|
-.519 |
.301 |
|
|
|
19 |
Perseverance |
|
-.512 |
|
|
|
|
11 |
Engagement |
|
|
.668 |
|
|
|
5 |
Engagement |
|
|
.616 |
|
|
|
12 |
Engagement |
|
|
.385 |
|
|
|
10 |
Connectedness |
|
|
|
.918 |
|
|
14 |
Connectedness |
|
|
|
.647 |
|
|
1 |
Connectedness |
|
|
|
.393 |
|
|
16 |
Connectedness |
|
|
|
.345 |
|
|
9 |
Perseverance |
|
|
|
|
.773 |
|
% of Explained Variance |
29.83 |
9.72 |
3.87 |
3.82 |
2.54 |
|
Own authorship.
Regarding Engagement, all the items saturated in the corresponding dimension and it appears partially fused to the perseverance dimension, in which all its items were also together, except for one (item 9) that formed a separate dimension.
On the other hand, Optimism and Happiness had all their items together, but they appeared fused in the same factor. The only dimension that was formed according to the proposed structure was Connectedness.
Considering the above, we proceeded to review and modify the wording of the items in order to improve their adjustment, especially those items that obtained saturations in two factors or those ones that saturated independently from other dimensions (items 6, 9 and 18) as well as the dimension items that were merged. The negative saturations of factor 2 are striking, which may be due to some negative inter-item correlation. For this reason, the wording of the questions was checked in order to fit the appropriate dimension it belongs.
Confirmatory factor analysis
The factorial model with the 20 items that made up the EPOCH obtained a CFI = .94 and an RMSEA = .054 I.C. .90% [.050 - .058] which means appropriate adjustment and approximation error, respectively. The saturations, as well as the measurement errors of each item, can be seen in the factorial model of Figure 1.
Figure 1. Measurement Model for EPOCH.
Source: Own authorship.
All the saturations were statistically significant (p <.05) so that it was not necessary to eliminate any item. It can be concluded that the EPOCH, in its Chilean version, has appropriate psychometric properties for its use in the school population in the evaluation of well-being.
Description of scales obtained
Descriptive statistics of the final dimensions of the EPOCH are presented below.
Table 2.
Final descriptions for EPOCH
|
|
Media |
S.D |
C.V |
|
Engagement |
3.40 |
.88 |
.26 |
|
Perseverance |
3.49 |
.91 |
.26 |
|
Optimism |
3.43 |
.98 |
.29 |
|
Connectedness |
4.03 |
.86 |
.21 |
|
Happiness |
3.78 |
.93 |
.25 |
Source: Own authorship.
As it can be seen in Table 2, all the averages are above the median of the scale (3.00). Even in this context, it can be interpreted that the highest is Connectedness while the lowest is Engagement. At the same time, it can be seen that all the coefficients of variation are high (> .10), which is interpreted as a generally heterogeneous sample, that is, although the central value tends to be higher than the median of the scale, there are both very high and very low values. The implications of these scores as well as the final structure of the instrument will be shown below.
Table 3.
Final instrument EPOCH, Chile
|
Items |
|
1) Cuando algo bueno me sucede, cuento con personas con las que me gusta compartir las buenas noticias. |
|
2) Termino lo que empiezo. |
|
3) Soy optimista acerca de mi futuro. |
|
4) Me siento feliz. |
|
5) Cuando hago una actividad, la disfruto tanto que pierdo la noción del tiempo. |
|
6) Me divierto mucho. |
|
7) Me meto mucho en lo que hago. |
|
8) Amo la vida. |
|
9) Persisto en lo que hago hasta terminarlo. |
|
10) Cuando tengo un problema, sé que hay alguien ahí para mí. 11) Me involucro tanto en ciertas actividades, que se me olvida todo lo demás. 12) Cuando aprendo algo nuevo, me olvido de cuánto tiempo pasa. 13) En momentos de dudas e inseguridad, espero lo mejor. |
|
14) Hay personas en mi vida que realmente se preocupan por mí. 15) Pienso que me van a suceder cosas buenas. 16) Tengo amigos a los que quiero mucho. 17) Una vez que me propongo hacer algo, lo hago hasta el final. 18) Creo que las cosas van a salir bien, sin importar lo difícil que parezcan. 19) Soy muy trabajador 20) Tengo mucha diversión en mi vida. |
The scale considers the categories: almost never, sometimes, often, very often, almost always. Considering the score from 1 to 5.
Own authorship based on the original scale of the authors. It is in Spanish as it was validated with Chilean population.
Discussion
Through this research, the psychometric structure of the EPOCH Adolescent Well-being instrument designed by Kern, L. Steinberg, Benson and E. Steinberg (2016) was evaluated in a student population of 1,334 students from four educational establishments in Antofagasta, Chile. The results in the Chilean version show that it has a quite acceptable psychometric behavior. The scale presents a similar structure to the one proposed by the authors, in which the five dimensions are clearly tested: Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness and Happiness. Modification processes were generated in the language used to be applied and understood by adolescents in the Chilean educational context. The results obtained show that the construct of Well-being in Adolescents has a metric that is built from the aforementioned dimensions.
Although there were items that presented moderate errors, the global adjustment indicators (RMSEA and CFI) were found in an adequate range. This shows that the data produced by the scale does fit to the previously proposed theoretical structure. On the other hand, the items showed significant saturations and high ranges, except for one item in the Engagement dimension that was also significant (question 12). In this sense, although the data produced by the scale are valid, it is suggested to review the wording of this question, in order to favor its saturation in the corresponding dimension.
These results are consistent when compared with those obtained in the previous validation in China. It cannot be compared with the study carried out in Indonesia since a factor analysis was not executed.
In the future, it is suggested to continue studying the relationship between well-being and other variables, both academic and relational, in order to have knowledge about those elements possible to intervene in the context of positive education. In this way, educational establishments will have more resources to identify and work with students with low levels of well-being and, in addition, to focus on their interventions.
Conclusions
The objective of the research was to adapt the EPOCH well-being scale in a Chilean context. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were carried out, considered as ideal procedures for test adaptation.
The factor analysis demonstrated consistency of the scale and its dimensions to show the structure of well-being, as well as the constructs of Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness and Happiness.
The research and adaptations carried out by Alejandro Adler (2016) in the Spanish version, were modified according to the Chilean adolescent context. Therefore, students can understand the items.
Finally, the results confirm the validity of the scale, that is the reason why it is implemented in the Chilean adolescent population without losing its evaluative capacity. In general terms, the scale satisfactorily reflects the structure declared by the EPOCH model of Adolescent Well-being.