Psychometric properties of the Assessment Tool for Perceived Agency (ATPA-22) – utility for the rehabilitation of young adults not in education, employment or training (NEETs)

Abstract

Background

Promoting and supporting agency have been at the heart of the debate multidisciplinary. To promote self-awareness of young people’s agency and identify persons in need of support the Assessment Tool for Perceived Agency (ATPA-22) was developed.

Aim

This study aims to evaluate the psychometric properties of the ATPA-22. Participants were young adults not in education, employment or training (NEETs) and students in higher education (HEI).

Materials and methods

The main data analysis was implemented by Many Faceted Rasch (MFR) analysis.

Results

The ATPA-22 items defined a unidimensional construct with reasonable internal consistency and separation ability. The ATPA-22 was capable of detecting differences between HEI students and young adult NEETs. Nine differential functioning items emerged between the groups.

Conclusions

ATPA-22 shows promise as a tool to assess young adults’ perceived agency. Anyhow, as the individual life situation affects strongly to perceived agency, research on the stability of the ATPA-22 among different populations is needed.

Significance

The purpose of the ATPA-22 is to measure perceived agency of individuals, and to identify aspects of agency in need for support. ATPA-22 can be used as a tool for promoting self-awareness of occupational challenges.

Keywords:

• Participation
• agency
• perceived agency
• young adults
• Rasch measurement

Acknowledgements

We thank all the young adults who consented to participate in this study.

Compliance with ethical standards

Ethics approval

Ethics approval was obtained from the Social Insurance Institution of Finland. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).