Factor structure of a short version of SDQ-II among Omani school students

ABSTRACT

Rarely has the self-description questionnaire II (SDQ-II) been used with Arab samples. The Arab culture has unique characteristics that warrant investigating self-concept among individuals who are impacted by the culture. The SDQ-II has eleven factors and each is measured by 8 or 10 items. This study used a short version of the SDQ-II with an Omani sample (n = 700). The Arabic short version has nine factors with 4 items measuring each factor. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed twice: one with nine factors, and another with nine first-order factors and 2 high-order factors. The fit indices for the two models were acceptable and they were not significantly different. All of the items loaded substantially on their respective factors with mean loadings of 0.59. The correlation between the high-order factors was 0.79. All of the bivariate correlations were significant -except for two. The average of the correlations was 0.31 (range from 0.08 to 0.67), thus providing evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The results indicate that self-concept dimensions can be used separately, and each of the high-order factors can be used as one instrument. The implications are that researchers and counselors can use the short form for research and assessment purposes.

KEYWORDS:

• SDQII-short version
• factor structure
• validity
• Oman
• school students

Compliance with ethical standards

Ethical approval: All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Sultan Qaboos University Ethical Research Committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Ethical approval: This article does not contain any studies with animals performed by any of the authors.

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 authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Maher M. Abu-Hilal

Maher M. Abu-Hilal is a professor at Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. He has published in regional and international journals. Currently, he is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies at SQU. His research interests are in assessment of personality, motivation, burnout and attitudes of teachers.

Suleiman Al-Maamari

Suleiman Al-Maamari is a teacher of mathematics in Aldahera school directorate. He has a master in psychology from SQU.

Humaira Al-Sulaimani

Dr.Humaira Al-Sulaimani is an assistant professor of psychology at SQU. She has published in regional and international journals. Her research interest is in assessment.