Psychometric properties of the Czech version of the Boredom Proneness Scale: factor structure, internal consistency, conceptual relations
Abstract
Objectives. The study is focused on psychometric properties of Czech version of The Boredom Proneness Scale (BPS) evaluation.
Sample and settings. The scale was completed by 661 secondary school students aged between 15 to 24 (M=17; SD=1,36) together with other measures of related constructs.
Statistical analysis. Statistical analyses were realised using the environment of IBM SPSS Statistics (ver. 27) and JASP.
Cronbach's α and McDonald's ω were used to assess the internal consistency. Confirmatory factor analyses were performed to test the discriminant validity of different existing models.
As none of them was of a good fit to the present data, exploratory factor analysis using the Principal axis factoring method with promax solution was used to reveal specific factor structure within this sample. Correlation analysis was used for convergent validity estimation.
Differencies between men and women and with regard to grade point average were assessed using Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Results.
The internal consistency of the BPS total score was adequate, but the item analysis did not confirm the scale to be unidimensional within this sample. Three factor models derived from previous research studies were tested using the CFAs, but none of them was of a reasonable fit to the data.
Based on the results of EFA, three-factor solution appeared to be the best fit to the sample. Despite the fact that one of the revealed factors could not have been fully mathematically supported, its' validity and conceptual value within the BPS construct and with regard to other measured variables is further corroborated in this study.
The study results indicate that at least three-factor solution brings more subtle findings with regard to the relationship between the BPS and related constructs. Directions for further scale development and improvement are outlined in order to maximalize the research and diagnostic potential of the scale.
Limitations: The major study limitation is related to the low representativeness of the research sample. Therefore, further research with different population samples is needed.