Page 97 - Ana Kozina and Nora Wiium, eds. ▪︎ Positive Youth Development in Contexts. Ljubljana: Educational Research Institute, 2021. Digital Library, Dissertationes (Scientific Monographs), 42.
P. 97
measuring positive youth development in slovenia
For the 5Cs, an adequate model fit for 5 first-order constructs was
achieved, indicating that this questionnaire is suitable for use in the
Slovenian context, even though our hypothesis that the bifactor model
would be the best solution was not confirmed. The 5 first-order factor solu-
tion has already been confirmed in the European context as well (Conway
et al., 2015). Factor loadings in the present study were comparable to those
in the original study or even higher (Geldhof et al., 2014b). Still, two items
of Character seemed problematic as they had lower factor loadings (i.e. “I
hardly ever do things I know I shouldn’t do” and “I usually act in the way
I am supposed to”). They refer to conduct behaviour and not to the social
conscience, personal values or diversity values like other Character items.
Both items also weakly indicated Character in the original study (Geldhof
et al., 2014b). This indicates that the construct of Character should be
probed into in future studies.
At least partial scalar invariance was achieved for DA and the 5Cs for
gender and school level. This allowed us to compare both PYD constructs
across gender and school level since it showed that any possible statisti-
cal group differences were not a consequence of differences in scale prop-
erties reflected by gender or school level. In general, the results reveal that
students differ more by gender than by school level. As for DA, male stu-
dents reported having higher Support, Empowerment and a Positive identi-
ty while female students had higher Commitment to learning, Positive val-
ues and Social competencies. No differences were displayed for Boundaries
and expectations and Constructive use of time. The results are not com-
pletely in line with our hypothesis or previous studies (Gomez-Baya et
al., 2021) since males in Slovenia reported having greater Support and
Empowerment. Moreover, in other studies (e.g. Rueger et al., 2010) female
students were more likely to report support from teachers, close friends,
classmates and school personnel compared to males, although they did
not differ in support from their parents. As for the school level, students
from lower secondary schools reported higher Support, Constructive use
of time, Commitment to learning, Social competencies, and Positive iden-
tity than upper secondary students. This is consistent with our hypothesis
and previous studies (Soares et al., 2019), indicating that lower secondary
students have at least higher scores on some of the DA than upper second-
ary students. It is important to note that the data collection was carried out
at a time of the COVID-19 pandemic when schools were closed. Especially
students from the first grade of upper secondary schools were worse off
97
For the 5Cs, an adequate model fit for 5 first-order constructs was
achieved, indicating that this questionnaire is suitable for use in the
Slovenian context, even though our hypothesis that the bifactor model
would be the best solution was not confirmed. The 5 first-order factor solu-
tion has already been confirmed in the European context as well (Conway
et al., 2015). Factor loadings in the present study were comparable to those
in the original study or even higher (Geldhof et al., 2014b). Still, two items
of Character seemed problematic as they had lower factor loadings (i.e. “I
hardly ever do things I know I shouldn’t do” and “I usually act in the way
I am supposed to”). They refer to conduct behaviour and not to the social
conscience, personal values or diversity values like other Character items.
Both items also weakly indicated Character in the original study (Geldhof
et al., 2014b). This indicates that the construct of Character should be
probed into in future studies.
At least partial scalar invariance was achieved for DA and the 5Cs for
gender and school level. This allowed us to compare both PYD constructs
across gender and school level since it showed that any possible statisti-
cal group differences were not a consequence of differences in scale prop-
erties reflected by gender or school level. In general, the results reveal that
students differ more by gender than by school level. As for DA, male stu-
dents reported having higher Support, Empowerment and a Positive identi-
ty while female students had higher Commitment to learning, Positive val-
ues and Social competencies. No differences were displayed for Boundaries
and expectations and Constructive use of time. The results are not com-
pletely in line with our hypothesis or previous studies (Gomez-Baya et
al., 2021) since males in Slovenia reported having greater Support and
Empowerment. Moreover, in other studies (e.g. Rueger et al., 2010) female
students were more likely to report support from teachers, close friends,
classmates and school personnel compared to males, although they did
not differ in support from their parents. As for the school level, students
from lower secondary schools reported higher Support, Constructive use
of time, Commitment to learning, Social competencies, and Positive iden-
tity than upper secondary students. This is consistent with our hypothesis
and previous studies (Soares et al., 2019), indicating that lower secondary
students have at least higher scores on some of the DA than upper second-
ary students. It is important to note that the data collection was carried out
at a time of the COVID-19 pandemic when schools were closed. Especially
students from the first grade of upper secondary schools were worse off
97
