Development and Validation of Tools for Measuring Psychological Challenges of and Support Services to Students in Special Secondary Boarding Schools

Abstract

Special secondndary boarding secondary schools (SSBS) are increasingly becoming familiar in Ethiopia. In the Oromia Regional State alone, there are seven government special secondary boarding schools and two additional ones operated by non-government. Experience shows that several psychological challenges and limited support services characterize these schools. However, research evidence is not available supporting these claims, mainly because research tools have not been developed according to the Ethiopian context. The primary objective of this research is to develop and validate instruments that can help measure these two constructs: psychological challenges and support services. Psychometric procedures were employed in item generation, selection,  refinement, and validating it with a sample of 25 (45.1% females and 54.9% male students). Then, item reduction and classification were made through a joint use of exploratory factor analysis (EFA) conducted to analyze the factor structures, followed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to substantiate the proposed factors. The EFA result has revealed two interpretable factors: the psychological challenges faced by adolescents and the support services available at the special secondary boarding schools. The reliability indices of both subscales are also acceptable.