Evidence of Validity and Measurement Invariance by Gender of the Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) Scale in Colombian University Students.

BACKGROUND: Having a valid tool to assess attitudes toward vaccination and identify the concerns that drive vaccine refusal can facilitate population studies and help guide public health interventions. The objective of this study has been to adapt the Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) scale in Colombian university students and to study its psychometric properties in a non-probabilistic sample of 1074 Colombian university students. METHODS: A confirmatory factor analysis was used to study the factorial structure. A structural equation model was tested to study concurrent validity and to check whether the factors predicted having received the coronavirus vaccine. Gender-based measurement invariance was also studied for the best model. RESULTS: The results support the structure of four related factors. The composite reliability index was good for all the factors, but the average variance extracted was not as good for the second factor. There was strong measurement invariance by gender, and two factors are good predictors of being vaccinated or not. CONCLUSIONS: The VAX has shown construct and concurrent validity and is a reliable tool for evaluating attitudes towards vaccines in university students in Colombia. It may help guide the implementation of actions for the National Vaccination Plan and institutional policies.

Adaptation and Psychometric Properties of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) in the General Colombian Population.

(1) Background: Diener's Scale of Positive and Negative Experiences (SPANE) assesses the presence and intensity of positive and negative affects, since these are considered basic aspects of the study of well-being. This article studies its psychometric properties in the general Colombian population. (2) We conducted a cross-sectional study of a sample of 1255 Colombians and we used structural equation modeling to confirm the bifactor structure. Additionally, we studied invariance by gender, and convergent and concurrent validity. (3) We found acceptable fit indicators for the bifactor model (CFI = 0.889, RMSEA = 0.046, SRMR = 0.059) as well as for the convergent (CFI = 0.909, RMSEA = 0.050, SRMR = 0.063) and concurrent (CFI = 0.966, RMSEA = 0.036, SRMR = 0.041) validity models. We did not confirm total invariance across gender, although we found configural and metric invariance, so percentiles by sex were provided. (4) Conclusions: The SPANE is a valid and reliable measure to assess well-being among the Colombian population, although we alert researchers to the risk of comparing affectivity average scores between sexes.

Psychometric Properties of the Diener Satisfaction With Life Scale With Five Response Options Applied to the Colombian Population.

Introduction: The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS), developed by Diener, Emmons, Larsen, and Griffin in 1985, comprises five items with seven response options in terms of agreement-disagreement. Recently, there has been a suggestion to reduce the response options of the SWLS to optimize its applicability in different cultural contexts. Objective: The study aims to assess the psychometric properties of the SWLS with five response options in the Colombian population. Specifically, we studied the dimensionality, invariance by gender and age (among a group of adolescents and emerging adults under 25 years and a group of adults of intermediate age and established adulthood under 59 years), convergent validity (with optimism), and divergent (with pessimism) and concurrent validity with other measures of well-being (flourishing, positive, and negative affects). Methodology: This project was a cross-sectional study using a non-probabilistic sample of the general population. Participants were included if they identified themselves as Colombian and were at least 18 years of age. The final sample comprised 1,255 participants. The average age was 25.62 years (SD = 8.60) ranging from 18 to 67 years of age, and 35.8% of the participants were men. In addition to SWLS, we used the Flourishing Scale (FS), Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), and Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE). Results: Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.842), composite reliability (0.851), and average variance extracted (0.537) showed very good values. CFA was conducted to test the one-dimensional structure of FS, showing excellent goodness of fit [ χ(5)2 = 15.774, p < 0.001, CFI = 0.992, TLI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.042, 90% RMSEA CI (0.020, 0.066), and SRMR = 0.016]. The correlations calculated among life satisfaction (SWLS) with flourishing (FS), positive and negative affects (SPANE), optimism, and pessimism (LOT-R) were statistically significant and as expected. Configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender and age were confirmed. Percentiles were provided for the total score and for age. Conclusions: The SWLS with five response options has adequate psychometric properties in the Colombian population, and the use of this version (with 5 response options) is recommended due to its greater applicability.