Measuring Social and Emotional Wellbeing in Aboriginal Youth Using Strong Souls: A Rasch Measurement Approach

Ella Gorman, Brody Heritage, Carrington C. J. Shepherd and Rhonda Marriott
Additional contact information
Ella Gorman: Discipline of Psychology, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Brody Heritage: Discipline of Psychology, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Carrington C. J. Shepherd: Ngangk Yira Research Centre for Aboriginal Health and Social Equity, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia
Rhonda Marriott: Ngangk Yira Research Centre for Aboriginal Health and Social Equity, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, Australia

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-18

Abstract: Currently, there are few robustly evaluated social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB) measures available for use with Aboriginal youth in research, policy, and practice. As such, this study used a Rasch measurement approach to examine the psychometric properties of Strong Souls, a 25-item self-reported SEWB instrument, created for use with Aboriginal youth in the Northern Territory. Our sample ( N = 154) included youth (15–25 years old) living on Whadjuk (metropolitan Western Australia; N = 91) and Kamilaroi countries (rural New South Wales; N = 63). Using Rasch modelling techniques, evidence for multidimensionality in the scale was observed, resulting in subsequent analyses conducted separately on two subscales: Psychological Distress and Resilience. The Resilience subscale did not meet the Rasch model assumptions, with poor person and item separation and reliability indexes suggesting the scale was not reliably differentiating between participants’ Resilience scores. The Psychological Distress subscale had mixed separation and reliability index results, with good construct validity implied but poorer ability to target the distress of participants. Our findings provide novel evidence demonstrating the functioning of Strong Souls in a contemporary sample of Aboriginal youth, suggesting further modifications of the instrument are required before it can be used with confidence as a reliable measure in this population group.

Keywords: Rasch; Aboriginal; youth; social and emotional wellbeing; psychometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8425/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/16/8425/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:16:p:8425-:d:611442

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().