Propiedades psicométricas de la escala “creciendo fuertes” en estudiantes universitarios de Maracaibo, Venezuela

Abstract

The ‘growing up strong’ scale is based on Peterson y Selig- man’s (2004) theoretical model of the character strengths and virtues. As it’s a recent proposal, it lacks formal psychometric studies to support its use. The aim of this work was to determine the psychometric properties of this scale in a sample of university students from Maracaibo. It’s an instrumental investigation which involved 967 students. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis validate the underlying theoretical structure of six factors. In addition, high indexes of internal consistency were found, as well as positive correlations with self-esteem, self-efficacy, psychological well-being, life satisfaction and optimism; and negative correlations with pessimism. These results constitute evidence of reliability and factorial, convergent and discriminant validity. It’s concluded that the ‘growing up strong’ scale can be a short, useful and economical alternative to evaluate the construct both in basic and applied research. Future studies are recommended that will continue to provide evidence about the operation of the instrument.