Assessment of information sources that influence high school students in choosing their study profile: an analysis through the bifactor ESEM model

This paper aims to investigate the main sources of information that high school students rely on, when choosing their future study profile. The statistical analysis was based on the data of high school students in Korça region (n = 857). From the comparison of five models, the Bifactor Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling model better fits the observed data of a 16-item measurement scale, for identifying, measuring, and assessing sources of information. The measurement instrument resulted in very good psychometric characteristics, properly evaluating the information, both quantitatively and qualitatively, according to its five sub-dimensions. Analysis of bifactor model-based indices showed an essential unidimensionality of the instrument. The information from the promoted university activities, physically or online had the greatest impact on their decision-making.