The Validity and Reliability Study of the Student Academic Optimism Attitude Scale

Student academic optimism is a critical factor that positively influences students' educational processes by contributing to their academic, psychological, social, and emotional development. In this regard, revealing the current state of students' academic optimism holds great importance for developing educational strategies and creating supportive programs for students. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable measurement tool to assess student academic optimism. The research was conducted based on quantitative research methods, following a four-stage process in the scale development phase: preparing the draft scale, obtaining expert opinions, conducting a pilot study, and performing validity and reliability analyses. In the preparation phase of the draft scale, a literature review was scrutinized, and interviews with 10 students were analyzed. The item pool was reviewed by experts, adjustments were made, and a pilot study was conducted to identify whether or not any items that decreased internal consistency. For the validity and reliability analysis, principal components analysis was utilized to examine construct validity. The analysis revealed that the scale exhibited a three-factor structure consisting of 26 items. Considering the common meanings of the items within these factors, the three factors were named as Trust in Teachers, Academic Emphasis, and Identification with School. Internal consistency coefficients, including Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega, were calculated for both the sub-dimensions and the overall scale, determining that the scale and its sub-dimensions had a high level of internal consistency. The structure of the scale was confirmed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis and it was determined that the compatibility of the model with the data was good. Fit indices support how well the scale matches the theoretical model and confirm the validity of the scale. It has been revealed that the Student Academic Optimism Attitude Scale, which was developed as a result of the research, is a valid and reliable tool that can be used to measure academic optimism.