Psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the Student Professor Interaction Scale

Existing research indicates that student-professor interactions have significant effects on a range of student outcomes in university contexts including academic self-efficacy, satisfaction, attrition rates and career and educational aspirations. However, the bulk of this research has been conducted in Western countries and there currently remains a dearth of research investigating the effects of such interactions on outcomes for students attending higher education in Arab countries. This may stem from the absence of appropriate translated measures with established indices of psychometric validity for use in Arab countries. The current study addresses this need by examining the factor structure of the Student-Professor Interaction Scale with a sample of 329 Arab students attending university in the United Arab Emirates. The scale was first translated into Arabic and results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed a nine-factor structure similar to the original scale developed with a sample of American university students. Indices of factorial validity and reliability of the scale are presented which suggest the SPIS is broadly suitable in quantifying aspects of student-faculty interactions among native Arab speaking student populations. This study uses confirmatory factor analyses to validate the structure of an Arabic version of the SPIS, providing a reliable tool to assess student-faculty interactions among Arab university students and enabling culturally relevant research in higher education contexts.