A Study on Issues to Consider in Scale Adaptation Studies: 3-Item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale Adaptation Example

Today, scales are designed to measure the related variables with as few items as possible. Research models are becoming more complex and researchers are trying to expand their findings with these models. Reasons such as limited time, the decrease in the perception of participants as the number of questions in surveys increases, the time to fill out the survey increases, make it difficult to obtain accurate findings. The shortest 3-item version of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was adapted into Turkish. Data were collected through a survey from 589 teachers working in public schools in Kastamonu. It is aimed to shed light on the problems and solutions that may be encountered in adaptation studies by comparing the research findings with the findings of other previous UWES-3 Turkish adaptations. To determine the structural validity of work engagement, confirmatory factor analysis tested the UWES-9 and UWES-3 scales as a separate structure from the Natural Emotions Scale (NES). The findings obtained as a result of the research, it was concluded that the UWES-9 and UWES-3 scales are a separate structure from the NES. As a result, it was seen that the ability of the scale items to represent the factor they want to measure is very important. It was concluded that if the items have high representativeness, they can explain the related factor well. It was found that the UWES-3 Turkish Scale analyzed within the scope of this research is an alternative and short scale that can be used to measure work engagement.