University students evaluation of psychosocial problems scale

Abstract

The University Students Evaluation of Psychosocial Problems (USEPP) scale is a multidimensional, self-administered psychological instrument measuring psychosocial problems among university students. It discriminates university students with or without psychosocial problems and it can predict psychological distress. The scale can be applied for research purposes and for clinical evaluation. The scale development was premised on a rationalempirical approach utilizing two theories/models. Namely, the Vulnerability-ExperienceManifestation-Prevalence model (Chun, Eastman, Sue, & Wang, 1998) to build a grounded theory for the instrument-items generation that could depict those personal and environmental factors and experiences of psychosocial problems among the students. And the Item Response Theory, specifically, the derivative Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), a statistical multivariate analysis technique (Crockett, 2012) used toward creating a psychometrically sound instrument focused on the unique contextual environment of university students in a developing world. Experts in instrument development look at SEM as a „must‟ for social scientists when designing new instruments and validating existing ones (Hooper, Coughlan, & Mullen, 2008)