Poster #80 - The development of a short Taiwanese measure of the Five Cs of positive youth development

• In Event: Poster Session 14

Abstract

As researchers, policy makers, and practitioners increasingly endorse a strength- than deficit-based perspective of youth development, there is an emerging necessity for the development of a valid, meaningful, and comprehensive measure of youth thriving. The 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development (2002-2010) employed several measures to index youth thriving, which were operationalized through the Five Cs model of positive youth development (Lerner et al., 2005). The Five Cs—Competence, Confidence, Connection, Caring, and Character—describe characteristics of youth which are associated with positive and healthy development (Geldhof, Bowers, Boyd, et al., 2014; Lerner et al., 2005). The full battery of Five Cs measure consists of 78 items, which has been validated in youth from various cultural contexts, including the U.S. (Bowers et al., 2010; Geldhof et al., 2014; Phelps et al., 2009), Lithuania (Erentaitė & Raižienė, 2015), Ireland (Conway et al., 2015), and Taiwan (Yang & McGinley, 2021). The lengthiness of the fully battery of Five Cs has limited its utility in practice and research, however. In the U.S., a shortened Five Cs measure (34 items) was developed based on the full battery (Geldhof et al., 2014). This study, as an extension from Yang and McGinley (2021), aimed to develop and evaluate a shortened Taiwanese measure that may reliably and validly capture youth thriving, thereby the strength-based approach might be further promoted in youth policy and practice in Taiwan.
The participants were drawn from a larger longitudinal study (2014-2016) which was conducted across six waves. During Wave 1 (Fall Semester) and Wave 2 (Spring Semester), seventh-, eighth-, ninth-graders participated. Eighth-graders were followed for another year (Wave 3 and Wave 4), and seventh-graders were followed for another two years (Wave 3, Wave 4, Wave 5, and Wave 6). The seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade sample included a total of 178 (51.1% male, Mage = 12.99), 291 (53.6% male, Mage = 13.94), 465 (52.0% male, Mage = 14.88) Taiwanese Han participants, respectively.
As Yang & McGinley (2021) established partial metric and partial scalar invariance between the U.S. and Taiwanese Han groups based on the ninth-grade data, this study used ninth-grade data first to develop the short measure of Five Cs. EFAs (oblimin rotation) were conducted for each of the Five Cs, and two items that strongly loaded onto each subscale of each C were retained. CFAs were then conducted to examine the Five Cs construct using five-factor and bi-factor models. Lastly, invariance testing was conducted to examine longitudinal stability of the factor structure across the seventh-, eighth-, and ninth-grade data.
Table 1 presents the comparison between items retained from the EFAs in Geldhof et al. (2014) and this study. Only thirteen items are identical between the U.S. and Taiwanese short measure of Five Cs. Table 2 shows the results of longitudinal invariance across grades. Bi-factor models were retained as the best fitting solution. Invariance was established between eighth- and ninth-grade participants, whereas partial metric and partial scalar invariance was established between seventh- and ninth-grade participants. Methodological, developmental, and cultural implications would be discussed.

Authors

• PEI-JUNG YANG, National Chengchi University
  Presenting Author

• Pei-Chiang Lee, National Academic for Education Research