An assessment of the reliability and validity of the PERMA well-being scale for adult undergraduate students in an open and distance learning context

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dc.contributor.author Magare, Ishmael
dc.contributor.author Graham, Marien Alet
dc.contributor.author Eloff, Irma
dc.date.accessioned 2023-08-14T11:17:15Z
dc.date.available 2023-08-14T11:17:15Z
dc.date.issued 2022-12-15
dc.description DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : Data will not be made available for confidentiality reasons. en_US
dc.description.abstract BACKGROUND : The PERMA well-being scale measures the multidimensionality of wellbeing in human populations. It highlights positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishment. Despite the empirical advancement and evolution of the PERMA scale in different settings, its applicability to open and distance learning (ODL) has not been adequately established among undergraduate students in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODOLOGY : Our study examines the theoretical reliability, validity, and five-factor structure of the shortened 35-item version of the PERMA well-being scale as it was adapted in an ODL tertiary institution in Botswana. The PERMA model of well-being and self-determination theory (SDT) served as theoretical frameworks. We evaluated the adapted PERMA scale’s reliability, construct validity, confirmatory factor analysis, and measures of invariance to assess if the data of undergraduate students in an ODL context study fitted the PERMA model of a well-being five-factor structure. We used a multi-stage sampling scheme incorporating a convenience sampling approach where the respondents were invited to voluntarily participate in the study through a WhatsApp group, followed by snowball sampling where we asked the participants to add others to the WhatsApp group during the timeline of the survey; the sample comprised 215 respondents (age: mean = 38.17, standard deviation = 6.472). We collected data from former and active undergraduate B.Ed. (Bachelor of Education) degree students from five regional campuses of the open university through an online survey built into the Qualtrics platform. The Cronbach’s alpha indicated that one item should be removed from the engagement domain. RESULTS : The overall adapted scale retained a 34-item PERMA well-being scale in the particular ODL context. The goodness of fit indices confirmed the five-domain structure with the 34 items. CONCLUSIONS : The psychometric properties of the 34-item adapted PERMA well-being scale suggest that it can be a valuable and feasible instrument in ODL in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the adapted scale can be applied in educational settings moving towards open and distance e-learning forms of delivery. en_US
dc.description.department Educational Psychology en_US
dc.description.department Science, Mathematics and Technology Education en_US
dc.description.librarian am2023 en_US
dc.description.sponsorship The Botswana Open University. en_US
dc.description.uri https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph en_US
dc.identifier.citation Magare, I.; Graham, M.A.; Eloff, I. An Assessment of the Reliability and Validity of the PERMAWell-Being Scale for Adult Undergraduate Students in an Open and Distance Learning Context. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2022, 19, 16886. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416886. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 1660-4601 (print)
dc.identifier.issn 1661-7827 (online)
dc.identifier.other 10.3390/ ijerph192416886
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/91908
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher MDPI en_US
dc.rights © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. en_US
dc.subject Well-being en_US
dc.subject PERMA model en_US
dc.subject Undergraduate students en_US
dc.subject Reliability en_US
dc.subject Validity en_US
dc.subject Confirmatory factor analysis en_US
dc.subject Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) en_US
dc.subject SDG-04: Quality education en_US
dc.subject Open and distance learning (ODL) en_US
dc.subject Self-determination theory (SDT) en_US
dc.title An assessment of the reliability and validity of the PERMA well-being scale for adult undergraduate students in an open and distance learning context en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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