Reliability and validity of the social and personal identity scale in Iraqi-Kurdish medical students

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the social and personal identity scale (SPIS) among Iraqi-Kurdish medical students. Methods: Before starting the study, an approval letter was obtained from the developer and founder of the tool. The tool was translated from English to Kurdish by bilinguals using a forward-backward method. The construct validity of the scale was determined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with the participation of 301 and 423 medical science students, respectively. The reliability of the tools was verified using the correlation coefficient. Finally, the reliability of the scales was calculated using Cronbach's alpha. Results: The EFA and CFA results revealed two factors and 16 items. The EFA supported the correlation among the 16 items of the scale (KMO = 0.846, Chi-square = 2205.49 and P < 0.001). The primary indices of the model based on CFA were all above 0.9, indicating that the model is appropriate, in good condition, and fits the acquired data(X2/DF = 2.49, RMSEA = 0.075, NNFI = 0.93, CFI = 0.94, and AGFI = 0.82). The correlation coefficient had a significant level of less than 0.05. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) for SI subscales was 0.875, and for PI subscales, it was 0.873, indicating the realibility of the scale. Conclusions: Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the new version of the K–SIPI scale demonstrates satisfactory indicators for assessing social and personal identity within Kurdish student communities. The credibility and accuracy of the tool in question could be highlighted, particularly regarding its applicability to relevant studies and domains.

Keywords

• Validity
• Reliability
• Social identity
• Personal identity
• Kurdish community