Psychometric properties and cultural adaptation of “LifeConScale” -Life Conditions Scale for Adolescents

Abstract

Promoting the adoption of healthy habits represents a great challenge for health and education professionals. In this sense, childhood and adolescence are propitious times for the acquisition and consolidation of behaviors and skills, being that numerous and different determinants act in the genesis of behavior. The purpose of this study was to test the Psychometric properties and cultural adaptation of “LifeConScale” -Life Conditions Scale for Adolescents-. A cross-sectional and multicenter study was carried out in a representative sample of adolescents enrolled in 1st and 2nd year of Compulsory Secondary Education in 18 educational centers in Aragon, during the 2018–2019 school year. Sociodemographic characteristics, life skills, daily habits, and academic performance were analyzed using an adapted questionnaire from different scales and previous studies. For the adaptation of the questionnaire, the expert panel technique was used and for its validation, exploratory factor analysis was carried out and Cronbach’s Alpha was applied, assessing the global internal consistency and of each one of the factors. The instrument showed a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin sample size adequacy of 0.8122. A 6-dimensional model was chosen that explained 75.25% of the variance. The goodness of fit obtained a value of 0.802 in the Nomed Fix Index. The Comparative Fit Index was 0.891. The result of the analysis of variances and covariances carried out according to the Standardized Root Mean Square Residual yielded a value of 0.093 The analysis showed excellent application conditions in the study population and construct validity. This instrument will be useful for the evaluation of educational programs that work to promote health in educational centers, such as Health Promoting Schools.