Psychology Research and Behavior Management (Nov 2023)
The General Mattering Scale, the Anti-Mattering Scale, and the Fear of Not Mattering Inventory: Psychometric Properties and Links with Distress and Hope Among Chinese University Students
Abstract
Wei Liu,1 Jeffrey Hugh Gamble,2 Cui-Hong Cao,3,4 Xiao-Ling Liao,5 I-Hua Chen,1 Gordon L Flett6 1Chinese Academy of Education Big Data, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of English, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan; 3Faculty of Education, Qufu Normal University, Qufu, People’s Republic of China; 4School of Foreign Languages, Shandong Women’s University, Jinan, People’s Republic of China; 5Faculty of Education, Jiangxi Science and Technology Normal University, Nanchang, People’s Republic of China; 6Faculty of Health, York University, Toronto, ON, CanadaCorrespondence: I-Hua Chen, Chinese Academy of Education Big Data, Qufu Normal University, 57 Jingxuan West Road, Qufu, Shandong, 273165, People’s Republic of China, Tel/Fax +86 05374450537, Email [email protected] Gordon L Flett, Faculty of Health, York University, LaMarsh Centre for Child & Youth Research, 5022K Technology Enhanced Learning – TEL Keele Campus, Toronto, ON, Canada, Tel +1 416 736 2100 Ext. 33727, Email [email protected]: Mattering is essential to university students’ mental health. Feeling valued by others or unimportant can affect their overall well-being. However, most measures for assessing mattering have been developed and tested in Western countries, with limited evaluation of the measures when administered to university students in other regions. This study evaluated the reliability and validity of three mattering-related instruments – the General Mattering Scale (GMS), Anti-Mattering Scale (AMS), and Fear of Not Mattering Inventory (FNMI) among Chinese university students using classical test theory and Rasch analysis.Methods: The study comprised 3594 university students from 19 universities across 13 provinces in mainland China, with a balanced gender distribution of 47.2% females and 52.8% males. Participants’ ages ranged from 18 to 37, averaging 20.02 years. Most (78.4%) were in four-year programs, with the rest in three-year programs. The majority were freshmen (54.2%), and 86.3% had siblings. The predominant major was engineering (43.4%), followed by roughly equal representations in science, social science, and literature/art.Results: The three scales showed high reliability and factorial validity, with Rasch analysis confirming their unidimensionality and monotonicity, although 2 of 15 items (one GMS item and one FNMI item) had lower fit. There were no substantial differences in item functioning between male and female respondents. Further analyses indicated that mattering, anti-mattering, and fear of not mattering all explained significant unique variance in levels of hope and distress.Conclusion: All three mattering-related instruments are suitable for assessing Chinese students’ mattering, anti-mattering, and fear of not mattering and changes in levels of these mattering dimensions. Moreover, each measure represents a unique element of the mattering construct in terms of associations with levels of hope and distress assessed in during the COVID-19 pandemic.Keywords: mattering, anti-mattering, fear of not mattering, university students, hope, distress
