Psychometric Properties of the Emotional Exhaustion Scale (ECE) in Chilean Higher Education Students

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to estimate the psychometric properties of the Emotional Fatigue Scale (ECE) in a sample of 1308 Chilean university students and confirm the unifactorial structure of the scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were carried out. The ECE assessment had an internal consistency of 0.893 (Cronbach’s Alpha). An exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation and a confirmatory analysis were performed, obtaining the factor that explains 52.3% of the variance. The results indicated that the ECE has adequate psychometric properties for use with higher education students in Chile. The ECE scale has good psychometric properties to be applied in the Chilean university context. Its usage may be very relevant to contribute to higher education institutions to emphasize students’ mental health and prevent possible severe pathologies in future professionals. It is suggested to use the ECE scale together with the EES-Int, which is the only interpretation table for this instrument.

Keywords

• emotional exhaustion
• mental health
• university students