The Development and Psychometric Assessment of Malaysian Youth Adversity Quotient Instrument (MY-AQi) by Combining Rasch Model and Confirmatory Factor Analysis

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Youths are a dominant cluster in Malaysia’s population. They need to be resilient as they are the anchor of our country’s development. Resilience is often associated with Adversity Quotient (AQ). There are many instruments developed across contexts and countries; however, good validity and reliability in measuring the AQ of youths are still scarce. Therefore, this study seeks to examine whether the items developed for the Malaysian Youth Adversity Quotient Instrument (MY-AQi) in measuring AQ within the context of Malaysian youths managed to manifest good psychometric properties using Rasch analysis. Apart from that, this study aims to measure the construct validity of the MY-AQi items using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Four constructs of AQ were established, namely control, ownership, reach, and endurance. A total of 1000 youths were assigned using stratified random sampling from five zones in Malaysia: northern, western, southern, Borneo, and eastern. Analysis from WINSTEPS 3.71 has revealed that 27 items were able to meet Rasch statistical modeling, while CFA has shown that 12 AQ measuring items could function well. The findings of this study demonstrated the strengths of the psychometric aspects by combining Rasch and CFA analysis to prove item quality and construct stability. Future studies should endeavor to develop more items to establish better youth profiles and combine AQ with other appropriate variables, such as achievement and demography. Nevertheless, some limitations can be scrutinized including a report on the more in-depth errors in the analysis conducted.