A Rasch Analysis of the School-Related Well-Being (SRW) Scale: Measuring Well-Being in the Transition from Primary to Secondary School

Abstract

Within educational systems, promoting well-being is an essential objective along with traditional aims focused on students’ learning. However, scarce attention has been devoted to school-related well-being in the transition from primary to lower secondary school, also for the paucity of brief instruments deputed to measure it. We assessed well-being at school for fourth-graders and seventh-graders, by adapting and validating the Italian version of the School-Related Well-Being (SRW) scale, using in sequence exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and Rasch analysis. Through the Rasch analysis, we transformed the SRW scale into an instrument that respects the properties of the fundamental measurement. We measured well-being and achievement emotions at time 1 and grades at time 2. The SRW scale correlated with another measure of well-being and with students’ achievement emotions. Grade-level differences emerged, with a decrease of well-being that attested a maladaptive trend at increasing age; moreover, females reported higher well-being than males. Well-being at school was positively linked to achievement. Beyond its methodological relevance, this study highlights the need for developing interventions to support students in the transition from primary to lower secondary school, which is such a pivotal time in their learning path.

Narrativas del alumnado de Educación Primaria sobre su bienestar escolar: un diagnóstico inicial

“…El objetivo de este estudio fue conocer la percepción que el alumnado de Educación Primaria tiene sobre el bienestar escolar, a fin de clarificar un concepto sobre el que la literatura científica todavía no ha llegado a un consenso en su definición (Miller et al, 2013;Raccanello et al, 2020) y hacerlo desde el punto de vista de sus protagonistas, en coherencia con lo que vienen reclamando los estudios más recientes (Anderson y Graham, 2016;Graham et al, 2014;Ramírez-Casas y Alfaro-Inzunza, 2018).…”

“…La amplitud del concepto de bienestar escolar, de sus dimensiones y factores constituyentes ha dificultado su operativización a través de un instrumento único, dirigido específicamente a la población escolar y que aglutine el conjunto de elementos que conforman la experiencia escolar (Raccanello et al, 2020).…”

Development and Validation of the Robust - Pandemic Coping Scale (R-PCS)

“…We conducted an EFA and a CFA, followed by Rasch analysis to assess the structure of the R-PCS (for a similar approach, see Raccanello et al, 2021c ). We carried out the EFA on half of the sample and the CFA on the second half, after randomly splitting the initial sample into two sub-groups.…”

Trajectories of scholastic well-being: The effect of achievement emotions and instructional quality in the first year of secondary school (fifth grade)

“…According to CVT, the environment is also decisive for the development of achievement emotions, for example, with regard to feedback, goal structure, and autonomy support (Pekrun & Stephens, 2010 ). Well-being is also frequently mentioned—but rarely assessed or examined—in relation to achievement emotions (with a few exceptions, e.g., Raccanello et al, 2020 ). Thus, there is a need for a study that encompasses achievement emotions, well-being and instructional quality.…”

“…Findings on the impact of other negative achievement emotions, for example, hopelessness and boredom, are rare. However, there are some studies (although inconclusive) regarding the relationship between activity emotions and well-being of students (e.g., Camacho-Morles et al, 2021 ; Furlong et al, 2021 ; Raccanello et al, 2020 ) that analyze the relevance of boredom and other negative emotions—besides the impact of anxiety—for scholastic well-being.…”