Development and Validation of the Adolescent Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire (APWQ) for Coastal Fisheries Communities: Content Validity and Rasch Measurement Evidence from Malaysian Secondary School Students
Main Article Content
Abstract
Background. Psychological well-being (PWB) is a central outcome in school-based mental health promotion, yet instruments used in Malaysian intervention research are commonly adopted from Western urban contexts and validated using classical test theory alone, leaving item-level functioning, dimensional structure and sample–instrument targeting unexamined.
Objective. This study developed and validated the Adolescent Psychological Well-Being Questionnaire (APWQ), a 20-item self-report instrument designed for adolescents in coastal fisheries communities, using expert-panel content validation and Rasch measurement theory with secondary school students in Terengganu, Malaysia.
Methods. Content validity was established through a five-member expert panel drawn from four Malaysian universities, rating eight instrument-quality statements on a four-point scale; item-level (I-CVI), scale-level (S-CVI/Ave, S-CVI/UA) and modified kappa indices were computed. Responses from 206 secondary school students were then analysed with the Rasch rating scale model (Winsteps 5.12.0.0), examining category functioning, item and person fit, polarity, unidimensionality, local independence, separation, targeting and differential item functioning (DIF) by gender.
Results. All I-CVI values reached 1.00, with S-CVI/Ave = S-CVI/UA = 1.00 and modified kappa = 1.00 (Excellent) for all eight statements; overall panel endorsement was 99.4% of maximum. The four-category rating scale functioned as intended, with monotonically advancing Andrich thresholds (−1.88, −0.63, +2.51). All 20 items fitted the model (infit MNSQ 0.64–1.27; outfit 0.64–1.34) with positive point-measure correlations (0.38–0.59). Item reliability was 0.97 (separation 5.97) and person reliability 0.85 (separation 2.36; α = 0.86). The item difficulty hierarchy was theoretically coherent, running from declarative and normative knowledge (B9, "I understand what bullying is", −1.50 logits) to enacted self-regulatory capability (B6, "I have effective methods for coping with life stress", +1.14 logits). Four items showed gender DIF forming a coherent pattern: male students more readily endorsed self-efficacy and self-knowledge claims (B2, B6, B16), while female students more readily endorsed help-seeking knowledge (B7); only B2 survived Bonferroni correction (contrast 0.83 logits, p = .0004).
Conclusion. The APWQ demonstrates strong content validity and supports interval-level measurement with a theoretically interpretable item hierarchy. Its difficulty range is too narrow and too low for this sample, and item B2 requires revision.․.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
References
Andrich, D. (1978). A rating formulation for ordered response categories. Psychometrika, 43(4), 561–573.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. W. H. Freeman.
Bond, T. G., & Fox, C. M. (2015). Applying the Rasch model: Fundamental measurement in the human sciences (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Boone, W. J., Staver, J. R., & Yale, M. S. (2014). Rasch analysis in the human sciences. Springer.
Brinley, S. K., Tully, L. A., Carl, T., McLean, R. K., Cowan, C. S. M., Hawes, D. J., Dadds, M. R., & Northam, J. C. (2024). Universal child mental health screening for parents: A systematic review of the evidence. Prevention Science, 25(5), 798–812. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-024-01693-8
Cipriano, C., Strambler, M. J., Naples, L. H., Ha, C., Kirk, M., Wood, M., Sehgal, K., Zieher, A. K., Eveleigh, A., McCarthy, M., Funaro, M., Ponnock, A., Chow, J. C., & Durlak, J. (2023). The state of evidence for social and emotional learning: A contemporary meta-analysis of universal school-based SEL interventions. Child Development, 94(5), 1181–1204. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13968
Diener, E. (1984). Subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 95(3), 542–575.
Fisher, W. P. (2007). Rating scale instrument quality criteria. Rasch Measurement Transactions, 21(1), 1095.
Foulkes, L., Guzman Holst, C., & Andrews, J. L. (2026). Potential harm from universal school-based mental health interventions: Candidate mechanisms and future directions. Current Opinion in Psychology, 67, 102196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102196
Hoffman, M. L. (2000). Empathy and moral development: Implications for caring and justice. Cambridge University Press.
Huitsing, G., et al. (2022). What works for whom in school-based anti-bullying interventions? An individual participant data meta-analysis. Prevention Science. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01387-z
Institute for Public Health. (2022). Technical report: National Health and Morbidity Survey (NHMS) 2022 — Adolescent Health Survey, Malaysia. National Institutes of Health, Ministry of Health Malaysia. https://iku.gov.my/images/nhms-2022/Report_Malaysia_nhms_ahs_2022.pdf
Jorm, A. F., Korten, A. E., Jacomb, P. A., Christensen, H., Rodgers, B., & Pollitt, P. (1997). "Mental health literacy": A survey of the public's ability to recognise mental disorders and their beliefs about the effectiveness of treatment. Medical Journal of Australia, 166(4), 182–186.
Keyes, C. L. M. (2002). The mental health continuum: From languishing to flourishing in life. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 43(2), 207–222.
Kieling, C., et al. (2024). Worldwide prevalence and disability from mental disorders across childhood and adolescence. [confirm] — cited via Balasooriya Lekamge et al. (2025), Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 54(2), 271–289.
Kutty, F. M., et al. (2021). Bullying and its associated individual, peer, family and school factors: Evidence from Malaysian national secondary school students. [confirm] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8297093/
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress, appraisal, and coping. Springer.
Linacre, J. M. (2002). Optimizing rating scale category effectiveness. Journal of Applied Measurement, 3(1), 85–106.
Linacre, J. M. (2012). Winsteps® Rasch measurement computer program user's guide. Winsteps.com.
Lynn, M. R. (1986). Determination and quantification of content validity. Nursing Research, 35(6), 382–385.
Ozdemir, S., & Ulusoy, M. (2025). The relationship between school-age students' literacy skills and digital well-being: A systematic review. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-025-03573-4
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2006). The content validity index: Are you sure you know what's being reported? Critique and recommendations. Research in Nursing & Health, 29(5), 489–497.
Polit, D. F., Beck, C. T., & Owen, S. V. (2007). Is the CVI an acceptable indicator of content validity? Appraisal and recommendations. Research in Nursing & Health, 30(4), 459–467.
Ryff, C. D. (1989). Happiness is everything, or is it? Explorations on the meaning of psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 1069–1081.
Sahril, N., et al. (2025). Risk and protective factors associated with depressive symptoms among school-going adolescents in Malaysia: A cross-sectional study. BMC Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-025-07319-9
Solaymani, S., & Kari, F. (2014). Poverty evaluation in the Malaysian fishery community. Ocean & Coastal Management, 95, 165–175.
Sun, G., Wang, C., & Zhang, J. (2025). Effectiveness of mental health literacy interventions for adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. SAGE Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440251327445
Swarbrick, M. (2006). A wellness approach. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal, 29(4), 311–314.
Wright, B. D., & Masters, G. N. (1982). Rating scale analysis. MESA Press.
Yani, D. I., et al. (2025). The effects of universal educational interventions in improving mental health literacy, depression, and anxiety among adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing. https://doi.org/10.1111/inm.13494
Zwick, R., Thayer, D. T., & Lewis, C. (1999). An empirical Bayes approach to Mantel-Haenszel DIF analysis. Journal of Educational Measurement, 36(1), 1–28.