Development of a Teacher Psychological Well-Being Assessment Tool: A Psychometric Analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to develop and examine the psychometric properties of an instrument for assessing teachers’ psychological well-being. The population comprised 2,002 secondary school teachers from 34 schools under the Chiang Mai Secondary Educational Service Area Office. A sample of 277 teachers was selected through multistage random sampling. The instrument consisted of 56 items covering six dimensions: self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. Its quality was examined in terms of content validity, construct validity, objectivity, indicator feasibility, reliability, discrimination, and difficulty.
The findings showed that: the Item-Objective Congruence indices ranged from .50 to 1.00. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the six-factor structure, with the measurement model demonstrating a good fit to the empirical data: χ²(5) = 5.96, p = .31, CFI = 1.00, TLI = 1.00, SRMR = .02, and RMSEA = .03. The standardized factor loadings ranged from .59 to .90. The items were accompanied by clearly defined scoring and interpretation criteria, and no missing data were observed in the sample. Cronbach’s alpha was .929 for the total scale and ranged from .660 to .842 across the six dimensions. Analysis using the graded response model yielded slope parameters ranging from .64 to 2.45, while the threshold parameters were ordered consistently across the response categories. The information function reached its highest level when the latent trait ranged from -4 to 1. These findings support the use of the instrument for preliminary assessment and planning support for teachers in the study population. However, scores for teachers with very high levels of psychological well-being should be interpreted with caution.