Validation of the Social Emotional Health Survey-Secondary for Korean Students

Abstract

The Social Emotional Health Survey-Secondary (SEHS-S) was developed to assess adolescent's core mindsets that are associated with positive psychosocial development. The present study extended SEHS-S research by examining its use with a nonwestern sample of Korean adolescents (Grades 7-12; N=686) and examined the invariance of the SEHS-S factor structure for males and females. Factor analyses were conducted in two stages. In stage 1, using a split-half of the total sample (S1), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to test the fit of the previously known factor structure of the SEHS-S. In stage 2, using S2, structural equation modeling was used to test two alternative SEHS-S factor structures and invariance across gender groups in a series of multigroup CFAs. Results indicated that the CFA analyses supported the SEHS-S measurement model. The multigroup invariance analysis found that the SEHS-S higher-order structure had full invariance across gender groups, which indicated that the measured latent traits have similar meaning across groups and that the students responded to the items in similar ways. Latent means analysis found that females more strongly (moderate effect size) endorsed belief-in-others items than males. A SEM analysis also found that the SEHS-S measurement model, including the second-order covitality latent trait was a significant positive predictor of subjective wellbeing. Finally, students with higher levels of covitality reported better school achievement and fewer depressive symptoms. Implications for the applied use of the SEHS-S in Korea to assess complete mental health are discussed.