Psychometric Properties of School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised: Parent Version in Iranian Population

This study aimed at evaluating the factor validity of the Kearny school refusal assessment scale-revised: parent version among parents of school students in Urmia City, Iran.

The study population comprised students in the first, second, and third grades of elementary schools in Urmia (N=18750). Of them, 351 students from 5 schools were selected using a multistage cluster sampling method. Then, They responded to the Kearny school refusal assessment scale-revised: parent version. To assess the construct validity of this scale, confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency were used. 

The goodness of fit index of the confirmatory factor analysis model indicated a relatively good fit of the data with factor structure of the school refusal assessment scale-revised and confirming the existence of four characters of school stimulus, evaluative situations, seeking caregivers’ attention, and tangible reinforcements, as school refusal characters. Also, the Cronbach alpha coefficient values indicate the stability of the measurement of the whole scale as well as its subscales.

Based on these results, the school refusal scale has good statistic characters and the 4-factor mentioned model has good construct validity and help clinicians to determine the symptoms and causes of school refusal behavior.