Premium
Psychometric properties of the volunteer functions inventory with Chinese students
Author(s) -
Wu Joseph,
Wing Lo T.,
Liu Elaine S.C.
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.20330
Subject(s) - psychology , exploratory factor analysis , confirmatory factor analysis , internal consistency , social psychology , sample (material) , consistency (knowledge bases) , applied psychology , psychometrics , clinical psychology , structural equation modeling , statistics , computer science , mathematics , chemistry , chromatography , artificial intelligence
The authors report an evaluation of the psychometric properties of a Chinese version of the Volunteer Functions Inventory on a sample of university student volunteers. Reliabilities were high for four out of the six scales of the Inventory (Values, Career, Social, and Understanding) in terms of internal consistency. Items in these four scales also yielded a clean structure in an exploratory factor analysis. Making new friends was found to be a motive, which was separate from sustaining friendships and separate from other motives captured by the Inventory. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the superiority of a 6‐factor model over other measurement models such as unitary, bipartite, and second‐order factor models. Implications for the measurement of motives in volunteerism in general and refinement of the Inventory in particular, are discussed. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.