Towards the development of an instrument to measure the maturity levels of the junior college students of Macau

• Main Author: Leong, Hang-I
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1989
• Subjects: College students > Psychology; Maturation (Psychology)
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/1224
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study develops an instrument to assess the maturity level of Junior College students in Macau. The study consisted of three phases: the first phase was devoted to developing the content domain of the said instrument, 35 college students from Hong Kong and Macau presently enrolled in different colleges or universities in Manila, were asked to response to an open-ended questionnaire, for the purpose of collecting opinions and perceptions toward maturity. These statements were then selected according to criteria suggested by Allport's (1961) theory on maturity. This conceptualization of maturity provides the content domain of the instrument. 89 items were constructed as the first draft of the inventory. These items were then subjected to scrutiny by five experts who sorted them into three categories: mature , immature and not relevant. The concurrence of agreement of at least 70 percent of the raters was used as a basis for selecting the items. After the judgments of experts, 59 items were left for the preliminary form of the Inventory. The second phase was aimed to conduct the preliminary validity and reliability studies of the Inventory. Using the Likert (1932) Method of Summated Ratings, 228 male and female Junior College students from the University of East Asia in Macau were comprised as the sample for determination the preliminary validity and reliability of the instrument. The gathered data were then subjected to statistical analysis through computalization. Factor analysis was used to determine the Construct Validity of the test. The identified main factors of the test are: Maturity/immaturity based on involvement of oneself to others (Factor 1) Maturity/immaturity founded on understanding about self and, perception of reality (Factor 2) Maturity/immaturity based on perceived motivation for future (Factor 4) Maturity/immaturity based on feelings of security (Factor 5). When tested for Internal Consistency, the 24 items that loaded highly on Factor 1 attained a reliability coefficient of .94 the 18 items that loaded highly on Factor 2 attained a reliability coefficient of .95 the 10 items that loaded highly on Factor 4 attained a reliability coefficient of .88 and, the seven items that loaded highly on Factor 5 had a reliability coefficient of .85.Using r = .50 as the cut-off coefficient, four items were discarded through the one-way repeated measure on Correlation Coefficient. The third phase was devoted to the refining of the instrument with instructions for administration and scoring and, construction of norms. Based on the test results of the 228 respondents who had taken the test, norms in terms of percentile ranks were constructed. Based on the results, this study was concluded to have psychometrically viability with the exhibition of high reliability and substantial construct validity. In the light of the findings and conclusions of the study, the developed Inventory is recommended as a tool to assess the maturity level of Junior College students at the beginning and the end of the program, for the purpose of investigating the effectiveness of the Junior College. Since the Inventory can assess the maturity level of the students, it is recommended be part of the test battery of the Guidance and Counseling service of the University of East Asia. Further studies to strengthen the psychometric qualities of the Inventory were also recommended to this study.