Development of the pandemic reflection and adaptation scale (PRAS)

• Main Author: Wong, Xin Rui
• Other Authors: Ho Moon-Ho, Ringo
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Psychology; Scale development
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175520
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Existing literature has documented the widespread negative impacts on well-being during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, with persisting effects still being reported among vulnerable groups after the initial waves. It is thus important to study how individuals reflect on the changes associated with the pandemic in order to better understand how they coped and adapted. However, instruments capable of measuring this phenomena remain limited. The present dissertation aimed to develop the Pandemic Reflection and Adaptation Scale (PRAS) to measure how individuals reflect about the changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The scale was sent out as part of a wider project and responses from 1641 participants aged 19-31 recruited from Nanyang Technological University in Singapore were collected. Dimensionality investigation through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using Principal Axis Factoring was conducted in order to determine the most suitable factor structure for the scale. Factor analysis resulted in a final four-factor solution consisting of 18 items with factor loadings (.41-.84) explaining 43.1% of the variance. The four factors identified were labelled Occupational and Relationship Limitations, Personal Growth and Resources, Improvement in Close Relationships, and Technological Benefits. This study provides preliminary results in the development of the PRAS – useful for understanding how individuals retrospectively reflected on the pandemic and if this could be related to how they adapted. The study concludes with potential limitations as well as future recommendations for confirmatory studies and validity assessments based on relations to other associated variables.