The Validation of a Quantitative Measure of Self-authorship among Chinese University Students

Abstract

This paper presents the preliminary evidence for validating the Self-authorship Section of the Career Decision Making Survey (SA-CDMS; Creamer, Baxter Magolda, & Yue, 2010) among Chinese university students. Two samples of undergraduate students (Stage One, N= 263; Stage Two, N= 663) from three universities in the People’s Republic of China participated in this study. In the first stage, the SA-CDMS was translated from English to Chinese, with the psychometric properties preliminarily examined by exploratory factor analysis and internal consistency test. The original 18-item SA-CDMS model failed to identify the theoretical structures as expected, however, several modifications could be identified from the results of Stage One. In the second stage, the modified SA-CDMS showed acceptable reliability and validity based on the results of confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha coefficients. In addition, Pearson’s correlation analysis was employed by Stage Two to examine the correlations among the demographic factors, three phases, and three dimensions of self-authorship framework. In general, the current study provided evidence for utilizing SA-CDMS in the Chinese higher education context. This study added to the literature of the research on self-authorship and offered practical implications to educators and policymakers in promoting self-authorship development among Chinese university students.