Development and Validation of Filipino Learners’ Academic Resilience Scale (FLARS)

Abstract

Academic resilience can lead to better behavior and results for disadvantaged learners since they can achieve good educational outcomes despite diversity. Several studies mentioned that various protective factors could affect resilience among students. On the other hand, several risk factors also directly affect its development among learners. This research provides a scholarly source for developing a scale that determines the level of academic resiliency of selected secondary school students and describes its psychometric features. The preliminary items for the scale were drafted based on the literature review and personal interviews using open-ended questions with secondary school students in Bulacan. The interview questions were based on the risk and protective factors for academic resilience suggested by Kutlu and Yavuz (2016). The scale used a four-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating greater academic resilience. After validating the preliminary scale, the researcher analyzed the validity and reliability of the new scale items among 591 students. Using exploratory factor analyses, two primary factors were extracted – internal and external protective factors - with 37 items for FLARS. Several well-recognized criteria for the factorability of a correlation were used. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was .915, above the commonly recommended value of .6, and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (X2(666)=7351.246, p < .05). Also, the overall Cronbach’s alpha was .901, which showed very high reliability. Therefore, the FLARS instrument is reliable and valid. It can measure the level of academic resilience of secondary school students. However, it might be readministered to a bigger sample for greater reliability, validity, and generalizability of results.