Adaptation and combination of two scales to measure dispositional gratitude in health sciences faculty: a psychometric analysis.

Abstract

Background: The study of gratitude has been a trending subject in psychology and emerging in health sciences education. For the past several years, interest has been aroused through various published contributions that still lack scientific support, so it is necessary to have instruments that obtain valid and reliable data about it. Gratitude has proven to be sensitive to different cultures. This research aims to determine the psychometric properties using a combined scale to measure dispositional gratitude in health sciences faculty.

Method: A quantitative study was conducted with a non-experimental trans-sectional design with a correlational scope, with a sample of 216 professors of health sciences in a northeastern Mexico private university divided into subsamples for an Exploratory Factor Analysis (n = 113) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (n = 103). The Gratitude Questionnaire, Work Questionnaire and Brief Interactive Optimism-Garcia was applied to 110 women, 104 men and 2 who prefer not to specify their gender.

Results: The result was a unifactorial measurement model composed of 10 items with evidence of construct validity (χ² = 59.83, df = 20, p < 0.001, χ²/df = 59.83/20 = 2.99, SRMR = 0.11, GFI = 0.96; NFI = 0.93, RFI = 0.91, AGFI = 0.93), PRATIO = 0.78, PNFI = 0.73; concurrent validity with interactive optimism (r = 0.45, p < 0.001); convergent validity (AVE = 0.42); and reliability (α = 0.88; ω = 0.88).

Conclusions: This model measures dispositional gratitude in health sciences Mexican faculty and contributes a vital instrument to advance future educational innovations involving this construct. The validation of the one-factor model with convergent reliability and validity suggests that the total scale score serves as an adequate measure of gratitude. Finally, it represents a valuable contribution to the teaching of health sciences since it generates healthy environments with prosocial attitudes that facilitate flourishing in personal and academic life, and in the future, health professionals with humanism as their standard.