Construction and Initial Validation of the Higher Education Orientations Questionnaire

Abstract

Attaining higher education continues to be important for successful integration into the 21st-century world of work. The goal of the present study was to develop and test a 5-dimensional model and a corresponding measure of individuals’ orientations toward higher education––the Higher Education Orientations (HEO) questionnaire. The proposed model comprises five orientations: Profession (attaining an occupation), Knowledge (expanding knowledge and intellectual horizons), Social (expanding social affiliation and integration), Prestige (attaining social status), and External (pleasing significant others). Study 1a ( N = 798) supported the HEO questionnaire’s psychometric properties, and an EFA supported its five-factor structure. The results of a CFA in Study 1b ( N = 748) confirmed the HEO’s five-dimensional structure. Study 2 ( N = 395) supported the psychometric qualities of the HEO’s English version. In Study 3 ( N = 713), using SEM, we found the HEO associated with (a) career decision status, (b) career decision-making difficulties, and (c) coping strategies, supporting its validity. Implications for research and counseling are discussed.

Adaptation and validation of the academic motivation scale for higher education across four Eastern European countries

“…As this is an adapted version of the instrument, which has already been validated in various cultural and institutional contexts and has a strong theoretical background, our analysis was performed on a confirmatory level. This means we did not apply exploratory factor analysis, but only the confirmatory one (to compare with a different approach, see Willner et al., 2023). Using CFA, we first focused on the construct validity of individual factors followed by three hypothetical models of their relations, including all respondents together.…”