Development of the learning adaptability scale for medical college students

Objective To develop and evaluate the learning adaptability scale for helping medical college students to quickly adapt to study in university. Methods The preliminary scale was constructed with the research method of semi-structured interviews, relevant literatures and the discussion with psychology experts. Survey design, reliability analysis, and factor analysis were used to test the reliability and validity of the final scale based on the stratified sampling survey data from the college students (n=405) with different majors at a medical university. Results Exploratory factor analysis indicated that final scale of had 22 items and 5 dimensions: learning method, help-seeking behavior, information utilization, professional interests and pressure handling. The Cronbach’s alpha of the final scale and the 5 dimension are 0.809, 0.801, 0.711, 0.732, 0.725 and 0.755, respectively. The CMIN/DF was 1.895 which showed that the sample data with the theoretical model had good fitting and also suggested that the scale had good structure validity in confirmatory factor analysis. Conclusions The learning adaptability scale has good reliability and validity, which provides an effective tool for evaluating the quality of learning adaptability for medical college students. Key words: Learning adaptability; Medical college students; Scale; Research