Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and invariance assessment of the perceived powerlessness scale among youth in Baltimore
Abstract
Generalized perceived powerlessness is an important psychosocial construct that determines a wide range of health behaviors and outcomes. This study has two aims: (1) examine the structure of the newly developed perceived powerlessness scale using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and (2) assess the scale’s invariance across key demographic variables using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis among a random household sample of African American and White youth (aged 15–24 years) residing in Baltimore, MD. Our study results demonstrated that the powerlessness scale is valid among a demographically diverse sample of urban youth, showing promise for use in future health behavior and outcome studies.
Full citation:
Lim S, Powell TW, Xue QL, Towe VL, Taylor RB, Ellen JM, Sherman SG (2020). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and invariance assessment of the perceived powerlessness scale among youth in Baltimore
Journal of Health Psychology, 25 (10-11), 1644-1656. doi: 10.1177/1359105318769349. PMCID: PMC6119533.