A Longitudinal Study of the Well-being of Students Using the Student Wellbeing Process Questionnaire (Student WPQ)
Gary Williams
Centre for Occupational and Health Psychology, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 63 Park Place, Cardiff, CF24 0DB, United Kingdom.
Andrew P. Smith *
Centre for Occupational and Health Psychology, School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 63 Park Place, Cardiff, CF24 0DB, United Kingdom.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Background: Previous research shows that the Student Well-being Process Questionnaire (Student WPQ) has good content validity, construct validity, and discriminate validity.
Objective: The present research examined the reliability and predictive validity of the Student WPQ scales.
Method: Eighty-seven university undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18-47 years participated in a longitudinal study which involved completing an online survey twice, with the sessions being 10 weeks apart. The data were used to assess the test-re-test reliability and the predictive validity of the scales.
Results: Positive personality and social support had high test-re-test reliability and demands and negative coping had slightly lower reliability suggesting that the WPQ measures both stable traits and changes in state. Cross-sectional analyses confirmed that the predictor variables were associated with wellbeing outcomes. Cross-lag analysis showed that the positive personality and demands at time 1 predicted wellbeing at time 2. Changes in positive personality predicted changes in wellbeing.
Conclusion: These findings show that the student WPQ has good test-re-test reliability and can be used in longitudinal studies which give a stronger indication of causality.
Keywords: Reliability, predictive validity, well-being, student WPQ.