ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Educational Psychology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2025.1486363
This article is part of the Research TopicScales Validation in the Context of Inclusive EducationView all 11 articles
Psychometric validation of Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student-9 in Chinese undergraduate students
Provisionally accepted
- 1Faculty of Educational Studies, Putra Malaysia University, Serdang, Malaysia
- 2Hebei Key Laboratory of Children's Cognition and Digital Education, School of Educational Studies, Langfang Normal University, 065000 Langfang, Hebei Province, China, Langfang, China
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This study examines the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student-9 (UWES-S-9) in a sample of 498 Chinese undergraduate students (66.1% female; Mage = 19.15 years, SD = 1.03, range: 17-24). A comprehensive analytical approach was employed, incorporating confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), and bifactor modeling (both CFA and ESEM) to evaluate factorial structure. Additionally, assessments of internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, construct validity, concurrent validity, and measurement invariance across gender, academic year, and major were conducted. Results revealed that while the three-factor ESEM model demonstrated superior fit indices (χ²/df = 2.899, RMSEA = 0.062, CFI = 0.990, TLI = 0.971) compared to traditional CFA approaches, bifactor analysis indicated that academic engagement is primarily characterized by a general factor accounting for 79% of common variance. The omega hierarchical coefficient for the general factor (ωH = 0.827) supported a reliable interpretation of total engagement scores, while specific factor reliabilities were negligible (ωHS ≤ 0.149), suggesting limited utility of subscale scores. Measurement invariance testing supported configural, metric, and scalar invariance across gender, major, and academic year. These findings contribute to the validation of the UWES-S-9 within Chinese higher education contexts while providing evidence for predominantly unidimensional interpretation of academic engagement scores.
Keywords: Academic engagement, undergraduate students, Psychometric validation, UWES-S-9, bifactor-ESEM model
Received: 26 Aug 2024; Accepted: 17 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wei, Hassan, Hassan, Ismail, Gu and Dong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Norlizah Che Hassan, Faculty of Educational Studies, Putra Malaysia University, Serdang, Malaysia
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