Personal Growth Initiative: Confirmatory Factor Analysis, Gender Invariance, and External Validity of the Persian Version

Mojtaba Habibi Asgarabad^1*Pardis Salehi Yegaei²Parishad Bromandnia³Joseph Ciarrochi⁴Stefanos Mastrotheodoros⁵Nora Wiium⁶

• ¹Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
• ²Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
• ³Department of Psychology, University of Marburg, Marburg, Hesse, Germany
• ⁴Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia
• ⁵Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands, Netherlands
• ⁶University of Bergen, Bergen, Hordaland, Norway

Introduction: The current cross-sectional research was performed to verify the measurement soundness of the Personal Growth Initiative Scale-II (PGIS-II) regarding reliability, validity, and gender invariance in an Iranian sample. Methods: In an online survey, 1453 students (50.8% girls, mean age = 15.48, SD = .97) were recruited from several high schools located in Tehran to complete the Persian version of PGIS-II, Youth Self-Report (YSR) of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems, and demographic characteristics. Results: the original 4-factor structure of PGIS-II demonstrated the best fit in the Confirmatory factor analysis and was invariant across gender. Reliability estimates of this factorial model, including corrected item-total correlation, inter-item correlations, Cronbach’s alpha, Theta, and Omega were good to excellent (e.g., α = .86 to .95). Discriminant validity was upheld via the moderate correlation among PGIS-II’s subscales, and through the acceptable levels of average variance extracted. The concurrent validity of the Persian version of PGIS-II and its subscales was supported by their moderate negative correlations with internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems (r = -.20 to -.42) and their moderate positive correlations with educational performance (r = .21 to .34). Gender differences emerged, such that boys scored higher on PGIS-II and the subscale of using resources. Discussion: Overall, the PGIS-II seems suitable for application in the Persian context to capture personal growth initiative. Clinicians and school counselors should devote attention to the personal growth initiative as a key mechanism to prevent adolescents’ behavior problems and improve academic performance.