Measurement invariance of the Arabic version of the Flourishing Scale in a sample of special education teachers.

SPECIAL education teachers; GENDER differences (Sociology); PSYCHOMETRICS; CONFIRMATORY factor analysis; EXPLORATORY factor analysis

The present study aims to validate the Flourishing Scale (FS) in a convenience sample of 233 special education teachers. The FS's psychometric properties were investigated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). EFA had a one‐factor solution that explained 49.9% of the variance, a Cronbach's alpha internal consistency of.83, and a McDonald omega coefficient of.83. For the scale validity, the FS had a 0.36 to 0.56 correlation with the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SLWS), Happiness Measures (HM), and Life Satisfaction (LS), indicating convergent validity. The FS was also correlated with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, implying its discriminant validity. The FS's one‐factor model produced good fit indices when running the CFA. Multi‐group confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) was used to evaluate measurement invariance. With one non‐invariant item, the result revealed partial scalar invariance across gender and marital status groups. There were no differences across gender and marital status when the latent mean differences were also evaluated. The results revealed no statistically significant differences in FS between males and females, or between single and married participants. The limitations and implications of the study are discussed. Practitioner points: Findings of this study indicated that the Arabic version of the Flourishing Scale has acceptable reliability and construct validity for the sample of special education teachers.The scores of positive perceptions of special education teachers were lower compared with those reported in previous studies with different samples.The Flourishing Scale with one‐factor model produced good fit and measurement invariance revealed partial scalar invariance across gender and marital status groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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