Preliminary Development of Sense of Control Scale for High School Students Using the Concept of Primary and Secondary Control

The sense of control of high school students is an important psychological resource for successfully adapting to the challenges and changes of this period, and personal development of it is an important issue for health education and school health. In this study, a scale to measure high school students’ sense of control has been developed and was examined the psychometric properties, i.e. validity and reliability, of a novel six-item scale. Following the definition by Rothbaum et al., the scale comprises three items representing a sense of “problem-focused” control (primary control) and three representing “self-focused” control (secondary control). We collected data from 2,514 students who responded to anonymous self-administered questionnaire surveys conducted at six high schools in Fukushima, Miyagi, and Tokyo, 2012-2016. We then used these data to perform exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, as well as subsequent statistical examinations. We found the goodness-of-fit indices of the two-factor measurement model were satisfactory (root mean square error of approximation = 0.081, comparative fit index = 0.962, standardized root mean residual = 0.037) and the reliability coefficients of the scale were acceptably high (α = 0.86, ω = 0.86). We also confirmed evidence on associations with external variables that was consistent with findings in earlier studies. Accordingly, the scale’s construct validity and reliability were generally satisfactory. Future research should examine the relationship with other variables concerning high school students and study the construct validity of the scale with regard to how it can contribute to students’ health and academic performance.