Abstract

SANCHEZ NAVARRO, María Esmeralda; ALVAREZ-MONTERO, Francisco José  and  REYES-SOSA, Hiram. Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of Litman's Epistemic Curiosity Scale in Spanish Speakers. Act.Colom.Psicol. [online]. 2023, vol.26, n.2, pp.114-127.  Epub Sep 28, 2023. ISSN 0123-9155.  https://doi.org/10.14718/acp.2023.26.2.10.

Epistemic Curiosity (EC) is the desire that motivates people to acquire new knowledge. Litman's EC scale was developed to operationalize this construct, and although its latent structure has been validated in several studies, these have been conducted mostly in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States, which are educated, industrialized, wealthy, and democratic societies. Therefore, the present study evaluated the psychometric properties of the EC scale in a sample of adults from northwestern Mexico (N = 334) aged 18 to 50 years. As in previous research, two models were compared: one unidimensional and one bidimensional, using Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Additionally, significantly correlated residuals were included as part of both models, and it was examined whether the instrument has measurement invariance. The results show that the bifactor model presented the best fit. The internal consistency was acceptable, and the scale was found to have configural, metric, scalar, and strict invariance. Potential uses of this emerging construct include its study as a relevant motivational factor in students' level of engagement and study strategies, as well as its mediating role in various types of learning anxiety.

Keywords : epistemic curiosity; confirmatory factor analysis; correlated residuals; invariance.

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