Study Crafting in Higher Education: Scale Development and Initial Validation

Abstract

Students in higher education modify their behaviour and environment to align with their study goals and achievements. This proactive process is referred as study crafting, which includes the physical and cognitive changes students make to the task, cognitive, emotional, and relational aspects of their study. This study developed and validated an inventory to measure students’ study crafting behaviours in higher education. The 16-item multifactorial Study Crafting Inventory was devised and tested for its factorial structure and reliability using two samples split from one larger sample (EFA, Sample A = 308; CFA, Sample B = 272). The Inventory assesses four crafting dimensions of managing challenging demands, social demands, structural resources, and social resources. Sound reliability was found with αs of .87, .87, .84, .85, respectively, for the four subscales and .89 overall. Support for construct validity was demonstrated, with scores on the Inventory associated positively with proactivity, growth mindset, and academic grit. This new measure can be used to progress research into how students manage their demands and resources while in higher education.