Measurement of hard-life experiences through the psychological sense: the SEM approach

Abstract

This paper aims to develop a scale for hard-life experiences through the psychological sense. Hardship in the past is a factor that has impacted the cognition, stress, or resilience of individuals, and could be applied in many research areas, such as psychology, health, behavior, and decision-making in organizations. Learning about hard-life experiences is one aspect of longitudinal studies on the historical life of key leaders, who are business owners, crucial managers, and entrepreneurs focusing on the traumatic feeling during lifetime living from childhood to adulthood. A total of 149 key leaders who are business owners, crucial managers, and entrepreneurs in Vietnam responded to a survey. Structural equation modeling investigated the validity and reliability of hard-life experience measurement scales with two coherent constructs. The findings of this research discovered two sub-scales chronic and acute hard-life experiences to measure key leaders’ hardship during their lifetime, equivalenting for the period of childhood up to adolescence, and the adult period of individual key leaders essentially. A major contribution of this study is that it adds a significant new benchmark to a growing body of literature on the experiences of business owners, crucial managers, and entrepreneurs. Scholars can later use this scale to investigate relationships between hard-life experience factors and others by quantitative methods.