Dimensionality of writing attitude, strategic use, and confidence: an investigation on Grade 4 students in a largely Hispanic setting

Abstract

Writing attitude, strategy use, and confidence surveys help educators understand how students perceive writing and cope with writing challenges in schools. The dimensions (i.e., constructs reflected by survey items) of these surveys have been studied in general students in the U.S., and we investigated how these surveys would reflect the dimensions in Grade 4 students taught in a largely Hispanic setting. We conducted factor analyses and measurement invariant analyses to examine the dimensions in each survey and dimension consistencies between male and female and Hispanic and Non-Hispanic students. We found that attitude and strategy use are both unidimensional, and confidence can be divided into confidences in convention, ideation, and self-regulation. Strict measurement invariance evidence suggested same dimensions between male and female and Hispanic and Non-Hispanic students. Therefore, researchers can interpret results from each survey similarly across male and female and Hispanic and Non-Hispanic students.