PSYCHOMETRIC ASSESSMENT OF THE BRAZILIAN VERSION OF SOC-13

Introduction: The number of Brazilian publications involving the Sense of Coherence (SOC) scale is increasing, the adaptation process of the scale is not clear and the adapted version has not been subjected to a rigorous factor analysis, an important step in the validation process. Objetive: Test the dimensional structure of the Brazilian version of the SOC scale with 13 items, one factor versus three factors. Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of data from four independent Brazilian studies. Sample 1: 1760 mothers and 1771 teenagers in 36 cities. Sample 2: 1100 adults 20 years of age or older in São Leopoldo city. Sample 3: 720 adults and elderly in Porto Alegre. Sample 4: 664 adolescent students in the city of Goiânia. All four had cross-sectional design and were approved by the different Ethics Committee. All psychometric analyzes were conducted with MPlus version 7.11. Results: In our CFA of sample 1, results showed an unacceptable fit (CFI = 0.77; TLI = 0.73; and WRMR = 3.27) for 1 factor model and for 3 factors (RMSEA = 0.12; CFI = 0.78; TLI = 0.72; and WRMR = 3.23). The, we run EFA on samples 2 and 3 and they showed, respectively, two eigenvalues greater than 1 (4.39 and 1.67) and (4.72 and 1.60). Items soc1 soc2 and soc3 formed an uninterpretable factor. After, we run another CFA using sample 4, removing the uninterpretable items, and model fit was acceptable. Conclusion: The results indicate that the SOC 13 needs further adjustments.