Abstract

SOUZA, Marcos Aguiar de; PEREIRA, Paulo Rodrigues Fernandes; FUNCK, André Luiz  and  FORMIGA, Nilton S.. Internal consistency and factorial structure of the future expectation scale in Brazilians. Bol. - Acad. Paul. Psicol. [online]. 2013, vol.33, n.85, pp. 330-353. ISSN 1415-711X.

The aim of this study is the development and analysis of the psychometric properties of an instrument to measure the future expectation of Brazilian adolescents and adults. The study is realized in two stages. At first, the initial version of the scale is applied, composed by 33 items in Likert format, being answered by 308 individuals living in the City of Rio de Janeiro, with 180 men and 128 women, average age of 31.41 years old (17 to 56 years old). Factor analysis of principal components with oblique rotation revealed a more appropriate structure for three factors, each with 06 items, with factor loadings less than .30 in only one factor. Factor 1 was named Conditions of Society, gathering items to identify how the individual believes that the society will be in the near future. The second factor related items met the individual's belief about his future lies over the profession and its financial condition, thus being named Professional and Financial Success. The third factor, named Personal Achievement was composed of items designed to measure the belief that the individual has on his life in general, based on what he has already achieved. The second study involved 421 students, 196 men and 225 women, mean age 29.41 years (19-56 years) from different universities in the state of Rio de Janeiro, who filled the form previously validated of the scale. In the confirmatory analysis performed, the indicators of quality of fit of the model are next to those recommended in the literature. We suggest future studies seeking to identify how the expectation of the future relates to other variables, thus getting more evidence about the external validity of the instrument.

Keywords : future expectation; adolescents; adults; scale validation.

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