Psychometric properties of the traditional Chinese version of the youth attitude to noise scale: A cross-sectional study in a large representative sample

Objectives This study aimed to examine the psychometric properties of the traditional Chinese version of the Youth Attitude to Noise Scale (YANS) in a large representative sample. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting 15 secondary schools in Hong Kong, China. Participants 2842 adolescents aged 12-20 years participated in this study between April and July 2016. Methods The standard forward-backward validation procedures were followed to obtain the traditional Chinese version of the YANS. Prior to the formal investigation, the YANS was evaluated by cognitive debriefing. The sample was randomly divided into two halves for exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs), respectively. The number of factors was determined by comparison data approach using EFAs, and the factor structure was confirmed by CFAs using the one-factor, four-factor and bifactor models. The scale's internal reliability, dimensionality and measurement invariance across gender and age groups were also examined. Results EFAs (n=1338) showed that four factors were extracted, and CFAs (n=1337) demonstrated the bifactor model fitted better to the sample than the other models. Additionally, the traditional Chinese version of the YANS showed high reliability (ω=0.84), a general factor, scale multidimensionality, and gender and age invariance. Conclusions The findings of the current study indicate that the traditional Chinese version of the YANS is a feasible instrument to assess attitude to noise in Chinese adolescents, regardless of their gender and age. Given the presence of a general factor, the YANS is not merely multidimensional, and whether to use the total or subscale scores is recommended to rely on research objectives.