TPC Journal V8, Issue 1 - FULL ISSUE

The Professional Counselor | Volume 8, Issue 1 13 Rationale and Purpose of the Study Given that one aspect of counselor identity is the use of evidence-supported assessment practices, and another is evidence-supported intervention and programming (American Counseling Association, 2014; Lorelle et al., 2012), there is a call to complete activities to support the actions of Ghanaian mental health professionals charged with promoting adjustment among local university students. The Inventory of New College Student Adjustment (INCA; Watson & Lenz, 2017) is one viable instrument for assessing college student adjustment that is free to use and has yielded promising psychometric properties among ethnically diverse samples within the United States. It has been identified as a resource to help determine the appropriate support services needed for university students, as well as a resource to assess the overall effectiveness of campus initiatives focused on student adjustment. Although the INCA could be a valuable tool to address the current needs and trends in Ghanaian higher education, the degree of validity of INCA scores for a Ghanaian university student population is currently unknown. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the transferability of validity evidence for scores on the INCA to a sample of Ghanaian students. Specifically, we intended to identify the degree of evidence related to internal structure of the INCA scores and their relationships with conceptually related variables. Method Participant Characteristics Six hundred ninety-six Ghanaian college students (435 male [63%], 237 female [34%], 24 did not report gender [3%]), the majority of whom were young adults ( M age = 22.45 years; SD = 4.37) completing undergraduate coursework at one large university in Ghana, Africa, participated in this study. Measurement of Constructs Inventory of New College Student Adjustment. The INCA (Watson & Lenz, 2017) was developed to assess the adjustment difficulties experienced by first-year college students and was normed using an ethnically diverse sample of 474 freshmen students in the United States. The INCA is a 14-item instrument using a 4-point Likert scale to assess participant responses from 1 ( strongly disagree ) to 4 ( strongly agree ). Scores can range from 14 to 56, with higher scores indicating higher levels of college adjustment. The 6-item Supportive Network subscale includes items such as “My friends support me as I work toward my goals” and “My family’s support makes me feel stronger.” The 8-item Belief in Self subscale includes items such as “My study habits are effective” and “I know what I will do after graduation.” Initial psychometric testing demonstrates good alpha reliability coefficients for scores on INCA subscales ranging from .77 (Belief in Self) to .83 (Supportive Network), indicating good internal consistency. Moreover, our sample reported alpha reliability coefficients of .74 for both the Belief in Self subscale and the Supportive Network subscale. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS; Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet & Farley, 1988) was developed to assess an individual’s perception of social support from family, friends, and significant others. Each of these sources of social support is considered a distinct subgrouping and is assessed individually. The MSPSS was normed using a subject pool of 275 undergraduate students in the United States with a nearly equal sample of male and female students (Zimet, et al., 1988). After further psychometric testing, reliability has been established for diverse samples beyond the original norming group (Stanley, Beck, & Zebb, 1998). The MSPSS is a 12-item instrument using a 7-point Likert-scale to assess participant responses from 1 ( very strongly disagree ) to 7 ( very strongly agree ). Scores can range