Scale development: Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale

University study has been considered to be one of the most stressful periods in a person's life. University students may have irrational beliefs that could play a significant role in causing emotional disturbance. Nevertheless, a suitable instrument for measuring irrational beliefs in college students in Chinese society has been lacking. The aim of this study was to construct a culturally relevant scale for measuring irrational beliefs among university students in the Hong Kong Chinese context. The construction of the Chinese Irrational Beliefs and Rational Attitude Scale (CIBRAS) for university students was based on (1) literature review and expert panel review for evaluation on content validity, (2) a pilot test of 200 local Hong Kong university students to determine the scale's psychometric properties and probe the exploratory factor analysis, and (3) confirmatory factor analysis to test for construct validity of the CIBRAS (conducted with a further 655 local Hong Kong university students). The results showed that the five-factor 19-item CIBRAS has good psychometric properties, including good internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas ranging from .64 to .80), content validity (content validity index = .96 for relevance, .94 for clarity, and .94 for representativeness), construct validity (explaining 60.1% of the total variance), and adequate fit indices (normed chi-square = 2.8, comparative fit index = .94, normal fit index = .93, non-normed fit index = .93, incremental fit index = .94, root-mean-square error of approximation = .077, and standardized root-mean residual = .074). The limitations and implications of the study were discussed.