Exploratory Factor Analysis of Political Engagement Questionnaire: A College Students’ Perspectives

Abstract

There is an increasing number of Seventh Day Adventists (SDAs) who engaged in politics.  Church members have varied perception of their engagement in politics. Thus, this study aimed to develop a psychometrically validated instrument that assessed students’ perception of political engagement among SDAs.  Survey questionnaires were administered to 105 college students. Exploratory factor analysis with Varimax rotation was conducted resulting to a two-dimensional structure of the students’ perception of political engagement among SDAs.  Good internal consistency reliability was indicated by a Cronbach alpha estimate of .745 in the final scale.  A two-factor model was generated specifying that SDAs joined politics because they served as church ambassadors to the country (Factor 1) and politics engagement is a Personal Belief and Modeling  (Factor 2). The total percent of variance accounted for the model is 50.78 where the 32% is contributed by the Factor 1. This study concludes that the Political Engagement Questionnaire have sufficiently strong construct validity evidence. This developed questionnaires and the corresponding construct may be useful in studies investigating patterns of political engagement of SDAs. However, it can be still improved using larger population.  Other implications are also discussed.