Role of Psychometric Assessment for Mooney Problem Check List (MPCL) in Measuring Challenges among Polytechnic Students Using Rasch Model

This paper aims to assess the psychometric properties, especially the internal consistency and separation index of the Mooney Problem Checklist (MPCL) using the Rasch Model, to investigate the intercorrelations of eleven dimensions in MPCL, and to discuss polytechnic students’ performance for each dimension. A total of 252 respondents were selected from seven polytechnics in Malaysia and the convenience sampling technique was employed. The Rasch model revealed that the items meet the requirements for internal consistency and separation index. There are three pairs of dimensions that have a strong association, 15 pairs that have a moderate relationship, and 37 pairings that have a bad relationship. The findings showed that the three pairs of dimensions that exhibit a strong correlation include education - learning (r = 0.687, p = 0.000), career - education (r = 0.685, p = 0.000), and social - personal (r = 0.662, p = 0.000). Meanwhile, the three pairs of dimensions that exhibit the weakest correlation include recreation - career (r = 0.332, p = 0.000), finance - religion (r = 0.309, p = 0.000), and health - career (r = 0.297, p = 0.000). This study shows the strength of the dimensions in the MPCL to prove the suitability of the items used in polytechnics. The study not only contributes to the assessment of the psychometric properties of the items, but the study also shows the performance of polytechnic students in relation to each MPCL dimension. The sufficiency of items to measure challenges as evidenced in this study needs further consideration.