The validity and reliability of the Sense of Coherence scale among Indian university students

Background: The importance of salutogenesis, with the focus of what creates health rather than what causes diseases, has been highlighted for a long time. This has been operationalized by Aaron Antonovsky as the Sense of Coherence (SOC-13) scale. The aim of this study was to further examine the psychometric properties of the SOC-13 in India.

Methods: The present study was carried out among second-year degree students at three randomly chosen institutions at Mangalore University. Investigators assessed the appropriateness, relevance, comprehensiveness and understandability of the scale. Further, the scale was assessed by five subject experts. The SOC-13 was then pretested by administering it to peers, individuals and a few of the study subjects. Internal consistency was assessed by Cronbach's alpha and split-half reliability. Test-retest reliability was assessed by administering the instrument to the same study participants after two weeks. Confirmatory factor analysis employing varimax rotation was employed.

Results: The SOC-13 revealed a Cronbach's alpha value of 0.76. Split-half reliability and Guttman split-half reliability were found to be 0.71 and 0.70, respectively. Test-retest reliability was found to be 0.71 (p < 0.01). Factor analysis revealed a three-factor solution explaining 40.53% of the variation in SOC.

Conclusions: SOC-13 was found to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring SOC in an Indian context. The present study contributes to health promotion in an Indian context, and could be useful even in other developing countries and for further research in India.