A Longitudinal Study of the Well-being of Students Using the Student Wellbeing Process Questionnaire (Student WPQ)

Background: Previous research shows that the Student Well-being Process Questionnaire (Student WPQ) has good content validity, construct validity, and discriminate validity.

Objective: The present research examined the reliability and predictive validity of the Student WPQ scales.

Method: Eighty-seven university undergraduate and postgraduate students aged 18-47 years participated in a longitudinal study which involved completing an online survey twice, with the sessions being 10 weeks apart. The data were used to assess the test-re-test reliability and the predictive validity of the scales.

Results: Positive personality and social support had high test-re-test reliability and demands and negative coping had slightly lower reliability suggesting that the WPQ measures both stable traits and changes in state. Cross-sectional analyses confirmed that the predictor variables were associated with wellbeing outcomes. Cross-lag analysis showed that the positive personality and demands at time 1 predicted wellbeing at time 2. Changes in positive personality predicted changes in wellbeing.

Conclusion: These findings show that the student WPQ has good test-re-test reliability and can be used in longitudinal studies which give a stronger indication of causality.