Will to Exist, Live, Survive and Fight (WTELS-F) Scale: Initial Psychometrics and Validation of a Long and a New Short Version — Oak Academic Publishing
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Will to Exist, Live, Survive and Fight (WTELS-F) Scale: Initial Psychometrics and Validation of a Long and a New Short Version
Center for Cumulative Trauma Studies, Stone Mountain, GA, & Center for Stress, Trauma and Resiliency, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
,
Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt
,
Department of Psychology, University of Kuwait, Kuwait, Kuwait
1 Center for Cumulative Trauma Studies, Stone Mountain, GA, & Center for Stress, Trauma and Resiliency, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA
2 Faculty of Arts, Department of Psychology, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt
3 Department of Psychology, University of Kuwait, Kuwait, Kuwait
The “will to exist, live, survive, and fight” “(WTELS-F)” scale was constructed using a pool of 26 items that were selected to represent the three factors of the construct: “will to exist,” “will to live,” and “will to survive and fight.” The study used two samples, one consisting of adolescents and young adults from Egypt (N = 610) and the other consisting of adults from Kuwait (N = 490). The study also used measures for resilience, post-traumatic growth (PTG), identity salience, and psychopathology. We conducted two exploratory factor analyses to examine the construct’s structural validity and its independence from similar constructs. The first was on the measure’s items, and the second was on the combined items of WTELS-F, resilience, and PTG. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the second sample. Correlation and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis were conducted to establish discriminant, convergent, and predictive criterion validity. Multigroup invariance was conducted to check the invariance of the measure and SEM model across genders. Results showed that WTELS-F was independent of resilience and PTG and explained a significantly larger variance. The measure and its short version had high internal consistency, test-retest stability, and adequate discriminant, convergent, divergent, and predictive validity. The measure and the SEM model were strictly invariant between genders. Finally, the study’s potential and limitations were briefly discussed.
KeywordsWill to Exist Live Survive and FightResilienceIdentity SaliencePTGSocial SupportSuicidality
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