The wellness model is applied widely by student counselling and development practitioners in South Africa. Its holistic focus is inclusive of physical, intellectual, social, environmental, occupational, financial, emotional and spiritual dimensions of individual development. It is used for individual counselling and also to conceptualise student needs in order to plan for student counselling and development group interventions. However, no standardized measures of wellness exist for South African use. The Wellness Questionnaire for Higher Education (WQHE) was developed in response to this assessment deficiency. This article describes the psychometric properties of the WQHE as evidenced to date. The overall findings in terms of the various psychometric properties investigated confirm that (i) wellness is an observable and measureable behaviour, and (ii) the WQHE adequately operationalises the wellness model for South African students of Higher Education across gender, language and academic year level groups — thereby providing users with a valid and reliable indication of their levels of wellness.
AikenL. R. (1997). Psychological testing and assessment (9th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
2.
American College Health Association (ACHA). (2009a). American College Health Association — National College Health Assessment Spring 2008 Reference Group Data Report (Abridged). Journal of American College Health, 57, 477–488.
3.
American College Health Association (ACHA). (2009b). Standards of Practice for Health Promotion in Higher Education.Baltimore, MD: American College Health Association.
BeckerC.CooperN.AtkinsK.MartinS. (2009). What helps students thrive? An investigation of student engagement and performance. Recreational Sports Journal, 33, 139–149.
6.
CarminesE. G.ZellerR. A. (1991). Reliability and validity assessment.Newbury Park: Sage Publications.
7.
CohenJ. (1977). Statistical power analysis for behavioural sciences (revised ed.). New York: Academic Press.
8.
GieckD. J.OlsenS. (2007). Holistic wellness as a means to developing a lifestyle approach to health behavior among college students. Journal of American College Health, 56, 29–36.
9.
KlineP. (1986). A handbook of test construction: An introduction to psychometric design.New York: Methuen.
10.
LynnM. R. (1986). Determination and quantification of content validity. Nursing Research, 35, 382–385.
11.
FoxcroftC.RoodtG. (Eds). (2001). An introduction to psychological assessment in the South African context.Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
12.
FoxcroftC.RoodtG. (Eds). (2005). An introduction to psychological assessment in the South African context.Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
13.
GuilfordJ. P. (1946). New standards for test evaluation. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 10, 427–428.
14.
GuilfordJ. P. (1956). Psychometric methods. (2nd ed). New York: McGraw-Hill.
15.
HairJ. F.AndersonR. E.TathamR. L.BlackW. C. (1987). Multivariate data analysis with readings. (4th ed). New York: Prentice-Hall.
16.
HatfieldT.HatfieldS. R. (1992). As if your life depended on it: Promoting cognitive development to promote wellness. Journal of Counseling and Development, 71, 164–167.
17.
HattieJ. A.MyersJ. E.SweeneyT. J. (2004). A factor structure of wellness: Theory, assessment analysis, and practice. Journal of Counseling and Development, 82, 354–364.
18.
HettlerB. (1980). Wellness promotion on a university campus. Family and Community Health, 3, 77–95.
19.
HettlerB. (1984). Wellness: Encouraging a lifetime pursuit of excellence. Health Values, 8, 13–17.
20.
HowellJ.MillerP.ParkH. H.SattlerD.SchackT.SperyE.WidhalmS.PalmquistM. (2005). Reliability and validity.Writing@CSU. Colorado State University Department of English. Retrieved 19 January 2010 from http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/research/relval/.
21.
KlineP. (1986). A handbook of test construction: An introduction to psychometric design.New York: Methuen.
22.
KrivoskiJ. F.WarnerM. J. (1986). Implementing strategies for high-level wellness programs in student housing. In LeafgrenF. (Ed.), Developing campus recreation and wellness programs. New directions for Student Services, 3, 53–66. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
23.
KupchellaC. E.2009. Colleges and universities should give more broad-based attention to health and wellness — at all levels. Journal of American College Health, 58, 185–186.
24.
LeafgrenF. (1993). Wellness as a comprehensive student development approach. In WinstonR. B.Jr.AnchorsS. (Eds.), Student housing and residential life (pp. 443–460). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
25.
MurphyK. R.DavidshoferC. O. (1994). Psychological testing: Principles and applications.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
26.
MyersJ. E. (1991). Wellness as the paradigm for counseling and development: The possible future. Counselor Education and Supervision, 30, 183–193.
27.
MyersJ. E. (1992). Wellness, prevention, development: The cornerstone of the procession. Journal of Counseling and Development, 71, 136–139.
28.
NunnellyJ. C. (1978). Psychometric theory.New York: McGraw-Hill.
29.
OwenT. R. (2002). Student and employee wellness in higher education: A literature review. ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED462051.
30.
RobinsonS. J. (2006). Assessing the reliability and validity of the Network Engagement Questionnaire: Can engagement predict knowledge use in a community of practice? Unpublished Master's thesis, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
31.
TinsleyH. E. A.TinsleyD. J. (1987). Uses of factor analysis in counselling psychology research. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 34, 414–424.
32.
WaltzC. F.BausellR. B. (1983). Nursing research: Design, statistics and computer analysis (2nd ed.) Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co.
