Development and Validation of a Filipino Dispositional Gratitude (Utang Na Loob) Scale

Developing a scale for Filipino Dispositional Gratitude (Utang na loob) was the purpose of this research. In the absence of a theory, sequential exploratory mixed method research design was employed. Open-ended survey was administered to 578 participants. Indicators were drawn from the qualitative analysis and were utilized to generate the item pool. Items underwent expert validation and thorough doublet analysis. Four (4) forms were created from splitting the retained validated items (f= 240) into halves (f=120) and by separating the English and Filipino versions of the items. English and Filipino forms were administered separately to college students (16 to 39 years old) with at least one (1) week interval. The sample size was more than the suggested value for computing estimates of reliability (n= 200) and validity (n= 82) based on collected literatures. A 48-item FDG (UNL) scale with 5-factor solution was obtained as a result of PCA-PA with varimax rotation method. Cronbachs alpha value of the 5 factors ranged from 0.73 to 0.89 while the correlation of the scores in English and Filipino versions of the scale was r = 0.754. Gratitude Questionnaire-6 (GQ6) and Internet Addiction Test (IAT) were administered to estimate its construct validity. Correlation of the scores in the 5 factors of FDG (UNL) scale and GQ6 ranged from r = 0.40 to r = .066 whereas their correlation to IAT scores ranged from r=.154 to r= .007. From the initial statistical results, the scale should further be revised and tested to improve its psychometric properties.