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Table 1 Aspects of validity investigated and specific research questions

From: Measuring health workers’ motivation composition: validation of a scale based on Self-Determination Theory in Burkina Faso

Type of validity

Research questions

Structural validity

RQ1: Is the assumed internal theoretical structure of motivation (i.e., the SDT continuum of motivation; Fig. 1) represented in the data as it was intended during scale development?

a. Do respondents distinguish the five dimensions of motivation?

b. Are adjacent dimensions more closely related than non-adjacent dimensions?

Generalizability

RQ2: Do psychometric properties and interpretations generalize across health worker subgroups (measurement invariance)?

Convergent and discriminant validity

RQ3: To what extent do relationships between the motivation measure and measures of other related constructs correspond to what is theoretically expected and has been found in previous research with other, established measures?