Development and Validation of the Factors Influencing Pursuit of Higher Education Questionnaire

This article addresses the development and validation of the Factors Influencing Pursuit of Higher Education (FIPHE) Questionnaire, a 92-item self-report measure that investigates factors that influence individuals to pursue higher education. Reliability estimates for the nine FIPHE scale scores ranged from .66 to .90. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted on data from a sample ( N = 509) of college students enrolled in two south-eastern universities. The data were subjected to principal components analysis with varimax rotation. Although the researchers hypothesized 10 scales for the questionnaire, the results revealed that a nine-factor solution produced the most interpretable factor patterns. The nine-factor solution accounted for 43% of the common variance. Limitations of the research and implications for future research are discussed.