The psychometric properties of the Utrecht Homesickness Scale among Chinese college freshmen

Abstract

I examined the validity and reliability of the Utrecht Homesickness Scale (UHS) in the cultural background of China by translating the original UHS into Chinese. The formal scale was formed through exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and checks of internal consistency reliability and test???retest reliability. The pretest and formal test samples comprised, respectively, 436 and 687 freshmen from universities in China. The final Chinese version of the UHS had 20 items separated into five dimensions: missing family, loneliness, missing friends, adjustment difficulties, and missing home. According to the statistical results, the Chinese version of the UHS has adequate psychometric properties and can be used to assess the homesickness of college freshmen in China.