Reliability and validity test of the Korean version of Noe's evaluation

PURPOSE: This study aims to demonstrate whether the functionalities between the widely used questionnaire in other countries and the Korean-translated version show similarity. Also, it intends to verify their reliability and validity. METHODS: The original questionnaire was first developed by professor Noe at the University of Minnesota with 29 items named as “mentoring functions” to identify the participants’ psychological and career-development functions. Using the Korean-translated version of the original questionnaire, the study was conducted on total 288 Kyung Hee University medical students, ranging from the first-year students to the third-year students on December 2015. In order to investigate if the survey form could be applied to the Korean participants, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were conducted, using varimax rotation. Cronbach α statistics and the figures of standardized regression weights were analyzed respectively to indicate construct, convergent, and discriminant validities. RESULTS: The result of exploratory factor analysis shows there are a total of three functions, including the additional “friendship function” (Eigen value, 1.152; significant level if higher than 1.0) with its high emphasis. The result of confirmatory factor analysis also demonstrates the similarity (p=0.000). As the whole reliability scale of the three functions is significantly high (Cronbach α , 0.971), each reliability scales of the three functions are shown to be high (0.814–0.955) as well. CONCLUSION: The model, with its three functions, proved the significant statistics regarding the reliability and validity. According to this ground, the conclusion is that the adapted questionnaire used in this study could be applied to Korean medical students.