Measuring entrepreneurship in adolescents at school: New psychometric evidence on the BEPE-A.

Abstract

The economic situation worldwide demands individuals with entrepreneurial skills and aptitudes. The adolescence stage is a critical period in which these abilities could be developed and the school is a relevant setting for this purpose. To this end, instruments that allow assessing enterprising abilities are needed. Nonetheless, there remains a lack of instruments with adequate evidence of validity. The purpose of this study was, thus, to analyze the psychometric properties of the Battery for the Assessment of the Enterprising Personality-Adaptive (BEPE-A). The sample included a total of 1105 participants (men = 528; 47.4%) with an age range from 12 to 19 years (M = 15.23 years; SD = 4.40). The BEPE-A and the Entrepreneurial Attitudes Scale for Students (EASS) were used in the study. The EFA, conducted in a subsample of 512 participants, revealed that each of the subscales of the BEPE-A were basically unidimensional. The CFA, conducted in a second subsample of 593 participants, showed that a bifactor model best fit the BEPE-A structure. In addition, measurement invariance was found both by gender and age. The BEPE-A was positively associated with other measures of entrepreneurship. Results found in the study contribute valuable information about new evidences of a battery that allows screening for entrepreneurship in a critical developmental period such as adolescence, and in a relevant setting like school.