Validation of the Bangla Communication Scale among Bangladeshi adolescents: A Classical Test Theory and Item Response Theory approach

BACKGROUND: Assessing communication skills is necessary to facilitate pro-communication skills development programs. The 23-item Communication Scale (CS) is the most widely used tool for this purpose. Since there is a scarcity of validated tools to assess communication skills among Bangladeshi adolescents, we translated this questionnaire into Bangla and validated it on a Bangladeshi adolescent sample.

METHODS: We conducted two independent rounds of large-scale surveys that yielded data from 621 Bangladeshi adolescents (AgeMean ± SD = 16.44 ± 1.32), of which 378 were males, and 244 were females. The participants completed the Bangla CS. A subset of the participants (n = 160) also completed the Bangla Beck's Hopelessness Scale (BBHS)-a measure of hopelessness.

RESULTS: Exploratory factor analysis on the first-round data (n = 340) discarded six items and retained 17 items and revealed a unidimensional factor structure. Confirmatory Factor Analysis on the second-round data (n = 281) supported the unidimensional structure (CFI = 0.94, TLI = 0.93). Measurement invariance analysis indicated that the unidimensional structure was robust across gender (143 males vs 139 females). The scale exhibited a negative correlation with BBHS revealing the scale's concurrent validity (r = - 0.16, p  0.70) across a sizable range of communication skills continuum (θ = - 5.3 to 2.3) and had excellent marginal reliability (0.80). All items had adequate discriminating power (0.90 ± 0.20).

CONCLUSION: The psychometric analysis of the 17-item Bangla-CS indicated that the scale is reliable and valid. We recommend that researchers and mental health practitioners utilize this scale to evaluate communication skills among Bangladeshi adolescents.