The Need Fulfillment Inventory for older adults participating in University of the Third Age activities: development and psychometric properties

Abstract

Abstract Social and educational gerontology lacks a concise yet multidimensional inventory of needs fulfilled by older adults, particularly those attending informal education, with sound psychometric properties. This article presents the construction and validation of the 30-item Need Fulfillment Inventory (NFI-30), developed for older adults participating in University of the Third Age (U3A) classes. Empirical data were collected using an inductive–deductive procedure based on two surveys involving 1,097 and 278 students from 22 U3As in Poland, respectively. Preliminary questionnaire items were derived from a qualitative analysis of older adults’ open-ended statements about the needs they fulfilled across U3A activities and subsequently verified using quantitative data. The NFI-30 demonstrates adequate reliability (internal consistency and temporal stability), factorial validity, and both convergent and discriminant validity. It measures the fulfilment level of four crucial needs among U3A students: development, social relations, agency and health. The inventory is recommended for research on older adults enrolled in U3A programmes, but with appropriate modifications it may also be applied to analyse needs in the broader older adult population.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 0 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.