Reliability and validity testing of the Vietnamese version of the critical thinking self-assessment scale

Background: The Critical Thinking Self-Assessment Scale (CTSAS) is a tool for nursing students to self-assess their critical thinking skills. Aim: This cross-sectional study aimed to examine the reliability and validity of the Vietnamese version of the CTSAS (CTSAS-V). Methods: Participants included 533 nursing students who were recruited through convenience sampling using online questionnaires. Concurrent and construct validity were examined, along with the assessment of internal consistency reliability. Results: The 46-item CTSAS-V showed a significant correlation with the critical thinking subscale of the Motivated Strategies Learning Questionnaire. The exploratory factor analysis identified six factors which explained 76.79% of the variance in critical thinking skills. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an acceptable model fit. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the CTSAS-V was 0.98. Conclusions: The CTSAS-V demonstrated good reliability and validity for application among Vietnamese nursing students, suitable for use by nursing faculty, students, and researchers to understand nursing students’ critical thinking skills.