Introduction:

A diploma paper allows obtaining a professional degree from most universities; however, its preparation is not free of obstacles that often disappoint the student.

Objective:

To validate content and structure of a scoring system about the limitations that students face when preparing a diploma paper.

Methods:

The instrument validation design corresponding to the exploratory stage (content validity) of the construct “limitations for the thesis preparation” was carried out, which included the stages of response validity and validity by judges. In the first case, in-depth interviews were carried out with 95 aspirants. According to the answers, key words were selected and grouped in tentative dimensions, and a preliminary version of the scale was made. Regarding the second, interviews were carried out as focused on 15 professors or thesis advisors. Based on their opinions, the dimensions and writing of the items were modified.

Results:

The scale had six dimensions: personal, institutional, time allotted, advisorship, economic, and knowledge. Based on the key words, a scale was developed including 33 reactive elements and ordinal answers with five categories. Eight negative and 25 positive items were written.

Conclusions:

The scale showed a valid structure and content to be applied to undergraduate students of health sciences, and thus to be able to assess the limiting or non-limiting aspects of the development of a diploma paper.

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