Validity and reliability of the 12-items Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure in Peru

Introduction: The educational environment encompass-es social interactions, culture, organizational structure, and physical-virtual spaces, all of which significantly in-fluence student learning. The 50-item Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) is the most widely used tool to assess this environment, but its length poses a major limitation. To address this, the DREEM-12, a shorter version, was developed. Objective: To validate the internal structure and reliability of the DREEM-12 and explore its association with academic self-efficacy and academic performance among medical students at a private university in Lima, Peru. Method: A cross-sectional observational study was con-ducted with 351 medical students. The DREEM-12 and the academic self-efficacy scale were used as measurement tools. Sociodemographic and academic variables such as age, sex, academic year, and university GPA (as an indicator of academic performance) were also collected. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was per-formed using the WLSMV estimator. The validity of the relationship with other variables was assessed through Pearson correlation. Results: The CFA showed an adequate fit for the five-factor model of the DREEM-12, with acceptable robust goodness-of-fit indices. The item factor loadings were adequate (ranging from 0.72 to 0.97), and the correlations between factors ranged from 0.45 to 0.91. The reliability of each factor was acceptable according to McDonald’s omega (ranging from 0.72 to 0.93). Significant direct correlations were found between the DREEM-12 and academic self-efficacy (ranging from 0.19 to 0.29), but not with academic performance. Conclusions: The DREEM-12 demonstrated internal structure validity and reliability, with a significant association with academic self-efficacy, making it a useful tool for evaluating the educational environment in medical students in Peru.