<![CDATA[Social pressure to conform to environmental norms drives individuals, particularly early-adult college students, to engage in constant social masking, leading to profound psychological exhaustion. Until now, no psychometric instrument has specifically measured Social Masking Exhaustion (SME) in a non-clinical early-adult population in Indonesia. This study aims to develop and validate an SME measurement tool based on Persona Theory, Need to Belong, and Social Anxiety. The instrument comprises six dimensions: constant internal dialogue, desire to form bonds, physical exhaustion, fear of negative evaluation, regulating facial expressions, and attitude changes across social environments, with 60 initial items on a 1–4 Likert scale. Content validity was assessed through peer judgment using CVR, CVI, and Aiken's V; most items achieved Aiken's V ≥ 0.70, with 4 items eliminated, leaving 56 final items. A pilot study with 31 respondents indicated Cronbach's Alpha α = 0.903, indicating very high internal consistency. Further testing on 164 respondents via Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) showed a good model fit across all dimensions: DI (CFI = 0.986, SRMR = 0.0293, RMSEA = 0.0576), KI (CFI = 0.998, SRMR = 0.0314, RMSEA = 0.0199), KF (CFI = 1.000, TLI = 1.010, SRMR = 0.0166), EN (CFI = 0.978, SRMR = 0.0345, RMSEA = 0.0587), EW (CFI = 1.000, TLI = 1.060, SRMR = 0.0217), and PS (CFI = 0.995, SRMR = 0.0240, RMSEA = 0.0369). These results indicate that the SME instrument has adequate construct validity and reliability for use with the early-adult population in Indonesia.]]>
