Despite its widespread use, there has been limited examination of the underlying factor structure of the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale. The current study examined the psychometric properties of the PSSM to refine its utility for researchers and practitioners using a sample of 504 Australian high school students. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the PSSM is a multidimensional instrument. Factor analysis procedures identified three factors representing related aspects of students' perceptions of their school membership: caring relationships, acceptance, and rejection.Keywords school membership, boding, connectedness, engagement, factor analysis, Australian Over the past two decades, researchers and educators have come to recognize that high levels of meaningful participation in school reduces involvement in high-risk behaviors and enhances developmental outcomes (Appleton, Christenson, & Furlong, 2008; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2009). Finn (1989) was among the early researchers to suggest that disengagement and withdrawal from school is a developmental process and that students' active participation in school and classroom activities and a concurrent feeling of identification with school can mitigate negative developmental trajectories. Wehlage, Rutter, Smith, Lasko, and Fernandez (1989) further suggested that a student's perception that she or he is a member of school was a central aspect of engagement and the prevention of dropping out. In Wehlege et al.'s model, membership was multidimensional and comprised of attachment, commitment, involvement, and valuing school.Drawing on this interest in meaningful student participation and linkages with their schools, researchers subsequently conducted studies using various associated constructs that they called: attachment to school (Gottfredson, Fink, & Graham, 1994), school connectedness (Resnick et al., 1997;Shochet, Dadds, Ham, & Montague, 2006), school bonding (Anderman, 2002; Hawkins, Guo, Hill, Battin-Pearson, & Abbott, 2001), and student engagement (Appleton, Christenson, Kim, & Reschly, 2006). Libbey (2004) examined this array of related constructs and associated measures, which she observed included items with similar wording. She noted that although there is yet no consensus on which term or elements are most essential to assess, these measures often include item content related to global bonding to school. This latter aspect of school bonding is what Goodenow (1993) set out to measure with the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale, which was developed primarily for use by school mental Running head: SCHOOL MEMBERSHIP SCALE LATENT STRUCTURE 4 health researchers and practitioners. The current article focuses on the PSSM scale and its psychometric properties in an effort to refine its utility for researchers and practitioners. Development of the PSSM ScaleGoodenow (1993) created the PSSM scale to measure a construct that she defined as the "…extent to whi...

Students making the transition from high school to university often encounter many stressors and new experiences. Many students adjust successfully to university; however, some students do not, often resulting in attrition from the university and mental health issues. The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effects that optimism, self-efficacy, depression, and anxiety have on an individual's life stress and adaptation to university. Eighty-four first-year, full-time students from the Queensland University of Technology (60 female, 24 male) who had entered university straight from high school completed the study. Participants completed a questionnaire assessing their levels of optimism, self-efficacy, depression, anxiety, perceived level of life stress and adaptation to university. In line with predictions, results showed that optimism, depression, and anxiety each had a significant relationship with students' perceived level of stress. Furthermore, self-efficacy and depression had a significant relationship with adaptation to university. We conclude that students with high levels of optimism and low levels of depression and anxiety will adapt better when making the transition from high school to university. In addition, students with high levels of self-efficacy and low levels of depression will experience less life stress in their commencement year of university. The implications of this study are outlined.People typically experience many changes in their lives as they transition, for example, from school to work to retirement, or from dependent relationships to peer relationships to parenting relationships. Entry into a new life phase introduces new information and experiences to which people must adapt. In every life transition period, individuals are confronted with imposing and sometimes threatening life

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We conclude that young people are vulnerable to adjustment problems when levels of dispositional optimism are not sufficiently strong to counteract high expectations about the possibility of specific negative events occurring.