A First Class Measure: Evidence for a Comprehensive Social Class Scale in Higher Education Populations

Abstract

Despite social class being a burgeoning area of research in the higher education literature, there is no single comprehensive measure of social class in university student populations. Most previous research has included objective single-item measures (e.g., parent education or occupation) to assess social class and then sorted students into distinct social class categories using these items. Such approaches do not adequately capture the complexity and nuance of class, and they ignore the subjective and social components involved. The present paper reports the development and validation of an 11-item Comprehensive Social Class Scale (CSCS) that uses a mix of objective and subjective items to assess multiple aspects of social class, including education level, occupational prestige, family affluence, social class identity and subjective social status. Across 12 samples (N = 4926), we provide evidence for a single factor structure of the CSCS and demonstrate aspects of its reliability and validity. We conclude by discussing some limitations and suggestions for use of the CSCS in higher education populations.

How are they doing? University outcomes of international students studying in Canada

“…This is particularly true for the recently arrived. In view of this possibility, the OECD (2019) and others (Evans et al, 2022) have developed complex measures of socioeconomic status based on a number of variables. Internationally, the OECD shows that in general those with high status as measured by this construct perform better than others along some academic dimensions.…”

Sleep as a mediator of the relationship between social class and health in higher education students

“…perceived social class). Using this global approach is beneficial for our target population of higher education students since most university students have not had a chance to establish their SES because they are not yet in the workforce (Evans et al, 2022 ). Evans et al ( 2022 ) also highlight the usefulness of modifying some measures to refer to participants' parents.…”

“…Using this global approach is beneficial for our target population of higher education students since most university students have not had a chance to establish their SES because they are not yet in the workforce (Evans et al, 2022 ). Evans et al ( 2022 ) also highlight the usefulness of modifying some measures to refer to participants' parents. For example, asking university students to provide their highest level of education is likely to provide extremely similar results across all participants, however, asking participants to provide the highest level of education for their parents is likely to provide more diversity and tap into the sociocultural background of participants.…”

“…For example, asking university students to provide their highest level of education is likely to provide extremely similar results across all participants, however, asking participants to provide the highest level of education for their parents is likely to provide more diversity and tap into the sociocultural background of participants. Furthermore, we also treated social class as a continuous variable, following Rubin et al ( 2019 ) and Evans et al ( 2022 ). Treating social class as a continuous variable is useful because we were interested in exploring the continuous associations between social class and sleep and health rather than assessing mean differences between categories.…”