Examination of the Latent Structure of the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale

Abstract

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...

The conceptualisation of school and teacher connectedness in adolescent research: a scoping review of literature

“…You et al (2011) analysed the factorial structure of the PSSM in a sample of Australian adolescents, concluding that the PSSM is a multidimensional instrument assessing three related aspects of school membership: caring relationships with adults, acceptance or belongingness and disrespect or rejection. In the case of the Add Health scale, a slightly different measure was proposed and used in a sample of more than 13,500 American adolescents by McNeely and Falci (2004) who, using a 6-item measure, identified two correlated but distinct factors: social belonging and perception of teachers.…”

A Mokken Scale to Assess Secondary Pupils’ Experience of Violence in Terms of Severity

“…At individual level, the relevant variables are gender, educational attainment, social and emotional characteristics, and age; at class level, the relevant variables indicate teachers' social or disciplinary policy and curricular differentiation; and at school level, variables such as social norms, school cohesion, school responsiveness to violence, and severity of disciplinary policy interact in various ways with pupil-level and class-level variables, producing a fairly complete, evidence-based picture of interrelated processes and effects (cf. Kettler, 2011;Mooij, Smeets, & De Wit, 2011;You, Ritchey, Furlong, Shochet, & Boman, 2011). Table 6 Sample 2: Cross Validation of Mokken Scale (cf.…”

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“…A terminologia tipicamente segue uma determinada ênfase teórica. Entre os termos usados encontram-se school connection (Brown, Leigh, & Barton, 2000), school membership (You, Ritchey, Furlong, Shochet, & Boman, 2011) e school bonding (Whiteside-Mansell et al, 2015). Todos estes conceitos têm em comum a crença de que os adultos e pares na escola se interessam pelo aluno como indivíduo e como aprendiz; que há um valor intrínseco em fazer parte da comunidade de aprendizes que é a escola; e que o aluno faz parte integrante dessa comunidade (Gee, 2000;Klapam & Flum, 2012).…”

“…Normalmente a escala tem sido tratada como unidimensional. Contudo, You et al (2011) examinaram as propriedades psicométricas da PSSM e identificaram três fatores: rejeição, aceitação, e relações de amizade. Voelkl (1996) construiu uma escala composta por 16 itens, que revela bons índices de fiabilidade (.84) na medição das atitudes dos alunos para com a escola e a educação escolar.…”