The Psychometric Properties of School Belonging Scale for Middle School Students

Abstract

This study aimed at developing a valid and reliable scale to determine middle school students' sense of school belonging. In this respect, the relevant literature on the concept of belonging was reviewed, interviews were conducted with field experts and middle school students to determine items to be included in the scale. An item pool was created based on the findings of these processes. Later, a pilot form was prepared by taking the opinions of 2 field and 2 measurement and evaluation experts so as to ensure that the scale items represent the structure measured. This form was administered to 287 middle school students studying in the 2018-2019 academic year, and the final scale obtained as a result of exploratory factor analysis was applied to 568 middle school students in a different school. For validity evidence, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and hypothesis test findings; for reliability, findings of Cronbach Alpha and composite reliability coefficients were used. According to the exploratory factor analysis, the scale consisted of 4 factors with 23 items, and the total variance explained was 63.88%. As a result of the secondorder confirmatory factor analysis of the obtained structure, the fit indices of the unidimensional model showed that the model was verified. The internal consistency coefficient of the developed model was α = .92 and the composite reliability coefficient was .97. These findings showed that the scale had psychometric properties that could be used in future research.

Bartın Üniversitesi Ulus Meslek Yüksekokulu Öğrencilerinin Okula Aidiyet Duygularında Ders Dışı Etkinliklerin Yeri ve Önemi

“…The lecturers are asked to accompany the participants in the extracurricular activities. Similar results were obtained by some studies for extracurricular activities and belonging to the school, such as Aypay, Aypay ve Demirhan, 2009;Demanet ve Van Houtte, 2012;Direkçi, Canbulat, Tezci ve Akbulut, 2020;Ekici, Bayrakdar ve Uğur, 2009;Geyik Yıldırım, 2013;Köse, 2007;Sarıer, 2016;Uslu, 2012;Yerlisi-Lapa ve Ardahan, 2009;Yeşilyurt, 2019;Yeşilyurt ve Kurt, 2012.…”

“…Okulu seven öğrenciler genel olarak arkadaşlarıyla vakit geçirmeyi, öğretim elemanları ile iletişim kurmayı, sosyal sorumluluk projelerine dahil olmayı ve okul tarafından gerçekleştirilen etkinliklere bilinçli ve istekli bir şekilde katılmayı tercih etmektedir (Demanet ve Van Houtte, 2012). Kendini okula ait hisseden öğrenciler, eğitimlerine daha fazla önem vermekte, sınıf içi ve sınıf dışı etkinliklere daha fazla katılmakta, özgüven duygulalarını ve derse/okula devam oranlarını yükselmekte, öğretmen ve akranlarıyla daha iyi ilişkilere sahip olmaktadırlar (Direkçi, Canbulat, Tezci ve Akbulut, 2020). Öğrencilerin yeteri kadar okula aidiyet duygusuna sahip olamaması, yüksek derecede kaygısızlık, yalnızlık, sosyal olmayan bir hayat, sigara ve alkol kullanımı, şiddete eğilimli olma, motivasyon düşüklüğü, okula devam etmeme ve akademik başarının düşük olması gibi olumsuz durumların yaşanmasına yol açabilmektedir (Osterman, 2000;Sarı, 2012;Serbest, 2019).…”

Assessing the psychometric properties of the Arabic version of the Nursing Practice Readiness Scale among Saudi nursing students

“…As Nunnally and Bernstein [ 16 ] mentioned, items loaded in two or more components should be retained where they are strongly associated. Furthermore, Direkci et al [ 26 ] state that an item should be retained in a component where the loading factor is above the acceptable level.…”