CLASSROOM SENSE OF COMMUNITY SCALE: VALIDATION OF A SELF‐REPORT MEASURE FOR ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

We examined the structure, reliability, construct validity, and gender invariance of the Classroom Sense of Community Scale (SoC‐C), a self‐report questionnaire measuring students’ classroom sense of community. The SoC‐C was administered to 390 Italian students (58.6% female) aged 13–20 years. Explorative and confirmatory factor analyses established a 5‐factor solution (sense of belonging and emotional connection with peers, satisfaction of needs and opportunities for involvement, support and emotional connection in the community, support by peers, and opportunities for influence) and a latent factor comprising the 5 dimensions of classroom sense of community. Results revealed a high internal reliability and that the structure of the scale was the same for both males and females. The SoC‐C and its subscales correlated positively with corresponding measures, such as psychosocial well‐being, perceived justice, and collective efficacy, showing convergent validity.