Construct Validity of Maryland Safe and Supportive Schools Climate Survey in Iran: A Validation Study

Abstract

Background: The lack of a comprehensive instrument to measure school climate with good psychometric properties in Iran is strongly felt. This study aimed to examine the construct validity of the multidimensional structure of the Maryland Safe and Supportive Schools Climate Survey (MDS3) among Iranian pupils. Methods: This validation study was peformed on a sample of 1540 pupils from 42 schools in Mazandran province in 2017. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) were employed to evaluate the construct validity of each of the three scales of the questionnaire (Safety, Engagement, and Environment). The current study tested measurement invariance across gender, school type, and grade levels. Results: Our findings confirmed the factor structures and measurement invariance across gender, school types, and grade levels regarding Safety, Engagement, and Environment scales of the Persian version of the MDS3 Climate Survey. This study revealed a conceptual overlap between the dimensions of school climate which can be well shown by ESEM (CFI=0.975, TLI=0.945, RMSEA=0.053, SRMR=0.029 for Safety scale; CFI=0.987, TLI=0.961, RMSEA=0.027, SRMR=0.018 regarding Engagement scale; CFI=0.960, TLI=0.926, RMSEA=0.036, SRMR=0.025 concerning Environment scale). Furthermore, the Pearson correlations of all school climate sub-scales were significant (P<0.05) with the exception of correlations between disorder subscale and connection to teachers (r=0.03, P=0.239), academic engagement (r=0.04, P=0.116), and culture of equity (r=0.02, P=0.432). Conclusion: The Persian version of MDS3 Climate Survey can be used to measure the three key domains of school climate (Safety, Engagement, and Environment) in Iranian context and the epidemiological studies associated with student health and behaviors.