Psychometric testing of the Brief Sense of Community Scale with older adults in Puerto Rico.

Abstract

The Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) is a well-validated measure of psychological sense of community (PSOC), but it has yet to be tested with Spanish-speaking older adults. The current study uses data from face-to-face interviews with a non-probability sample of 154 community-dwelling older adults in Puerto Rico. We used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test three competing factor structures. We also tested internal consistency reliability and convergent validity. CFA results show the second-order four-factor model was the best fit (χ2 (16) = 20.78, p = 0.187; CFI = 0.997, TLI = 0.995, SRMR = 0.026, RMSEA = 0.044, 90% CI [<0.001, 0.092]). The BSCS showed good reliability (α = 0.85) and was correlated in the expected direction with social network size (r = 0.34, p < 0.001) and loneliness (r = -0.27, p < 0.001). These findings indicate that the BSCS comprises the four domains (membership, needs fulfillment, emotional connection, and influence) from the original PSOC theory. These results inform theory development and can aid program planning, policy, and practice with older adults in Puerto Rico.