Reliability and validity of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion Scale in a sample of Salvadoran secondary school students

Andrew E Springer,Marcela Arrivillaga,Michael W Ross,Amy Mcqueen,Guillermo Quintanilla

doi:10.1186/1472-698x-9-30

Abstract

BackgroundDespite a growing body of research from the United States and other industrialized countries on the inverse association between supportive social relationships in the school and youth risk behavior engagement, research on the measurement of supportive school social relationships in Central America is limited. We examined the psychometric properties of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion (SPSC) scale, a 10-item scale that asks students to rate with a 5-point Likert-type response scale their perceptions of the school social environment, in a sample of public secondary school students (mean age = 15 years) living in central El Salvador.MethodsStudents (n = 982) completed a self-administered questionnaire that included the SPSC scale along with measures of youth health risk behaviors based on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess the factor structure of the scale, and two internal consistency estimates of reliability were computed. Construct validity was assessed by examining whether students who reported low school cohesion were significantly more likely to report physical fighting and illicit drug use.ResultsResults indicated that the SPSC scale has three latent factors, which explained 61.6% of the variance: supportive school relationships, student-school connectedness, and student-teacher connectedness. The full scale and three subscales had good internal consistency (rs = .87 and α = .84 for the full scale; rs and α between .71 and .75 for the three subscales). Significant associations were found between the full scale and all three subscales with physical fighting (p ≤ .001) and illicit drug use (p < .05).ConclusionFindings provide evidence of reliability and validity of the SPSC for the measurement of supportive school relationships in Latino adolescents living in El Salvador. These findings provide a foundation for further research on school cohesion and health risk behavior in Latino adolescents living in the U.S. and other Latin American countries.

Highlights

Despite a growing body of research from the United States and other industrialized countries on the inverse association between supportive social relationships in the school and youth risk behavior engagement, research on the measurement of supportive school social relationships in Central America is limited
In contributing to the measurement of supportive school relationships in Central America, the current study examined the psychometric properties of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion scale with a sample of public secondary school students living in the central region of El Salvador
Descriptive Statistics Item-by-item descriptive analyses of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion (SPSC) scale indicate that responses were skewed toward more favorable perceptions of school cohesion (Table 1)

Summary

Introduction

Despite a growing body of research from the United States and other industrialized countries on the inverse association between supportive social relationships in the school and youth risk behavior engagement, research on the measurement of supportive school social relationships in Central America is limited. Psychosocial adolescent behavior theories such as social control [2] and social bonding theory [3], the Social Development Model [4], primary socialization theory [5], and resilience theory [6,7] highlight the important role of cohesive and supportive interpersonal relationships within an adolescent's primary socialization contexts, including the school context, for protecting against risktaking behaviors According to these theoretical perspectives, the quality of affective relationships--and caring and supportive relationships--that one has with others contributes to the social bonds that subsequently reduce engagement in risk-taking behavior. In a four-year randomized controlled trial with 25 secondary schools in Australia, a school-based intervention designed to promote social inclusion and commitment to education was found to significantly reduce risk behavior in adolescents, including substance use and early initiation of sexual intercourse [14]

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