Abstract
School membership appears to be an important factor in explaining the relationship between students and schools, including school staff. School membership is associated with several school-related outcomes, such as academic performance and expectations. Most studies on school membership have been conducted in developed countries. The Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale (18 items: 13 positively worded items, 5 negatively worded items) has been widely used to measure this construct, but no studies regarding its validity and reliability have been conducted in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. This study investigates the psychometric properties, factor structure and reliability of this scale in a sample of 1250 early adolescents in Chile. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses provide evidence of an excellent fit for a one-factor solution after removing the negatively worded items. The internal consistency of this new abbreviated version was 0.92. The association analyses demonstrated that high school membership was associated with better academic performance, stronger school bonding, a reduced likelihood of school misbehavior, and reduced likelihood of substance use. Analyses showed support for the reliability and validity of the PSSM among Chilean adolescents.
Highlights
During adolescence, and especially during the early adolescence, individuals begin to explore their own identity and how they fit in the world
School bonding seems to be a broader concept under which we find the emotional link with the school, students’ involvement in academic activities, students’ participation in extra-curricular activities, beliefs about school rules (Jenkins, 1997); and school engagement which refers to how much the student engaged in activities related to academic success such as doing homework or achieving better grades (Simons-Morton and Crump, 2003)
Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and by applying unweighted least squares factor analysis (ULS) from the second polychoric matrix, we examined the goodness of fit of the proposed Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale
Summary
Especially during the early adolescence (ages 10–14), individuals begin to explore their own identity and how they fit in the world. School is the place where students spend an average of 6 to 7 h every weekday until they complete their secondary education between the ages of 16 to 18. School bonding seems to be a broader concept under which we find the emotional link with the school (school attachment), students’ involvement in academic activities (school commitment), students’ participation in extra-curricular activities (school involvement), beliefs about school rules (Jenkins, 1997); and school engagement which refers to how much the student engaged in activities related to academic success such as doing homework or achieving better grades (Simons-Morton and Crump, 2003). There is a clear need for a good research instrument in Spanish to measure school membership
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
