Adaptation and Validation of the Authoritative School Climate Survey in a Sample of Chilean Adolescents

Psychometric Evaluation of the School Climate and School Identification Measure-Student on Chilean Students: A Bifactor Model Approach

School climate is a relevant construct for understanding social relations at school. The SCASIM-St has been widely defined as a multidimensional construct; however, new factor structures have not been explored through evidence that allows for interpreting school climate scores from an approach that respects the multidimensionality of the scale and, at the same time, allows for identifying the degree of essential unidimensionality in the data. Consequently, the objective was to analyze the psychometric properties of the SCASIM-St from a bifactor model approach, evaluating the influence of a general school climate factor versus five specific factors. The study involved 1860 students of both sexes (42% males and 58% females), with an average age of 16.63 years (SD = 0.664), from 17 secondary schools in Chile. The results obtained by a confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence that the best model was the bifactor model for the 38 items, with one general factor and five specific factors. The Explained Common Variance (ECV) values and reliability levels by hierarchical omega accounted for a strong general school climate factor with high levels of reliability. Evidence of external criterion validity, assessed through the attitude toward authority scale (AIA-A), showed a theoretically expected and significant relationship between the factors of both instruments. This study confirmed the psychometric robustness of the SCASIM-St scale by means of a bifactor model, allowing for a new, essentially unidimensional interpretation of the scale scores and providing an instrument to measure school climate in Chile.

School climate, school identification and student outcomes: A longitudinal investigation of student well-being

BACKGROUND

Schools are increasingly recognized as key facilitators of child and youth well-being. Much attention has been directed to the school social environment and the areas of school climate or school connectedness/identification. Drawing on the social identity approach and related work, it has been argued that school social identification may be the mechanism or process through which school climate comes to impact individual student functioning (Applied Psychology, 28, 2009, 171). Much of the previous research on social identity and well-being, though, is limited because it is cross-sectional.

AIMS, SAMPLE & METHODS

This current study aims to advance understanding of the relationships between school climate, school identification and positive and negative well-being. It adopts a three-wave longitudinal sample of Australian students (N = 6537 wave 3, grades 7-10) and incorporates a range of control variables. Multilevel modelling (MLM) is used to test relationships of interest.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

In line with predictions, school identification was a significant mediator of the relationship between school climate and the well-being dimensions of positive affect and depression (but not anxiety). The substantial theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed, including the role of the school social environment in helping young people successfully transition to adulthood.

Measuring school social climate in Latin America: the need for multidimensional and multi-informant tests - A systematic review

Introduction

School social climate is central to understanding learning experiences in education environments. Previous studies describe various conceptual and operational definitions around the construct; however, there are no records of reviews focused on Latin America.

Aim

This study sought to analyze the available evidence and the quality of school social climate measures in Latin America through a systematic review of the literature based on the PRISMA methodology and the COSMIN checklist to assess the psychometric properties of the instruments.

Methodology

The Web of Science, Scopus, Psycinfo, and SciELO databases were consulted. A total of 582 records was identified, of which 27 fulfilled the inclusion criteria and methodological quality to be included in the systematization.

Results

The results show that the country with the greatest scientific production on the topic is Chile, the measures are centered mainly on the students' perspective and the most used instrument is the CECSCE. In addition, a common aspect to all the records is that they were not sufficient to capture the complexity of school social climate.

Conclusion

Multidimensional and multi-informant measures are needed to adequately assess the construct.