TY - JOUR
T1 - Reliability and validity of the Student Perceptions of School Cohesion Scale in a sample of Salvadoran secondary school students
AU - Springer, Andrew E.
AU - McQueen, Amy
AU - Quintanilla, Guillermo
AU - Arrivillaga, Marcela
AU - Ross, Michael W.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are thankful for the insightful comments received from Dr. Paul Swank, Professor-Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Health Science Center-Houston, who provided critical review of earlier drafts of this manuscript. The authors also acknowledge the logistical support received for the original study upon which these data are based from Lic. Lesvia Salas and Lic. Rosa Luz Vega from the Ministerio de Educación, Centro de Capacitación in San Salvador, El Salvador. Preparation of this manuscript was made possible in part by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation support of Dr. Springer's faculty position at the University of Texas School of Public Health-Austin as well as the National Cancer Institute/NIH Grant #2R25CA57712-11 that funded Dr. Springer's Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cancer Prevention and Control Training Program in the Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas-Houston School of Public Health.
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - Background. 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. 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. Methods. Students (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. Results. Results 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 = .84 for the full scale; r sand 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). Conclusion. Findings 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.
AB - Background. 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. 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. Methods. Students (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. Results. Results 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 = .84 for the full scale; r sand 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). Conclusion. Findings 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.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=72849150174&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1186/1472-698X-9-30
DO - 10.1186/1472-698X-9-30
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:72849150174
SN - 1472-698X
VL - 9
JO - BMC International Health and Human Rights
JF - BMC International Health and Human Rights
IS - 1
M1 - 30
ER -
