Classroom Sense of Community Scale: validation of a self-report measure for adolescents

We examined the structure, reliability, construct validity, and gender invariance of the Classroom sense of community scale (SoC-C), a self-report questionnaire for measuring students’ classroom sense of community. The SoC-C was administered to 390 Italian students (58.6% females), between the ages of 13 and 20 years. Explorative and confirmatory factor analyses established a 5-factors solution (Sense of belonging and emotional connection with peers, Satisfaction of needs and opportunities for involvement, Support and emotional connection in the community, Support by peers, and Opportunities for influence) and a latent factor consisting of the five dimensions of classroom sense of community. Results revealed a high internal reliability and that the structure of the scale was the same for males and females. The SoC-C and its subscales correlated positively with corresponding measures, such as psychosocial well-being, perceived justice, collective efficacy, showing convergent validity.