Validation of a Scale to evaluate School Climate in University students (ECE-U)

Main Article Content

Alejandra García Arista
Patricia Andrade Palos
Nazira Calleja

Abstract

The study seeks to analyze the psychometric characteristics of a scale to measure school climate in university students. A self-report instrument was developed with 61 items from the social, school and physical areas of the school climate contained in the following dimensions: academic climate,  community, safety and institutional environment. 329 university students participated (69% women and 31% men) with an average age of 21.58 years, who voluntarily agreed to answer the online questionnaire. The sample was randomly divided into two subsamples, 159 participants for the exploratory factor analysis and 170 participants for the confirmatory factor analysis. A model with six factors was obtained and the final instrument was composed of 21 items with an internal consistency value of α = .858. This scale showed to be useful to measure school climate and to make decisions that positively impact university students. 

Keywords:
School community academic climate measurement educational environment confirmatory factor analysis higher education

References

Aldridge, J. & Ala’I, K. (2013). Assessing students’ views of school climate: Developing and validating the What’s Happening in This School? (WHITS) questionnaire. Improving Schools, 16(1), 47-66. doi: 10.1177/1365480212473680

Aldridge, J. M. & McChesney, K. (2018). The relationships between school climate and adolescent mental health and wellbeing: A systematic literature review. International Journal of Educational Research, 88, 121-145. doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2018.01.012

Aron, A. M., Milicic, N. & Armijo, I. (2012). Clima social escolar: una escala de evaluación -Escala de Clima Social Escolar, ECLIS. Universitas Psychologica, 11(3), 803-813. Recuperado de http://www.scielo.org.co/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1657-92672012000300010&lng=en&tlng=.

Bear, G., Gaskins, C., Blank, J. & Chen, F. (2011). Delaware School Climate Survey-Student: Its factor structure, concurrent validity, and reliability. Journal of School Psychology, 49(2), 157-174. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2011.01.001

Benbenishty, R., Astor, R., Roziner, I. & Wrabel, S. (2016). Testing the causal links between school climate, school violence, and school academic performance: a cross-lagged panel autoregressive model. Educational Researcher, 45(3), 197-206. doi: 10.3102/0013189X16644603.

Byrd, C. M. (2017). The complexity of school racial climate: Reliability and validity of a new measure for secondary students. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 87(4), 700–721. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12179.

Bradshaw, C. P., Waasdorp, T. E., Debnam, K. J. & Johnson, S. L. (2014). Measuring school climate in high schools: A focus on safety, engagement, and the environment. Journal of School Health, 84(9), 593-604. doi: 10.1111/josh.12186

Bryk, A. S. (2010). Organizing schools for improvement. Phi Delta Kappan, 91(7), 23-30. doi: 10.1177/003172171009100705

Campbell, R. & Brauer, M. (2021). Is discrimination widespread? Testing assumptions about bias on a university campus. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 150, 756-777. doi: 10.1037/xge0000983

Caso, J., Díaz, C., Chaparro, A. & Urias, E. (2011). Propiedades psicométricas de las escalas, cuestionarios e inventarios de la Estrategia Evaluativa Integral 2010: Factores asociados al aprendizaje (UEE Reporte Técnico 11-002). Recuperado de http: //uee.uabc.mx

Cohen, J., McCabe, L., Michelli, N. M. & Pickeral, T. (2009). School climate: Research, policy, practice, and teacher education. Teachers College Record, 111(1), 180-213. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jonathan-Cohen-11/publication/235420504_School_Climate_Research_Policy_Teacher_Education_and_Practice/links/59d67f050f7e9b42a6aa0145/School-Climate-Research-Policy-Teacher-Education-and-Practice.pdf

Eccles, J. S., Wigfield, A., Midgley, C., Reuman, D., MacIver, D. & Feldlaufer, H. (1993). Negative effects of traditional middle schools on students’ motivation. Elementary School Journal, 93(5), 553-574. doi: 10.1086/461740

González-Benito, A., Pacheco, M., Guadix, I., Belmonte, O., López, A., Losoviz, L. & Casanovas, S. (2018). Guía para la mejora del clima escolar en los centros educativos. Guías de educación en derechos y ciudadanía global de Unicef. Comité español. Recuperado de https://www.unicef.es/educa/biblioteca/guia-mejora-clima-escolar-centros-educativos

Grazia, V. & Molinari, L. (2020). The multidimensional school climate questionnaire (MSCQ) parent-version: Factorial structure and measurement invariance, International Journal of School & Educational Psychology, 8(3), 1-5. doi: 10.1080/21683603.2020.1828205

Holfeld, B. & Baitz, R. (2020). The mediating and moderating effects of social support and school climate on the association between cyber victimization and internalizing symptoms. Journal of Youth and Adolescence: A Multidisciplinary Research Publication, 49, 2214-2228. doi: 10.1007/s10964-020-01292-0

Holst, B., Weber, J., Bear, G. G. & Lisboa, C. (2016). Adaptación transcultural y validación del contenido del Delaware School Climate Survey- Student (DSCS-S) en Brasil. RELIEVE. Revista Electrónica de Investigación y Evaluación Educativa, 22(2), 1-12. doi: 10.7203/relieve.22.2.6459

Juárez, A. (2019). Depresión en jóvenes universitarios: una aproximación desde el modelo ecológico de conductas de salud. (Tesis doctoral). Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.

Juárez-Herrera, M. (2014). Estudio exploratorio del clima escolar universitario (Tesis doctoral). Universidad Iberoamericana, México.

Kutsyuruba, B., Klinger, D. A. & Hussain, A. (2015). Relationships among school climate, school safety, and student achievement and well-being: A review of the literature. Review of Education, 3(2), 103-135. doi: 10.1002/rev3.3043

Knekta, E., Chatzikyriakidou, K. & McCartney, M. (2020). Evaluation of a questionnaire measuring university students’ sense of belonging to and involvement in a biology department. Life Sciences Education, 19(3), 1-14. doi: 10.1187/cbe.19-09-0166

Lamoreaux, D. & Sulkowski, M.L. (2020). An alternative to fortified schools: Using crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) to balance student safety and psychological well‐being. Psychological School, 57, 152-165. doi: 10.1002/pits.22301

Lenz, A.S., Rocha, L. & Aras, Y. (2020). Measuring school climate: A systematic review of initial development and validation studies. International Journal for the Advancement of Counselling, 43, 48-62. doi: 10.1007/s10447-020-09415-9

Lewis, R. & Shah, P. (2021). Black students' narratives of diversity and inclusion initiatives and the campus racial climate: An interest-convergence analysis. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 14, 189-202. doi: 10.1037/dhe0000147

Moore, H., Astor, R. A. & Benbenishty, R. (2020). Role of school-climate in school-based violence among homeless and non-homeless students: Individual- and school-level analysis. Child Abuse & Neglect, 102(2), 104378. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104378

Moos, R. & Trickett, E. (1974). Classroom environment scale manual. Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologist Press.

National School Climate Council (2007). The school climate challenge: Narrowing the gap between school climate research and school climate policy, practice guidelines and teacher education policy. Retrieved from http://www.schoolclimate.org/publications/policy-briefs.php

Shukla, K. D., Waasdorp, T. E., Lindstrom-Johnson, S., Orozco-Solis, M. G., Nguyen, A. J., Rodríguez, C. C. & Bradshaw, C. P. (2019). Does school climate mean the same thing in the United States as in Mexico? A focus on measurement invariance. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 37(1), 55-68. doi: 10.1177/0734282917731459

Thapa, A., Cohen, J., Guffey, S. & Higgins-D’Alessandro, A. (2013). A review of school climate research. Review of Educational Research, 83(3), 357-385. doi: 10.3102/0034654313483907

Thompson, K., Wood, D. & Davis, Mc.N. (2019). Sex differences in the impact of secondhand harm from alcohol on student mental health and university sense of belonging. Addictive Behaviors, 89, 57-64. doi: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.09.012.

Torres, C., Estrada, M., García, M.T. & Rojas, H. (2017). Clima escolar e involucramiento parental en dos muestras de escolares en educación básica, la percepción de los alumnos, un estudio exploratorio. Revista Electrónica de Psicología Iztacala, 20(1), 1-18. Recuperado de https://www.medigraphic.com/pdfs/epsicologia/epi-2017/epi171a.pdf

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (2013). Análisis del clima escolar: ¿Poderoso factor que explica el aprendizaje en América Latina y el Caribe? Chile: Santillana.

Vázquez, J. (2012). Modelo de ecuaciones estructurales en psicología. (Tesis de maestría). Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, España. Recuperado de https://riunet.upv.es/bitstream/handle/10251/44523/Vazquez_Molina_Joan_TFM_Investmat.pdf?sequence=1

Wang, M. & Degol, J. (2016). School climate: a review of the construct, measurement, and impact on student outcomes. Educational Psychology Review, 28, 315-352. doi: 10.1007/s10648-015-9319-1

Yakubu, S. (2017). Space for convenience planning and academic performance of secondary school students in Oyo state, Nigeria. Journal of Education and Practice, 8(13), 73-78. Retrieved from de https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1143955.pdf

Zullig, K. J., Koopman, T. M., Patton, J. M. & Ubbes, V. A. (2010). School climate: historical review, instrument development, and school assessment. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 28(2), 139-152. doi: 10.1177/0734282909344205

Article Details

Author Biographies

Alejandra García Arista, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad de México

Magister en Psicología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad de México

Patricia Andrade Palos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad de México

Doctora en Psicología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad de México

Nazira Calleja, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad de México

Doctora en Psicología. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM, Ciudad de México

Most read articles by the same author(s)