A New Scale for Measuring Student Sense of Belonging in School

• In Event: 70.061 - When and Where I Enter: Students Voice Their Perceptions on School and Where They Belong

Abstract

In this paper I review results connecting student sense of belonging in school to a number of positive student outcomes. I then discuss measurement issues, focusing on the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) (Goodenow, 1993), a popular scale for measuring student sense of belonging. I identify a number of areas in which this scale might be improved. I then describe the process by which I developed an alternative, shorter scale for measuring student sense of belonging in school, following the steps laid out by Gehlbach and Brinkworth (2011) for scale development. Finally, I describe results from a pilot test conducted using this new scale.

Author

• Joe McIntyre, Harvard University