Development and validation of a scale to measure the resilience of schools: Perspectives of young people from vulnerable and challenging territories

2021 ◽  
pp. 136548022199174
Author(s):  
Ana Milheiro Silva ◽  
Sofia Marques da Silva

This article presents the development and validation of a scale for young people, which measures the resilience of schools in ensuring the educational pathways of students in vulnerable and challenging territories. This scale was developed within a national-level project, conducted in Portuguese border regions with Spain, which are peripheral contexts with economic, social, cultural, and educational disadvantages, but with locally-situated promising dynamics. Resilient schools, from an ecological perspective, are sensitive and committed to their internal and external settings. These schools act as a whole to face problem solving and risk situations, while also needing to support youth educational pathways and fulfill their role. This is particularly important in contexts with territorial disparities and specificities, as is the case of border regions. The Resilience Scale of Schools – Youth Version (RSS-Y) integrates dimensions related to schools’ focus and priorities, as well as practices and resources. Its development took into consideration that schools in vulnerable territories deal with specific constraints and fewer opportunities. In addition, this scale seeks to study the characteristics of resilience that young people identify in their schools and how they perceive their schools’ support. This quantitative scale was developed following a multi-step approach and was applied to 3,968 young people (9th to 12th grade). It comprises 17 items, rated on a five-point Likert scale to assess agreement. Statistical analysis ensure the internal consistency (Factor 1, α = .846; Factor 2, α = .845; Factor 3, α = .789) and the validity of this scale, indicating adequate psychometric properties to measure students’ perspectives on the resilience characteristics of schools. A Principal Component Analysis (PCA) proposes a three-factor structure that explains 57.393% of the total variance. A Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicates that this model is a good fit with the data. The RSS-Y can provide an important contribution to educational research developed in more deprived territories, but also to school contexts, since it recognizes the importance of schools’ differentiated approaches and highlights characteristics that promote the resilience and quality of schools.

Author(s):  
Antonio Romero-Moreno ◽  
Alberto Paramio ◽  
Serafín J. Cruces-Montes ◽  
Antonio Zayas ◽  
Diego Gómez-Carmona ◽  
...  

In recent decades, the study of psychotherapy effectiveness has been one of the pillars of clinical research because of its implication for therapeutic cure. However, although many studies have focused their interest on the patient’s perception, there are no instruments oriented to the study of psychotherapists’ attributions of effectiveness: to what factors psychotherapists attribute responsibility for the cure of the therapies they provide. The present study aimed to develop and validate an instrument for assessing the attribution of the effectiveness of psychotherapy in a population of 69 psychotherapists of different theoretical orientations. After an initial process of inter-judge content validation, 12 items were selected for validation in the targeted population, adequately fulfilling the quality requirements in the validity–reliability tests, and grouped into four factors after principal component analysis. These factors were as follows: (1) therapeutic alliance enhancers; (2) psychotherapist emotional characteristics; (3) therapy-specific variables; and (4) facilitators of patient engagement with therapy. This four-factor structure also showed a good fit for the fit indices checked in confirmatory factor analysis. In summary, we can conclude that the Psychotherapeutic Effectiveness Attribution Questionnaire (PEAQ-12) developed in our research can be helpful if tested on a larger number of individuals. The results can be replicated in other populations of psychotherapists.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9432
Author(s):  
Sofia Marques da Silva ◽  
Ana Milheiro Silva ◽  
Pablo Cortés-González ◽  
Rūta Brazienė

This article examines how mobility is incorporated into the lives of young people growing up in rural border regions of continental Portugal. It also explores how municipalities are dealing with the contemporary imperative of mobility and its consequences. Young people from these regions are affected by decisions to leave to continue studying in higher education, or to find a job. Combined, these lead to an outward migration trend and thus loss of human capital. This paper is based on a multi-method research project carried out in the border regions and involves young people and other stakeholders from 38 municipalities. The data were selected from a questionnaire completed by young people (9th–12th grade; n = 3968), 38 semi-structured interviews with local policymakers, 50 biographical interviews, and 5 focus groups with young people. Results indicate that although most young people aspire to further education and do not fear leaving their region, they nonetheless tend to integrate the necessity to be mobile into their biographies. Hence, they do not associate it with displacement or as being tantamount to abandoning their region, and to which some of them want to return. We consider that in parallel with learning to leave local sentiments, policies, and actions are emerging towards coalescing a trend of learning to stay and returning. We propose an interpretation of this tendency as indicative of new understandings around these peripheral territories and which are shaped by young people’s experience of reconciling a sense of belonging to place and any associated mobilities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 394-416 ◽  
Author(s):  
Debarshi Roy

The concept of psychological safety in the workplace is becoming increasingly important to organizational culture and planning. Kahn (1990, Academy of Management Journal, 33(4), 692–724) had defined psychological safety as ‘being able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences of self-image, status or career’. For the purposes of this study, the researcher emphasized on the need for the members of an organization to feel safe, which is a step beyond just being safe. This study explores the various dimensions of psychological safety among a group of 405 high school students from across India. The study involved the administration of a confidential questionnaire involving 21 items. A principal component analysis involving the results of the survey led to the extraction of four factors. These factors were termed as protect, support, encourage and include. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to validate the model, and the model-fit results were within the acceptable range. The subsequent model was termed as the PSEI (Protect, Support, Encourage, Include) model for psychological safety in schools.


Psihologija ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 445-463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Orlic ◽  
Ana Gromovic ◽  
Dusanka Lazarevic ◽  
Marija Colic ◽  
Ivana Milanovic ◽  
...  

The goal of this research was to develop and validate a physical education (PE) attitude scale (PEAS) for students in early and middle adolescence, based on the contemporary theories of attitudes as a summary evaluation of different information related to the attitude object. In the first study, preliminary version of the scale was administrated on the sample of 547 students. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed 4 factors, named Satisfaction, Comfort, Activity and Teacher. Second order PCA showed that these factors are a part of a single construct, general attitude toward PE. Based on the results of the first study, the final version of the PEAS is constructed, consisting of the 43 items. In the second study, on a new sample of 659 students, construct validity of the PEAS is confirmed through confirmatory factor analysis. PEAS has good psychometric properties. External validity of the scale is demonstrated through relations with relevant variables.


2020 ◽  
Vol 36 (5) ◽  
pp. 852-863 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Gunnesch-Luca ◽  
Klaus Moser

Abstract. The current paper presents the development and validation of a unit-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) scale based on the Referent-Shift Consensus Model (RSCM). In Study 1, with 124 individuals measured twice, both an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) established and confirmed a five-factor solution (helping behavior, sportsmanship, loyalty, civic virtue, and conscientiousness). Test–retest reliabilities at a 2-month interval were high (between .59 and .79 for the subscales, .83 for the total scale). In Study 2, unit-level OCB was analyzed in a sample of 129 work teams. Both Interrater Reliability (IRR) measures and Interrater Agreement (IRA) values provided support for RSCM requirements. Finally, unit-level OCB was associated with group task interdependence and was more predictable (by job satisfaction and integrity of the supervisor) than individual-level OCB in previous research.


2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 165-181 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Dudenhöffer ◽  
Christian Dormann

Abstract. The purpose of this study was to replicate the dimensions of the customer-related social stressors (CSS) concept across service jobs, to investigate their consequences for service providers’ well-being, and to examine emotional dissonance as mediator. Data of 20 studies comprising of different service jobs (N = 4,199) were integrated into a single data set and meta-analyzed. Confirmatory factor analyses and explorative principal component analysis confirmed four CSS scales: disproportionate expectations, verbal aggression, ambiguous expectations, disliked customers. These CSS scales were associated with burnout and job satisfaction. Most of the effects were partially mediated by emotional dissonance. Further analyses revealed that differences among jobs exist with regard to the factor solution. However, associations between CSS and outcomes are mainly invariant across service jobs.


Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 197
Author(s):  
Sungwon Kim

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a faith scale for young children. Data were collected from 424 young children, who had not yet entered elementary school, with their parents rating their faith level. Sixty-five preliminary questions were formulated under three domains―knowing, loving, and living—that were based on existing studies related to faith. The questions were reduced to 40 through a content validity test conducted by a seven-member panel. These questions were subsequently refined through pilot study, main survey, and statistical analysis. After exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, the scale was finalized, comprising 25 questions that can be categorized into three factors: confessional faith life, missional life, and distinctive life. This scale is expected to measure early childhood faith and prove the effectiveness of Christian education programs on a young child’s faith development.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001100002110463
Author(s):  
Annabelle L. Atkin ◽  
N. Keita Christophe ◽  
Hyung Chol Yoo ◽  
Abigail K. Gabriel ◽  
Christine S. Wu ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was to develop a measure of familial support of Multiracial individuals’ unique racial experiences to advance the field’s understanding of how familial processes influence Multiracial development. A sample of 422 Multiracial college students (77.7% female, Mage = 20.05) from three different regions of the United States completed the survey. Exploratory factor analysis results suggested a two-factor measure. Multiracial Conscious Support, a 15-item subscale, represented support strategies unique to Multiracial individuals’ experiences of discrimination and identity exploration. The second 7-item subscale, Multiple Heritage Validation, represented validation of membership in multiple racial groups. The factor structure was supported by confirmatory factor analysis findings with a separate sample. Support was found for the reliability and validity of each subscale. This study provides evidence validating the first measure of familial support of Multiracial experiences, highlighting two themes of support addressing unique experiences of being Multiracial, and validating multiple racial group memberships.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document