Abstract
The aim of this study was to develop and validate a psychometrically-sound instrument to assess students’ perceptions about class cohesion. Two studies were conducted. In Study 1, four steps were established: (1) development of the Class Cohesion Questionnaire (CCQ); (2) item selection; (3) item compression; and (4) exploration of psychometric properties. In Study 2, participants were 1504 students from 21 primary and secondary schools. The aim was to confirm the psychometric properties and to create a short version of the instrument (CCQ-SF). In Study 1, the CCQ showed adequate content and construct validity, with a factorial structure of two first-order factors (task cohesion and social cohesion), and adequate internal consistency. In Study 2, the CCQ and CCQ-SF confirmed adequate factorial structure and reliability, discriminant and nomological validity, and showed invariance by sex and educational stage. The CCQ and the CCQ-SF are valid and reliable instruments to measure class cohesion in educational settings.
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Notes
Given the high correlations between factors, an alternative global one-factor model was tested showing poor fit indices (χ2 = 1737.42, df = 135, p < .001, CFI = .85, TLI = .83, RMSEA = .09 (95% CI: .08, .09), SRMR = .06) suggesting that the two-factor model solution is better.
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Leo, F.M., Fernández-Río, J., Pulido, J.J. et al. Assessing class cohesion in primary and secondary education: Development and preliminary validation of the class cohesion questionnaire (CCQ). Soc Psychol Educ 26, 141–160 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-022-09738-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11218-022-09738-y