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Abstract
The Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale has been used for more than 20 years to measure students' sense of school belonging, yet its psychometric properties have had limited examination with pre-adolescent children. This study investigated the utility and psychometrics of the PSSM in three primary school samples from the United States, China, and the United Kingdom. Exploratory factor analysis revealed good fit for a unidimensional factor structure in the US sample, which was subsequently confirmed in all three samples. Partial invariance across all three samples and full invariance across pairwise samples (United States and United Kingdom; United Kingdom and China) was found. Path analyses revealed significant positive relations of the PSSM total belonging score with gratitude and prosocial behavior, and significant negative relations with symptoms of distress. Future directions and implications are discussed.
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Author biographies
Rhea Wagle, MEd, is a doctoral student in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, University of California Santa Barbara, with an emphasis in school psychology. Her research interests include school-based mental health screening, early identification and intervention, social-emotional learning, and school belonging. Email:rhea.wagle@gmail.com
Erin Dowdy, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, University of California Santa Barbara. She is a licensed psychologist and a nationally certified school psychologist. Her research career and scholarly publications have focused on behavioral and social emotional assessment, particularly universal screening for social and emotional health and risk. She is the co-principal investigator on several screening measurement projects funded through the Institute of Education Sciences. Email:edowdy@ucsb.edu
Chunyan Yang, PhD, is an Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology, University of California Santa Barbara. Her research interests focus on understanding the functions of school climate, social–emotional learning, and cultural factors in promoting and prohibiting the development of resilience among children and adolescents, particularly in programs targeting bullying and school engagement. Email:chunyan.yang@ucsb.edu
Olympia Palikara is a senior lecturer (Associate Professor) in Educational Psychology in the School of Education, University of Roehampton London. Her research interests concern the educational and psychosocial competence of children and adolescents. She is also interested in the effect of primary to secondary school transition on pupils' well-being. Email:Olympia.Palikara@roehampton.ac.uk
Susana Castro is a senior lecturer at Roehampton University London and a Chartered Psychologist (British Psychological Society). Her expertise lies in the areas of atypical development, special education needs and disability, child development and education, with a particular focus on functional approaches to development and disability. She has a track record of international publications and research funding awards in these areas of interest. Email: Susana.Castro@roehampton.ac.uk.
Karen Nylund-Gibson, PhD, is an Associate Professor, Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California Santa Barbara. Her research helps to bridge the gap between advanced statistical modeling and applications of these models to educational and psychological issues. She is most interested in mixture modeling, including latent class, latent profile, and latent transition analysis. Email:klnylu@ucsb.edu
Michael Furlong, PhD, is a Distinguished Emeritus Professor and Research Professor, International Center for School Based Youth Development, University of California Santa Barbara. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 16, School) and American Educational Research Association and a member of the Society for Study of School Psychology. Email: mfurlong@ucsb.edu
