Award Date

1-1-2005

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Sports Education Leadership

First Committee Member

Monica Lounsbery

Number of Pages

73

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to design and validate an instrument to measure student perception of school connectedness. The intended use for this instrument was to evaluate school-based health interventions such as "Planned Approach to Healthier Schools" (PATHS; Lounsbery, Gast, & Smith, 2005), and to potentially examine other important correlates of student perception of school connectedness, such as attendance in school, referral rates, as well as school drop out and graduation. The development of the instrument included a series of steps which comprised (a) identification of a purpose, (b) specification of an underlying theory, (c) item development, (d) content validity, and (e) item revision; The second phase of this study was to pilot the instrument for the purpose of validation. Validation included the following four steps: (a) item analysis, (b) reliability, and (c) construct validity. The instrument was piloted in Clark County School District (CCSD) and students in grades 6--12 were invited to participate. A sample of 363 students participated in the validation of the instrument; The analysis included descriptive statistics, item analysis and principal components analysis (PCA). Cronbach's Alpha (alpha) was calculated in order to assess the reliability of items and item characteristics; A 43 item instrument intending to contain items that would measure student perception of school connectedness according to five characteristics evolved. The characteristics included (a) acceptance, (b) caring, (c) fairness, (d) teacher connectedness, and (e) student connectedness. The results of the item analysis and PCA indicated a two component, 21 item instrument would explain more variance overall, than the original 43 item instrument. The two components identified in the 21 item instrument were determined to be related to student perceptions of teachers and student perceptions of student school connectedness.

Keywords

Connectedness; Designed; Development; Instrument; Measures; Perceptions; School; Students

Controlled Subject

Health education; School management and organization; Educational tests and measurements

File Format

pdf

File Size

1474.56 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

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