A Cross-Cultural Assessment of School Connectedness: Testing Measurement Invariance With United States and Chilean Adolescents

Abstract

Positive associations between measures of school or academic connectedness and behavioral and academic outcomes suggest that connectedess is an important protective factor for adolescents in the United States. However, little is known about the meaning or measurement of academic connectedness, outside the United States, and especially in South America where rapid economic and educational changes are underway. Using the Hemingway: Measure of Adolescent Connectedness measurement invariance analyses were conducted that compared Chilean and United States samples. Results revealed that although all scales reflected factorial validity in both cultures, the connectedness to school, teachers, and self-in-the-future factors were noninvariant across groups, whereas the factors of connectedness to peers and self-in-the-present were invariant across groups. Consequently, all of these subscales can be used in both contexts, but comparing United States and Chilean youth on three subscales may be ill advised.

Humanizing and conducive to learning: an adolescent students’ perspective on the central attributes of positive relationships with teachers

“…To our knowledge, there is a lack of qualitative studies that explore cross-cultural commonalities and differences in the meanings of connectedness with teachers for adolescent students. There is an ongoing debate on whether measures of connectedness can be invariant across countries or there are some culturally specific aspects (Karcher and Lee 2002;Sass et al 2011). Our findings support the idea that connectedness with teachers is a relevant construct and shares core attributes in England and Spain.…”

The conceptualisation of school and teacher connectedness in adolescent research: a scoping review of literature

“…Developed by Karcher (2001, as quoted in Karcher andLee 2002), this scale has been tested in a Taiwanese sample (Karcher and Lee 2002), reporting good reliability and validity of all the subscales. This scale invariance across gender and ethnicity has been tested in American students (Karcher and Sass 2010) and cross-culturally between United States and Chilean adolescents (Sass et al 2011). In addition, McWhirter and McWhirter (2011) examined the factorial structure of the scale in a sample of Chilean adolescents finding a highly similar structure to that originally reported by Karcher.…”

“…Therefore, although this review provides a current overview of research in the field that can be of interest for an international audience, more attention should be paid to cross-cultural differences that may affect conceptualisation and measurement of school connectedness. Researchers (Karcher and Lee 2002;McWhirter and McWhirter 2011;Sass et al 2011) have started to explore this issue and tried to identify universal and culturally specific elements of school connectedness. This is an important area for further research.…”

Protective Associations of School Connectedness with Risk of Depression in Nova Scotia Adolescents

“…It is important to assess the effects of school connectedness within different cultures, as culture has a strong influence on psychological development, values, behaviours, and personal relationships. 18 Examining these relationships is essential, as school is where young people spend most of their time, and there are ways in which their feelings of connectedness to school could be increased through appropriate intervention. 19,20 Many factors are known to be associated with depression in adolescents.…”