A New Instrument for Assessing Cohesion in Primary and Grammar School Classes—Factorial Structure and Measurement Invariance of the GruKo4

Abstract

Class climate has been focused in the context of school research for decades. One central facet of class climate is cohesion. Whereas there are well-elaborated instruments to assess cohesion in different contexts (e.g., sport and therapy), such an instrument is missing for the school context. The aim of the current article is to present an instrument to measure different facets of group cohesion in classes of primary and grammar schools. The factorial structure of the instrument is analyzed using data from Grades 2 to 7 ( N ≈ 3052 from 146 classes) by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, tests of measurement invariance across the different levels of education (primary vs. grammar school) are undertaken. Results support configural as well as partial metric and scalar invariance between students of primary and grammar schools. Further, cohesion in primary schools is significantly higher than in grammar schools. Limitations of the study and implications for future research in the context of school are discussed.

Validity and reliability of Mini-Mental State Examination in Older Adults in China: Inline Mini-Mental State Examination with cognitive functions

“…After determining the CFA model that best described the structure of the MMSE, factorial invariance testing was carried out to examine the degree of invariance concerning age. Factorial invariance is a concept applied in the context of psychometric analysis of an inventory (Revuelta, Franco-Martinez, and Ximénez, 2021;Schürer, van Ophuysen, and Behrmann, 2021;Putnick and Bornstein, 2016) to measure the degree of invariance assurance for a categorical variable about its applicability level. In the current context, this concept postulates the psychometric properties of MMSE, and its applicability for the two age groups, young-old and old-old.…”

“…The factorial invariance testing was carried out in this study to make sure the MMSE psychometric properties for both the young-old and old-old age groups were invariant. After the best fitted confirmatory factor model was chosen, four factorial invariance tests were carried out to ensure there is no inequality in their factor structure and form despite their declining health conditions (Putnick and Bornstein, 2016;Revuelta, Franco-Martinez, and Ximénez, 2021;Schürer, van Ophuysen, and Behrmann, 2021).…”

Relationship between group cohesion and social participation of pupils with learning and behavioural difficulties

“…Cohesion was measured by two scales of the GruKo4 (Schürer, van Ophuysen, and Behrmann 2021). The ATG Subscale consists of five items, the GI Subscale consists of three items (variables: Scale-ATG, Scale-GI).…”

Development and Validation of the Need for Online Social Feedback (NfOSF) Scale

“…In fact, the acceptance of a member in a social environment by the others was communicated by several indicators such as cohesion dynamics [19,20], sociometric status [21], social network centrality [22], and gossip and reputation dynamics [23][24][25][26][27]. For this reason, individuals actively monitored social signs coming from the group in order to avoid negative and pervasive phenomena such as ostracism [28][29][30], social exclusion [31][32][33], or other unfavorable outcomes related to social control and punishment of deviance behavior dynamics [34][35][36][37], as well as to potentially acquire status and more advantages linked to the adoption of expected behaviors [38][39][40].…”