Assessing Sense of Community on adolescents: validating the brief scale of Sense of Community in adolescents (SOC‐A)

Abstract

Sense of Community (SoC) is a key theoretical construct in community psychology. This study validated a SoC scale for adolescents (SoC‐A) in Italy. The scale comprises 20 items and five components: satisfaction of needs and opportunities for involvement; support and emotional connection with peers; support and emotional connection in the community; sense of belonging; and opportunities for influence. The sample included 661 Italian high school students (47% male and 53% female) between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. Factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis confirmed five components corresponding to the original work of Cicognani, Albanesi, and Zani (2006). The boys scored higher on SoC than girls. There were no differences between age groups. Results showed differences in SoC between types of schools (lycee, vocational and technical institutes). These findings provide support for the 20‐item SoC‐A scale and its underlying multidimensional theory of SoC. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Effect of Online Collaboration on Adolescent Sense of Community in Eighth-Grade Physical Science

“…However, little research has compared the effect of face-to-face collaborative learning with online collaborative learning in regard to students' sense of community (Koh and Hill 2009), with a particular emphasis on the adolescent level and the subject area of science. To date, the majority of peer-reviewed empirical studies have focused on sense of community among university students' in distance learning programs (Cameron et al 2009;Koh and Hill 2009;Ouzts 2006), and teachers' sense of community in face-to-face interactions (Admiraal and Lockhorst 2012;Baker and Murray 2011).Thus, an integral gap exists in understanding the effects of collaboration on adolescent students' sense of community in the traditional and online science classroom (Chiessi et al 2010). As study suggests, all communities require mediation (Goodings et al 2007).…”

“…Studies support that sense of community is foundational to learning at all levels (Abfalter et al 2012;Lunetta et al 2007;Rovai 2002b) and in environments that require ''critical, divergent, and exploratory opinions'' (Kwon et al 2014), such as the science classroom. Research also suggests that community is beneficial to adolescent development (Evans 2007), including promotion of personal identity development and formation of and belonging to peer groups based on shared characteristics (Chiessi et al 2010;Pugh and Hart 1999). A strong sense of community within a school may positively influence both students and teachers (Rossi 1997) as the interactions between individuals within a learning community assist in development of person and social identity (Chiessi et al 2010).…”

“…Research also suggests that community is beneficial to adolescent development (Evans 2007), including promotion of personal identity development and formation of and belonging to peer groups based on shared characteristics (Chiessi et al 2010;Pugh and Hart 1999). A strong sense of community within a school may positively influence both students and teachers (Rossi 1997) as the interactions between individuals within a learning community assist in development of person and social identity (Chiessi et al 2010).…”

“…Studies suggest the need for further comparison of the effectiveness of pedagogical practices, such as those utilizing collaborative activities, in the face-toface classroom compared to the distance or computer-mediated classroom (Cameron et al 2009;Koh and Hill 2009). Further investigation is also needed that examines the ability of computer-mediated activities to increase opportunities for peer collaboration in an engaging and cooperative learning community (Dewiyanti et al 2007;Donne 2012;Keser et al 2011;Yang and Chang 2012), specifically in the adolescent science classroom (Chiessi et al 2010). …”

Predicting Online and Offline Civic Participation among Young Czech Roma: The Roles of Resources, Community Perceptions and Social Norms

“…We measured two types of community perception using two subscales taken from The Brief Scale of Sense of Community in Adolescents (Chiessi, Cicognani, and Sonn 2010 would have good chance of reaching their desired goals.' 'If only we had the opportunity, I think that we could be able to achieve something special for our neighbourhood.'…”