University Social Climate Quality Scale (USCQS) – Results of a Pilot Study
Maria Łukaszek
University of Rzeszów (UR), Institute of Pedagogy, Department of Pedagogy and Philosophyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-8637-3171
Alicja Kozakiewicz
University of Zielona Góra, Collegium Medicum, Institute of Health Sciences, Department of the Humanization of Medicine and Sexologyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0001-6490-2511
Joanna Mazur
University of Zielona Góra, Collegium Medicum, Institute of Health Sciences, Department of the Humanization of Medicine and Sexologyhttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-3937-7230
Abstract
Aim: The aim of this study was to develop a short, culturally adapted version of the University Social Climate Quality Scale (USCQS) to measure the university social climate as perceived by students, and to evaluate its basic psychometric properties. The tool was developed to enable a quick, reliable, and practical assessment of institutional factors that may affect the well-being of college students in Poland.
Method: The pilot study was conducted as an online survey (CAWI) among 500 students recruited using the snowball sampling method. Initially, 14 scale items, developed based on a literature review, were evaluated. As part of the assessment of the scale’s psychometric properties, the distributions of individual items, internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha), correlations between items, and factor structure (PCA) were analysed, along with an assessment of sampling adequacy and sphericity (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin index and Bartlett’s test, respectively). Based on this, a shortened version of the scale containing 7 items was developed, and its properties were also tested.
Results: The 7-item version demonstrated high reliability (α = .90) and more consistent correlations between items (r = .46–.67) than the 14-item version. PCA analysis confirmed a unidimensional structure for both the full and shortened versions of the scale, with a single dominant component explaining 55.83% and 61.78% of the variance, respectively. Descriptive statistics indicated moderate floor and ceiling effects, with a distribution of total scores that was close to normal.
Conclusion: The results indicate that the 7-item version of the USCQS is a brief, reliable, and valid tool, suitable for use in population-based studies as part of multi-item questionnaires to measure the social climate of universities. Furthermore, the scale can support the identification of institutional risk factors for dropping out of college and the development of intervention strategies in the academic environment.
Keywords:
university social climate, students, psychometric properties, psychometric analysis, measurement scalesReferences
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University of Rzeszów (UR), Institute of Pedagogy, Department of Pedagogy and Philosophy
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8637-3171
University of Zielona Góra, Collegium Medicum, Institute of Health Sciences, Department of the Humanization of Medicine and Sexology
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6490-2511
University of Zielona Góra, Collegium Medicum, Institute of Health Sciences, Department of the Humanization of Medicine and Sexology
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3937-7230
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