Measuring student perception of school climate: ¿validity and reliability of the questionnaire What is happening at school?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.57247/riec.vi4.76Keywords:
Bullying, school culture, , well-being, educational centerAbstract
School climate measures are important tools that help psychologists assess the norms, values, and expectations that help people feel socially, emotionally, and physically safe. Positive school climate is associated with academic performance indicators such as grade point average, achievement related markers, school satisfaction and identification, and student mental health and psychosocial outcomes. In Guatemala, the instruments to evaluate the school climate are scarce, ¿for this reason we seek to describe the reliability and confirmatory analysis of the questionnaire What is happening at school? (WHITS), a self report measure for schools. After conducting a literature review, the questionnaire was applied to 441 students from four educational institutions in Guatemala City. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyzes confirmed a six factor structure that includes the original 48 items. The adapted measure is reliable and valid for use in educational centers. This study underscores the importance of assessing the utility and validity of specific measures within the country.
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