The Japanese Association of School Health

Brief Paper

ISSN ONLINE : 1880-2400

[School Health Vol.7, 62-72 , 2011]

The Development of Japanese 13-item Version of Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale for Japanese Urban High School Students

Taisuke Togari*, Miho Sato**, Yoshihiko Yamazaki*** and Reika Otemori****

  • *Faculty of Liberal Arts, The Open University of Japan
  • 2-11 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba 261-8586 Japan
  • ttogari-tky@umin.ac.jp
  • **Department of Nursing Education and Administration, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University
  • 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai-city 980-8575 Japan
  • ***Institute of Stress Science, Public Health Research Foundation
  • 1-1-7 Nishiwaseda, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 169-0051 Japan
  • ****Chuo University Junior and Senior High School
  • 3-22-1 Nukuikitamachi, Koganei-city, Tokyo 184-8575 Japan

[Received September 29, 2010; Accepted September 13, 2011]

Keywords:
Psychological sense of school membership, sense of school belonging, high school student, factor analysis

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Abstracts

Objective: There are few studies about the indicators of the relationship between psychosocial school environment and student’s self-concept in Japan. One of these indicators is the psychological sense of school membership scale (PSSM) in United States and European countries. The aim of this study was to develop a Japanese version of PSSM and examine its reliability and validity.
Methods: The participants of this study were 10th, 11th, and 12th grade male and female students at a private high school in the Tokyo metropolitan area (N = 1,539). This study used a 2-time-point longitudinal design, which was fi rst applied in May 2007 (Time 1) and again in March 2008 (Time 2). The Central Location Test and the self-administered questionnaire method were used. The valid responses included 1,522 individuals (99.0%) at Time 1 and 1,378 individuals (90.4%) at Time 2.
Results: A three-factor 13-item-structure (named PSSM-13J) was adopted based on the results of reliability analysis and confi rmatory factor analysis. Time 1 PSSM-13J and the difference in PSSM-13J related to Time 2 mental health status adjusted for Time 1 mental health status as originally expected in both genders. Moreover, the change in Time 1 PSSM-13J over 10 months predicted Time 2 psychosomatic symptoms in the male students. However, there was no relationship between PSSM-13J and Time 2 sychosomatic symptoms adjusted by Time 1 psychosomatic symptoms in the female students.
Conclusion: The Japanese version of the 13-item psychological sense of school membership scale had certain validity in addition to reliability.

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