THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSE OF SCHOOL MEMBERSHIP AMONG ADOLESCENTS - SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATIONAL CORRELATES

Oct 22, 2026

The article develops and validates the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale for adolescents’ perceived belonging in the school environment. An initial item set was tested with early adolescents across suburban and multi-ethnic urban middle/junior high schools, yielding a final 18-item measure with strong internal consistency. Results support the scale’s construct validity through hypothesized subgroup differences, and show that psychological membership correlates substantially with self-reported motivation and, to a lesser degree, with grades and teacher-rated effort. Implications for research and educational practice, particularly for at-risk students, are discussed.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

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Pages12

Reading Time30 min

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Relative Age and Achievement

Does age of entrance affect school achievement?

Beginning school age and academic achievement

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSE OF SCHOOL MEMBERSHIP AMONG ADOLESCENTS: SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATIONAL CORRELATES

Scale development and validation

Social context and belongingness

Links to motivation, grades, and effort

# Relative Age and Achievement DAVIS,B.G.,TRIMBLE,C.S.,&VINCENT,D.R.(1980).Does age of entrance affect school achievement?The Elementary School Journal,80,133-143. DrETZ,C.,&WuSON,B.J.(1985).Beginning school age and academic achievement.Psychology in the Schools, 22,93-94. FENZEL,L.M.(1990,March).Longitudinal trends in the efect of age status on role strain,self-esteem,and GPA during the transition to middle school.Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Societyfor Research on Adolescence,Atlanta,GA. KALK,J.M.,LANGER,P.,&SEARLS,D.T.(1982).Trends in achievement as function of age of admission.(Report No.AY-AA-51).Denver,CO:National Assessment of Educational Progress,Education Com-mission of the States.(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.ED 230603) MONTZ,L.R.(1985).Academic achievement among early entry students.Anchorage,AK:Creekside ParkElementary School.(ERIC Document Reproduction Service No.ED 274440) OLSON,G.H.(1989,Apirl).Date of birth and its effect upon performance in school over subsequent years.Paper presented at annal meeting of the American Education Association,San Franciso,CA.RUSSELL,R.J.H.,&STARTUP,M.J.(1986).Month of birth and academic achievement.Personality andIndividual Differences,7,839-846. SWEETLAND,J.D.,&DE SIMONE,P.A.(1987).Age of entry,sex,and academic achievement in elementaryschool children.Psychology in the Schools,24,406-412. Psychology in the Schools Volume 30.January 1993 # THE PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSE OF SCHOOL MEMBERSHIPAMONG ADOLESCENTS:SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND EDUCATIONAL CORRELATES CAROL GOODENOW Tufts University This article discusses the development and validation of a measure of adolescentstudents'perceived belonging or psychological membership in the school environment.An initial set of items was administered to early adolescent students in one suburbanmiddle school(N=454)and two multi-ethnic urban junior high schools(N=301).ltems with low variability and items detracting from scale reliability were dropped,resulting in a final 18-item Psychological Sense of School Membership(PSSM)scale,which had good internal consistency reliability with both urban and suburban studentsand in both English and Spanish versions.Significant findings of several hypothesizedsubgroup differences in psychological school membership supported scale constructvalidity.The quality of psychological membership in school was found to be substan-tially correlated with self-reported school motivation,and to a lesser degree with gradesand with teacher-rated effort in the cross-sectional scale development studies and ina subsequent longitudinal project.Implications for research and for educational prac-tice,especially with at-risk students,are discussed. Goodenow Students'classroom engagement,academic effort,and subsequent school successor failure are influenced not only by individual differences in skills,abilities,and pre-dispositions,but also by many situational and contextual factors.Among these con-textual factors,the quality of school social relationships may be especially important.In the past few years,increasing research attention has been directed toward the influ-ence of social relationships on educational outcomes.This attention can be seen in workon cooperative learning and reciprocal teaching(e.g.,Johnson &Johnson,1991;Palincsar &Brown,1984;Slavin,1990),in research on social interaction as a majorsource of cognitive development (Rogoff,1990;Tharp &Gallimore,1988;Vygotsky,1978),in investigations into the effects of friendships on school adaptation(Berndt &Keefe,1992;Epstein,1983),and in the use of the metaphor of “community”in currentdiscourse about schools(e.g.,Brandt,1992;Carnegie Council,1989;Fine,1990a).Severaleducational researchers(e.g.,Goodenow,1992a;Pintrich,1992;Weiner,1990)havecalled for further empirical studies of the links between social-context variables andcognitive,motivational,and educational processes. One aspect of the social context of special relevance to e

FAQs

What does the Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale measure?

It measures adolescents’ perceived belonging, or psychological membership, in the school environment—how accepted, respected, included, and supported students feel by others at school.

How was the PSSM scale developed and validated?

An initial set of items was administered to early adolescents in one suburban middle school and two multi-ethnic urban junior high schools. Items with low variability and those weakening reliability were removed, resulting in a final 18-item scale with good internal consistency and supported construct validity through subgroup differences.

How is psychological membership related to motivation and achievement?

Psychological membership quality is substantially correlated with self-reported school motivation. It is also correlated to a lesser degree with grades and with teacher-rated effort in the reported cross-sectional and longitudinal studies.

Oct 22, 2026

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