Measuring school adjustment: psychometric parameters of a scale

Abstract

This study aimed to adapt the Questionnaire of School Adjustment, jointing empirical evidences of its factor validity and reliability. Moreover, it aimed to know if its scores could vary according to the participants’ sex, scholar degree, and type of school. Participants were 242 students, most were from private school (53.7%), female (57.7%) and with mean age of 14.3 years (sd=1.88) Principal components analysis (varimax rotation) revealed four components, taking into account 44.5% of the total variance: disciplinary difficulties (α=.72), scholar difficulties (α=.65), general aspects about the school (α=.59), and relationship with professors and schoolmates (α=.57); a general component showed Alpha of .78. Performing a MANOVA, a statistical difference was observed between the participants’ scores of elementary school and high school with respect to the component named as scholar difficulties. It was concluded that this instrument is psychometric appropriated for research purpose.