Design and validation of an instrument to assess students’ perceived school coexistence.

Abstract

A good climate of harmonious coexistence in educational institutions can improve students’ well-being, self-esteem, and academic results and prevent maladaptive behaviours. Several questionnaires assess coexistence by quantifying the types of problems that occur, but there are few that focus on managing it and implementing programmes to improve it. The aim of the present research is to validate a questionnaire for evaluating students’ perception of the management of school coexistence. This questionnaire centres on the 21-item Integrated Model of School Coexistence. We used random cluster and stratified sampling with the participation of 1169 students from 34 centres in year six of primary education and secondary education from the Autonomous Community of Madrid. The questionnaire was validated by expert judgement. We used the SPSS v24 and AMOS programs to perform exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, respectively. The results show 4 factors with reliability indices ranging between .737 and .859 (Factor 1, protective framework for coexistence; Factor 2, student mediator program; Factor 3, student assistant program; Factor 4, democratic rule-making processes). Finally the empirical fit with the Integrated Model for fostering more harmonious relations in school communities was confirmed.