AUTHOR=Bochaver Alexandra A. , Korneev Aleksei A. , Khlomov Kirill D. 

TITLE=School Climate Questionnaire: A New Tool for Assessing the School Environment

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.871466

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2022.871466

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=The school environment is of great importance for the socialization of children. At school, children learn many values, rules and skills that relate to building relationships including friendship, support, and competition. School environment largely shapes children’s behavior and expectations from society in the future. This study validates the new 22-items School Climate Questionnaire (SCQ) using a sample of Russian school students. A total of 4776 respondents from 9 to 18 years old participated in the correlational study and filled the online-survey including School Climate Questionnaire. The Revised Olweus Bully/Victim Questionnaire, the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale (WEMWBS), and the Academic Motivation Scale were used to examine the convergent validity of the SCQ. Two hypotheses were examined: that the new tool SCQ has structural validity (three factors) and has convergent validity (which is proven by the significant correlations with victimization, aggression, mental well-being, and academic motivation). According to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), it was shown that the questionnaire has three factors; their reliability is satisfactory. As expected, the results revealed significant correlations between three scales of SCQ and scales of Victimization, Aggression, Mental Well-Being and different types of Academic Motivation. The School Climate Questionnaire (SCQ) is a reliable and valid instrument which may be recommended for use by researchers and practitioners in different areas of educational psychology.