The Teacher and Classmate Support Scale

Abstract

This article presents results on the factor structure, testretest reliability and external validity of the Teacher and Classmate Support scale, a brief self-report measure on perceived support from teachers and classmates. The main study included 315 13-year-olds and 366 15-year-olds. At 7-10 days after the main study, a subsample of 57 13-year-olds and 51 15-year-olds took part in a retest study. A confirmatory factor analysis of the scale showed that a correlated 2-factor model fitted the data well in both age groups, indicating that the division into a teacher and a classmate subscale is a valid measurement model. Both subscales correlated moderately with school motivation, but weakly with a measure on subjective health complaints. Convergent validity was indicated by moderate to strong relationships between the teacher subscale and an independent measure on teacher support, and by moderate relationships between the classmate subscale and an independent measure on friend support. Test-retest correlations were 0.69 for the teacher subscale and 0.74 for the classmate subscale. The scale offers promise as a parsimonious self-report measure on classmate and teacher support, but more evidence is needed before the scale can be recommended for wider research purposes.