Factorial validation of sense of community scale using Nigerian mathematics, science, and social science education students: Implication for educational administrators and evaluators

The ugly occurrences of security breaches have made the Nigerian populace to be leaving in fear. The most affected are the teaming adolescents of the school-age who may not have a good sense of their community. Thus, this study carried out the factorial validation of a 36-item sense of community scale (SoCS) developed by Cicognani et al. since no such study exists in Nigeria. The instrument was adopted and validated. A sample of 357 students in South East Federal Universities, Nigeria, was used for this study using a simple random sampling technique. The instrument's factorial validation was conducted by subjecting the data obtained to factor analysis to determine its validity and reliability. Besides, the principal component matrix with varimax rotation was used to carry out the exploratory and confirmatory factors analyses, while the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) and confirmatory factor index (CFI) were used to determine the data model fit. Findings of the study showed that SoCS demonstrated good reliability (0.89) and model fit (RMSEA = 0.041, CFI = 0.951) in the Nigerian context. SoCS is a reliable scale for measuring the in-school adolescents' sense of community.