The conceptualization and construction of the Self in a Social Context-Social Connectedness Scale: A multidimensional scale for high school students

- We developed a new measure of social connectedness for high school students.
- Core relational and personal elements are measured across multiple contexts.
- Items that encompass emotional responses to connectedness are incorporated.
- The new scale comprises 45 items loading on 4 reliable factors across 4 contexts.

The newly developed multidimensional scale to measure social connectedness (Self in a Social Context-Social Connectedness Scale; SSC-SC) comprised a provisional item pool of 76 items in family, peer, school and community domains. Nine independent raters assessed appropriateness of items, with two items deleted resulting in 74 items. Responses of 836 high school students were investigated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and validated with a further 837 students using EFA within a confirmatory environment (E/CFA). This resulted in 45 items, loading on four reliable factors, indicating social connectedness is a multivariate construct related to the four contexts. Results are discussed in terms of implications for developing effective measures of social connectedness for young people in school settings.