Work

Development and Validation of a Novel Instrument to Measure Campus Climate in College Students

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: There is increasing interest in perceived campus climate in the postsecondary education literature. However, conceptualizations and measurements of this construct have lacked reliability, statistical rigor, and validity. This study aimed to develop and validate a novel instrument to measure perceived campus climate. Across two studies with more than 1500 participants, we developed a 46-item novel instrument. This instrument has five factors: University Responsiveness (10 items), Community and Connection (10 items), Equity and Belonging (15 items), Campus Culture and Student Experience (8 items), and Student Satisfaction (3 items). We evaluated the psychometric properties of the novel instrument using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, hierarchical regression, paired-samples t-tests, correlation, and ANOVA. Overall, the results suggest that the novel instrument is reliable, valid, and provides additional predictive power compared to previous iterations of campus climate instruments.

Source: Education Sciences

DOI: 10.3390/educsci16020234

Authors: Steven Michael Sanders, Jake R. Fioresi, Michele S. Lee, Regan A. R. Gurung

Institutions: Oregon State University, Northern Arizona University

Language: English

Topic: Higher Education Research Studies

Subfield: Education

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,172