The Adaptation of the School Cohesion Scale into Turkish Culture

The aim of this study is to adapt Student Perceptions of School Cohesion scale (Springer et al., 2009) into Turkish through testing the language validity and conducting Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). While the sample for EFA consisted of 311 students, the sample for CFA 220 consisted of students. Since the CFA was administered first and it was determined that some items were not meaningful at .05 level it was decided to administer the EFA. The 8th and 9th items were taken out of the scale considering the total item correlation before EFA. A single sub-dimensional structure was obtained as a result of the EFA administered with the remaining items. In order to test the structure obtained from the EFA, CFA was administered with different data sets and the factor structure was determined to be acceptable. The only sub-dimensional structure of the scale was given the name "student cohesion". The internal consistency coefficient of the reliability study was calculated as .80. The Pearson Moments Multiplication Correlation Coefficient calculated for the test-retest reliability study was found to be significant. All in all, the scale is a valid and reliable tool that can be used in Turkish culture.