Development and Validation of the School Adjustment Scale

6

Abstract

The results of earlier studies indicate that school maladaptation is associated with a number of negative consequences, including poor academic performance, increased anxiety and unpopularity of the child among peers. However, reliable instruments for timely identification of school adaptation difficulties are not yet available in the Russian-speaking space; the use of foreign instruments is not possible due to cultural differences and peculiarities of the organisation of the educational process in different countries. This study highlights the development of a school adjustment questionnaire, including determining its optimal structure and assessing the feasibility of relying on self-reported information about school adjustment. Two identical versions of the questionnaire were developed, one for children and one for teachers. Sixteen teachers and 232 first-grade pupils participated in the study. Through a combination of exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, a four-factor model of the teacher questionnaire was found to have the highest goodness of fit, including scales assessing cognitive activity, behaviour regulation, social inclusion and psycho-emotional stress. Data from children themselves did not prove to be reliable enough for differentiated assessment of aspects of school adaptation. The study has drawn the necessary conclusions for the further development of an instrument to assess school adaptation of children in Russia.

General Information

Keywords: school adaptation, adaptive stress, tool development, psychometric assessment

Journal rubric: Developmental Psychology

Article type: scientific article

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17759/pse.2024290608

Funding. The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (number 23-78-30005).

Received: 15.02.2024

Accepted:

For citation: Gavrilova M.N., Dmitrieva O.A., Aslanova M.S., Rudnova N.A. Development and Validation of the School Adjustment Scale. Psikhologicheskaya nauka i obrazovanie = Psychological Science and Education, 2024. Vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 114–128. DOI: 10.17759/pse.2024290608. (In Russ., аbstr. in Engl.)

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Information About the Authors

Margarita N. Gavrilova, PhD in Psychology, Research Associate, Department of Educational Psychology and Pedagogy, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8458-5266, e-mail: gavrilovamrg@gmail.com

Olga A. Dmitrieva, Director, State Budgetary Educational Institution Shuvalovskaya School № 1448, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1872-1258, e-mail: dmitrievaoa1@edu.mos.ru

Margarita S. Aslanova, Research Associate, Department of Educational Psychology and Pedagogy, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3150-221X, e-mail: simomargarita@yandex.ru

Natalia A. Rudnova, PhD in Psychology, Research Associate, Department of Psychology of Education and Pedagogy, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2063-2892, e-mail: rudnova.na@yandex.ru

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