Development of School and Neighborhood Collective Efficacy Scales for Use in Japanese Adolescent Health Research

Abstract

Purpose: The purposes of this study were to develop self-rating school and neighborhood collective efficacy scales for use in Japanese adolescents and to assess the psychometric properties of the scales.

Methods: Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 1,471 students in grades 10 through 12 in six public high schools in Japan in 2015. The collective efficacy questionnaire comprised of social cohesion in school (7 items), social cohesion in the neighborhood (5 items), informal social control in school (7 items), and informal social control in the neighborhood (6 items). Factor analysis was used to evaluate the construct validity of the scales. The predictive validity was examined using the associations with safety at school and neighborhood and self-rated health and K6. Scale reliability was assessed based on internal consistency.

Results: Factor analysis confirmed that collective efficacy constructs among Japanese adolescents consisted of collective efficacy factors in school and neighborhood with social cohesion and informal social control subordinate factors. The scales had good internal consistency (more than 0.9 of Cronbach’s alphas). The collective efficacy scales, as expected, were associated with safety at school and in the neighborhood and subjective health, indicating appropriate predictive validity.

Conclusions: The present findings show the reliability and validity of the school and neighborhood collective efficacy scales for Japanese adolescents.