Sense of community in community organizations: Structure and evidence of validity
β Scribed by Joseph Hughey; Paul W. Speer; N. Andrew Peterson
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 104 KB
- Volume
- 27
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0090-4392
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
β¦ Synopsis
A framework for measuring psychological sense of community for community organizations was presented, and an instrument to measure community organization sense of community was developed. The framework consisted of four components: Relationship to the Organization, Organization as Mediator, Influence of the Community Organization, and Bond to the Community. Two studies examined the dimensionality, reliability, and validity of the instrument. Study 1 (n Ο 218) was conducted with participants from three community organizations, and it identified four factors, matching the framework, with alpha coefficients from .61 to .85. Study 2 (n Ο 1,676) was conducted with participants from five community organizations. Study 2 participants were 48% African American, 42% White, 6% Latino/Hispanic, and 3% Other. Also for the Study 2 sample, 69% were female; 31% were male. Study 2 confirmed three factors for the Community Organization Sense of Community scale (COSOC): Relationship to the Organization, Organization as Mediator, Bond to the Community; alpha coefficients ranged from .82 to .87. In three subsamples of Study 2, convergent validity of the instrument was explored by correlating total COSOC scores and subscale scores with two other measures of sense of community, political participation, community involvement, community organization involvement, and perceived safety. The patterns of correlation among the variables indicated, with one exception: strong support for
π SIMILAR VOLUMES
This paper presents a review of the concepts of "community" and "sense of community." To discuss the concept of "community," reference is made to the different definitions provided in the literature analyzing and describing their components and determining their adequacy and relevance to the theorie
This article summarizes theoretical and methodological advances in the study and application of a SOC, and serves as the introduction to a special issue devoted to this subject. Four themes emerged from the review. The first was that there continues to be a search for additional measures, despite th