School Alienation: A Construct Validation Study

Early identification of school alienation is of great importance for students’ educational
outcomes and successful participation in society. This study examined the psychometric
characteristics of a newly developed assessment instrument, the School Alienation Scale
(SALS), to measure school alienation among primary and secondary school students. The
SALS consists of three school-related domains, namely, classmates, teachers, and learning.
Based on the responses of Swiss (1) and Luxembourgish (2) students from two schoolspecific
cohorts — primary (grade 4; n1=486, n2=503) and secondary schools (grade 7;
n1=550, n2=534), we assessed instrument reliability, validity, and cross-cultural
equivalence. The scale showed evidence of reliability and internal validity across two
samples, confirming that the hypothesized first-order three-factor model fits the data better
than several alternative models. The results of measurement invariance tests revealed that
the measurement model operated equally well for primary and secondary school students
in both countries. The construct validity of the SALS was additionally supported by
demonstrated criterion-related validity. Specifically, school alienation domains were
negatively associated with positive attitudes to and enjoyment in school; social problems
in school were positively related to alienation from classmates and teachers. Our key
contributions to the measurement of school alienation are the disclosure of the core
domains of school alienation, development of a reliable and valid instrument, and
justification for its use. Therefore, the results of this study have important implications for
further theoretical work in alienation research and contribute to comparative research by
examining the construct of school alienation in different educational settings.