Adaptation of the sense of community index for Brazilian children

Abstract

The sense of community is an important construct for assessing the individual's relationship with his/her community context. This study aims to adapt the Sense of Community Index for Brazilian Children and verify its psychometric properties in this sample. The participants are 1,736 Brazilian children between 8 and 13 years old (53.3% girls). Exploratory factor analysis indicated a two-factor solution (Positive bond with community and Community neighbors' relationships), with 47.9% of explained variance. Scale reliability was adequate (Cronbach's α = .78) and confirmatory factor analysis presented good fit indices (CFA > .95 and RMSEA < .05). Multigroup analysis indicated that the items have the same meanings regarding sex and age, and that the latent factors means are comparable regarding sex, but not for age. The proposed model of the instrument is adequate and can be used in future studies with Brazilian children.