Support for Secondary Education of U.S.–Mexico Border Residents: The Construction and Validation of the Global Higher Education Support Scale (GHESS)

Abstract

Support for students before planning, planning to enter, and while enrolled in higher education is needed to ensure academic achievement, especially among U.S. Hispanics. Measures for determining the nature of student support or obstruction are necessary if we are to understand academic achievement and its development among U.S. Hispanic learners. Nevertheless, few social support measures are specific to higher education, and most are restricted in time frames or sources of support. This article describes the construction and validation of the Global Higher Education Support Scale (GHESS) and its application in a U.S.–Mexico border community. Item generation was guided by past research, focus groups, expert opinions, and a combination of the Ecological Systems Theory (1977) and the Theory of Planned Behavior (1991). Items addressed 3 conceptual time periods in students' lives—before preparing for college, while preparing, and since beginning their studies—and 3 sources of support: family, friends, and significant others. Over 400 students from a predominantly Hispanic American university responded to the item pool and other measures. Factor analyses and scale refinement yielded an interpretable structure. Further analyses show excellent preliminary evidence of reliability and validity for the GHESS.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This project was partially funded by grants from the University of Texas–Pan American (UTPA) College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and the Intelligence Community Center of Academic Excellence.

We thank Drs. Espiridión “Al” Borrego and Frederick Ernst for their invaluable assistance. We also thank Drs. Amy A. Weimer, Ralph Carlson, Guang-zhen Wang, and Edna Alfaro for their help and support. Finally, thanks to graduate students from clinical psychology and public administration at UTPA.