School alienation in online schooling scale (SAOSS): development of a measure to assess school alienation among students

ABSTRACT

This study reports on developing and validating the School Alienation in Online Schooling Scale (SAOSS). School alienation in online schooling is conceptualized as opposed to school belonging and the main reason for minimal participation, reduced educational benefits, and school dropout in school aged-children, especially during the online learning forced due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. This study includes three phases. The first study included item generation and analysis. After the initial analysis, 13 items from the tool were retained. In the second study, exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Two factors emerged from principal component analysis (PCA). In the third study, we investigated the confirmatory factor analysis of SAOSS with a sample of urban students in Iran (grades 7–9, n = 317). The SAOSS has important implications for researchers, school counselors and psychologists, policymakers, and stakeholders. Implication for theory, practice and future research is discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• School alienation
• tool construction
• online schooling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data available on request due to privacy/ethical restrictions.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants followed the institutional and national research committee’s ethical standards and the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Faramarz Asanjarani

Faramarz Asanjarani is currently working as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Education & Psychology, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran. He also serves as the Deputy of research, Counseling Department at the University. His research interest includes counseling psychology and student mental health.

Aneesh Kumar

Aneesh Kumar is currently working as an assistant professor at the Department of Psychology, CHRIST University, India. He serves as the coordinator for undergraduate program for the Department of Psychology. His research interest includes school counseling and student mental health