Measuring Advisor Relationship Perceptions Among First-Year Students at a Small Midwestern University

Abstract

In this article, I report on the development and validation of a new survey instrument measuring first-year students' perceptions of the advising relationship. I collected survey data from 113 residential freshmen enrolled in a first-year seminar course at a small, public, midwestern university during the fall of 2009. Factor analysis of students' responses to the survey revealed three key components of the advising relationships: advisor concern, advisor contact, and advising relationship quality. Internal consistency of students' responses to questions loading on each factor, as measured with Cronbach's a, ranged from .89 to. 93, and the internal consistency for all survey items was .95. The article concludes with a revised version of the questionnaire as a basis for future replication studies.