A New Instrument for Assessing Cohesion in Primary and Grammar School Classes—Factorial Structure and Measurement Invariance of the GruKo4

Abstract

Class climate has been focused in the context of school research for decades. One central facet of class climate is cohesion. Whereas there are well-elaborated instruments to assess cohesion in different contexts (e.g., sport and therapy), such an instrument is missing for the school context. The aim of the current article is to present an instrument to measure different facets of group cohesion in classes of primary and grammar schools. The factorial structure of the instrument is analyzed using data from Grades 2 to 7 ( N ≈ 3052 from 146 classes) by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, tests of measurement invariance across the different levels of education (primary vs. grammar school) are undertaken. Results support configural as well as partial metric and scalar invariance between students of primary and grammar schools. Further, cohesion in primary schools is significantly higher than in grammar schools. Limitations of the study and implications for future research in the context of school are discussed.