School Sense Of Community And Loneliness:the Mediating Role Of Interpersonal Trust

Sense of community is often used to describe mental states that can meet the needs of attribute or support in school scenarios or group.Combined with previous research,this article argues the sense of the school community as a two-way interaction between the interpersonal interaction of the individual in the school community?the perception of the environment and the educational system.School sense of community is of great significance to school students,it is closely related to educational achievements,positive interpersonal relationships and well-being.At present,there are relatively small number of discussions on school community,domestic research on this field has just started.As for measurement of school sense of community,foreign scholars have developed a lot of scales with good reliability and validity,such as sense of community index,SCI;Classroom and school community inventory,CSCI and classroom sense of community scale,So C-C)etc.However,school sense of community is not popular in China,and the measurement of it almost learn from by western countries.In addition,a large number of studies have shown that the lack of school sense of community will lead to loneliness experience,and this may be the result of interpersonal trust.Based on the development of school community sense of community,the school sense of community of the students at home was investigated.And this study explored the relationship between school sense of community,loneliness and interpersonal trust from the view of implicit and explicit further.Based on the interviews and past community related results,the school sense of community scale was constructed in the context of Chinese culture.The scale contained 18 items,covering the campus environment,campus culture,school management,learning community and social community for 5 dimensions.The campus environment refered to the students on the school's natural environment,public buildings and the order of the perception of security;Campus culture included students' perception of school history,atmosphere and cultural details;School management refered to the degree of student involvement in campus construction and the recognition and evaluation of the overall management system;Learning community was the degree to which students acquire knowledge and the perception of educational expectations.Social community refered to the perception of interpersonal relationships,cohesion and extracurricular activities.The measurement features showed that the internal consistency coefficient of whole scale is 0.903,and the internal consistency coefficient for each dimensions was between 0.620 to 0.856.And the re-test reliability was 0.865 after 2 to 3 weeks.The analyzed results revealed a high internal reliability and a good measurement model fit(?2/df<5,RMSEA<0.08,GFI=0.940,CFI=0.944,NFI=0.921,IFI=0.945).The scale had a good structural validity and efficiency validity,and there was a significant positive correlation between school sense of community and life satisfaction,and negatively correlated with depression.Therefore,we believed the school sense of community can be used for Chinese college students.In the second study,we discussed the status and level of the school sense of community in college students at home(N=1361).It was found that the school sense of community in Chinese college students was in the middle and upper level.There was a significant difference in the school sense of community among different school types(F(2,1358)=407.48,P <0.001,?2 =0.06),showing that the school sense of community in key schools was significantly higher than that in non key and specialized schools.In the study of social and economic status,students with high social and economic status reported higher school community sense level(t(1213)=2.85,p=0.003,d =0.21).There were no significant differences in sex(t(1359)=1.053,p=0.293,d =0.06)and ethnic groups(t(895)= 0.909,p=0.363,d =0.06)respectively.The relationship between school sense of community,loneliness and trust was discussed from the prespective of explicit and implicit in study 3 and 4.Basis on compilation of the questionnaire,combined with UCLA and ITS scale,we handed out questionnaires randomly in universities in Southwest of China.The results showed that the school sense of community and trust significantly negatively affected loneliness(?= 0.383,P < 0.001;? = 0.266,P < 0.001).The trust(? = 0.411,P < 0.001)was significantly positive in school sense of community(effectm = ab/c =0.25).Instudy 4,the implicit loneliness and implicit trust of college students were measured.The results of paired sample t test showed that the implicit loneliness effect was significant(t(2719)=4.532,P<0.001,d=0.11),and the implicit trust effect was also significant(t(2719)=-32.033,P<0.001,d=0.81).However,there was no significant correlation between school sense of community(r=-0.065,p>0.05)and implicit trust(r=-0.013,p>0.05).In conclusion:(1)We constructed a school sense of community questionnaire that suitable for Chinese college students.The questionnaire included 5 dimensions of campus culture,campus environment,school management,learning community and social community.The reliability and validity of the questionnaire are good.(2)The level of school sense of community in different types of school students was different.The level of school sense of community of the students in key universities was significantly higher than that of the non-key and specialized schools in the three dimensions of campus culture,campus environment and social community.SES can positively predict students' school sense of community.There was no significant difference between race and gender.(3)To explore the relationship between school sense of community,loneliness and trust,it was found from an explicit point of view that there is a mediating effect for trust between loneliness and school sense of community;But there was no mediating effect from the implicit perspective.