Factorial Validity of Teacher and School Counselor Support Scales in Latina/o Students

In the current study, we investigated the psychometric properties of two meaningful measures of support from teachers and school counselors among Latina/o students. Examining factorial stability with diverse populations is important to make sure that measures provide valid information about constructs of teacher or counselor support. While researchers have provided evidence of reliability (i.e., consistency), no study has examined validity (e.g., accuracy) of Teacher Support Scale Revised (TSSR) with Latina/o students. Confirmatory and exploratory factor analyses (CFA and EFA) methods were used to evaluate structural validity of the TSSR and School Counselor Support Scale (SCSS). Two different models of the TSSR were analyzed. Findings from multiple CFAs showed that five-factor 22-item of the TSSR had an acceptable model fit. A parallel analysis and EFA were run to determine the factorial structure of the SCSS. Findings indicated that the SCSS had three factors explaining 68% of the variance in the model. The results and implications for research and practice in Latina/o students were discusse