The Development and Initial Validation of the Student Perceptions of School Guidance Support Scale: Data from China

Using multiple methodological approaches in a sample of Chinese high school students (N = 1511), this paper reports on the development and initial validation of a 32-item Student Perceptions of School Guidance Support Scale (SPSGSS) initially intended to measure guidance support students perceive they receive from schools in four key areas of student development: academic development, career development, personal/social development, and college preparation. Results of factor analyses show that a bifactor model emerges as a best fit, indicating that students may have both an overall conception of what school guidance support is like and a separate understanding of specific aspects of school guidance support that contribute to the measurement of the overall conception. Examinations of ancillary bifactor indices reveal high reliability of the SPSGSS total score, suggesting that the total score is a reliable measure of the general SPSGSS factor. Moreover, this survey shows clear evidence of measurement invariance across genders and grade levels. Implications of these findings for educational research and practice are discussed.