The aim of my thesis was to validate the Finnish translation of the teacher support subscale of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (2000). Validity is a concept that describes the quality of research, or a measurement on how well it measures what it is supposed to measure. Reliability is a similar concept, but its job is to describe how well research, or a measure is consistent within itself and between uses. Studying the validity and reliability of a translated measurement is important because we need trustworthy and sound instruments to produce credible results with research.
Background
The Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (2000) is a measurement developed in the USA. It measures how 3rd – 12th grade students experience social support from their parents, teachers, close friends, classmates, and school. Social support is all the support and help you receive or have available from people in your social network. It can be divided into emotional support (e.g., love and trust), informational support (e.g., advice), appraisal support (e.g., feedback), and instrumental (e.g., recourses). Teacher support has many positive outcomes in students’ personal and school life. Research has found that teacher social support helps students achieve higher grade averages, better school satisfaction and engagement, and fewer depressive symptoms.
Research task
The aim of the study is therefore to measure the validity and reliability of the translated teacher subscale. These are the three research questions I hope will bring me the answer to the main objective:
1. Does the Finnish version of the CASSS discriminate between the four theoretical dimensions?
2. How well does the four-factor structure of the CASSS fit to the data?
3. Does the Finnish version of the CASSS associate with background variables similarly with the original version?
Implementation
For my thesis I was able to use data from a bigger research project where Finnish basic education students answered to a large questionnaire about their school life during the Spring 2021. The number of participants in my study is 51 105 students from the grades 4th–9th in Finnish school all over the country. To measure the validity and reliability of the translated subscale I analysed the data with statistical methods including factor analyses, variance analyses and correlation.
Results
My thesis concludes that the translated teacher subscale is a valid and reliable measurement that can be used to study Finnish 4th–9th grade students’ experiences of teacher social support. The translated subscale had sufficient scores for both exploratory (research question 1) and confirmatory (research question 2) factor analyses. I also found that high teacher support associated with background variables (e.g., grade averages and depressive symptoms) similarly with previous studies (research question 3). Finnish students experience informational teacher support more than other types of support, younger students experience more support than older ones, and boys perceive more teacher support than girls and non-binary students. Non-binary students reported clearly lower teacher support than others. This phenomenon needs more research.
Suvi Kanerva
The Validity and Reliability of the Finnish Version of the Child and Adolescent Social Support Scale (CASSS 2000) on Teacher Support in Finnish Basic Education
– how to validate a translated subscale