- Title
- A First Class Measure: Evidence for a Comprehensive Social Class Scale in Higher Education Populations
- Creator
- Evans, Olivia; McGuffog, Romany; Gendi, Monica; Rubin, Mark
- Relation
- ARC.IN200100047 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/IN200100047
- Relation
- Research in Higher Education Vol. 63, Issue 8, p. 1427-1452
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11162-022-09693-9
- Publisher
- Springer
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2022
- Description
- Despite social class being a burgeoning area of research in the higher education literature, there is no single comprehensive measure of social class in university student populations. Most previous research has included objective single-item measures (e.g., parent education or occupation) to assess social class and then sorted students into distinct social class categories using these items. Such approaches do not adequately capture the complexity and nuance of class, and they ignore the subjective and social components involved. The present paper reports the development and validation of an 11-item Comprehensive Social Class Scale (CSCS) that uses a mix of objective and subjective items to assess multiple aspects of social class, including education level, occupational prestige, family affluence, social class identity and subjective social status. Across 12 samples (N = 4926), we provide evidence for a single factor structure of the CSCS and demonstrate aspects of its reliability and validity. We conclude by discussing some limitations and suggestions for use of the CSCS in higher education populations.
- Subject
- social class; socioeconomic status; social status; university students; working-class students; higher education
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1485527
- Identifier
- uon:51620
- Identifier
- ISSN:0361-0365
- Rights
- This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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