The Australian Community Psychologist - APS Member Groups

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Migrant resilience 134 a national journal and contributed to a chapter in a book. Address for correspondence Email: vera.roos@nwu.ac.za The Australian Community Psychologist Volume 23 No 2 August 2011 © The Australian Psychological Society Ltd
135 Measurement Performance of the Sense of Community Index in Substance Abuse Recovery Communal Housing Edward B. Stevens, Leonard A. Jason Joseph R. Ferrari DePaul University A critical concept in the community psychology has been the sense of community. One of the better known instruments developed and evaluated to measure this construct is the Sense of Community Index (SCI: Perkins, Florin, Rich, Wandersman, & Chavis, 1990). The present research examined the unidimensional SCI’s measurement properties with an adult population (n = 662; M age = 38.4) recovering from substance abuse and residing in Oxford House recovery residences. Overall, the SCI exhibited sufficient reliability as a unidimensional instrument, but lacked reliability as a theoretical four factor model. It did, however, demonstrate an invariant 3 factor latent structure relating to rationale for connection (7 items), social bonds (3 items), and personal importance (2 items). Race was found to be associated with personal importance. In addition, personal importance was predictive of the likelihood of remaining a resident in Oxford House. The implications of these findings for the field of resilience are discussed. The nature of an individual’s connectedness with broader social contexts has interested researchers within community psychology since Sarason (1974) noted a pattern of loneliness and alienation characterised as a waning psychological sense of community. This sense of connectedness is also related to the field of resilience, which needs to take into account the influence of the environment from which individuals interact (Zautra, Hall, & Murray, 2010). These relationships between individuals and their communities of interest encompass a myriad of possible institutions, organisational interests, and groups (Sarason, 1974); however, within this complexity some sense of an individual’s position within a community develops. From a theoretical perspective, sense of community was described as a multidimensional construct. For instance, McMillan and Chavis (1986) defined four dimensions underpinning the overall construct, including: 1) membership, 2) influence, 3) integration and fulfilment of needs, and 4) shared emotional connection. Membership encompasses characteristics of a common symbol system, personal investment, belonging, security, and boundaries. Influence includes components of power, resources, conformity, and cohesiveness. Fulfilment of needs addresses the benefits or rewards of being a member. Included in this category are shared values and interdependent motivations. Shared emotional connection encompasses components such as interaction, contact, shared events, and investment (McMillan & Chavis). Important from a measurement perspective, these four major categories were not claimed to be independent. For instance, shared emotional connection and membership both have conditions of investment and belonging. In addition, many of the forces at work within these four categories may be nonconstant, bidirectional (e.g., influence of the individual on the group, influence of the group on the individual), and context sensitive (Chipuer & Pretty, 1999; McMillan & Chavis, The Australian Community Psychologist Volume 23 No 2 August 2011 © The Australian Psychological Society Ltd
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The Australian Community Psychologi
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Contents Contents 3 General Informa
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Editorial 5 Lynne Cohen Catherine F
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7 Psychologists’ Understandings o
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Psychologists’ definitions of res
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23 On Cultural Resiliency Naji Abi-
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Cultural resiliency 25 any degree,
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Cultural resiliency 27 cultural sel
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Cultural resiliency 29 supernatural
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Cultural resiliency 31 Resilience.
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Single mothers’ experiences and r
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Same-sex parents 51 were reported t
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Same-sex parents 53 is becoming the
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Same-sex parents 55 and gay couples
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Same-sex parents 57 Table 1 Themes
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Same-sex parents 59 first when init
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Same-sex parents 61 Andersen, Burto
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Same-sex parents 63 supports the li
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Same-sex parents 65 attitudes and f
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Same-sex parents 67 gay parents. Ch
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Negotiating Resilience 69 to guide
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Negotiating Resilience 71 Figure 1.
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Negotiating Resilience 73 Table 1 S
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Negotiating Resilience 75 Simultane
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Negotiating Resilience 77 determini
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Negotiating Resilience 79 ‘Owners
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Negotiating Resilience 81 associati
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Page 85 and 86: 85 Resilience in Western Australian
Page 87 and 88: Resilience in adolescence 87 identi
Page 89 and 90: Resilience in adolescence 89 Partic
Page 91 and 92: Resilience in adolescence 91 my emo
Page 93 and 94: Reflections on Poverty 93 relations
Page 95 and 96: Resilience in adolescence 95 being
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Page 101 and 102: Resilience in adolescence 101 Resil
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Page 105 and 106: Resilience and Professional Nurses
Page 121 and 122: 121 The Resilience of Illegal Afric
Page 123 and 124: Migrant resilience 123 participants
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Page 137 and 138: Measurement performance of the SCI
Page 149 and 150: Manuscript Preparation 149 2. The c
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