Measuring Perception of College Welcome Provided to Foreign-Born Students: Validation with Pilot Data

Abstract

Immigrant and foreign-born students are one of the fastest growing populations in higher education across the US, and yet there is a dearth of research around their sense of belonging on campus and in the classroom. Therefore, this paper will cover the development and evaluation process for a scale designed to evaluate the perception of college welcome provided to immigrant students. Data from 94 college students was used to conduct a series of factor analyses to assess the survey questions and their utility for measuring college welcome. The scale is made up of four factors. The Cognitive awareness of college welcome factor showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.72, the Emotional college welcome factor showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.732 Behaviors of college welcome showed a Cronbach's alpha of 0.75 and the Relational college welcome showed a Cronbach's alpha 0.767. Overall, Cronbach's alpha is 0.864 for the perception of college welcome which is excellent. While the results are promising that this scale could indeed be measuring college welcome, it is important that more data be collected, reflect a higher percentage of immigrant students, and that future research be done to continue to assess the reliability and validity of this scale. This scale is the first step in better understanding the perception of welcome provided to foreign-born students, which is critical so that social workers can intervene and help improve the social and emotional well-being of students.