Taking another look at the sense of community index: Six confirmatory factor analyses.

Previous studies focusing on the effects of the social aspects of community have often used the Sense of Community Index (SCI), despite other research showing that it is not a good-fit measure for its expected dimensions. Using a sample of students from Brigham Young University, we performed confirmatory factor analysis of the SCI to assess 1-factor, 4-factor, 1-factor revised, 3-factor revised, 1-factor revised, 4-factor revised, and 1-factor revised models. Our study resulted in mixed findings: models were neither a poor-fit nor a good fit. Although the 4-factor revised model was the best fit, it did not measure the intended dimensions well. Our analysis indicates that future research investigating sense of community should use measures other than the SCI.