The Measurement of Community Social Climate

Abstract

The aim of this research was to develop an instrument capable of assessing the perceived social climate of urban settings and differentiating among the social climate of communities of varying sizes. To do this, a large item pool descriptive of a number of settings was generated, and a subset (75) of these were given to subjects to rate. Each item was rated as to how characteristic it was of (1) a large metropolis, (2) a midsized city, and (3) a small town. Factor analyses of the ratings yielded six interpretable factors and reduced the scale to 30 items. Factor indices were created and the climates of the rated environments were compared. Results indicated that there were large differences between community types and that ratings were not a function of subjects' hometown. Possibilities for further field validation of the scale are suggested as well as a variety of potential uses for the scale.