First Advisor

Johnson, Brian

Document Type

Dissertation

Date Created

12-2018

Department

College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Applied Psychology and Counselor Education, APCE Student Work

Abstract

The number of veterans who return to college and university campuses following separation from the military is the highest since World War II and those numbers are expected to continue to rise (McBain, Kim, Cook, & Snead, 2012). Important to note is student veterans are a distinct sub-population of students on college and university campuses who have unique experiences and challenges--both as a result of their military experience as well as challenges that accompany transitioning from military to institutions of higher education. Given that unique challenges for this population often have a profound impact on social or interpersonal domains for student veterans, the concept of social alienation is a construct often alluded to when discussing these students’ experiences. However, research thus far has lacked concrete conceptualization or measures of this construct. The purpose of this study was to develop a concrete, specific measure of social alienation for student veterans to facilitate exploration of this concept. This study took part in two phases--the initial scale development phase to finalize the measure and the administration to the development sample. In the first phase, an initial scale was created based on theoretical literature addressing social alienation. This measure was then discussed with three student veteran participants to evaluate concept clarity, scale structure, and cultural appropriateness for a student veteran population. This feedback was incorporated to form the final Social Alienation for Student Veteran (SASV) ultimately administered to the development sample of student veterans. Using data collected from 168 student veterans recruited through campus veteran’s offices and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, exploratory factor analysis and evaluation of reliability and validity were conducted. Analyses produced a well-fitting two-factor model for the SASV using 14 of the 15 original items and both the validity and reliability of the scale were supported. The meaning of the factors as well as a detailed presentation of future directions and implications for psychologists were ultimately discussed.

Extent

172 pages

Local Identifiers

Justice_unco_0161D_10687.pdf

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by the author.

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