Revised Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSCS-R)

Abstract

The Revised Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSCS-R) is an 8-item instrument developed by Peterson et al. (2008) to measure an individual’s psychological sense of belonging and connection specifically within the context of a community organization. This scale represents an advancement over previous measures by explicitly linking organizational involvement to the individual’s broader attachment to the geographical community. It is a concise, theoretically grounded measure rooted in the seminal work of McMillan and Chavis (1986) on the Sense of Community (SOC) construct.

The COSCS-R is designed for use in research settings focused on organizational behavior, community development, and Community Psychology, providing a quantitative method for evaluating the effectiveness of organizations in fostering meaningful community ties and empowerment among participants.

Keywords

Community Psychology, Sense of Community, Community Organization, Organizational Assessment, Empowerment, Social Capital, Psychological Measurement, Scale Development, Factor Analysis, COSCS-R.

Authors

Peterson, A. N., Speer, P. W., Hughey, J., Armstead, T. L., Schneider, J. E., & Sheffer, M. A.

Purpose

The primary purpose of the COSCS-R is to provide a reliable and valid measure of the individual’s experience of Sense of Community as mediated by their involvement in a specific organization. Unlike scales that focus purely on neighborhood or geographic community attachment, the COSCS-R isolates the organizational contribution to this sense of belonging.

The scale aids researchers in understanding how the structural and relational aspects of an organization—such as perceived influence, responsiveness, and external reputation—contribute to both individual attachment to the organization and the individual’s subsequent bond to the wider community. This instrument is particularly valuable for program evaluation and organizational development within the non-profit and community service sectors.

Construct

The COSCS-R measures the Sense of Community construct, conceptualized as a multidimensional psychological state. The scale operationalizes this construct through four distinct factors that reflect the unique relationship between an individual, a specific organization, and the surrounding city or town:

• Relationship to Organization (RO): Reflects the individual’s perceived influence and the organization’s responsiveness to their needs.
• Organization as Mediator (OM): Measures how the organization facilitates connections to other groups and enhances the individual’s social status.
• Influence of Organization (IO): Assesses the organization’s perceived reputation and efficacy in achieving goals within the broader community.
• Bond to Community (BC): Captures the individual’s affective attachment and loyalty to the geographical location itself.

Validity

Extensive validation efforts, detailed in Peterson et al. (2008), support the structural and external validity of the COSCS-R. The revised scale demonstrated strong evidence of construct validity through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), confirming the hypothesized four-factor structure.

The scale effectively distinguishes the organizational elements of SOC (RO, OM, IO) from the purely geographical bond (BC), aligning with the theoretical premise that community organizations serve as crucial mediating structures. Furthermore, studies have shown appropriate correlations with established measures of related constructs, such as empowerment and organizational commitment, while maintaining clear discriminant validity, confirming that it measures a unique aspect of community connection.

Reliability

The COSCS-R exhibits strong internal consistency, confirming its reliability as a measurement tool. The overall Cronbach’s alpha scores reported in validation studies meet accepted standards for psychological instruments, suggesting that the eight items consistently measure the underlying construct.

The reliability of the four individual subscales (RO, OM, IO, and BC) is also consistently reported as acceptable to good, allowing researchers to utilize both the total scale score and the scores of the individual factors with confidence in diverse organizational settings.

Factor Analysis

The structure of the COSCS-R was confirmed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis on data collected from diverse samples of individuals involved in community organizations. This analysis supported the theoretical model that the eight items cluster into four distinct, yet correlated, factors.

The factor structure is explicitly defined as follows: Items 1 and 2 load onto the Relationship to Organization factor; Items 3 and 4 load onto the Organization as Mediator factor; Items 5 and 6 define the Influence of Organization factor; and the final two items, 7 and 8, constitute the Bond to Community factor. This clean factor loading provides strong evidence for the theoretical utility of the scale in dissecting the components of organizational sense of community.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological inventory

Format: 8 items utilizing a 6-point Likert Scale response format.

Language Available: English (Primary publication language).

Population Group: Individuals affiliated with or participating in community organizations, non-profit agencies, or social change groups.

Age Group: Typically utilized with adult populations (18+).

Population Details: Has been validated across various types of community organizations, including those focused on social service, advocacy, and neighborhood improvement.

Test Methodology: Respondents indicate their level of agreement or disagreement with each statement based on a 6-point scale ranging from Strongly Agree to Strongly Disagree.

Keywords

Sense of Community, Community Organization, Organizational Empowerment, Social Integration, Community Participation, Scale Development, Psychological Assessment, COSCS-R.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A

Correspondence Address: N/A

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The COSCS-R was formally published and validated in 2008 by Peterson et al. The scale items are generally available for academic and non-commercial research purposes, provided that appropriate citations are made to the original publication.

The instrument can be found in the compilation edited by Simmons and Lehmann (2013). The original PDF of the Fernando (2012) dissertation, which utilized and discussed this instrument, can be downloaded here: http://academicarchive.snhu.edu/bitstream/handle/10474/2290/sced2012fernando.pdf?sequence=1

Reference’s

• Hughey‚ J.‚ Speer‚ P.‚ & Peterson‚ N. (1999). Sense of community in community organizations: Structure and evidence of validity. Journal of Community Psychology‚ 27(1)‚ 97-113.
• McMillan‚ D.W.‚ & Chavis‚ D.M. (1986). Sense of community: A definition and theory. Journal of Community Psychology‚ 14‚ 6–23.
• Peterson‚ N.A.‚ Speer‚ P.W.‚ & Hughey‚ J. (2006). Measuring sense of community: A methodological interpretation of the factor structure debate. Journal of Community Psychology‚ 34‚ 453–469.
• Peterson‚ A. N.‚ Speer‚ P. W.‚ Hughey‚ J.‚ Armstead‚ T. L.‚ Schneider‚ J. E.‚ & Sheffer‚ M. A. (2008). Community organizations and sense of community: Further development in theory and measurement. Journal of Community Psychology‚ 36(6)‚ 798–813.
• Peterson‚ A. N.‚ Speer‚ P. W.‚ & McMillan‚ D. W. (2008). Validation of a brief sense of community scale: Confirmation of the principle theory of sense of community. Journal of Community Psychology‚ 36‚ 61–73.
• Peterson et al.‚ (2008). Revised Community Organization Sense of Community Scale. In: Simmons C. A.‚ Lehmann P. (eds). Tools for strengths-based assessment and evaluation‚ New York‚ NY: Springer‚ pp. 374-375. (2013).
• Fernando‚ Rukshan. (2012). How Organizations Promote a Sense of Community and Empowerment Leading Towards Community Participation: A View of the Middle. Ph.D. dissertation. Southern New Hampshire University.

Items of the Revised Community Organization Sense of Community Scale (COSCS-R)

The response format utilizes a 6-point scale: Strongly Agree, Agree, Somewhat Agree, Somewhat Disagree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree.

The factors are mapped as follows: Relationship to Organization (1, 2); Organization as Mediator (3, 4); Influence of Organization (5, 6); Bond to Community (7, 8).

1. People have a real say about what goes on in (organization name).
2. People in (organization name) respond to what I think is important.
3. Being in (organization name) allows me to be around important people.
4. (Organization name) helps me to be a part of other groups in this city.
5. (Organization name) is respected in this city.
6. (Organization name) gets a lot done in this community.
7. I like living in this town; (city name) is the place for me.
8. (City name) is a good place for me to live.