Measurement Performance of the Sense of Community Index in Substance Abuse Recovery Communal Housing

A critical concept in the community psychology has been the sense of community. One of the better known instruments developed and evaluated to measure this construct is the Sense of Community Index (SCI: Perkins, Florin, Rich, Wandersman, & Chavis, 1990). The present research examined the unidimensional SCI's measurement properties with an adult population (n = 662; M age = 38.4) recovering from substance abuse and residing in Oxford House recovery residences. Overall, the SCI exhibited sufficient reliability as a unidimensional instrument, but lacked reliability as a theoretical four factor model. It did, however, demonstrate an invariant 3 factor latent structure relating to rationale for connection (7 items), social bonds (3 items), and personal importance (2 items). Race was found to be associated with personal importance. In addition, personal importance was predictive of the likelihood of remaining a resident in Oxford House. The implications of these findings for the field of resilience are discussed.