Dimensions of the Group Environment Scale

Student teachers in yearlong mental health consultation groups completed Moos's Group Environment Scale (GES) and three semantic differential ratings of their satisfaction with the group experience. Factor analysis of the GES yielded four dimensions, the first two corresponding to Moos's hypothesized dimensions of Relationship and System Maintenance/System Change. Intercorrelations of factor composite scores with the differential ratings provided concurrent validity evidence for the factored dimensions. Results were interpreted as supporting a multidimensional rather than unidimensional structure for the GES.