Tests of the Validity and Reliability of the Community Service Attitudes Scale

Community service is deeply rooted in American culture (Spring, Grimm, & Dietz, 2008). Each year, over 60 million Americans, representing nearly a quarter of the U.S. population, participate in community service (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). Community service is also actively promoted on college campuses through formal programs such as service-learning (Zlotkowski & Duffy, 2010), through extra-curricular activities such as alternative breaks (e.g., DuPre, 2010; North, 2010; Rhoads, 1998), and through organizations such as Greek fraternities and sororities (Hayek, Carini, O’Day, & Kuh, 2002; Robbins, 2004). Although there is no single set of unified, agreed-upon goals for these types of programs, most of them probably have the dual goals of (a) addressing a specific need directly through service and (b) creating positive attitudes toward community service in general. (A full review of the outcomes of service programs is beyond the scope of this article, but see Astin, Sax, & Avalos, 1999, and Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005.) There have been repeated calls for the necessity of evaluating these programs, especially for service-learning (e.g., Butin, 2003; Gelmon, 2000; Holland, 2001), and these calls are likely to grow stronger in the demanding environment where accountability must be documented and funding grows more stringent (Leveille, 2006). Porter (2011) noted that many programs are thoughtfully designed and executed, but the challenge in the field is to systematically demonstrate the effectiveness of these programs. Unfortunately, there is not a well-established and generalized measure for assessing the effects of each program, especially with regard to creating positive attitudes. If a validated measure were available, it would encourage systematic and objective program evaluation. Such systematic research would help identify programs that are truly achieving their goals and help build a science of community service. The purpose of this research was to validate an easy-to-use scale that measures 10 components of students’ attitudes toward community service.