A Repeated Cross-Sectional, Multi-Constituency Assessment of Listening, Resilience, Helping Intentions, and Emotional Culture in a School System During Wartime

Abstract

School functioning depends on the relational and emotional systems in which students, teachers, and parents are embedded. The present study is an initial, constituency-specific psychometric evaluation of those domains. It does not test a single cross-constituency measurement model or treat the four questionnaires as parallel instruments. This study examined a repeated cross-sectional, multi-constituency assessment of perceived listening, resilience, helping intentions, emotional culture, and school satisfaction in a municipal school system in southern Israel. We administered the survey twice to parents (Wave 1 N = 102; Wave 2 N = 93) and to secondary students (Wave 1 N = 295; Wave 2 completed questionnaires N = 238); we assessed 93 teachers and 214 elementary students once. The parent administrations were partially overlapping repeated cross-sectional samples (26 matched participants contributed one record to each wave) rather than a longitudinal panel. The secondary-student administrations were unmatched repeated cross-sections. For parents and secondary students, Wave 1 provided exploratory evidence, and Wave 2 evaluated prespecified models. The secondary-student Wave 2 CFA was specified a priori on theoretical grounds rather than treated as a direct confirmation of the Wave 1 EFA. We then tested measurement invariance across administrations. Within each constituency, listening items paired relational partners with particular instruments; therefore, the findings reflect source-by-instrument distinctions rather than pure source effects. For parent listening in Wave 2, a source-specific two-factor model was strongly preferred over a single-factor model, Δχ2(1) = 154.95, p < 0.001. Among secondary students, a seven-factor model specified on the 28 items constituting the reported scale scores fit well in Wave 2, χ2(329) = 462.65, CFI = 0.953, TLI = 0.946, RMSEA = 0.041, SRMR = 0.058, CFA N = 237, and fit better than a six-factor model combining joy and companionate love, Δχ2(6) = 92.00, p < 0.001. The seven-factor model showed scalar invariance across administrations; parent listening showed scalar invariance in the full samples, with approximate sensitivity support after excluding the 26 matched participants. Structural evidence was strongest for parents and secondary students.