What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to develop a brief measure of belonging and validate its effectiveness in identifying students with low competence and social acceptance.

May 29, 2026Open Access

Development and initial validation of a brief 2-item measure of belonging among student physical therapists in the United States: a psychometric validation study

Key Points

The aim is to develop a brief measure of belonging and validate its effectiveness in identifying students with low competence and social acceptance.
Conducted a cross-sectional study with 634 students from physical therapist education programs in the U.S.
Utilized the 10-item ProSBq to assess belonging dimensions of competence and social acceptance.
Employed principal component analysis and Pearson correlations for item selection and relationship evaluation.
Single items correlated strongly with their corresponding subscale scores (r=0.63–0.80).
Sensitivity for identifying low valued competence increased from 53.6% to 92.9% with a more inclusive threshold; specificity decreased from 96.3% to 73.5%.
Receiver operating characteristic analyses indicated excellent discrimination (area under the curve ≥0.90).

Abstract

Purpose: The objectives of this study were to develop a 2-item abbreviated version of the Program Sense of Belonging questionnaire (ProSBq) and to evaluate its ability to identify student physical therapists with relatively low valued competence and social acceptance.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted using survey data from 634 students enrolled in physical therapist education programs across the United States. The 10-item ProSBq was used to assess 2 dimensions of belonging: valued competence and social acceptance. Principal component analysis was performed to identify representative items for each subscale, with 1 item selected per subscale. Pearson product-moment correlations were used to examine relationships between the single items and their corresponding subscale scores. Classification performance was evaluated by assessing how accurately the single-item responses classified students reporting a relatively low sense of valued competence and social acceptance, based on their full ProSBq subscale scores. Multiple single-item response thresholds were examined to assess classification accuracy.Results: The single items demonstrated strong relationships with their corresponding subscale scores (r=0.63–0.80, with part-whole correction). For valued competence, sensitivity increased from 53.6% to 92.9%, whereas specificity decreased from 96.3% to 73.5% when a more inclusive threshold was used. A similar sensitivity-specificity tradeoff was observed for social acceptance. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses demonstrated excellent discrimination (area under the curve ≥0.90).Conclusion: Single ProSBq items demonstrated strong relationships with full valued competence and social acceptance subscale scores and acceptable classification performance. The abbreviated 2-item ProSBq may provide a practical and efficient method for identifying students experiencing low valued competence or social acceptance.

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