A Repeated Cross-Sectional, Multi-Constituency Assessment of Listening, Resilience, Helping Intentions, and Emotional Culture in a School System During Wartime
Eli Vinokur, Avinoam Yomtovian, Guy ItzchakovSchool 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.