Validation of the Challenged Sense of Belonging Scale (CSBS) in a general population survey in Germany

In the article “Validation of the Challenged Sense of Belonging Scale (CSBS) in a general population survey in Germany”, we build on a very recent publication by Fuchs et al., (2021) in Measurement Instruments for the Social Sciences (MISS) that developed and validated a scale on a challenged sense of belonging. Despite its very recent publication, it has already been applied and cited in very different research contexts, ranging from integration research over social and clinical psychology to education research. All these studies neglect, however, that the original study by Fuchs et al. validated the scale in a unique sample of recent refugees in Germany. Hence, it is far from clear, whether the scale should be applied aside this very specific context of recent immigrants. We replicate and advance the study by Fuchs et al. by testing the scale within a general population survey in Germany, including only respondents who have no migration experience in their family up to the third generation (N = 2,045). Alongside conceptual and theoretical discussions on the role of different forms of boundary-crossing for belonging, we find ample evidence for the universal applicability of the CSBS.

doi: 10.17605/OSF.IO/ERCMU