Development and Validation of the Need for Relatedness at College Questionnaire (NRC-Q)

Research indicates that reasons for attending college influence college success and that college students of color (CSC) can be motivated to attend college for different reasons than White college students (WCS). The Need for Relatedness at College Questionnaire (NRC-Q) was developed and tested to provide an instrument for identifying and understanding the various ways in which needs for relatedness, a salient motivator for many CSC, affect college success. On the basis of the recommendation from D. Guiffrida's (2006) cultural critique of V. Tinto's (1993) theory, the scale was developed with a self-determination theory (E. L. Deci & M. R. Ryan, 1991) perspective. Results support the content validity, internal consistency, temporal stability, and construct validity of the scale items, and a confirmatory factor analysis supported the underlying structures of the scale. Results also suggest that college students' needs for relatedness at home are more complex than previous research has suggested.