A factor analysis of the university residence environmental scale: Recommendations and modifications

A factor analysis was performed on data collected from 472 male and female undergraduates who completed the University Residence Environmental Scale (URES). Although ten meaningful factors corresponding to the original ten URES scales were derived from the factor analysis, only 50 of the original items were retained as marker items. Seven of these marker items loaded in a manner contrary to the original URES assignment of items to scales. Only 36% of the total variance was accounted for by the ten factors. Further, 16% of the total variance was accounted for by the “involvement” factor. Implications were made concerning the possible replacement of nonloading items and subsequent analyses on new data, the development of a short form based on the current research, and further research to test the factor structure of the 50 marker items obtained in the current study.