The Need to Belong Scale: Adaptation and Evidences of Validity

Abstract Human beings have a fundamental need to belong to groups. That need has a dispositional dimension, as individuals differ on how strong is their motivation to search social connections and how much they value being accepted by others. The Need to Belong Scale (NTBS) is an instrument elaborated to measure such individual dimension of the need to belong. The present research aimed to adapt and collect validity evidence for the NTBS to the Brazilian context. The research was composed of two studies with independent samples. Factor analysis, exploratory and confirmatory, pointed to a unifactor solution with psychometric properties similar to the ones of the original scale, indicating that the NTBS may be adequate for use in the Brazilian context. In convergence analysis the NTBS was positive correlated with an empathy measure. We highlight the need for more studies to define the unifactor structure. We also suggest cross-cultural comparisons concerning the need to belong.