At-risk Youth in Honduras: A Psychometric Evaluation of the Instrumento de Medicion de Comportamientos (IMC)

Abstract

Prior research highlights the importance of developmental domains—community, family, school, peer, and individual—in shaping youth problem behaviors such as delinquency, drug use, and violence. However, few instruments measuring risk and protective factors have been psychometrically evaluated in developing countries, particularly in Central America. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Instrumento de Medicion de Comportamientos (IMC), a prevention-oriented survey assessing risk and protective factors, using a sample of Honduran youth. We evaluated the IMC’s internal consistency, construct validity, concurrent validity, and measurement invariance. Findings indicate the IMC demonstrates acceptable reliability and validity in measuring key risk and protective constructs in Honduras. These findings support the IMC as a tool for identifying at-risk youth, informing prevention and early intervention efforts, and extending the psychometric evaluation of youth risk and protective factor instruments to Latin America, highlighting the importance of locally developed instruments for evidence-based crime prevention and youth violence interventions.

Keywords

validity risk factors protective factors risk assessment delinquency

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