Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment

The authors investigate the construct validity of the Behavior Assessment System for Children Self-Report of Personality (BASC-SRP; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 1998). A sample of 970 adolescents (16-18 years) with histories of disruptive behavior problems and truancy complete the SRP; a subsample of 290 adolescents also completed the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory—Adolescent (Butcher et al., 1992). Confirmatory factor analysis support a three-factor structure for the SRP. The Clinical Maladjustment and Personal Adjustment composites show adequate convergent, discriminant, and discriminative validity. Less evidence for the validity of the School Maladjustment composite is found. Results support the overall construct validity of the SRP with adolescents referred for behavior problems but suggest that the SRP composites and scales measure a wider range of psychopathology than their labels imply.

Concurrent, predictive, and incremental validity of global and domain-based adolescent life satisfaction reports are examined with respect to internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. The Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS), Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS), and measures of internalizing and externalizing behavior problems from the Youth Self-Report of the Child Behavior Checklist are administered to secondary school students on three occasions, each separated by 1 year. As expected, concurrent and predictive validity correlations between the SLSS and MSLSS total scores and internalizing and externalizing behaviors are modest to moderate in magnitude, with correlations declining but remaining statistically significant across time. Results also reveal that the domain-based scores on the MSLSS (e.g., family, school) demonstrated incremental validity in relation to adolescents' global life satisfaction reports; that is, various domain-based scores contribute statistically significant variance above and beyond the variance associated with the global scores, depending on the criterion. Implications for assessments of life satisfaction among adolescents are discussed.

Behavior ratings and self-report measures of child and adolescent psychopathology are often used to explore the types and extent of psychological disorders in youth. Yet a review of the literature suggests that parent, teacher, and self-report of psychopathology are not generally highly correlated. Moreover, even among the same type of rater (e.g., parents), there is often very little concordance in ratings. Although there is a substantial literature related to the circumstances under which different informants can be expected to correlate, there is little to guide psychologists in clinical decision making. The present article briefly reviews issues related to both rater and child characteristics that affect the quality and utility of their ratings. The child characteristics of age, setting, and type of problem and the relationship of these to rating quality are highlighted. Last, suggestions are made about which rater should be given the most weight and when.

A total of 278 children at Time 1 (144 male and 134 female) from School Years 1 and 2 in the United Kingdom serve as participants. The children complete self-rated scales of school adjustment, and their teachers complete the Teacher Rating Scale of School Adjustment (TRSSA) twice across a 1-year period. At Time 1, children's performance on Standardized Achievement Tests are available for children in School Year 2. An exploratory factor analysis of the TRSSA at Time 1 yielded a viable short form of the scale composed of three associated factors (On-Task Classroom Involvement, Positive Orientation, and Maturity). Confirmatory factor analyses of the Short Form TRSSA yield evidence for these three factors at Time 2. The Short Form TRSSA demonstrates acceptable internal consistency and stability across time. As evidence for validity of the scale, the Short Form TRSSA is associated with children's self-reported school adjustment and academic performance.

To examine the convergent and discriminant validity of the scales on the Spanish version of the Developmental Indicators for the Assessment of Learning—Third Edition (DIAL-3), exploratory factor analysis is performed on data from 648 children who are native speakers of Spanish and who attend Head Start. Three factors, labeled Verbal Ability , Nonverbal Ability, and Achievement, collectively account for 56% of the variance in children's performances. Confirmatory factor analysis evaluate this empirically-derived model and the conceptually-derived model of the authors of the DIAL-3 in a separate sample of 588 Spanish-speaking Head Start children. The empirically-derived model characterized children's performances better than the conceptually-derived model. The discussion highlights potential uses of the new factors, ideas for consideration during revision of the Spanish DIAL-3, and the need for additional validity research on the measure.