Identification and assessment of problematic interpersonal situations for urban adolescents.
Identified and developed a scale to assess problematic interpersonal situations among urban adolescents. In Study 1, problematic situations were identified by focus groups of 6th graders (N = 43). Their relevance was verified in Study 2 by assessing their reported frequency and difficulty in a sample of 6th graders (N = 457) that included mostly African American youth from low-income families. Scales representing 3 dimensions, peer provocation, perceived injustice, and environmental stressors were verified by confirmatory factor analyses. In Study 3, the internal consistency and structure of these scales were cross-validated in a sample of 7th graders (N = 459). All 3 scales were correlated with self-reported violent behavior, drug use, and anxiety and uniquely accounted for 11% to 19% of the variance. These findings have implications for identifying youth at risk for emotional and behavioral problems and for designing more relevant interventions.
Farrell
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Department of Psychology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond 23284-2018, USA. afarrell@vcu.edu
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Meyer
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D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D011203:Poverty / Q000523:psychology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012931:Social Environment; D012935:Social Justice; D012940:Social Problems / Q000523:psychology*; D015144:Southeastern United States; D014505:Urban Population