title: The perception of false self scale for adolescents: reliability, validity, and longitudinal relationships with depressive and anxious symptoms.
abstract: A scale assessing generalized false self-perceptions (Perceptions of False Self, POFS) was developed and tested across three studies involving a total of 331 adolescents (11-16 years). In Study 1, interviews were conducted to develop items for the scale. In Study 2, psychometric techniques were used to derive a scale composed of 16 items. Study 2 also assessed the validity of the scale: depressive symptoms were found to increase POFS across 10 weeks, whereas false self-perceptions had a reciprocal effect on anxiety. In Study 3, the convergent validity of the POFS scale was established. Overall, the evidence suggests that the POFS scale is a reliable and valid measure of generalized false self-perceptions.
authors.affiliation: Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. k.weir@massey.ac.nz
authors.forename: Kirsty F
authors.initials: KF
authors.lastname: Weir
authors.forename: Paul E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Jose
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000367:Age Factors; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009520:New Zealand; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors