title: Test-retest reliability of a short form of the children's social desirability scale for nutrition and health-related research.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine test-retest reliability and internal consistency of the Children's Social Desirability Short (CSD-S) scale, consisting of 14 items from the Children's Social Desirability scale.
  
  
  METHODS
  The previously validated CSD-S scale was classroom administered to 97 fourth-grade children (80% African American; 76% low socioeconomic status) in 2 sessions a month apart. Each classroom administration lasted approximately 5 minutes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The CSD-S scale showed acceptable levels of test-retest reliability (0.70) and internal consistency (.82 and .85 for the first and second administrations, respectively). Reliability was adequate within subgroups of gender, socioeconomic status, academic achievement, and body mass index percentile. Levels of social desirability did not differ across subgroups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social desirability bias is a potential source of systematic response error in children's self-report assessments of nutrition and health-related behaviors. The CSD-S scale may be used with diverse groups of children to reliably and efficiently assess social desirability bias.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, CA. Electronic address: phmiller@sfsu.edu.
authors.forename: Patricia H
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Institute for Families in Society, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.
authors.forename: Suzanne D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Baxter
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.
authors.forename: David B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Hitchcock
authors.affiliation: Institute for Families in Society, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC; South Carolina Budget and Control Board, Division of Research and Statistics, Columbia, SC.
authors.forename: Julie A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Royer
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, OH.
authors.forename: Albert F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Institute for Families in Society, College of Social Work, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC.
authors.forename: Caroline H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Guinn
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012106:Research / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D057566:Self Report; D012928:Social Desirability; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*
keywords: assessment; child; health; social desirability; test-retest reliability