A SENSATION SEEKING SCALE FOR CHILDREN - FURTHER REFINEMENT AND PSYCHOMETRIC DEVELOPMENT

A revision of the Sensation Seeking Scale for Children (SSSC) was stan dardized and validated on a community sample of 660 elementary- and mi ddle-school children and 168 clinic-referred male children. Factor ana lysis of the combined samples yielded three unique factors, entitled T hrill and Adventure Seeking, Drug and Alcohol Attitudes, and Social Di sinhibition. Psychometric indices of reliability and validity were acc eptable, but test-retest reliability was only moderate. Differences in SSSC scores according to sex, ethnic group, age, and intellectual sta tus were similar to those found previously with the adult Sensation Se eking Scales. Consistent with documented relations between adult antis ocial personality and sensation seeking, the SSSC distinguished boys w ith conduct disorder (CD) from clinic controls, but the SSSC scores of boys with CD did not differ from those of the community sample boys. Discussion includes suggestions as to the continued study of the asses sment of sensation seeking in children.