Social-behavioral assessment of at-risk early adolescent students: Psychometric characteristics and validity of a parent report form of the school social behavior scales

The purposes of this investigation were to examine the validity of the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS) for differentiating at-risk a nd non-at-risk students in grades 6 through 9 and to evaluate psychometric characteristics of this instrument. Parent ratings of social competence and antisocial behavior on the HCSBS for a group of 160 students who were part of an at-risk prevention project were compared with those of 107 typical n on-at-risk students. These students were all in grades 6 through 9, and the groups were relatively similar in terms of demographic characteristics. Th e at-risk group was rated as having significantly lower social competence a nd significantly higher rates of antisocial behavior than the non-at-risk g roup (P < .0001). Power analyses indicated chat these group differences ran ged from approximately 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 Standard deviations. Item level HCSBS scores were also shown to correctly classify the students into their respe ctive groups with a great deal of accuracy (92.37% overall). Internal consi stency coefficients of the two HCSBS scales were uniformly high (in the mid .90 range). These results provide new and useful evidence regarding the si gnificant social behavior problems exhibited by at-risk students, as well a s preliminary evidence of the validity and usefulness of the HCSBS. Implica tions for further research and psychoeducational assessment practice are di scussed.