A. Carroll et al., Adolescent reputation enhancement: Differentiating delinquent, nondelinquent, and at-risk youths, J CHILD PSY, 40(4), 1999, pp. 593-606
Citations number
56
Categorie Soggetti
Psychiatry
Journal title
JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES
This research reports the findings of two studies conducted to measure and
then investigate differences between delinquent, nondelinquent, and at-risk
youths' orientations towards reputation enhancement. In the first study, c
oncerning item selection and scale development, the factor structure and co
ntent validity of a potential Reputation Enhancement Scale were tested by e
xamining the item responses of the scale completed by 230 high-school stude
nts. In the second study, the scale was validated by comparing the item res
ponses of 80 delinquent, 90 at-risk, and 90 nondelinquent adolescents with
the responses of the original students. The instrument was found to be reli
able (alphas from .64 to .92), indicating that the factors are dependable a
cross different samples, and the coefficients of congruence were sufficient
ly high to investigate meaningful group differences. Three second-order fac
tors (Conforming Reputation, Nonconforming Reputation, Self-presentation) w
ere derived from the 15 first-order factors. Although multivariate analyses
revealed significant differences between the reputational orientations of
delinquent, at-risk, and nondelinquent participants, the self-presentation
second-order factor did not differentiate the three groups.