Assessment of tripartite factors of emotion in children and adolescents I:Structural validity and normative data of an affect and arousal scale

The authors developed and evaluated a self-report measure for children desi gned to assess factors of the tripartite model of emotion (Clark & Watson, 1991). Factor analytic results from a large, multi-ethnic sample (n = 1,289 ) supported the structural validity of the scale, with the additional sugge stion that negative affect appeared to contain two lower order dimensions i n the item pool. Confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample of 3 00 children and adolescents suggested favorable structure. Consistent with prediction, positive and negative affect emerged as relatively orthogonal d imensions. Physiological hyperarousal was found to be positively correlated with negative affect. Normative data are presented and tests for differenc es by sex, grade level, and ethnicity demonstrated nonsignificant or minima l differences between groups. The implications for the assessment of tripar tite factors and their relation to psychopathology in youth are discussed.