On the sins of short-form development

The empirical short-form literature has been characterized by overly optimi stic views of the transfer of validity from parent form to short form and b y the weak application of psychometric principles in validating short forms . Reviewers have thus opposed constructing short forms altogether, implying researchers are succumbing to an inappropriate temptation by trying to abb reviate measures. The authors disagree. The authors do not oppose the devel opment of short forms, but they do assert that the validity standards for s hort forms should be quite high. The authors identify 2 general and 9 speci fic methodological sins characterizing short-form construction and offer me thodological suggestions for the sound development of short forms. They rec ommend a set of 6 a priori steps researchers should consider and 9 methodol ogical procedures researchers can use to develop valid abbreviated forms of clinical-assessment procedures.