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The Heterogeneity of Children's Social Difficulties and the Need for Multiple Assessment Measures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2014

Alan Ralph
Alan Ralph*
Affiliation:
James Cook University of North Queensland
*
Department of Psychology and Sociology, James Cook University, Townsville QLD 4811, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
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Extract

A structured diary was used to collect information about the informal peer interactions of 536 children in their final year at nine primary schools. Measures of self-concept, social avoidance, and popularity were also taken. Initially, seven different scores were derived from the information contained in the diary to produce the Adolescent Social Interaction Profile (ASIP). Previous research with the ASIP subsequently identified three factors labelled scale, scope, and enjoyment of peer interactions, that were separate from a fourth generic self-concept factor derived from self-report questionnaires. Inspection of the factor scores for 19 children with full data sets who received the fewest peer nominations showed considerable heterogeneity, with only 1 child scoring low on more than two of the four factors. More expedient composite scores were then derived that reflected the factor loadings for the two complex ASIP scores labelled scale and scope. The utility of these scores for identifying and monitoring specific aspects of peer interaction difficulties is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Behaviour Change , Volume 14 , Issue 3 , September 1997 , pp. 166 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 1997

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References

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