Assessing Adolescent Defendants' Adjudicative Competence: Interrater Reliability and Factor Structure of the Fitness Interview Test-Revised

• NCJ Number: 215196
• Journal: Criminal Justice and Behavior Volume: 33 Issue: 4 Dated: August 2006 Pages: 467-487
• Author(s): Jodi L. Viljoen; Gina M. Vincent; Ronald Roesch
• Date Published: August 2006
• Length: 21 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the reliability and factor structure of the Fitness Interview Test, Revised Edition (FIT-R) in the assessment of adolescent defendants’ adjudicative competence.

Abstract

Study results indicated that the reliability of the Fitness Interview Test, Revised Edition (FIT-R) was adequate and its factor structure was relatively consistent with its rationale and organization when used with juvenile defendants. These findings provide preliminary empirical support for the psychometric properties of the FIT-R with youth. In a recent survey of practices for evaluation of juvenile competency, most psychologists reported that they considered the use of competency assessment instruments to be an essential or recommended component of these evaluations. However, most developed instruments have been for adult defendants with little investigation of the psychometric properties of such instruments with adolescents. This study examined the reliability and structural validity of the FIT-R for a sample of 152 pretrial-adolescent defendants. Tables, notes, and references