NCJ Number
216659
Journal
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 35 Issue: 6 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 1037-1053
Date Published
December 2006
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study examined the validity and factor structure of the People in My Life (PIML), an instrument recently developed to obtain 10-12-year-old children's self-reports of attachment to parents, peers, teachers and school, and neighborhood.
Abstract
The results of the internal consistency estimates, validity analyses, and factor analyses were consistent with the PIML providing a valid measure of attachment. No ethnic or gender differences were found in the PIML's performance. This suggests that the PIML should not be scored or interpreted differently for the subgroups included in this study. Qualifying for special education services appears to be linked with lower attachment to parents and peers, greater alienation from parents and peers, and greater delinquency in peer associations. These study findings should be tested with larger samples that could provide greater statistical power. Study participants were 320 fifth and sixth graders who attended public schools in Washington State. In addition to the PIML, children were administered the Reynolds Child Depression Scale, the Health Resources Inventory, the Delinquency Rating Scale for Self and Others, and the Child Behavior Checklist. The psychometric properties of the PIML were estimated with Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency. Pearson correlations addressed discriminant validity, and confirmatory factor analysis determined construct validity. These statistics were also computed separately for students recruited from regular education compared with special education settings, African-Americans compared with Whites, and gender. 9 tables and 93 references