An Investigation of Social Skills and Antisocial Behaviors of At-Risk Youth: Construct Validation of the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales

• Main Author: Caldarella, Paul
• Format: Others
• Published: DigitalCommons@USU 1997
• Subjects: social skills; antisocial behavior; at-risk youth; construct validation; community; Psychology
• Online Access: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/6093; https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7167&context=etd

The major purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the construct validity of a new parent rating scale, the Home and Community Social Behavior Scales (HCSBS), that was used to measure the social skills and antisocial behaviors of at-risk youth in Northern Utah. The results indicate that the HCSBS possesses strong internal consistency with high alphas. Convergent validity with both teacher ratings and student self-ratings of social competence and antisocial behavior appeared slight. Discriminant validity was indicated by the near zero correlations between the HCSBS and the KTEA. The instrument appeared able to detect group differences as indicated by the large and clinically significant effect size differences between at-risk and non-at-risk sample mean scores, as well as a 92.37 correct classification percentage. Finally, the factor analysis of the HCSBS suggested four social competency factors and three antisocial behavior factors, which were extremely similar to the results obtained for the teacher version of the instrument. Directions for future research, as well as implications and limitations of the current study, are noted.