Results from a survey of 62 students (ages 8-13) with mild mental retardation and 62 students without retardation indicated that high percentages of both groups understood what loneliness means; a loneliness questionnaire yielded satisfactory internal reliability; and boys but not girls with mental retardation reported more loneliness than did…

Effects of item wording on questionnaire reliability and validity were studied, using 280 undergraduate business students who completed a questionnaire comprising 4 item types: (1) regular; (2) polar opposite; (3) negated polar opposite; and (4) negated regular. Implications of results favoring regular and negated regular items are discussed. (SLD)

The reliability and validity of the Working with Young Children and Their Families instrument were tested with 101 of 192 occupational therapists surveyed. The form proved to be a reliable way of measuring the outcome of workshops to improve therapists' competence in working with families of children with special needs. (SK)

The Children's Sex Role Inventory was tested on third, fourth, sixth, and seventh graders. Reliability was established through internal consistency of femininity and masculinity scales and stable test-retest reliabilities. Validity of the scales was evident in gender differences on both scales. (BC)

The construct validity of hypothesized survey items and data reduction procedures for selected psychosocial constructs frequently used in breast cancer screening research were investigated in telephone interviews with randomly selected samples of 1,184 and 903 women and a sample of 169 Hispanic clinic clients. Validity of the constructs is…

Comparison of scores from a normative sample of 880 children and 276 sexually abused children on the Child Sexual Behavior Inventory (CSBI), a checklist for 2- through 12-year-old children, supports the reliability and validity of the instrument. The CSBI is directly related to specific features of sexual abuse. (SLD)

Structural equation models of the same construct collected on different occasions are evaluated in 2 studies involving the evaluation of 157 college instructors over 8 years and data for over 2,200 high school students over 4 years for the Youth in Transition Study. Results challenge overreliance on simplex models. (SLD)

Forty prototypical descriptions representing 4 aptitude domains and 4 talent fields were rated by 2,343 intermediate-level pupils and their teachers, and indices of interpeer agreement were computed. A majority of the prototypes maintained acceptable interpeer agreement levels. Interpeer agreement depended primarily on the specific aptitude or…

The reliability and validity of the revised California Psychological Inventory's (CPI) Vector 1 scale, a measure of introversion and extraversion, were studied with 345 college students (109 males and 236 females). Results support the scale as a valid measure of the introversion-extraversion construct of H. G. Gough. (SLD)

Data from 6,472 South Carolina residents aged over 55 years support the reliability of S. Katz's Activities of Daily Living scale when data are collected by self-report telephone interview. Results indicate that telephone interview methods are a fast, inexpensive, and safe way to collect data for research and policy formation. (SLD)

The applicability of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) (in the informant-rating version) to mentally retarded adults was evaluated with 798 individuals. Evaluation of internal consistency, interrater reliability, factor analysis, and effects of age, sex, and degree of mental retardation indicated that the CDI is suitable as a diagnostic…

Describes a study to determine whether traditional paper-and-pencil tests or new computer-adaptive tests were better suited for assessing entering students at Santa Fe Community College, Florida. Focuses on teachers' attitudes toward computerized placement tests (CPTs), relationships between CPT scores and course grades, predictive ability of CPT…

One implication of attitude self-ratings, that scales may become recalibrated transiently, was investigated conservatively using hypothesized shifts of data from 368 college students rating the desirability of taking senior comprehensive examinations. Results support the validity and reliability of simple graphic rating scales as measures of…

The Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment is intended for screening and identifying elementary-aged school children with social skill deficits. The instrument is divided into two components covering adaptive classroom behavior and interpersonal social skills. This paper describes the test's administration, summation of…

The Psychological Maltreatment Rating Scales (PMRS) were developed for assessing psychological maltreatment in the mother-child interaction, and were used to rate the videotaped interaction of 49 high-risk mother-child dyads and predict child protective service involvements. The PMRS was found to be a moderately reliable and valid measure.…