Creation of Short and Very Short Measures of the Five Cs of Positive Youth Development

• Published in: Journal of research on adolescence Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. 163 - 176
• Main Authors: Geldhof, G. J., Bowers, Edmond P., Boyd, Michelle J., Mueller, Megan K., Napolitano, Christopher M., Schmid, Kristina L., Lerner, Jacqueline V., Lerner, Richard M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Adolescent Development; Adolescents; Advocacy services; Exploratory factor analysis; Measurement; Positive attributes; Research Applications; Social development; Youth
• ISSN: 1050-8392; 1532-7795
• DOI: 10.1111/jora.12039

As developmental scientists seek to index the strengths of adolescents and adopt the positive youth development (PYD) perspective, psychometrically sound measurement tools will be needed to assess adolescents’ positive attributes. Using a series of exploratory factor analyses and CFA models, this research creates short and very short versions of the scale used to measure the Five Cs of PYD in the 4‐H Study of Positive Youth Development. We created separate forms for earlier versus later adolescence and ensured that items displayed sufficient conceptual overlap across forms to support tests of factorial invariance. We discuss implications for further scale development and advocate for the use of these convenient tools, especially in research and applications pertinent to the Five Cs model of PYD.