Perceived Personal and Social Competence: Development of Valid and Reliable Measures

During the last 20 years, youth programming has shifted from risk reduction to youth development. While numerous instruments exist to measure selected individual characteristics/competencies among youth, a comprehensive instrument to measure four constructs of personal and social skills could not be identified. The purpose of this study was to develop four assessment instruments to measure perceived personal/social competence. Specifically, this study focused on identifying items to measure: (a) intrapersonal skills, (b) interpersonal skills, (c) coping skills, and (d) judgment skills. A Delphi panel of nine professionals in health education, youth development programming, and instrument development established content validity. Readability of the four scales ranged from 3.82 to 6.43 using the Gunning Fog Index. Internal consistency reliability was calculated for intrapersonal skills (α=.96), interpersonal skills (α=.91), coping skills (α=.89), and judgment skills (α=.91). Program planners and evaluators could use one or all four scales (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal, coping, judgment skills) to assess short-term impact of their youth development programs