2011 · Study · English
Measuring Community Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Problem Behaviors: Evidence from a Developing Nation
Maguire, E. R., Wells, W., & Katz, C. M.
Maguire, E. R., Wells, W., & Katz, C. M. (2011). Measuring Community Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Problem Behaviors: Evidence from a Developing Nation. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48(4), 594–620. doi.org/10.1177/0022427810395148
Summary
Measurement study testing whether the community-domain scales of the Communities That Care Youth Survey hold up outside the industrialised world. Using a sample of more than 2,500 adolescents in Trinidad and Tobago, the authors examined the construct and concurrent validity of five community risk factors and two community protective factors. The original US measurement models showed weak construct validity in this sample; revised model specifications developed in the study fitted the data better. However, the concurrent validity of both the original and the revised measures – their relation to problem behaviour – was weak, a result the authors flag clearly. They conclude that risk and protective factor measures should not be transplanted from developed to developing nations without local validation. For European CTC sites the paper is a reminder that survey scales need to be checked in each new cultural context rather than assumed to work, even when translated carefully.