TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards Construct Validity of Relational Aggression
T2 - An Examination of the Children’s Social Behavior Scale
AU - Brandes, Cassandra M.
AU - Reardon, Kathleen Wade
AU - Shields, Allison N.
AU - Tackett, Jennifer L.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by funding by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, the Connaught Fund, and ACT, awarded to J.L.T. C.M.B. was supported in this project by a fellowship from the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems. The authors would like to thank all of the participants who have generously given us their time and effort for each one of our studies in the Personality Across Development Lab
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Psychological Association
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Relational aggression—or behavior intended to harm the relationships of its victims—has been the focus of interdisciplinary study across developmental, clinical, personality, and social psychology in the last several decades. One of the primary measures used to assess relational aggression in youth is the Children’s Social Behavior Scale (CSBS; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995), but despite its common usage, the construct validity of this measure has not been comprehensively assessed. In the present study, we used a multistage construct validity framework to thoroughly investigate the nature of relational aggression across six community samples totaling 3,102 youth and their caregivers. We used multiple methods to map the reliability, internal or structural validity, and external validity of this scale. Through these analyses, we found that CSBS Relational Aggression demonstrated strong internal consistency, test– retest, and interrater reliability as well as a robust single factor structure and invariance across multiple demographic groups. External validity analyses positioned relational aggression within a theoretically consistent nomological net including psychopathology, personality, and social developmental factors. Contrary to concerns about the validity of self- and parent-reports of relational aggression, both parentand youth-report forms of the CSBS Relational Aggression scale demonstrated strong reliability and validity.
AB - Relational aggression—or behavior intended to harm the relationships of its victims—has been the focus of interdisciplinary study across developmental, clinical, personality, and social psychology in the last several decades. One of the primary measures used to assess relational aggression in youth is the Children’s Social Behavior Scale (CSBS; Crick & Grotpeter, 1995), but despite its common usage, the construct validity of this measure has not been comprehensively assessed. In the present study, we used a multistage construct validity framework to thoroughly investigate the nature of relational aggression across six community samples totaling 3,102 youth and their caregivers. We used multiple methods to map the reliability, internal or structural validity, and external validity of this scale. Through these analyses, we found that CSBS Relational Aggression demonstrated strong internal consistency, test– retest, and interrater reliability as well as a robust single factor structure and invariance across multiple demographic groups. External validity analyses positioned relational aggression within a theoretically consistent nomological net including psychopathology, personality, and social developmental factors. Contrary to concerns about the validity of self- and parent-reports of relational aggression, both parentand youth-report forms of the CSBS Relational Aggression scale demonstrated strong reliability and validity.
KW - Construct validity
KW - Developmental psychopathology
KW - Psychometrics
KW - Relational aggression
KW - Social aggression
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U2 - 10.1037/pas0001005
DO - 10.1037/pas0001005
M3 - Article
C2 - 33956474
AN - SCOPUS:85108354133
VL - 33
SP - 855
EP - 870
JO - Psychological Assessment
JF - Psychological Assessment
SN - 1040-3590
IS - 9
ER -