California Healthy Kids Survey
The Healthy Kids Survey is a comprehensive and customizable youth
self-report data collection system that provides essential and reliable
health risk assessment and resilience information to schools, districts,
and communities. Targeted at grades 5-12, the HKS enables schools
and communities to collect and analyze valuable data regarding local
youth health risks, assets, and behaviors. It is designed to be
part of a comprehensive data-driven decision-making process to help
guide the development of more effective health, prevention, and
youth development programs. At the heart of the HKS is a research-based
“Core” module that provides valid indicators of drug
use, violence, crime, and physical and mental health. In addition
to the Core, there are five supplementary modules to choose from
that ask detailed questions on specific topics. Among these, the
Resilience and Youth Development Module measures 11 external assets
and 6 internal assets. The external assets include caring relationships,
high expectations, and opportunities for meaningful participation
in the school, home, community, and peer group. Internal assets
consist of cooperation and communication, empathy, problem-solving,
self-efficacy, self-awareness, and goals and aspirations. There
is also a custom module for incorporating additional questions targeting
topics of local interest.
All of the surveys are available
in Spanish and English.
CSAP Measures
The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) has developed a
compendium of evaluation measures to assess actual use of substances
and risk and protective factors related to substance use. Most measures
in the compendium are reasonable in length, free, in the public
domain, and widely used. CSAP has provided reliability and validity
information about each measure, including information about the
target population.
Because the compendium was designed for programs that were specifically
designed to prevent substance use (grantees of CSAP), most of the
measures under the first two domains (ATOD and Individual/Peer)
tap attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors related to substance use.
However, measures included in the remaining three sections (Family,
School, and Community) may be applicable to a wide range of programs
since they assess individual and environmental risk and protective
factors that cut across many problem domains. Some of the individual/peer
domain items tap general SEL skills such as stress management, problem
solving, social skills, goal setting, assertiveness, leadership,
and antisocial behavior (see pages 70-114). Starting on page 18
of the compendium, you can find a table listing all indicators and
instruments for the various domains.
The entire document
is available here.
Child Trends Youth Developmental Outcomes Compendium
This compendium by Child Trends provides both extensive theoretical
overviews and relevant items on the following four youth development
outcome domains and subdomains:
- Educational Achievement: academic achievement, academic motivation,
and school bonding
- Health and Safety: risky behavior, health, and mental health
- Social and Emotional Development: social/community relationships
and emotional/personal development
- Self-Sufficiency: work and family
Each of the sub-domains is divided into specific outcomes. The
Youth Outcome Grid section of the compendium provides information
on which outcomes belong to each of the four broad domains.
Each outcome construct is reviewed in terms of the following aspects:
- What is the construct and why is it important?
- Measurement (measures or questions) of the construct
- Experimental studies measuring the impact of programs designed
to influence the outcome construct
Most of the items provided for the constructs were drawn from national
surveys in the public domain. To facilitate comparison with the
norms derived from nationally represented groups, benchmark information
is provided when available. This compendium covers constructs ranging
from personal skills and relationships to civic engagement, productive
use of non-school time, and spirituality. Many practitioners and
researchers in the field of youth development and prevention programs
will find this compendium valuable for its extensive review of literature
and programs in combination with actual measures.
Youth Outcomes Compendium
Character Education Partnership Compendium
The Character Education Partnership web site has an "Assessment
Instrument Index" with a listing of survey instruments used
to measure various SEL-related variables. For each instrument category,
there is a grid specifying the grade level for which the measure
is designed, who fills out the survey (e.g. students, teachers,
administrators), and the measure's validity and reliability. Clicking
on the measure name will take you to a description of the measure,
and provide contact information for obtaining it.
More
info is available here.
Communities that Care Youth Survey
The Communities That Care Youth Survey measures 19 risk and 10 protective
factors as well as current levels of substance abuse, violence,
and delinquency. The survey is designed for students in grades 6th
through 12th. Its purpose is to help communities identify the risk
and protective factors that pose the most significant challenges
and opportunities in the community.
Developmental Studies Center Child Development Project
Scales
The Developmental Studies Center has posted its Child Development
Project assessment scales on its site. These scales, developed and
validated for over 20 years, measure students’ social, emotional,
ethical, and academic development, as well as student involvement
in high-risk behaviors. The scales also measure aspects of school
climate, including student perceptions of the school community,
student-teacher relationships, and liking of school.
Fast Track Compendium
The Fast Track web site has a compendium of more than 100 measures
that have been used to evaluate the Fast Track project. Fast Track
is a comprehensive, multi-site intervention designed to prevent
serious and chronic antisocial behavior in a sample of children
identified as at high risk at school entry because of their conduct
problems in kindergarten and home. The measures are grouped alphabetically,
and the purpose of each measure is described. The site also includes
PDFs of public domain measures and contact information for private
domain measures. Below are some of the public domain measures, with
a short description taken from the web site.
To download these and other available measures or to learn more
about them, visit the Fast
Track site.
- Social Competence Scale—Teacher Version: A 25-item
measure that assesses a child's prosocial behaviors, emotional
self-regulation, and academic skills.
- Values Questionnaire: The Values Questionnaire is
a 35-item measure that explores parents' values about their children's
peer relations.
- Teacher Practices: The questionnaire consists of 27
items meant to assess teacher practices, values and classroom-level
assessment: classroom activities focused on community service,
conflict resolution, teacher goals and priorities for classroom
instruction, and comparison of the social competence of the current
class to previous classes.
- Adolescent Stories: The Adolescent Stories measure
is a social-cognitive interview. It assesses the adolescent's
attitudes and enables expression of his/ her feelings and reactions
when presented with an unfair situation.
- Interview on Emotional Experiences: The Interview
on Emotional Experience is a 22-item measure given to children.
The measure focuses on four emotions-happiness, sadness, anger,
and worry/nervousness. For each emotion, the child is asked several
questions about the emotion and the interviewer then codes the
child's responses.
- The Social Problem Solving Scale: Assesses the way
a child resolves problems encountered in typical social settings
with other children. The scale contains eight drawings of social
situations with children. An interviewer elicits information from
the child that expresses how the child would interact with the
children in each picture.
The Individual Protective Factors Index (IPFI)
Developed by EMT Associates, the Individual Protective Factors Index
(IPFI) can be used as a tool for evaluating prevention programs.
One of the few measures on adolescence resiliency and protective
factors available in public domain, the items of the IPFI measure
constructs related to adolescent resiliency, including social bonding,
personal competence, and social competence. Sub-constructs for each
of these three resiliency domains are as follows:
- Social Bonding : School; Family; Pro-Social Norms
- Personal Competence: Self-Concept; Self-Control; Self-Efficacy;
Positive Outlook
- Social Competence: Assertiveness; Confidence; Cooperation
In addition to resiliency and protective factors, the index also
measures individual, family, peer, and neighborhood risk factors
for substance use.
The survey is available here.
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control: Measuring
Violence Compendium
This compendium contains more than 170 measures, and provides researchers
and prevention specialists with a set of tools to assess violence-related
beliefs, behaviors, and influences, as well as to evaluate programs
to prevent youth violence. Most of the measures in this compendium
are intended for use with youths between the ages of 11 and 24 years,
to assess such factors as serious violent and delinquent behavior,
conflict resolution strategies, social and emotional competencies,
peer influences, parental monitoring and supervision, family relationships,
exposure to violence, collective efficacy, and neighborhood characteristics.
The compendium also contains a number of scales and assessments
developed for use with children between the ages of 5 and 10 years,
to measure factors such as aggressive fantasies, beliefs supportive
of aggression, attributional biases, prosocial behavior, and aggressive
behavior.
Teacher-Child Rating Scale
This scale consists of 32 items assessing positive and negative
aspects of a child's socio-emotional school adjustment. By grouping
these items into four empirically derived scales, the T-CRS assesses:
- Task orientation
- Behavior Control
- Assertiveness
- Peer social skills
The T-CRS measures teacher agreement using a five-point Likert
scale. Summary record sheets and an Examiners Manual are also available.
The cost for 25 rating forms is $20 at
this site.
Youth Risk Behavior Survey
The "YRBS" 2007 surveys for middle and high school students
are self-report questionnaires used to determine rates of various
adolescent high-risk behaviors. Schools that use these items in
needs and outcome assessment can compare and contrast their local
data with national findings collected annually in all 50 states
by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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