Construct Validation of the H.E.W. Office of Youth Development National Strategy for Youth Development Model

Abstract

A sample of 5994 twelve to nineteen-year-old males and females, mostly Caucasian, were given a Youth Need Survey including a self-reported delinquency scale and attitude scales measuring variables in H.E.W.'s National Strategy for Youth Development model. Scale score correlation matrices obtained from the aggregate data and Caucasian, Black, and Hispanic sub-samples were compared with a hypothesis matrix specifying the direction of scale intercorrelations Predictions were met without exception for the aggregate data and Caucasian subsample. Over four-fifths of the correlations were in the specified direction for the Black subsample. Only two-fifths of the correlations met predictions in the Hispanic subsample. Perceived negative labeling by parents, teachers, and peers as well as peer pressure seem more pervasively associated with delinquency than do perceived access to educational and occupational roles.