Objective: This article describes the development and initial validation of the 90-item Chinese Positive Youth Development Scale (CPYDS), which contains items related to 15 aspects of positive youth development. Method: Adolescents with well adjustment ( N = 162) and poor adjustment (N = 160) responded to the CPYDS. Results: The findings showed that the CPYDS measures possess acceptable internal consistency and were able to discriminate the two groups. Although the CPYDS measures were positively related to thriving, life satisfaction, and perceived academic achievement, they were negatively related to substance abuse, delinquency, and behavioral intention to engage in problem behavior. Conclusions: The CPYDS can be used as a global measure of positive youth development in Chinese adolescents, but its dimensionality and subscales should be further examined.
Objectives: Psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (C-IRI) for the assessment of empathy in Chinese people were examined. Method: The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was translated to Chinese, and an expert panel reviewed its content validity and cultural relevance. The translated instrument (C-IRI) was administered to 189 junior high school students and 391 university students. Results: Confirmatory factor analyses revealed a stable hierarchical three-factor structure that was consistent with structure of the English IRI, but the cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy were combined to form a new factor. The subscales of the C-IRI demonstrated acceptable to good internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Some evidence for the construct validity of the measure was also found. Conclusions: The C-IRI possessed acceptable psychometric properties in Chinese adolescent samples. The present findings suggest that the cognitive and emotional aspects of empathy are not differentiated in Chinese adolescents.
1 November 2009 in Research in Developmental Disabilities