Assessing attitudes and behaviors of high-risk adolescents: an evaluation of the self-report method

This study evaluated the self-report method in the assessment of attitudes and behaviors. Forty-two problem youth from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds were surveyed. In addition, their parents were surveyed and school and police data were collected. Five self-report factors were compared against parental report factors and police and school records. Significant relationships were found only for self-report factors that contained more positively oriented items. Self-report factors that contained items inquiring directly into high-risk behaviors were not significantly associated with parental report factors or school and police data. The implications of these findings are discussed.