Measuring social change preferences in African American adolescents: development of the Measure of Social Change for Adolescents (MOSC-A)

Studies addressing Black adolescents' social change strategies are nonexistent and might be associated with the absence of social change measures for Black adolescents. In an effort to begin addressing this concern, the 30-item Measure of Social Change for Adolescents (MOSC-A) was designed to measure Black adolescents' first- (i.e., within the system) and second- (outside of the system) order social change strategies. Factor analysis of responses that 226 Black adolescents gave to the MOSC-A revealed first- and second-order social change factors. Item response theory analyses revealed that 65% of the items on the former factor adequately discriminate across different trait levels, but those of the latter were less promising. Scaffolded on this study, future research might refine the MOSC-A's psychometric properties and improve its utility.