Development and Psychometric Properties of a Social Problem Solving Test for Adolescents

This study examined the psychometric properties of the social problem solving test (SPST) using two samples of Vietnamese high school students: 247 regular students (referred to as normal students) and 168 “disruptive” students who had been diagnosed as having behavioral problems. The SPST is a performance measure of interpersonal problem-solving competence in adolescents. The SPST consists of 24 interpersonal problematic situations, set in two parts, 12 stories in SPST-A (stories-a) and 12 stories in SPST-B (stories-b). The SPST-A was structured into five subscales that were designed to assess the five components of social problem-solving competency based on the modified multi-dimensional problem-solving model. The SPST-B was divided into two scales to assess overall problem-solving abilities: problem affect-cognitions (orientation) and problem-solving actions (strategies or skills). The Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised standardized, was used to appraise the validity of the SPST-A. The preliminary data concerning the reliability and validity of these instruments were reported. The results provided evidence that the scales had acceptable internal consistency, concurrent validity and construct validity and that the SPST seem to be a promising multidimensional outcome measure of social problem-solving competence in Vietnamese adolescents.