Elsevier

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 31, Issue 3, September 2002, Pages 247-255
Journal of Adolescent Health

Original article
Reliability and validity of the youth asset survey (YAS)

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(02)00363-4Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose: To describe the construction of a survey that was developed to measure youth assets. The paper details the ten youth developmental assets measures within the survey, including the psychometric properties of those measures derived from factor analysis and reliability testing.

Methods: Three studies were conducted, including a study of 1350 randomly selected youth (mean age = 15.4 years; 52% female; 47% white, 22% black, 19% Hispanic, 10% Native American), using in-person interviews, to develop an asset instrument tool. Factor analysis was performed on a correlation matrix, using principal axis factoring, and varimax rotation. The criteria were set to extract eight factors.

Results: The eight factors extracted represented six developmental assets as originally defined, including Family Communication, Peer Role Models, Future Aspirations, Responsible Choices, Community Involvement, and Non-Parental Role Models. One asset (Constructive Use of Time) was split into two specific assets: groups/sports and religious time. Two assets did not form factors (Good Health Practices [exercise/nutrition] and Cultural Respect) and were defined as one-item assets. All factor loading scores were .40 or higher and all Cronbach alphas were .60 or higher.

Conclusions: Factor analyses suggest that the constructs are reliable measures of youth developmental assets. The psychometrically sound asset measures presented here will provide scientists with valid and reliable instruments to assess and compare the prevalence of youth assets across populations and to investigate potential relationships between youth assets and other outcomes, such as youth risk behaviors.

Section snippets

Project overview

In 1995, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) funded 13 community-based projects as part of a national teen pregnancy prevention initiative, including the HEART of OKC project (Healthy, Empowered And Responsible Teens of Oklahoma City). The primary objective of the project was expanded beyond the goal of reducing teenage pregnancy to include the reduction of related youth risk behaviors such as violence and drug use, using positive youth development from an asset-building

Descriptive data

Youth (N = 1350) mean age was 15.4 (±1.7) years and 52% of the sample was female. The youth sample racial/ethnic characteristics were 47% white, 22% black, 19% Hispanic, and 10% NativeAmerican. Approximately 48% of the youth lived in two-parent households, 66% lived in households with reported income levels of less than $35,000, and 51% of the youths parents had an education level at, or below, a high school graduate level.

Factor analyses

Principal axis factoring on a correlation matrix with varimax rotation

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to develop psychometrically sound measures of specific youth developmental asset constructs. Increasingly, youth health and well-being programs are using a youth developmental approach to build adolescent assets and reduce youth risk behaviors 2, 3. This paper details the development of eight asset constructs and two one-item measures of assets that resulted from pilot and factor analyses testing of 60 items designed to measure several characteristics of youth

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number U88/CCU612534 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded to the Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy.

References (20)

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