Development of a Korean Risk Behavior Scale for Middle School Adolescents.

Park,  Hyun Sook; Jo,  Geum Yi

doi:2010.19.2.229

J Korean Acad Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs > Volume 19(2); 2010 > Article

Original Article

Journal of Korean Academy of psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 2010;19(2):229-240.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12934/jkpmhn.2010.19.2.229 Published online June 30, 2010.

Development of a Korean Risk Behavior Scale for Middle School Adolescents.

Hyun Sook Park, Geum Yi Jo

¹College of Nursing, Catholic University of Daegu, Korea. parkhs@cu.ac.kr
²Department of Nursing, Taegu Science College, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was done to develop a risk behavior scale for Korean middle school adolescents. METHODS: The process included construction of a conceptual framework, initial items, verification of content validity, selection of secondary items, and extraction of final items. The participants were 717 adolescents from six middle schools in three cities. Item analysis, factor analysis, criterion validity, and internal consistency were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: Fifty seven items were selected for the final scale, and categorized into 4 factors explaining 48.11% of total variance. The factors were labeled as latent problem behavior (38 items), suicidal behavior (7 items), runaways (3 items), and internet negative use (9 items). The scores for the scale were significantly correlated with crisis. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the 57 items was .92. CONCLUSION: The above findings indicate that the risk behavior scale has good validity and reliability when used with Korean middle school adolescents.

Key Words: Adolescents; Risk behavior