Item-Analysis of Jourard's Self-Disclosure Questionnaire-21

Abstract

Jourard's 21-item questionnaire was analyzed as an instrument for measuring the self-disclosure of 331 undergraduates at three universities. Alpha coefficients of internal consistency indicated that the SDQ-21 was acceptably reliable. Jourard's identification of the items as highly, lowly or moderately "intimate" was only partly supported by an analysis of items which discriminated between high and low disclosers. Although most disclosure was reported about lowly intimate and least about highly intimate items, three of the four best discriminators between high and low disclosers were judged by Jourard to be of moderate intimacy. Further, those items which discriminated best differed between male and female subjects.