Adolescents Talking About Thinking

Abstract

The Survey of Teenage Readiness and Neurodevelopmental Status (STRANDS) is a new multidimensional measure designed to obtain a profile of abilities directly reported by the respondent. It is intended for use in clinical settings and schools to assist in the assessment of potential learning problems in high school students ages 15-19 years. It consists of a Questionnaire and Structured Interview, and takes 1 hour to administer. This study provides preliminary findings with respect to reliability and validity of the STRANDS. Subjects included 54 older adolescents who were divided into two groups: Learning Disability (n = 24) and Normal Achieving (n = 30). The two groups did not differ in terms of chronological age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, or Full Scale IQ. The STRANDS Questionnaire and Interview, and a number of benchmark measures were administered. Internal consistency measures for all scales on the STRANDS ranged from.66 to.91. Test-retest reliability of the Interview ranged from.72 to 97. Construct validity was examined for the scales of attention, memory, language, and visual-perceptual function using multi-trait/multi-method correlational analysis. Construct validity was supported by moderate, significant correlations between the latter three scales and a priori related measures. The construct validity for the attention scale was not well supported. Several scales on the Questionnaire and on the Interview significantly discriminated between the groups, with the Learning Disability group reporting significantly greater concerns than the Normal Achieving group. These results suggest the potential utility of such an assessment approach with adolescents, particularly those experiencing learning problems.

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