Daniel Offer

A Self-Image Questionnaire for Young Adolescents (SIQYA): Reliability and Validity Studies.

This article describes a questionnaire measure of self-image designed for young adolescents. It represents a downward extension of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire and utilizes nine scales from that instrument: Emotional Tone, Impulse Control, Body Image, Peer Relationships, Family Relationships, Mastery and Coping, Vocational/Educational Goals, Psychopathology, and Superior Adjustment. This 98-item questionnaire elicits responses on a 6-point Likert-type scale. The alpha coefficients for each scale are high, indicating a high degree of internal consistency among the items. The validity of this instrument is examined through factor analyses and through the association of these scales with other measures of self-image. The results suggest that this questionnaire provides a useful way to assess self-image among young adolescents.

The “impulsivity index”: Its application to juvenile delinquency

An objective, composite index of impulsivity, made up of three measures of reactivity to color on the Rorschach and amount of discrepancy between performance and verbal IQ on the Wechsler Scales, is proposed. It was predicted that impulsiveness as measured by this index would be associated with self-perception of impulsivity. Moreover, it was predicted that impulsiveness, whether objectively or subjectively measured, would tend to be associated with a history of greater and more frequent delinquency. The major hypotheses were confirmed. In addition, the data suggested that delinquents from higher socioeconomic levels may be more impulsive than their lower class counterparts. Additional work on refining and validating the “impulsivity index” is indicated.

Design and Procedure

An attempt to study adolescents raises questions about how anyone can know what adolescents are experiencing or feeling. Studying the human experience is per se difficult and complex. Studying adolescents seems particularly difficult since they are simultaneously as complex as, but different from, adults; yet it is adults who are trying to understand them.

The pediatrician's concept of the normal adolescent

Complete medical assessment of an adolescent requires understanding of the normal psychological state, including self-image. To determine the pediatricians knowledge about the self-image of normal adolescents, 33 house staff and 36 attending pediatricians in a major teaching center completed the Offer Physician-Adolescent Questionnaire (OPAQ), a scale that measures adult perceptions of adolescent self-image. Forty-one male and 28 female pediatricians completed the 50-item questionnaire as they believed a mentally healthy, well-adjusted adolescent would. Pediatricians responses did not differ by sex, age, or status as resident or attending. Percentage endorsements for each item were converted to standard scores for 11 scales. The scale scores were then compared with previously established norms for healthy adolescents and adolescents with cystic fibrosis. Pediatricians accurately predicted the normal adolescent responses for only two scales: vocational and educational goals and superior adjustment. Pediatricians responded more positively than the adolescents to items on the idealism scale. For the remaining eight scales, the pediatricians responded more negatively than did normal adolescents and teens with cystic fibrosis. The pediatricians view of normal adolescent self-image seems to be more pessimistic than what adolescents report.

Adolescent Psychiatry: A Brief Research Note

Abstract Problems encountered while undertaking developmental research in the Chicago suburban school system during the early 1960s are compared with problems encountered while undertaking similar research in the late 1970s. Empirical evidence is presented to demonstrate that the climate for doing mental health research has improved during the past 18 years, making it easier to undertake complex developmental research.

Hungarian adolescents' self-concept

Hungarian and United States adolescents self-image was studied using the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire (OSIQ). In Hungary, 1,163 younger and older male and female adolescents were studied using a Hungarian translation of the OSIQ. Analyses of endorsement patterns of OSIQ items showed that Hungarian and American adolescents endorsed many items in the same way. Similarities in endorsement patterns were much more common between the two countries than were differences. Analyses of OSIQ scales showed that for most scales younger Hungarian adolescents reported better adjustment than younger American adolescents. Differences were not as great or reversed in the older age groups. Implications for cross-cultural studies of adolescent self-image were drawn based on these results.

Results of Data Analysis

Across the ten countries studied, teenagers showed broad agreement. This agreement was concentrated in family relationships, vocational and educational goals, superior adjustment (or coping), social relationships, and, to a limited extent, individual values (see Table 1).