School Adjustment – Parent – Revised

Abstract: The School Adjustment - Parent (Revised) questionnaire is an 18-item scale that evaluates a parent's perceptions of a child's current adjustment to school, and the parent's own adjustment to the school situation. The questionnaire also asks if the child attended school at least part of the last school year, if the child has changed schools, and whether the new school is a new type of school for the child, such as middle school. This questionnaire was created for the Fast Track Project. Questionnaire items contain statements about school experiences. The parent selects the response that estimates how true each statement is for the past school year for his/her child. Questionnaire items include statements about the child's academic performance, discipline problems, and interactions with other students and staff. Items also contain statements about the parent's adjustment to the child's school situation and the parent's contact with teachers; for example, "I keep up on what is going on with my child at school." Response choices include: "Strongly Disagree" (1), "Disagree" (2), "Unsure" (3), "Agree" (4), and "Strongly Agree" (5). A child version of the School Adjustment questionnaire was also administered to children involved in the Fast Track Project. (See the separate technical report for School Adjustment - Child (Revised).) The parent version and the child version have 12 items in common. A previous study of this questionnaire (Maumary-Gremaud, 2000) identified two subscales: a Total subscale including Academics, Friends, and General Concerns and Parent-Teacher Contact. The ordering of responses in some items was reversed before scoring to provide consistency among all the item responses. Higher scores indicate better school adjustment; lower scores indicate poorer adjustment. The Total: Academics, Friends, and General Concerns subscale has good internal consistency and is correlated with the Parent-Teacher Contact subscale. T-tests of means for the Total subscale show a significant difference between the normative and control groups. Depending on the construct of interest, this subscale should be useful to analysts. The Parent-Teacher Contact subscale has low internal consistency. T-tests of means do not suggest that it discriminates well between normative and control samples. Researchers also should keep in mind that this subscale includes only two items. Chi-square tests for normative and control responses for Item 6 ("Did your child enter a new school?"), Item 7 ("Was it a new kind of school, like middle school?") and Item 26 ("Did the youth attend school during at least a part of the last school year?") were significant only for Item 26. A larger, statistically significant percent of normative respondents had children who attended school at least part of the year, compared to the control group.

Who Completed this Measure?: Parent

Cohort 1 - Administrative History

  • Year 11 | grade 10 | age 16
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Cohort 2 - Administrative History

  • Year 11 | grade 10 | age 16
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Cohort 3 - Administrative History

  • Year 11 | grade 10 | age 16
  • Year 12 | grade 11 | age 17

Technical Reports:

Raw Dataset Name: PyAI

Scored Dataset Name: SHRySPc

Keywords:
Academic Performance, Peer Relationships, School Satisfaction, School Situation, School Transition, Teacher Contact

Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: Yes

Obtain Measure:
Download the measure here

SAS Code for Scale Creation:
Download the code here

Measure Items and Scales:

cohort Cohort
tcid Child ID Number
p11ai6 First of all, did your child enter a new school this past year?
p11ai7 Was this new school a new kind of school, like middle school?
p11ai8 This past year has been especially difficult for my child.
p11ai9 My child had an easy time handling the new academic demands made on him/her.
p11ai10 My child got along well with other kids at school this past year.
p11ai11 My child stayed out of trouble with teachers and the staff at school.
p11ai12 My child had a good year at school.
p11ai13 School work was really hard for my child this past year.
p11ai14 Other kids tried to make my child do things that he/she should not do.
p11ai15 My child got into some trouble this year by breaking school rules.
p11ai16 My child liked the new things about school this past year.
p11ai17 My child did not do as well as he/she should have in academics this past year.
p11ai18 My child did not have as many friends at school this past year.
p11ai19 Teachers were constantly on my child because he/she broke some rules.
p11ai20 It was hard for me to adjust to my child's school situation this past year.
p11ai21 I adjusted well to the many changes at my child's school.
p11ai22 My child's school caused me a lot of hassles this past year.
p11ai23 I keep up on what is going on with my child at school.
p11ai24 I have a lot of contact with my child's school teachers
p11ai25 I worry a lot about the bad things that my child could get into at school.
p11ai26 Did the youth attend school during at least a part of the last school year?
site Study Site
TREATMNT Treatment Group (Interv/Cntl)
NORM Members of Normative Sample
rp11ai8 rp11ai8
rp11ai13 rp11ai13
rp11ai14 rp11ai14
rp11ai15 rp11ai15
rp11ai17 rp11ai17
rp11ai18 rp11ai18
rp11ai19 rp11ai19
rp11ai20 rp11ai20
rp11ai22 rp11ai22
rp11ai25 rp11ai25
sap11con School adj parent: contact w school Yr 11
sap11tot School adj parent:total Yr 11