School Adjustment – Parent
Abstract: The School Adjustment - Parent Report measure is an 18-item instrument created by the Fast Track project. This measure was designed to evaluate the transition from elementary to middle school. The parent is asked to evaluate his/her child's past school year with respect to academic performances, disciplinary problems and contact with other students and staff as well as how he/she as parent handled the transition. The questions are rated on a 5-point scale (never true, seldom true, sometimes true, usually true, always true). 10 items were recoded for consistency of interpretation. The parent and the child version of the measure have 12 common items. This instrument was first administered in the spring of 1997 to cohort 1. The analyses were conducted on the normative sample for year 7, cohort 1. Examination of frequency tables showed that with the exception of a few, the items were skewed towards the positive end of the scale. The items were subjected to a principal factor analyses with varimax rotation. Five eigenvalues greater that the commonly used cutoff of 1.0 were found. Examination of the rotated factor loadings showed a clean two factor solution: items 1 to 15 and 18 loaded high on the first factor, and items 16 and 17 on the second factor. The first factor described the academic aspect, contact with friends and general worries about school, the second factor treated with the direct contact that the parent has with his/her child's school and teachers. It is recommended that the two subscales described above be used for analyses. The computation of two subscales, one of which has only two items is justified by the fact that these items showed high factor loading on the second factor and a high internal consistency coefficient. Furthermore, they had a very low correlation with the remaining of the items.
Who Completed this Measure?: Parent
Cohort 1 - Administrative History
- Year 07 | grade 6 | age 12
- Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
- Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
- Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
Cohort 2 - Administrative History
- Year 07 | grade 6 | age 12
- Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
- Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
- Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
Cohort 3 - Administrative History
- Year 07 | grade 6 | age 12
- Year 08 | grade 7 | age 13
- Year 09 | grade 8 | age 14
- Year 10 | grade 9 | age 15
Technical Reports:
Raw Dataset Name: PyZ
Scored Dataset Name: SAPySPc
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 |
| SITECODE | Sitecode |
| TCID | Child ID Number |
| INTID | Interviewer ID |
| RESPOND | Respondent |
| NEWSCH | School ID |
| TYPSCH | Type of School |
| SITE | Study Site |
| P7Z1 | This past school year has been especially difficult for my child. |
| P7Z2 | My child had an easy time handling the new academic demands made on him/her. |
| P7Z3 | My child got along well with the other kids at school this past year. |
| P7Z4 | My child stayed out of trouble with teachers and the staff at school. |
| P7Z5 | My child had a good year at school. |
| P7Z6 | School work was really hard for my child this past year. |
| P7Z7 | Other kids tried to make my child do things that he/she should not do. |
| P7Z8 | My child got into some trouble this year by breaking school rules. |
| P7Z9 | My child liked the new things about school this past year. |
| P7Z10 | My child did not do as well as he/she should have in academics this past year. |
| P7Z11 | My child did not have as many friends at school this past year. |
| P7Z12 | Teachers were constantly on my child because he/she broke some rules. |
| P7Z13 | It was hard for me to adjust to my child's school situation this past year. |
| P7Z14 | I adjusted well to the many changes at my child's school. |
| P7Z15 | My child's school caused me a lot of hassles this past year. |
| P7Z16 | I keep up on what is going to with my child's school teachers. |
| P7Z17 | I have a lot of contact with my child's school teachers |
| P7Z18 | I worry a lot about the bad things that my child could get into at school. |
| SAP7CON | School adj parent: contact w school Yr 7 |
| SAP7TOT | School adj parent:total Yr 7 |