Things That Happen To Me
Abstract: Things That Happen To Me explores how a child might interact with other children in social situations. An interviewer reads descriptions of eight scenarios. The child is asked to imagine that he/she is present in each scenario, and wants to achieve a goal that another child is blocking. There are a group of seven items for each of the eight scenarios. Six of the items in each group concern the three outcomes (instrumental, friendship, and "liking") using an assertive response and an aggressive response. One item in each group concerns what the child sees as the social objective of the scenario. This measure contains several types of subscales. First, six scores are calculated by summing the point values of items in each category across the scenarios. The resulting sum scores are: Assertive Instrumental, Aggressive Instrumental, Assertive Friendship, Aggressive Friendship, Assertive Liking, and Aggressive Liking A second set of scores is calculated by adding two or more of the sum scores. The additive subscales are: Assertive Endorsement (adds the three assertive sum scores), Aggressive Endorsement (adds the three aggressive sum scores), Instrumental Self Efficacy (adds the two instrumental sum scores), Friendship Confidence (adds the two friendship sum scores), Liking Confidence (adds the two liking sum scores), and Goal Optimism (adds all the assertive and aggressive sum scores). The third set of subscales estimates the respondent's preference for an aggressive or an assertive approach to each goal type. These subscales are subtractive and include: Nonaggressive Instrumental Endorsement (Assertive Instrumental score - Aggressive Instrumental score), Nonaggressive Friendship Endorsement (Assertive Friendship score - Aggressive Friendship score), Nonaggressive Liking Endorsement (Assertive Liking score- Aggressive Liking score), and Endorsement of NonAggression (sum of Assertive Scores - sum of Aggressive scores) A final score - Relationship Goals Instrumental/Social score - estimates the importance to the respondent of instrumental goals, as opposed to social acceptance. This score is generated using the 7th item for each scenario: "What is more important to you?" (instrumental goal or social acceptance). Points are tallied for this score: when a respondent chooses social acceptance ("liking"), one point is added; when the respondent chooses instrumental goal, one point is subtracted. T-tests of means for scores do not show a significant difference between the normative and control samples on any of the subscales for this measure. The Assertive Liking score is slightly negatively skewed for both the normative and control samples, with a ceiling effect in the normative group (41% of the scores are at the maximum of 8). Aggressive Friendship, Aggressive Liking, and Aggressive Endorsement scores are slightly positively skewed for both samples. The Relationship Goals score is slightly negatively skewed in both samples, with a ceiling effect in both samples (55% of scores are at the maximum of 8 in the normative group, and 51% in the control group). The Nonaggressive Friendship Endorsement score is slightly negatively skewed for the control group. Among the subscales, several have mid to high alpha coefficients, and should be useful. They are: Goal Optimism, Aggressive Endorsement, Assertive Endorsement, and Aggressive Liking. Other subscales are in the low to middle range, and may be useful in some studies, depending on the construct of interest. Alpha coefficients were not calculated for the Nonaggressive Endorsement scores, the Relationship Goals Instrumental/Social score, and the Endorsement of Nonaggression score.
Who Completed this Measure?: select one
Cohort 1 - Administrative History
- Year 03 | grade 2 | age 8
- Year 04 | grade 3 | age 9
Cohort 2 - Administrative History
- Year 03 | grade 2 | age 8
- Year 04 | grade 3 | age 9
Cohort 3 - Administrative History
- Year 03 | grade 2 | age 8
- Year 04 | grade 3 | age 9
Technical Reports:
Raw Dataset Name: CyF
Scored Dataset Name: THMySCc
Keywords:
Aggressiveness, Assertiveness, Friendship, Peer Relationships, Social Acceptance, Social Skills
Is this Measure Available for Public Use?: Yes
Obtain Measure:
Download the measure here
SAS Code for Scale Creation:
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Measure Items and Scales:
| TCID | Child's Identification number |
| SITE | Study Site |
| C4FTH7 | Story 1, OutcomeImport |
| C4FTH14 | Story 2, Outcome Import |
| C4FTH21 | Story 3, Outcome Import |
| C4FTH28 | Story 4, Outcome Import |
| C4FTH35 | Story 5, Outcome Import |
| C4FTH42 | Story 6, Outcome Import |
| C4FTH49 | Story 7, Outcome Import |
| C4FTH56 | Story 8, Outcome Import |
| C4FTH1 | Story 1, Assert1-say: go to line end |
| C4FTH2 | Story 1, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH3 | Story 1, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH5 | Story 1, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH6 | Story 1, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH8 | Story 2, Assert1-say: dont change channel |
| C4FTH9 | Story 2, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH10 | Story 2, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH11 | Story 2, Aggres1-say: Ill hit you |
| C4FTH12 | Story 2, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH13 | Story 2, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH15 | Story 3, Assert1-say: can I play |
| C4FTH16 | Story 3, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH17 | Story 3, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH18 | Story 3, Aggres1-say: you better let me |
| C4FTH19 | Story 3, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH20 | Story 3, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH22 | Story 4, Assert1-say: not fair |
| C4FTH23 | Story 4, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH24 | Story 4, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH25 | Story 4, Aggres1-say: Ill hit you |
| C4FTH26 | Story 4, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH27 | Story 4, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH29 | Story 5, Assert1-say: not fair. |
| C4FTH30 | Story 5, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH31 | Story 5, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH32 | Story 5, Aggres1-push, grab ball |
| C4FTH33 | Story 5, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH34 | Story 5, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH36 | Story 6, Aggres1-move game piece ahead |
| C4FTH37 | Story 6, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH38 | Story 6, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH39 | Story 6, Assert1-say: Ill get lucky |
| C4FTH40 | Story 6, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH41 | Story 6, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH43 | Story 7, Assert1-say: we both play |
| C4FTH44 | Story 7, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH45 | Story 7, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH46 | Story 7, Aggres1-grab Nintendo |
| C4FTH47 | Story 7, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH48 | Story 7, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH50 | Story 8, Assert1-say: sit there tomorrow |
| C4FTH51 | Story 8, Assert2-be your friend |
| C4FTH52 | Story 8, Assert3-others like you |
| C4FTH53 | Story 8, Aggres1-push to get seat |
| C4FTH54 | Story 8, Aggres2-be your friend |
| C4FTH55 | Story 8, Aggres3-others like you |
| C4FTH4 | Story 1, Aggres1-push out of line |
| TREATMNT | Treatment Group (Interv/Cntl) |
| NORM | Members of Normative Sample |
| thm4sin | Assertive Instrumental Y4 |
| thm4sfr | Assertive Friendship Y4 |
| thm4slk | Assertive Liking Y4 |
| thm4gin | Aggressive Instrumental Y4 |
| thm4gfr | Aggressive Friendship Y4 |
| thm4glk | Aggressive Liking Y4 |
| thm4rlg | Relationship Goals Y4 |
| thm4sen | Assertive Endorsement Y4 |
| thm4gen | Aggressive Endorsement Y4 |
| thm4ise | Instrumental Self-Efficacy Y4 |
| thm4fcn | Friendship Confidence Y4 |
| thm4lcn | Liking Confidence Y4 |
| thm4nie | nonaggress Instrumental Endorsement Y4 |
| thm4nfe | nonaggressive Friendship Endorsement Y4 |
| thm4nle | nonaggressive Liking Endorsement Y4 |
| thm4ena | Endorsement of nonaggression Y4 |
| thm4gop | Goal Optimism Sum Score Y4 |
| thm4gol | Relationship Goals Y4 |