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Successful coping with academic demands is important given the inverse relationship between stress and positive adjustment in adolescents. The Coping With Academic Demands Scale (CADS) is a new measure of coping appropriate for students pursuing advanced high school curricula, specifically Advanced Placement (AP) classes and the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. We developed the CADS in parallel with a new measure of stress designed for this same population. We generated an initial item pool using multiple sources including focus groups and individual interviews with 177 students, 72 teachers, and 47 parents. Multiple iterations of expert review and item analyses resulted in 120 items, which were completed by 727 high school students in six schools (312 IB, 415 not in IB but taking at least one AP class). Exploratory factor analyses and additional item review indicated a 16-factor solution with 58 items. Cronbach's alpha reliabilities for the factors ranged from 0.53 to 0.90, with 11 factors exceeding 0.70. All 16 factors had test-retest reliabilities greater than 0.70. Support for the construct validity of the CADS scores was provided using a nomological network, which specified relationships between the CADS and broader dimensions of school-related coping dimensions (task, avoidance, and emotion-oriented), as well as indicators of achievement (grade point averages) and mental health (life satisfaction). An additional seven items that were not part of the 16-factor CADS, but which were identified as relevant in different phases of instrument development, are provided as a resource for researchers.

High school students in accelerated curricula face stressors beyond typical adolescent developmental challenges. The Student Rating of Environmental Stressors Scale (StRESS) is a self-report measure of environmental stressors appropriate for students in Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. We developed the StRESS in parallel with a new measure of coping designed for this same population. Items were derived from sentiments expressed during focus groups and individual interviews with 177 students, 72 parents, and 47 teachers. Multiple iterations of expert review and item analyses focusing on conceptual clarity and comprehensiveness resulted in 75 items reflecting stressors across domains, including school, home, and peers. High school students in AP or IB (N = 727) completed the 75-item inventory. Exploratory factor analyses and additional item review indicated a five-factor solution with 32 items. Cronbach's alpha reliabilities ranged from 0.67 to 0.88. Five additional items representing a composite of Major Life Events also were included. The five factors and Major Life Events composite had test-retest reliabilities greater than 0.70. These scores were related to multiple conceptualizations of stress, as well as academic outcomes (GPA and attendance) and mental health (life satisfaction and anxiety), thus supporting the construct validity of the StRESS scores. Further support for the five-factor structure of the StRESS was provided by results of a confirmatory factor analysis (standardized root mean square residual = 0.051, root mean square error of approximation = 0.048, comparative fit index = 0.900) with a separate sample of 2,193 AP and IB students.

This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Preschool Language, Literacy, and Behavior Screener (PLLB-S). We examined and tested the factor structure of the PLLB-S using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. We further conducted internal consistency, concurrent validity, and predictive validity analyses and evaluated teacher satisfaction using PLLB-S. Our factor analyses resulted in 22 items distributed among three subscales with high internal consistency: Oral language, emergent literacy, and behavior skills. The PLLB-S and its subscales correlated moderately to strongly with standardized measures. The emergent literacy of the PLLB-S was the only subscale that significantly predicted children's later vocabulary knowledge. Preschool teachers reported high satisfaction with the content and purpose of the questionnaire. We concluded that this tool with sound psychometric properties can potentially help increase the feasibility and efficiency of implementing standardized assessments in MTSS frameworks in preschool classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]