The initial standardization of the Adolescent Behavioral Classification Project Instrument.

An instrument has been developed through the Adolescent Behavioral Classification Project for assessing an adolescent's problems and for establishing a taxonomy of behaviors and of persons. Standardization has initially consisted of collecting from many sources 482 statements of problem behaviors and 30 "positive" behaviors, which can be observed by nonprofessional as well as professional persons; administering these behavior statements to 156 institutional and 94 noninstitutional mental health center adolescents and 376 of their parents; carrying out principal components analyses on the behavioral items and 3 demographic items, followed by Varimax and Promax rotations. Twenty-five factors scored on 410 items resulted from these procedures. Internal consistency coefficients for the factors range from .47 to .86. Test-retest reliabilities on a sample of 10 youths ranged from .24 to .94, with an average rtt of .71. Factor scores for different classes of respondents were fairly well correlated from one set to another. The different classes of respondents did not differ significantly from one another on "caution" items. Similarities are noted, by inspection, between these factors and those derived from the Children's Behavioral Classification Project and between those other authorities have set forth and the ABCP.