Research and Evaluation Instruments

The Positive Youth Development Inventory

 Arnold, M. E., Nott, B. D. & Meinhold, J. L.. (2010). The Positive Youth Development Inventory (PYDI). Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Department of Human Development and Family Sciences.

The Positive Youth Development Inventory is a collection of 58 likert scale items, in six separate scales designed to measure:

1. Competence (14 items; score range 14 to 56)

2. Character (11 items; score range 11 to 44)

3. Connection (9 items; score range 9 to 36)

4. Caring (8 items; score range 8 to 32)

5. Contribution (7 items; score range 7 to 28)

6. Confidence (9 items; score range 9 to 36)

Each item is rated on four-point scale: (1) Srongly disagree; (2) Disagree; (3) Agree; and (4) Strong agree. The score range for the inventory is 58 to232. The scale is reccomended for use with students ages 12-18.

Psychometric Testing Information (January 2011)

Instrument Development Participants

The PYDI was tested with 748 youth. Twenty-two percent were male, 71%  were female and 7% did not report their gender. Participants ranged in ages from 11 to 19 (M = 15 years old).

Data included for the analysis were collected from four research projects. While each project had separate aims, the PYDI was included and embedded within each project.

As we are using data from four different projects, different demographic information was collected for each project. Three projects asked about race and one did not.  Sixty-two percent were asked about race within their project. Of the total sample of 748 race frequencies were: Caucasian (44%); Asian (2%); African-American (5%); Native American (2%); Multi-racial (3.5%); and unknown/other (5.5%).  In addition, 60% of the participants reported ethnicity; of the total sample of 748, 12% reported they were Latino and 49% reported they were non-Latino. .

 Participants came from 13 different states in the United States: Iowa, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Puerto Rico, South Dakota, Utah, Wisconsin, and Washington. The largest majority resided in Oregon (35%).

Psychometric Information

Cronbachs Alphas for internal validity:

Overall for the complete PYDI scale - .97.

The alphas for each separate C are as follows:

Competence - .91

Character - .91

Connection - .86

Caring - .92

Confidence - .89

Contribution - .91.

Observations, Mean, Standard Deviations

The Science Process Skills Inventory

Arnold, M. E., & Bourdeau, V. D. (2009). The Science Process Skills Inventory (SPSI). Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University 4-H Youth Development.

The inventory consists of eleven items, each representing a different skill in the science inquiry process. Youth are prompted to respond to each statement using a 4-point Likert scale indicating how often they practice each of the items when doing science: Never (1), sometimes (2), usually (3), and always (4). Recommended scoring of the SPSI is the calculation of a composite science process skills score. This is calculated by summing the individual ratings for each item. The score range for the composite score is 11-44.

The SPSI is recommended for students ages 12 and above.

Psychometric Testing Information

• Principle component analysis using a promax rotation indicated consistency with a single factor solution for the scale.

• Cronbach’s Alpha calculated pre-program/post-program with middle schools students attending a two-week residential summer science camp in 2007 and 2008 at Oregon State University (n = 106) revealed coefficients of .84 and .94 respectively. Split-half reliability (Spearman-Brown) was .93

The 4-H Inquiry Model- Matching Science Inquiry with Experiential Learning (PDF)