Psychosocial Maturity assessment in juvenile justice: A content validity analysis of a novel tool

ELENA PALACIO VAN ISSCHOT; ARBACH KARIN; ANTONIO ANDRÉS PUEYO

Revista Evaluar

Laboratorio de Evaluación Psicológica y Educativa de la Facultad de Psicología-UNC

Lugar: Córdoba; Año: 2023

1667-4545

Psychosocial maturity (PM) is a potential factor influencing adolescent decision making and a wide range of social and interpersonal behaviors in adolescents. The current study represents an initial effort to design a new psychosocial maturity test suitable for assessing this construct in the forensic context and juvenile justice settings. Its aim is to establish content validity for a novel assessment tool. After a literature review, 38 items were selected from various existing specific tests and protocols, and 41 experts were instructed to conduct a content validity analysis on them. Content Validity Index results show that 92% of the items were classified by experts as representative to the construct, and Factorial Validity Index results show that experts associated 79% of the items with the correct component of the construct according to theoretical criteria. In conclusion, the majority of items were found to be representative of the construct and of their individual components, providing a valid foundation for the development of a new PM assessment tool. In this study the relevance and implications of the results for judicial tasks are discussed.