Critical Evaluation and Life Course Change: The Development of the Critical Problem-Solving Skills Scale – Qualitative Extension

• Main Author: Maximin, Brent M
• Format: Others
• Published: FIU Digital Commons 2011
• Subjects: Positive Youth Development; Critical Thinking; Outreach Research; Cognitive Competence
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/418; http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1506&context=etd

The thesis serves as an evaluation of the psychometric properties of a measure of cognitive competence used with a multi-ethnic, adolescent sample. The primary goal of this study was the development of the Critical Problem Solving Skills Scale – Qualitative Extension, using Relational Data Analysis (RDA). This study builds on previous work that has been conducted to provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the RDA framework in evaluating youth development programs (Kurtines et al., 2008). Inter-coder percent agreement among the TOC and TCC coders for each of the category levels was moderate to high, with a range of .76 to .94. The Fleiss’ kappa across all category levels was from substantial agreement to almost perfect agreement, with a range of .72 to .91. The correlation between the TOC and the TCC demonstrated medium to high correlation, with a range of r(40)=.68, p