TY - JOUR
T1 - Brief report
T2 - A confirmatory approach to the validation of the peer group norm questionnaire
AU - Marshall-Denton, Rhea
AU - Véronneau, Marie Hélène
AU - Dishion, Thomas J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by research grants DA 07031 and DA 13773 from the National Institute on Drug abuse at the National Institutes of health (NIH/NIDA) to the last author, by grant 1R03HD062753-01A1 from Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NIH/NICHD) to the second author and by the Research Scholar Junior 1 Award from the Québec Research Funds – Health awarded to the second author.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016.
PY - 2016/7/1
Y1 - 2016/7/1
N2 - This study evaluates the internal validity of the "Perception of Peer Group Norms Questionnaire" (PPGNQ), a 17-item measure that assesses middle school students' perceptions of positive and negative norms among their grade mates. The sample consisted of 1073 Grade 6 students. The factorability of the two hypothesized factors was assessed with Exploratory Factor Analysis and a clear two-factor structure emerged. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis this two-factor model evidenced good fit once items of similar wording and subject matter were permitted to correlate. Support was found for metric, strict, scalar, construct and latent means invariance between genders, suggesting that boys and girls perceived items similarly. The results indicate that the PPGNQ may be recommended as a research questionnaire that demonstrates high internal validity and measurement invariance, and can be used to study the influence of the perception of both negative and positive norms on adolescent behavior in school settings.
AB - This study evaluates the internal validity of the "Perception of Peer Group Norms Questionnaire" (PPGNQ), a 17-item measure that assesses middle school students' perceptions of positive and negative norms among their grade mates. The sample consisted of 1073 Grade 6 students. The factorability of the two hypothesized factors was assessed with Exploratory Factor Analysis and a clear two-factor structure emerged. Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis this two-factor model evidenced good fit once items of similar wording and subject matter were permitted to correlate. Support was found for metric, strict, scalar, construct and latent means invariance between genders, suggesting that boys and girls perceived items similarly. The results indicate that the PPGNQ may be recommended as a research questionnaire that demonstrates high internal validity and measurement invariance, and can be used to study the influence of the perception of both negative and positive norms on adolescent behavior in school settings.
KW - Confirmatory factor analysis
KW - Measurement invariance
KW - Social influence
KW - Social norms
KW - Structural equation modeling
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U2 - 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.03.014
DO - 10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.03.014
M3 - Article
C2 - 27163173
AN - SCOPUS:84965159306
VL - 50
SP - 16
EP - 21
JO - Journal of Adolescence
JF - Journal of Adolescence
SN - 0140-1971
ER -