Social Emotional Distress Scale
Other Assessment Resources
Students’ internal symptoms of psychological distress were measured with a 10-item scale designed for this study that examined symptoms of anxious and depressed emotional experiences. The items were as follows: I had a hard time breathing because I was anxious; I worried that I would embarrass myself in front of others; I was tense and uptight; I had a hard time relaxing; I felt sad and down; It was hard for me to cope and I thought I would panic; and I was scared for no good reason.
Key References
Dowdy, E., Furlong, M. J., Nylund-Gibson, K., Moore, S., & Moffa, K. (2018). Initial validation of the Social Emotional Distress Scale to support complete mental health screening. Assessment for Effective Intervention. 43, 241–248. doi:10.1177/1534508417749871
Moffa, K., Dowdy, E., & Furlong. M. J. (2016). Exploring the contributions of school belonging to complete mental health screening. Australian Educational and Developmental Psychologist, 33, 16–32. doi:10.1017/edp.2016.8
The Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) scale has been used for more than 20 years to measure students’ sense of school belonging, yet its psychometric properties have had limited examination with pre-adolescent children. This study investigated the utility and psychometrics of the PSSM in three primary school samples from the United States, China, and the United Kingdom.
Key Reference
Wagle, R., Dowdy, E., Yang, C., Pailkara, O., Castro, S., Nylund-Gibson, K., & Furlong, M. J. (2018). Preliminary investigation of the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale with primary school students in a cross-cultural context. School Psychology International, 39, 568–586. doi:10.1177/0143034318803670
California School Climate and Safety Survey
This measure was designed specifically for use by school site safety planning teams. It is a student self-report questionnaire created to measure general school campus climate and personal safety-related experiences.
Multidimensional School Anger Inventory
The MSAI was developed to meet the need for a measure of youth school-related anger experiences. Schools are a primary socialization context that require youth to meet academic performance expectations while, simultaneously engaging in complex social relationships. For this reason, by their nature, schools place youth in situations that might cause stress and evoke anger. The MSAI fills the need for a self-report measure of adolescents' anger experiences in school situations.
School Membership Scale