Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin - Lebenswissen­schaftliche Fakultät - Institut für Psychologie

Inhibition Scales for Children (authorized English version)

Inhibition Scales for Children (authorized English version)

 

Two brief scales for the assessment of social inhibition (or shyness) were developed within the LOGIC study of the Max Planck Institute for Psychological Research, Munich (Weinert & Schneider, 1999). For parental judgments of children aged 3-12 years, the scales showed sufficient reliability (alphas > .80, for the aggregated 8-item scale alphas > .85). However, these scales were not sufficiently internally consistent for self-ratings of children aged 12 years, or adolescents aged 17 years (alphas<.70).

Subscale Inhibition toward unknown peers

1. My child is shy toward unknown children

2. My child easily approaches unknown children (-)

3. When my child meets unknown children, s/he needs a long time to warm up

4. My child is somewhat inhibited toward unknown children

Subscale Inhibition toward unknown adults

1. My child is shy toward unknown adults

2. My child easily approaches unknown adults (-)

3. When my child meets unknown adults, s/he needs a long time to warm up

4. My child is somewhat inhibited toward unknown adults

(-) reversed item

Response format:

1(never)--2(very rarely)--3(rarely)--4(sometimes)--5(often)--6(very often)--7(always)

These items should be randomly mixed with distractor items.

 

References:

Asendorpf, J.B. (1993). Beyond temperament: A two-factorial coping model of the development of inhibition during childhood. In K.H. Rubin & J.B. Asendorpf (Eds.), Social withdrawal, inhibition, and shyness in childhood (pp. 265-289). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Asendorpf, J.B. & van Aken, M.A.G. (1994). Traits and relationship status: Stranger versus peer group inhibition and test intelligence versus peer group competence as early predictors of later self-esteem. Child Development, 65, 1786-1798.

Asendorpf, J.B. & van Aken, M.A.G. (1999). Resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled personality prototypes in childhood: Replicability, predictive power, and the trait-type issue. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77, 815-832.