Individual Characteristics

  • Blame Attribution Inventory: The Blame Attribution Inventory is a 10-item scale that asks participants to think about the crimes that they have committed and to rate on a 5-point Likert scale whether they disagree with the statements regarding feeling shame or guilt for the crime.
    • Revised from Gudjonsson, G. H., & Singh, K. K. (1989). The revised Gudjonsson blame attribution inventory. Personality and Individual Differences, 10(1), 67-70.
  • EPOCH: The EPOCH measure was developed to measure psychological well-being in adolescence. The EPOCH measure is comprised of five factors: Engagement, Perseverance, Optimism, Connectedness, and Happiness.
    • Adapted for the Pathways study; see Mulvey et al., 2004.
  • Future Outlook Inventory (FOI): The Future Outlook Inventory consists of 15 items that ask participants to rank from 1-4 (1= Never True to 4= Always True) the degree to which each statement reflects how they usually are (e.g., I will keep working at difficult, boring tasks if I know they will help me get ahead later). Higher scores indicate a greater degree of future consideration and planning.
    • Developed by Cauffman and Woolard (1999; unpublished) using items from the Life Orientation Task (Scheier & Carver, 1985), the Zimbardo Time Perspective Scale (Zimbardo, 1980), and the Consideration of Future Consequences Scale (Strathman, Gleicher, Boninger, & Edwards, 1994).
  • Grit: The Grit measure is composed of 12 items examining subjects’ “grit” or perseverance.
    • Duckworth, A. L., Peterson, C., Matthews, M. D., & Kelly, D. R. (2007). Grit: perseverance and passion for long-term goals. Journal of personality and social psychology, 92(6), 1087.
  • Go-No-Go: The Go-No-Go is a computerized task that measures some aspects of of executive function (i.e., response inhibition).
  • Inventory of Callous-Unemotional Traits (ICU): A 24-item scale designed to assess level of callous-unemotional (CU) traits.
    • Adapted from: Frick, P. J. (2004). Inventory of callous–unemotional traits. Unpublished rating scale, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
  • Moral Disengagement: The Moral Disengagement scale  is composed of 32 questions with responses ranging from 1 (Disagree) to 3 (Agree). The items tap into individual’s readiness to justify immoral behavior, engage in advantageous comparison, diffuse responsibility, dehumanize situations, and attribute blame to others.
    • Bandura, A. (1999). Moral disengagement in the perpetration of inhumanities. Personality and social psychology review, 3(3), 193-209.
  • Motivation to Succeed: 6 items tap the subject’s assessment of the opportunities available in his/her neighborhood regarding schooling and work. An additional two items are included regarding the adolescent’s perceptions of how far they would like to go in school and how far they think they will go in school. These are treated as individual items.
    • Adapted from: Eccles, J.S., Wigfield, A., & Schiefele, U., (1998). Motivation to succeed. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) and N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology (5th ed., Vol. III, pp. 1017-1095). New York: Wiley.
  • Perceived Discrimination: The perceived discrimination scale includes 20 items, 11 of which focus on lifetime experiences of discrimination and 9 focus on daily experiences of discrimination. Lifetime experiences of discrimination include items that ask whether subjects have ever been unfairly fired, not hired for a job, stopped by the police, etc. Daily experiences of discrimination include items asking whether subjects are treated with less courtesy or respect, are threatened or harassed, or act afraid of them on a daily basis. We also added and revised the 11 questions on lifetime experiences of discrimination to examine subjects’ experiences of discrimination in the past 2 years.
    • Williams, D. R., Yu, Y., Jackson, J. S., & Anderson, N. B. (1997). Racial differences in physical and mental health: Socio-economic status, stress and discrimination. Journal of health psychology, 2(3), 335-351.
  • Perceptions of Opportunities: 14 items that assess the degree to which an adolescent believes that he/she can do well later in life.
    • Adapted from: Menard, S. & Elliott, D. S. (1996).  Prediction of adult success using stepwise logistic regression analysis. A report prepared for the MacArthur Foundation by the MacArthur Chicago-Denver Neighborhood Project.
    • Elliott, D.S., (1990).  National Youth Survey.   Institute of Behavioral Science.  University of Colorado.
  • Psychosocial Maturity Inventory (PSMI): A 30-item measure used to assess three dimensions of maturity: work orientation, self-reliance, and self-esteem.
    • Adapted from: Greenberger, E. & Bond, L. (1976).  Technical Manual for the Psychosocial Inventory.  Unpublished manuscript, Program in Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine.
    • Greenberger, E., Josselson, R., Knerr, C., & Knerr, B. (1974).  The measurement and structure of psychosocial maturity.  Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 4, 127-143.
  • Resistance to Peer Influence (RPI): A 10-item measure that assesses how much weight adolescents put in other’s opinions.
    • Adapted from: Steinberg, L., & Monahan, K. C. (2007). Age differences in resistance to peer influence. Developmental Psychology, 43, 1531-1543.
  • Rosenberg Self-Esteem: 10-item scale designed to assess self-esteem in adolescents.
    • Adapted from: Rosenberg, M. (1989). Society and the Adolescent Self-Image.  Revised edition. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press.
  • Rule Orientation Scale: The Rule Orientation Scale is a 12-point scale aimed at capturing individual’s overall obligation to obey (or violate) the rules. This orientation is an important predictor of offending behavior.
    • Fine, A., van Rooij, B., Feldman, Y., Shalvi, S., Scheper, E., Leib, M., & Cauffman, E. (2016). Rule orientation and behavior. Psychology, Public Policy and Law, 22.
  • Sensation Seeking: This scale includes 6-items from Zuckerman and colleague’s (1978) SSS (Based on Steinberg et al., 2008).  Participants state whether each of the 6-items are true or false (I like new and exciting experiences and sensations even if they are a little frightening).
    • Adapted from: Steinberg, L., Albert, D., Cauffman, E., Banich, M., & Graham, S. (2008). Age differences in sensation seeking and impulsivity as indexed by behavior and self-report: Evidence for a dual system model. Developmental Psychology, 44, 1764-1778.
    •  Zuckerman, M., Eysenck, S., & Eysenck, H. J. (1978). Sensation seeking in England and America: Cross-cultural, age, and sex com- parisons. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 139– 149.
  • Sensory Perception Sensitivity: This 20-item scale is designed to identify children and adolescents’ sensitivity to their context.  Participants are asked to rate the degree to which their senses are affected by environmental stimuli such as loud noises.  The scale was adapted from the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (Aron & Aron, 1997) and modified for children and adolescents.
    • Adapted from: Aron, E. N., & Aron, A. (1997). Sensory-processing sensitivity and its relation to introversion and emotionality. Journal of personality and social psychology,73(2), 345.
    • Chen, C., Moyzis, R., Stern, H., He, Q., Li, H., … & Dong, Q. (2011). Contributions of dopamine-related genes and environmental factors to highly sensitive personality: A multi-step neuronal system-level approach. PloS one,6(7), e21636.
  • Thrill of Crime: The Thrill of Crime measure is composed of 2 items and examines whether subjects experience exhilaration or thrill from committing crimes.
    • Created by Crossroads study personnel.
  • Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (WAI): 23 items assessing temperance (impulse control, suppression of aggression) and consideration of others.
    • Adapted from: Weinberger, D. A., & Schwartz, G. E. (1990).  Distress and restraint as superordinate dimensions of self-reported adjustment:  A typological perspective.  Journal of Personality, 58(2), 381-417.
  • Dot-Probe: The Dot Probe is a computerized task designed to assess reaction to emotional stimuli.