Development and Validation of Juvenile Social Alienation Scale

Abstract

The current study aimed to develop a reliable and valid assessment scale on juvenile social alienation. Items for the measure were based on responses from 30 incarcerated juvenile delinquents obtained through semi-structured interviews, which resulted in an item pool of 40 statements. After expert validation, 23 items for the Juvenile Social Alienation Scale (JSAS) were finalized and administered to 211 juvenile delinquents, along with the Measure of Criminal Social Identity (MCSI, Boduszek et al., 2012) to assess convergent validity. Based on the principal component factor analysis, a three-factor solution was finalized for the scale. The three factors (subscales) were labeled as Disgruntlement, Disaffection, and Estrangement. The assessment scale had satisfactory internal consistency, and concurrent and convergent validities and could be utilized for assessment and correctional counseling services for juvenile delinquents.