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A modification of a scale to measure religiousness, first published by Kauffman (1979), was constructed and administered to a sample of parents of Head Start children; respondents were predominantly low-income, Black mothers of the enrolled children. The scale was administered on two test occasions, along with measures of parent and child psychological variables. Factor analysis revealed two factors corresponding to "private" and "public" use of religion. Internal consistency and 6-month stability of this 12-item scale were good. Correlations of parents' religiousness with parent mental health indices, where significant, were positive in direction but low in magnitude. Parents scoring higher on religiousness reported significantly greater social support from friends, more favorable parenting practices, higher socioeconomic status, and lower hostility. Religiousness in parents was not related to child behavior or to parent verbal ability.

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A measure of prosocial choice in story dilemmas was created by adding 23 stories to an original 4 studied by Eisenberg-Berg and Hand (1979). Each story called upon the child to make either a prosocial or a hedonistic choice in the hypothetical situation. Adding more items improved the internal consistency of the measure, as predicted by the Spearman-Brown formula. In our Head Start sample, the children's prosocial responses significantly predicted more prosocial ratings of child behavior by parents. The same relationship held, although less consistently, with behavior ratings carried out by observers in the Head Start classroom. Parents' ratings of themselves on mental health and parenting variables were not related to the measure of prosocial choice in story dilemmas. These findings as a whole provide some exception to past findings of lack of correspondence between responses to hypothetical situations and real-life behavior.

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A rating scale, the Psychological Skills Inventory, was completed by a sample of parents of Head Start children, as well as by research assistants who observed these children in classrooms. The scale yields a total score, plus a subscale score for each of 22 psychological skills. The scale demonstrated high internal consistency (coefficient alpha = .97) and good interrater reliability among classroom observers (intraclass correlation = .76). The pattern of correlations with other measures of parent and child behavior and mental health suggests that the total score measures overall adjustment or psychological health of the child. Individual skills as measured by the inventory were fairly reliable (average intraclass correlation = .58). The reliability of the subscales in measuring individual psychological skills provides evidence that the scale can be useful in constructing individual treatment plans for children.

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