A children's social desirability questionnaire.

Abstract

A Children's Social Desirability (CSD) questionnaire was constructed and administered to 956 Ss in Grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, and 12. A direct question ("yes-no") form of the scale was presented to children in the 3rd, 4th, and Sth grades in individual testing sessions, and a true-false form was given older Ss in group sessions. For both forms of the questionnaire, split-half reliabilities and test-retest (1-month interval) reliabilities were high. Socially desirable responses were more frequently given by younger children than by older children, by dull Ss than by bright Ss, by girls than by boys, and by Negro children than by white children. Social class, size of family, and ordinal position were not associated with CSD responses. Questions were raised pertaining to the generality of this response and pertaining to the premises on which this measure of social desirability, as well as that of Crowne and Marlowe, is based.

Social Desirability, Environmental Attitudes, and General Ecological Behaviour in Children

“…In children, the opposite tendency was observed, younger children showing higher Lie scores than older ones (Boehnke et al, 1986), sometimes in connection with an interaction between age and sex, only female or only male Lie scores decreasing (Dadds et al, 1998;Richmond & Millar, 1984). A general effect of gender was observed by Boehnke et al (1986) Social Desirability 5 boys to score higher than girls in a German sample, whereas in a US sample, the opposite was the case (see also Crandall et al, 1965). Age differences in SDB of children were explained by a higher dependency of the latter on the approval of adults during the early years, whereas the decrease in SDB of older children may reflect the desire to attain independence from adults, and instead to obtain acceptance from peers or the adolescent subculture in general (Crandall et al, 1965).…”

“…A general effect of gender was observed by Boehnke et al (1986) Social Desirability 5 boys to score higher than girls in a German sample, whereas in a US sample, the opposite was the case (see also Crandall et al, 1965). Age differences in SDB of children were explained by a higher dependency of the latter on the approval of adults during the early years, whereas the decrease in SDB of older children may reflect the desire to attain independence from adults, and instead to obtain acceptance from peers or the adolescent subculture in general (Crandall et al, 1965). Others pointed to the higher cognitive development of older children, increasing their ability to report correctly their own actual behaviour compared to ideal behaviour (Brown & Kodadek, 1987).…”

“…A somewhat dated example from the US also reports a negative relationship between SDB and intelligence in children (Crandall et al, 1965).…”

“…We are aware of only two scales systematically constructed to measure SDB in children, both uni-dimensional: The Children's Social Desirability scale (Crandall, Crandall, & Katkovsky, 1965), consisting of 48 items, and the Lie scale of the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety scale (RCMAS), one of the most frequently used self-reporting measures in childhood anxiety research (Reynolds & Richmond, 1985, 1997, consisting of nine items. The latter is derived from the MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory) Lie scale and is intended measure impression management.…”

Self-reports on students' learning processes are academic metacognitive knowledge

“…Thus, the psycho-educational instruments to assess motivation have different backgrounds, representing different research traditions: Children's Social Desirability Scale (Crandall, Crandall, & Katkovsky, 1965); Achievement Goal Questionnaire (Finney, Pieper, & Barron, 2004); Academic Motivation Scale (Vallerand, Pelletier, Blais, & Brière, 1992); School Achievement Motivation Rating Scale (Archer, 1994); and Children's Academic Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Gottfried, 1985), are just few of the existing instruments (for a more complete revision see Fulmer & Frijters, 2009;Tremblay, 1998).…”