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J Youth Adolescence (2007) 36:835848 DOI 10.1007/s10964-006-9107-9
ORIGINAL PAPER
The Adolescent Self-Regulatory Inventory: The Development and Validation of a Questionnaire of Short-Term and Long-Term Self-Regulation
Kristin L. Moilanen
Received: 19 August 2005 / Accepted: 1 December 2005 / Published online: 25 July 2006
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Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2006
Abstract This manuscript presents a study in which the factor structure and validity of the Adolescent Self-Regulatory Inventory (ASRI) were examined. The ASRI is a theoretically-based questionnaire that taps two temporal aspects of self-regulation (regulation in the short- and long-term). 169 students in the 6th, 8th, and 10th grades of a small, Midwestern school district completed self-report questionnaires focused on self-regulation, parenting behaviors, and psychological adjustment. 80 parents also participated. Conrmatory factor analyses demonstrated that the internal consistency of the long-term and short-term factors was satisfactory. Requirements for concurrent and construct validity were met. The ASRI also demonstrated incremental validity, as the inclusion of the long-term factor with a comparison questionnaire signicantly increased the proportion of explained variance in adolescent-reported parental warmth, externalizing, and prosocial behavior. The ASRI has the potential to move research on self-regulation in adolescence in a viable new direction.
Keywords Self-regulation . Self control . Parenting .
Internailizing . Externalizing . Academic achievement . Prosocial behavior
One important protective factor that may help to prevent youth from engaging in risky behavior or help adolescents avoid outcomes associated with risky behavior is self-regulation (Jessor and Jessor, 1977). Self-regulation is
K. L. Moilanen ([envelopeback])
Research interests: self-regulation, social relationships, adolescent sexuality and psychological adjustment.Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, 210 South Bouquet Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USAe-mail: [email protected]
the ability to exibly activate, monitor, inhibit, persevere and/or adapt ones behavior, attention, emotions and cognitive strategies in response to direction from internal cues, environmental stimuli and feedback from others, in an attempt to attain personally-relevant goals (Barkley, 1997; Demetriou, 2000; Finkenauer et al., 2005; Lengua, 2003; Novak and Clayton, 2001; Thompson, 1994). One major shortcoming of most studies in this area involves the techniques employed to measure self-regulation. In these studies, researchers have primarily focused on regulation in the immediate or short-term context, and have been unable to examine theoretically-vital longer-term components of self-regulation that develop in the teenage years (Demetriou, 2000). This gap...