1. Objectives
The definition of hidden youths is those who have completely withdrawn from society and shut himself or herself for more than 3 months. Those pathologically withdrawn youths have become the perpetrator not only of the society but also of...
1. Objectives
The definition of hidden youths is those who have completely withdrawn from society and shut himself or herself for more than 3 months. Those pathologically withdrawn youths have become the perpetrator not only of the society but also of his family. However, screening of these socially hidden youths cannot be done easily. This study focused on developing a primary effective screening measurement for these hidden youths.
2. Method
41 parents of hidden youths candidates, aged between 8 to 25, from mental health center and psychiatric clinics around Seoul and Kyong-Ki Province has participated in the study. We recruited 239 parents of middle and high school students in Seoul metropolitan area. In order to decide concurrent validity for this questionnaire, SCL-90-R, a self-reporting scale was also applied. SPSS version 12.0 were used for statistical analysis.
3. Results
Cronbach’s alpha value, the reliability coefficient to represent internal consistency, was between 0.396 and 0.935, which showed relatively high internal consistency for this questionnaire. The test-retest coefficient was between 0.68 and 0.78, and the item-total relation coefficient was between 0.59 to 0.82, both showed statistically significant results. In factor analysis, 4 factors such as avoidance, withdrawal, isolation, and apathy were extracted. In concurrent validity test with SCL-90-R, the isolation factor showed statistically significant relationship with phobic-anxiety subscale and avoidance and withdrawal were remarkably correlated with interpersonal sensitivity subscale.
4. Conclusion
Since the questionnaire for hidden youths has achieved statistically satisfactory reliability and validity, it will be one of the useful methods to screen hidden youths in school, community and clinical settings.