DEVELOPMENT AND STANDARDIZATION OF A TOOL TO MEASURE DIRECTION, MOTIVE AND AFFECT OF SOCIAL COMPARISON AMONG ADOLESCENTS

Abstract

Social comparison process is a pervasive social phenomenon (Suls, Martin & Wheeler, 2002). People very often make a comparison with others either intentionally or unintentionally in their daily life. This phenomenon of perceiving self in one’s social standing in comparison to others can influence different outcomes including self concept, self-esteem, and distinct feelings. This evaluative method provides useful information to generate accurate evaluation about one’s abilities and opinion, especially on self- related dimensions. This concept is very relevant to study in the adolescent population, as children’s development of self is largely shaped by social environment experience with family and friends. Social comparison plays an important role in adolescents’ development of self- concept especially self-esteem in important dimensions of self Having outlined the relevance of social comparison theory in the context of this research, it is imperative to attempt this type of exploration and developing a concept based assessment tool to measure different facet of Social comparison theory- direction, motive and affect. This study followed mixed method design to better set the context through theoretical and empirical approach for the development of a new tool. In the initial phase, concept exploration was done through literature review to understand the conceptual framework of the approach, followed by qualitative exploration using interview method on 12 adolescents and 4 school counsellors. This exploration led to the development of items based on eight dimensions of self identified in this study. In the second phase, a pilot test was conducted on a sample of 237 adolescents and fulfilled the initial psychometric cleansing of the tool. In the third phase, the main test was administered to a sample of 531 adolescents’ age between (12-16 years). The initial construct analysis was assessed using Confirmatory factor analysis and the scale satisfied the model fit hypothesis using structural equation model (SEM). Internal consistency of the subscales was acceptably good with (Chronbach’s alpha =0.715). Test- retest reliability was assessed on a sample of 57 students and internal consistency of the tool was proved to be reliable with alpha score 0.7 and above. Test of validity (convergent) was measured with INCOM and SCS and (discriminant) was measured with PHSCS respectively.