A confirmatory factor analysis of a four-factor model of adolescent concerns revisited

This article addresses the issue of the day-to-day concerns faced by adolescents from urban, lower socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. The current research is both a replication and extension of the work of C. Violato and W. B. Holden (1988], A Confirmatory Factor Analysis of a Four-Factor Model of Adolescent Concerns, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Vol. 17, pp. 101–113), who collected similar data on a sample of predominantly white students from a range of SES levels. The first goal was to analyze the mean ratings of the 14 concerns for the current study, and to compare these ratings to those found by Violato and Holden. Here, a high degree of similarity between the two studies: students in both studies rated career, grade, future schooling and appearance issues as the four most serious concerns and sexual impulse, drug, smoking and alcohol issues as the four least serious concerns. The second goal was to reevaluate Violato and Holden 's four-factor model of adolescent concerns, where the 14 concerns were evaluated in terms of four major themes: Social Self, Personal Self, Future and Career, and Health and Drug issues. In particular, we were interested in determining whether there were gender differences in this model. Results indicated that the model for boys and girls were not identical. For girls, the model was improved by including the correlations of the Health and Drugs factor to the three remaining factors, suggesting that girls have a more holistic view of their concerns.Received Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. Current research interests are in quantitative methods and program evaluation.Received Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, in educational psychology. Current research interests include quantitative methods in education and psychology.