The measurement and structure of psychosocial maturity

The educational community lacks tools for assessing the nonacademic growth of students — their growth as persons and as social beings. This paper describes the development of an attitude inventory based on an interdisciplinary model of psychosocial maturity. The Psychosocial Maturity Inventory, a self-report instrument, is comprised of nine subscales and is suited for the assessment of youngsters in the approximate age range 11–18. Among the studies reviewed are ones which (1) specify at various age levels the internal consistency of the subscales, (2) report the association between the subscales and various measures of academic achievement, and (3) describe the relationship of the subscales to other measures of personality such as faking good, anxiety, and self-esteem. Factor analyses of the Inventory provide an empirical base for testing the proposed theoretical structure of psychosocial maturity.Preparation of this paper was supported by funds from the National Institute of Education, Contract No. NE-C-00-3-0013.Received Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Radcliffe College. Main interest: personality development from childhood through adolescence.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan. Main research interests: the psychology of adolescence and the psychology of women.Received Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Maryland. Main interests: measurement theory and the measurement of human performance.