Construction and validation of a children's interpersonal trust belief scale

A scale was constructed to assess children's generalized trust beliefs (CGTB) in four target groups (mother, father, teacher and peer) with respect to three bases of trust: reliability, emotionality, and honesty. The CGTB Scale was administered to 145 Year 5 and 156 Year 6 children (mean age = 10 years, 1 month) residing in the English Midlands, United Kingdom. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded evidence for the expected factor structure of the CGTB Scale. The total CGTB Scale and subscales demonstrated acceptable internal consistency and expected levels of stability across time. As support for validity, Year 6 participants' scores on the CGTB peer subscale were correlated with their trust beliefs in classmates, assessed a year earlier. As hypothesized, children's helpfulness to their classmates was correlated with the CGTB Scale and subscales. Girls displayed greater trust beliefs and helpfulness to classmates than did boys.

[1]  J. Rotter.  Interpersonal trust, trustworthiness, and gullibility. , 1980 .

[2]  F. Aboud,et al.  Parental and peer influences on children's racial attitudes☆ , 1996 .

[3]  F. Bryant,et al.  Principal-components analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. , 1995 .

[4]  E. Pomerantz,et al.  Conceptions of ability as stable and self-evaluative processes: a longitudinal examination. , 2001, Child development.

[5]  Dorothy J. Hochreich,et al.  A Children's Scale to Measure Interpersonal Trust. , 1973 .

[6]  N. Bolger,et al.  Trait understanding or evaluative reasoning? An analysis of children's behavioral predictions. , 2001, Child development.

[7]  Márcia Moura da Silva,et al.  A cross-national study on the relations among prosocial moral reasoning, gender role orientations, and prosocial behaviors , 1996 .

[8]  K. Wentzel.  Relations between social competence and academic achievement in early adolescence. , 1991, Child development.

[9]  C. Buzzelli,et al.  The Development of Trust in Children's Relations with Peers. , 1988 .

[10]  D. Baumrind,et al.  A developmental perspective on adolescent risk taking in contemporary America. , 1987, New directions for child development.

[11]  P. Bentler,et al.  Comparative fit indexes in structural models. , 1990, Psychological bulletin.

[12]  C. Barenboim.  The development of person perception in childhood and adolescence: From behavioral comparisons to psychological constructs to psychological comparisons. , 1981 .

[13]  K. Rotenberg.  The Trust-Value Basis of Children’s Friendship , 1991 .

[14]  E. Erikson,et al.  Childhood and Society , 1951 .

[15]  B. R. Schlenker,et al.  The effects of personality and situational variables on behavioral trust. , 1973, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[16]  H. Cooper,et al.  The happy personality: a meta-analysis of 137 personality traits and subjective well-being. , 1998, Psychological bulletin.

[17]  Steve Imber,et al.  Relationship of Trust to Academic Performance. , 1973 .

[18]  D. Laible,et al.  Early Adolescence and Prosocial/Moral Behavior I: , 1999 .

[19]  J. Rotter.  Generalized expectancies for interpersonal trust. , 1971 .

[20]  N. Eisenberg,et al.  Cognitive Processes and Prosocial Behaviors Among Children: The Role of Affective Attributions and Reconciliations , 1991 .

[21]  K. Rotenberg.  "A Promise Kept, a Promise Broken": Developmental Bases of Trust. , 1980 .

[22]  K. Rotenberg,et al.  Racially based trust expectancies of Native American and Caucasian children. , 1994, The Journal of social psychology.

[23]  Thomas L. Wright,et al.  Interpersonal Trust, Trustworthiness and Shoplifting in High School , 1977, Psychological reports.

[24]  James Jaccard,et al.  My family and friends: six- to twelve-year-old children's perceptions of social support , 1989 .

[25]  Ken J. Rotenberg,et al.  Development of Character Constancy of Self and Other. , 1982 .

[26]  E. Erikson.  Childhood and Society , 1965 .

[27]  K. Hooker,et al.  Trust, Health, and Longevity , 1998, Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

[28]  Ken J. Rotenberg,et al.  Same-sex patterns and sex differences in the trust-value basis of children's friendship , 1986 .

[29]  C. Johnson-George,et al.  Measurement of specific interpersonal trust: Construction and validation of a scale to assess trust in a specific other. , 1982 .

[30]  Ken J. Rotenberg,et al.  The Socialisation of Trust: Parents' and Children's Interpersonal Trust , 1995 .

[31]  R. R. Reno,et al.  Relation of sympathy and personal distress to prosocial behavior: a multimethod study. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[32]  K. Rotenberg.  Children’s Interpersonal Trust , 1991 .

[33]  M. Seligman,et al.  Predictors and consequences of childhood depressive symptoms: a 5-year longitudinal study. , 1992, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[34]  N. Feshbach,et al.  Children's trust: Theory, assessment, development, and research directions , 1995 .

[35]  K. Giffin.  The contribution of studies of source credibility to a theory of interpersonal trust in the communication process. , 1967, Psychological bulletin.

[36]  M. Deković,et al.  Parents' child-rearing style and child's sociometric status. , 1992 .

[37]  Ken J. Rotenberg,et al.  Loneliness and Interpersonal Trust , 1994 .

[38]  D. Bromley,et al.  Person perception in childhood and adolescence , 1973 .

[39]  K. A. Heller,et al.  Developmental Changes in the Formation and Organization of Personality Attributions. , 1981 .

[40]  D. Buhrmester,et al.  The development of companionship and intimacy. , 1987, Child development.

[41]  K. Rotenberg.  Interpersonal Trust across the Lifespan , 2001 .

[42]  D. Hay,et al.  Prosocial development. , 1994, Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines.

[43]  J. Jaccard,et al.  "My family and friends": six- to twelve-year-old children's perceptions of social support. , 1989, Child development.

[44]  J. Rotter.  A new scale for the measurement of interpersonal trust. , 1967, Journal of personality.

[45]  Michel Boivin,et al.  The roles of social withdrawal, peer rejection, and victimization by peers in predicting loneliness and depressed mood in childhood , 1995, Development and Psychopathology.