CRS (Child Rating Scale)

Developer: Hightower, Cowen, Spinell, Lotyczewski, Guare, Rohrbeck, & Brown | Year: 1987.0

Overview

The Child Rating Scale (CRS) is used as a screening measure to rate a child’s problem behaviors. It also exists as a parent rating form (P-CRS) and teacher rating form (T-CRS).

Key Details

Grade Level

K-12

Assessment Type

Progress Monitoring Universal

Domains Assessed

Externalizing Behaviors Internalizing Behaviors Social Skills

Respondent

Self Report

Method

Paper/Pencil

Cost

Fee for Service

Time per Student

15-20 minutes

Items

24-39 items

Item Format

Rating

Approach

Risk

Populations

Over 2,000 1st-6th grade children in five samples from urban and suburban schools in the Rochester, NY area.

Scoring

Subscale Scores

Rule Compliance/Acting Out
Anxiety/Withdrawal
Peer Social Skills

Scoring Procedures

Self-Scored

Interpretive Information

Standardized (Nationally Representative Sample)

Psychometric Properties

Reliability

Cronbach's alpha was calculated for each grade level in each sample. Alpha estimates ranted from 0.36 to 0.83 (Hightower et al, 1987). 4 and 10 week test-retest reliabilities were also estimated for several samples, and range from 0.21 to 0.86.

Validity

Pilot items were adapted from existing teachera nd peer rating scales that measured parallel constructs (Hightower et al, 1987).
Exploratory Factor analysis was used to find support for four distinct scales.
CRS scale scores correlated with teacher and parent ratings in the expected directions.CRS scores correlated significantly with STAIC (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children) scores (Spielberger, 1973). CRS scores were predictive of academic performance, showing htat children with less anxiety and who acted out less tended to perform better academically.

References

Primary Citation

Hightower, A. D. (1986). The teacher‐child rating scale: A brief objective measure of elementary children’s school problem behaviors and competencies. School Psychology Review, 15, 393‐409.

Hightower, A. D., Cowen, E. L., Spinell, A. P., & Lotyczewski, B. S. (1987). The Child Rating Scale: The development of a socioemotional self‐rating scale for elementary school children. School Psychology Review, 16, 239‐255.

Additional Citations

Child Rating Scale (CRS) | RAND

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