Young Children’s Social Desirability Scale (YCSD)

Abstract

The Young Children’s Social Desirability Scale (YCSD) is a specialized psychological scale designed to measure the tendency of children to respond to questions in a manner that is culturally and socially approved, rather than truthfully reflecting their actual behavior or feelings. Developed by Ford and Rubin in 1970, the YCSD is crucial for researchers working with young populations, as high scores indicate a significant response bias that may contaminate self-report data concerning personality, clinical symptoms, or behavioral traits. The instrument consists of 28 forced-choice items that assess common, but undesirable, childhood behaviors and emotions.

Keywords

Young Children’s Social Desirability Scale, YCSD, Social Desirability, Response Bias, Child Psychology, Psychometric Assessment, Personality Assessment, Forced-Choice Scale.

Authors

L. H. Ford, B. M. Rubin

Purpose

The primary purpose of the YCSD is to identify and quantify the degree of Social Desirability response set among young participants, typically those in the early elementary school years. In research settings, particularly those involving self-report measures of adjustment, aggression, or moral behavior, children may distort their responses to appear more compliant, well-behaved, or socially competent. By identifying children with high YCSD scores, researchers can statistically control for this response bias or exclude highly biased participants, thereby improving the internal validity of subsequent findings.

The scale is structured to present children with two options for each item—one representing a socially desirable, yet potentially untrue, behavior (e.g., “always telling the truth”) and one representing a common, mildly undesirable behavior (e.g., “sometimes telling a little lie”). The total number of socially desirable responses constitutes the final score.

Construct

The YCSD measures the construct of Social Desirability (SD), specifically tailored for developmental populations. This Social Desirability bias is conceptualized as a form of non-content response style, where individuals consistently present themselves in an overly positive light. For young children, this tendency is often rooted in a desire to please adults (parents, teachers, or researchers) or to avoid perceived punishment or disapproval.

The scale items are designed to be relevant to the behavioral repertoire and moral understanding of children, focusing on everyday transgressions, obedience, peer interactions, and emotional regulation. Scoring high on the YCSD suggests a strong inclination toward impression management or a lack of self-critical insight, both of which can significantly skew psychological assessment results.

Validity

Initial validation studies by Ford and Rubin (1970) demonstrated the utility of the YCSD in measuring response distortion in children. The scale exhibits acceptable concurrent validity, showing expected patterns of correlation with other behavioral measures. Specifically, higher YCSD scores are often found to correlate negatively with measures of undesirable traits, such as aggression, anxiety, and externalizing behaviors, and correlate positively with measures of compliance and adjustment, suggesting that the scale is effectively capturing the tendency to deny negative attributes.

The validity of the YCSD is primarily established by its conceptual alignment with established adult measures of Social Desirability (like the Marlowe-Crowne scale), adapted for developmental relevance. Subsequent research has supported its use as a moderator variable in studies where self-report data from children is utilized.

Reliability

The YCSD has demonstrated adequate reliability for a brief psychometric instrument designed for young children. Initial research utilized the Kuder-Richardson 20 (KR-20) formula, appropriate for scales with a dichotomous format. Reported Internal Consistency estimates typically range between 0.65 and 0.75 across various samples of elementary school children, indicating that the items generally measure a unified construct of impression management or defensiveness.

Test-retest reliability, while less frequently reported, is generally considered stable over short periods, confirming that the tendency toward Social Desirability is a relatively consistent response style within the developmental phase for which the scale is intended. Researchers using the YCSD rely on this Internal Consistency to justify its use as a covariate in research designs involving other self-report measures.

Factor Analysis

While the YCSD is often treated as a unidimensional measure of global Social Desirability bias, exploratory factor analyses have occasionally been conducted. These analyses generally support a strong primary factor, confirming the scale’s fundamental purpose: measuring a single response set tendency. Due to the scale’s short length (28 items) and its specific focus on impression management, complex multidimensional factor structures are typically not expected or sought after in its application. For the purposes of controlling response bias in psychometrics, the total score representing the single factor is the standard metric used.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Questionnaire (often administered verbally by an interviewer to ensure comprehension)

Format: 28-item, forced-choice (dichotomous) format, requiring the child to select one of two opposing statements.

Language Available: English (Original); translations may exist in subsequent research.

Population Group: Non-clinical and clinical samples of children.

Age Group: Typically 6 to 10 years old (corresponding to grades 1 through 4).

Population Details: Suitable for children who have sufficient language comprehension to understand the behavioral scenarios presented, even if they cannot read the items themselves.

Test Methodology: The scale is usually administered individually or in small groups. Due to the age of the target population, items are frequently read aloud by an examiner to minimize variance due to reading ability and to maintain consistency in administration.

Keywords

Forced-Choice, Response Set, Impression Management, Child Behavior, Psychological Assessment, Lying, Compliance, Child Development.

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: N/A (Information not available in source documentation)

Affiliation Email addresses: N/A (Information not available in source documentation)

Correspondence Address: N/A (Information not available in source documentation)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The YCSD was developed and published in 1970 by L. H. Ford and B. M. Rubin. As an older, academically published scale, it is generally available for non-commercial academic research use, though researchers should always cite the original publication. Specific licensing fees or permissions for clinical use would need to be determined by contacting the copyright holders or university affiliated with the original authors at the time of publication.

Reference’s

• Ford‚ L. H.‚ Rubin‚ B. M. (1970). A Social Desirability Questionnaire for Young Children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology‚ 35(2)‚ 195-204.

• Ford‚ L. H.‚ Rubin‚ B. M. (1970). Young Children’s Social Desirability Scale (YCSD)‚ In Fischer‚ Joel.‚ Corcoran‚ Kevin J. (2007). Measures for Clinical Practice and research: A sourcebook. (4th ed.). NY. Oxford University Pr. Vol. 1‚ Page (s): 613-615.

Items of the Young Children’s Social Desirability Scale (YCSD)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

1. Do you sometimes play with toys? or Do you never play with toys?
2. Do you always play all by yourself? or Do you sometimes play with other children?
3. Do you sometimes argue with your mother? or Do you never argue with your mother?
4. Are you always polite to older people’ or Are you sometimes not polite to older people?
5. Do you never shout when you feel angry? or Do you sometimes shout when you feel angry?
6. Do you sometimes tell a little lie’ or Do you never tell a little lie?
7. Do you sometimes hit another boy or girl? Do you never hit another boy or girl?
8. Do you always help people? or Do you sometimes not help people?
9. Do you never show off to your friends? or Do you sometimes show off to your friends?
10. Do you sometimes say mean things to people? or Do you never say mean things to people?
11. Do you sometimes feel like throwing or breaking things? or Do you never feel like throwing or breaking things?
12. Do you feel that your parents are always right? or Do you sometimes feel that your parents are not always right?
13. Do you never act naughty’ or Do you sometimes act naughty?
14. Do you sometimes do other things instead of what your teacher tells you to do? or Do you always do what your teacher tells you to do?
15. Do you sometimes do things you’re not supposed to do? or Do you never do things you’re not supposed to do?
16. Do you think your teachers know more than you do? or Do you think you know more than your teacher does? (I know more)
17. Do you sometimes want things your parents don’t want you to have? or Do you never want things your parents don’t want you to have?
18. Does it sometimes bother you when you don’t get your way? or Does It never bother you when you don’t get your way?
19. Do you always listen to your parents? or Do you sometimes not listen to your parents?
20. Do you always wash your hands before every meal? or Do you sometimes not wash your hands before every meal?
21. Do you never feel like making fun of other people? or Do you sometimes feel like making fun of other people?
22. Do you sometimes forget to say “please” and “thank you”? or Do you never forget to say “please” and “thank you”?
23. Does it sometimes bother you to share things with your friends? or Does it never bother you to share things with your friends?
24. Do you sometimes want to do things your parents tell you not to do? Do you never want to do things your parents tell you not to do?
25. Do you never get angry? or Do you sometimes get angry?
26. Are you always nice to people? or Are you sometimes not nice to people?
27. Do you sometimes not do the right things? Or Do you always do the right things?
28. Do you always tell the truth? or Do you sometimes not tell the truth?