The comparability of the visual and verbal versions of the Inclusion of Community in Self scale.

AIMS: Many factors affect the utility and practicality of measures in longitudinal studies characterized by transient participants such as those caught in the cycle of incarceration. The current study evaluated the psychometric equivalency of a visual and a verbal version of a single-item connectedness measure; the aim was to determine whether the different formats can be used interchangeably depending on feasibility.

METHODS

Participants were 133 jail inmates (49% male; 43% Black; Mage  = 35 years, SD = 10 years) interviewed just before release from jail.

RESULTS

Results provide evidence for the concurrent, convergent, and discriminant validity of the two ICS versions. Attempts to calibrate the verbal measure to the visual measure were moderately successful.

CONCLUSION

Taken together, results suggest the two formats are comparable, but not interchangeable; they map on to other variables in similar ways but cannot be used in lieu of one another.