DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A MEASURE OF ERIKSONIAN INDUSTRY

A child self-report measure of industry (Erikson's term for the psychosocial task of his 4th stage), Children's Industry questionnaire, was developed. Parallel measures for teachers and parents, and an observational measure, were included to establish convergent validity. Seven dependent variables are described, on which children with high, medium, and low industry scores were expected to differ. Two control variables, intelligence and social desirability, were measured. Subjects were 187 pupils in Grades 4, 5, and 6 from 3 elementary schools. Significant agreement was obtained among ratings of industry completed by pupils and the 2 categories of external observers. Correlations obtained between industry scores and dependent variables were significant and remained significant when controlling for intelligence and social desirability. Results of the present study provide a solid beginning to the process of validating the construct of industry.