The Adolescent Necessities Index
A brief, self‐report measure of the material and social conditions necessary for adolescent thriving
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12388168 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew T Jebb (0000-0002-3854-6733, University of Pennsylvania, corresponding author), Maya Brown‐Hunt (University of Pennsylvania), Laurence Steinberg (0000-0002-2627-3635, Temple University), Angela L Duckworth (0000-0002-2644-3729, University of Pennsylvania) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | e70145-e70145 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-29 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Research on Adolescence (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1050-8392 • E-ISSN: 1532-7795 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/jora.70145 |
| PMID | 41612153 |
| OpenAlex | W7126219542 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 44 |
Healthy development depends on adequate material and social resources, but measures of these affordances are often limited or absent from psychological research. Conventional measures of socioeconomic status, such as household income or parental education, are difficult for adolescents to accurately report and are distal proxies for the resources that directly impact functioning (e.g., nutrition, safety). As a more proximal measure of environmental affordances, we developed the Adolescent Necessities Index (ANI), a 10-item adolescent-report measure. In Study 1, a prospective longitudinal sample of N = 6057 U.S. adolescents, we demonstrate the ANI's convergent, discriminant, and incremental predictive validity for objectively measured report card grades and subjectively reported well-being, as well as measurement invariance across demographic subgroups (e.g., gender, race, and ethnicity). In Study 2, a cross-sectional study in a nationally representative sample of N = 1859 U.S. adolescents, we replicate evidence of incremental predictive validity, demonstrate consensual validity with a parent-report version of the ANI, and establish national norms. The ANI provides a new tool for efficiently capturing adolescents' access to necessities in the modern U.S
Affordance · External validity · Incremental validity · Measure (data warehouse · Predictive validity · Replicate · Sample (material · Socioeconomic status · Thriving · Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development · Health disparities and outcomes · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction
Doing Better for Children
Subjective socioeconomic status and adolescent health
The Validity of Self-Reported Grade Point Averages, Class Ranks, and Test Scores
Psychometric Properties of the Life Events Checklist
Content validation guidelines
A checklist for testing measurement invariance
Studying Socioeconomic Status
Multiple surveys of students and survey fatigue
Stalking
Item Selection for the Development of Short Forms of Scales Using an Ant Colony Optimization Algorithm
Development and Validation of a Scale for the Measurement of Adolescents’ Developmental Assets in the Neighborhood
The Aggression Scale
Students Attending School Remotely Suffer Socially, Emotionally, and Academically
Validity of psychological assessment
A theory of human motivation
The Environment of Childhood Poverty
Comparing correlated correlation coefficients
| Highly cited | No |
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