Use of a pictorial scale of perceived competence and acceptance with learning disabled boys

The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Acceptance for use with young handicapped children (M age = 8.2 yr.) with severe reading problems. Subjects were 30 learning disabled boys from four private schools located in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex. Data were collected through test-retest administration of the scale and individual interviews with each child. Validity of the physical subscale was established by showing that subjects' reasons for their feelings of physical competence could be classified into one of five categories 89.2% of the time. For the four subscales, alpha coefficients ranged from .56 to .82, and test-retest reliability ranged from .76 to .92.