Development and validation of a gender-balanced measure of aggression-relevant social cognition.

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Social-Cognitive Assessment Profile (SCAP), a gender-balanced measure of social information processing (SIP) in a sample of 371 (139 girls, 232 boys) 2nd- to 4th-grade children. The SCAP assesses 4 dimensions of SIP (Inferring Hostile Intent, Constructing Hostile Goals, Generating Aggressive Solutions, and Anticipating Positive Outcomes for Aggression) in the context of peer conflict involving relational and overt provocation. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated that the 4 latent factors provided a good fit to the data for girls and boys and for African American and non-African American children.