Psychometric properties of the Social Comparison Motives Scale.

This article describes the 19-item Social Comparison Motive Scale [SCMS], a measure of adolescents' motives for social comparison related to pregnancy. Dimensions and items were developed based on adolescent focus groups. The instrument was reviewed for content validity, pilot tested, and administered to 431 adolescents aged 14-18 years. Principal axis factor analysis with oblique rotation supported five dimensions. Convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated by moderate correlations (r = .50) between the SCMS and the Iowa-Netherlands Comparison Orientation Measure and low correlations (r = .15) between the SCMS and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Cronbach's alphas were .91 overall and .71 to .85 for the subscales. The SCMS demonstrated reliability and validity as a measure of adolescents' motives for comparing themselves with others about pregnancy.