Reliability of the MYTH scale in assessing type A behavior in preschool children.

The reliability of the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) scale in assessing Type A behavior patterns among four-year-old children was evaluated, as was the degree of association between the behavior pattern of teachers and their ratings of the children. The Pearson product-moment correlations for the total MYTH scores and for the competitiveness and the impatience/aggression subscale scores ranged from .68 to .73 over a test-retest interval of three months. The teachers completed the Jenkins Activity Survey. No significant correlations were found between the behavior patterns of the teachers and their ratings of the children. The high degree of reliability that was found in test-retest scores on the MYTH was similar to that found in other studies.