An abbreviated version of the Communication Skills Test for adolescents and adults

Abstract

Introduction. The research community increasingly supports the idea that questionnaires that were developed a long time ago should be re-tested for their reliability and validity for the current generation. The new generations of respondents may answer questionnaire questions differently as compared to the respondents who answered them 30–40 years ago and based on whose answers these methods were created. There is also a growing demand in reducing the volume of questionnaires — this is reflected in the fact that search engines (e.g., Google Scholar) show thousands of articles from recent years for the query ‘short version of the questionnaire’. To understand the essence of many personality traits, it is important to trace their transformation during the transition from adolescence to adulthood. But this requires questionnaires that are suitable for both adolescents and adults at the same time. Currently, the study of communication skills has become particularly relevant due to the negative impact exerted by excessive use of smartphones and social networks on people of different generations. Researchers actively use L. Michelson’s long-established Communication Skills Test for adolescents and high school students, adapted in 1995 by Yu. Z. Gilbukh. However, publications containing evidence of the reliability and validity of this questionnaire are not available. The objectives of this study: 1) to prove the reliability and validity of Communication Skills Test for adolescents and adults; and 2) to develop a reliable and valid abbreviated version of this questionnaire. Materials and methods. Baseline data for the study were collected in Belarus and Russia through an online survey of 1833 respondents, including 1122 adolescents aged 13–17 (601 females and 521 males) and 711 adults under the age of 82 (361 females and 350 males). Results. An abbreviated version of Communication Skills Test for adolescents and adults was designed. The abbreviated version consists of 26 questions and satisfies the main criteria of validity and reliability. It also has better psychometric characteristics than the original version by L. Michelson. Conclusion. The practical significance of the study lies in the development of a single questionnaire for adolescents and adults that can be used to conduct comparative studies of communicative skills simultaneously in different age groups.