The Life Trajectory Interview for Youth (LTI-Y): method development and psychometric properties of an instrument to assess life-course models and achievement.

This paper describes the rationale, development and psychometric properties of the Life Trajectory Interview for Youth (LTI-Y), an instrument designed to assess cognitive models of the life course and life-course achievement. This method was developed over 13 months of pilot research, and applied with a population of 350 participants from the Great Smoky Mountain Study, a longitudinal epidemiological study of mental health in western North Carolina comprising 1420 youths (among them 350 Cherokee Native Americans). The LTI-Y is designed to address gaps in our understanding of the links between large-scale structural conditions and social processes and individual outcomes such as mental health. Scale consistency (n = 350) was good to high, whereas test-retest reliability in a limited sample (n = 18) was moderate to good, depending on the domain and dimension of data considered. Overall, psychometric properties indicate fairly stable and consistent life-course strategies and priorities. Although developed and piloted with youth from Western North Carolina, the methods described could be applied to any population of interest.

Duke Scholars

Author Alaattin Erkanli Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Division of Biostatistics

Author Elizabeth Jane Costello Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychia ...