Abstract
The reliability and validity of a Japanese version of the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH) for children in elementary schools were reported in the present paper. The MYTH is a questionnaire by which the degrees of Type A personality in children are measured.
In Study 1, 37 teachers in elementary schools rated their children (N=1,046 in all; Grades 1 to 6) by using the Japanese version of the MYTH. Statistical analysis of the data indicated that this questionnaire was reliable and internally consistent, and had two factors, competitiveness and impatience-aggression, just as in the American original version and the Japanese version for preschoolers. In addition, the boys' scores in Type A personality were found to be higher than the girls' ones, which suggested some high validity in this version.
In Study 2, the relationships between the Type A personality measured by this version and the academic records of children in elementary schools were investigated for a further check of its validity. Results showed that Type A children, classified as having Type A scores over the median scores, had superior academic records than did Type B children whose Type A scores fell below the median scores. These two studies indicate that this verion has high reliablity and validity and can be used in Japan to study the Type A personality of young children in elementary schools.
