Different histories, different stories: using a narrative tool to assess childrens internal worlds

This study investigated the concurrent validity of a children's narrative assessment tool, the Plenk Story-Telling Test (PST). The PST attempts to measure aspects of young children's internal working models by eliciting narratives from nine pictures. The PST, Child Behavior Checklist, and the Parenting Stress Index were administered to a clinical sample and a community sample of children. Data from 262 participants were obtained. Children in the clinical sample significantly differed from the community sample on each instrument. The PST was reliably coded and most of the responses could be interpreted through a factor analysis. Consistent with hypotheses, children in the clinical sample viewed the world as a more dangerous place, were more preoccupied and less optimistic than those in the community sample. These findings support initial concurrent validity for the PST because it reliably distinguished between the two different groups, making the PST a potentially useful tool for both research and clinical uses.