Developmental Trends in False Memory Across Adolescence and Young Adulthood: A Comparison of DRM and Memory Conformity Paradigms

Little is known about the reliability of eyewitness memory among adolescents as most memory research has focused primarily on adults and young children. A number of studies recently have emerged outlining conditions where memory suggestibility increases from early childhood to adulthood. These developmental reversals are found in semantic association tasks such as the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm and have not yet been thoroughly investigated among adolescents. In the current study, we examined DRM performance among 11–21 year olds (N = 245). Extending the work comparing children and adults, false memory on the DRM task increased with age. False memory on the DRM task was not associated with false memory on a memory conformity task. The different memory processes involved with the tasks and the implications for legal psychology are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Differential Item Functioning of the Symptoms of Major Depression by Race and Ethnicity: An Item Response Theory Analysis

This study examines the psychometric properties, and particularly differential item functioning (DIF) due to racial and ethnic group, of the criteria for a major depressive episode using a large sample (N?=?1,063) of outpatients seeking treatment for mood and anxiety disorders. DIF was evaluated using multiple group confirmatory factor analysis. Item thresholds fell along a continuum with the core features of depressed mood and anhedonia, along with fatigue, being endorsed at lower levels of depression, and change in appetite and suicidal ideation endorsed at more severe levels of depression. Item discriminations, reflecting an item’s ability to discriminate between lower and higher levels of depression, were highest for depressed mood and anhedonia, and lowest for change in appetite and suicidal ideation. When examining model fit among the racial groups we did not find differences in symptom functioning, providing support for the use of these symptoms across diverse groups. This is of particular importance given the paucity of studies examining this question using a semi-structured clinician administered instrument to a clinical sample.     

Gender Differences in Young Children's Temperament Traits: Comparisons Across Observational and Parent‐Report Methods

Evidence supporting the continuity between child temperament and adult personality traits is accumulating. One important indicator of continuity is the presence of reliable gender differences in traits across the lifespan. A substantial literature demonstrates gender differences on certain adult personality traits and recent meta‐analytic work on child samples suggests similar gender differences for some broad and narrow domains of temperament. However, most existing studies of children rely only on parent‐report measures. The present study investigated gender differences in temperament traits assessed by laboratory observation, maternal‐report, and paternal‐report measures. Across three independent samples, behavioral observations, maternal‐report, and paternal‐report measures of temperament were collected on 463 boys and 402 girls. Across all three methods, girls demonstrated higher positive affect and fear and lower activity level than boys. For laboratory measures, girls demonstrated higher levels of sociability and lower levels of overall negative emotionality (NE), sadness, anger and impulsivity than boys. However, girls demonstrated higher levels of overall NE and sadness than boys when measured by maternal reports. Finally, girls demonstrated lower levels of sociability based on paternal reports. Results are discussed in relation to past meta‐analytic work and developmental implications of the findings.     

Cigarette Smoking,Academic Lifestyle,and Social Impact Efficacy: An Eight-Year Study from Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood1

Two hundred and twenty-one males and 518 females were followed for 8 years from early adolescence. A causal model was proposed that related five constructs measured in adolescence to four corresponding constructs measured 8 years later. The predictor constructs included smoking involvement, academic lifestyle orientation, emotional well-being, social impact efficacy, and peer smoking behavior. Academic lifestyle orientation was found to be a central organizing construct, with the strongest within-time and across-time correlations with other constructs. The relatively weak causal influences of teenage smoking and teenage social impact efficacy suggested an explanation for the limited impact of past drug abuse prevention programs. Policy implications are discussed.     

Detection and Validation of Unscalable Item Score Patterns Using Item Response Theory: An Illustration with Harter's Self-Perception Profile for Children

To test the hypothesis that age of first separation from a home environment is a factor in the emotional health of institutionalized boys, Rorschach protocols of 82 residents of Saint Francis Vocational School, a facility for deprived nondelinquent nonretarded youth aged 10 to 18, were examined. Seven Rorschach variables were used as dependent variables of emotional status. It was found that boys who had first been institutionalized before age 10 gave more color-dominant and pure color responses (p .005), and more responses with pathological overtones (p < .005), than did youth first placed at ages 10 to 13 or ages 14 to 17. Fixation was proposed as the basis for the group differences.     

Commitment to Islam in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan: An Item Response Theory Analysis

Worthington conceptualized a model of religiosity assessment. The dimensions of the model include Religious Norms, Religious Doctrine, and Authority of Leaders. A 10-item scale for Islamic religious assessment was constructed and administered in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. First-order factor analysis conducted on the 10 items of the religiosity scale revealed factorial structure corresponding to Worthington’s model. A second-order factor analysis assured 1 underlying latent trait. Two-parameter logistic item response theory models were fit to responses collected in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Results supported psychometric soundness of the instrument. The items on the scale revealed excellent discrimination properties between the populations of high and low religious commitment. The study offers a short, practical scale for assessment of commitment to Islam in Central Asian countries.     

Initiation and Maintenance of Tobacco Smoking: Changing Personality Correlates in Adolescence and Young Adulthood1

Youthful smokers have been described as extroverted and peer-involved, whereas older smokers are often characterized as depressed and withdrawn. Recognizing this contradiction, we examined cross-sectional and prospective associations between smoking and personality and social constructs assessed every 4 years in a sample (N= 461) originally recruited in junior high school. At Time 1, smoking was positively related to good social relations, extroversion, friends' cigarette use, and cheerfulness. At Times 2–4, smoking was positively related to depression and friends' cigarette use, negatively correlated with good Social Relations, and unrelated to extroversion. Cigarette use was stable over time, but least stable between Times 1 and 2. Findings suggest the instability of early social smoking with peers; those who persist may smoke for tension reduction and self-medication.     

Development of Borderline Personality Disorder in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: Introduction to the Special Section

Recognizable symptoms and features of borderline personality disorder (BPD) appear during adolescence. However, there has been resistance to diagnose or research this disorder prior to adulthood because of clinical lore that BPD is a long-standing illness and that personality traits are not stable until adulthood. This has resulted in little information regarding the development of and risk factors for BPD in youth. The goal of this special section is to examine the development of BPD in adolescence and young adulthood using a broad collection of approaches, including a theoretical review paper, two prospective studies, and a multi-method cross-sectional study. This body of work provides new insights into vulnerabilities that may transact with early attachment relationships and experiences to predict the emergence of BPD in adolescence and young adulthood. These papers also point to future research that is needed to better understand the etiology, development, and course of BPD.     

Optimal Scores: An Alternative to Parametric Item Response Theory and Sum Scores

Psychometrika - The aim of this paper is to discuss nonparametric item response theory scores in terms of optimal scores as an alternative to parametric item response theory scores and sum scores....     

Null Results in Assessing Survey Score Comparability: Illustrating Measurement Invariance Using Item Response Theory

In using organizational surveys for decision-making, it is essential to consider measurement equivalence/invariance (ME/I), which addresses the questions of whether score differences are attributable to differences in the latent variable we intend to measure, or attributable to confounding differences in measurement properties. Due to the tendency for null results to remain unpublished, most articles have focused on findings of, and reasons for violations of ME/I. On the other hand, little is available to practitioners and researchers concerning situations where ME/I can be expected to uphold. This is especially disconcerting due to the fact that the null is the desired result in such analyses, and allows for unfettered observed-score comparisons. This special issue presents a unique opportunity to provide such a discussion using real-world examples from an organizational culture survey. In doing so we hope to clear up confusion surrounding the concept of ME/I, when it can be expected, and how it relates to actual differences in scores. First, we review the basic tenets and past findings focusing on ME/I, and discuss the item response theory differential item functioning framework used here. Next, we show ME/I being upheld using organizational survey data wherein violations of ME/I would reasonably not be expected (i.e., the null hypothesis was predicted and supported), and simulate the consequences of ignoring ME/I. Finally, we suggest a set of conditions wherein ME/I is likely to be upheld.     

Personality Trait Change Across Late Childhood to Young Adulthood: Evidence for Nonlinearity and Sex Differences in Change

We explored patterns of self‐reported personality trait change across late childhood through young adulthood in a sample assessed up to four times on the lower order facets of Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality (NEM), and Constraint (CON). Multilevel modelling analyses were used to describe both group‐ and individual‐level change trajectories across this time span. There was evidence for nonlinear age‐related change in most traits, and substantial individual differences in change for all traits. Gender differences were detected in the change trajectories for several facets of NEM and CON. Findings add to the literature on personality development by demonstrating robust nonlinear change in several traits across late childhood to young adulthood, as well as deviations from normative patterns of maturation at the earliest ages. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Religious Coping and Depression in Young Adulthood: Effects of Global Stress Exposure and Pre-Teenage Religious Service Attendance

This paper builds upon previous research on the association between religiosity and depressive symptomatology in young adults by focusing on the coping aspects of religious involvement (use of beliefs, comfort seeking, and prayer). Data come from a representative sample of Miami-Dade County, Florida, youths interviewed initially at around age 11 and then at age 19 to 21 (N = 1,210). OLS regression models demonstrate an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between religious coping and depression which, in subgroup analyses, applies only to females, and specifically to those young women reporting above-average stress exposure who had attended religious services at least once a week during their middle school years. No association is found among those reporting lower stress exposure or less frequent pre-teenage service attendance. These results provide evidence that early religious exposure on a regular basis and high global stress exposure may be essential preconditions for a relationship at the aggregate level between current religious coping and depressive symptomatology in young adults.     

Personality Development in Emerging and Young Adulthood: A Study of Age Differences

Early adulthood is a time of substantial personality change characterized by large inter‐individual diversity. To investigate the role of age in this diversity, the present study examined whether emerging adults differ from an older group of young adults in their Big Five personality development. By means of multi‐group latent change modelling, two groups of 16‐ to 19‐year‐olds (n = 3555) and 26‐ to 29‐year‐olds (n = 2621) were tracked over the course of four years and compared regarding four aspects of personality change: mean‐level change, rank‐order change, inter‐individual differences in change, and profile change. In addition, age‐differential socialization effects associated with six first‐time life events were investigated. Analyses revealed substantial age differences in all four aspects of change. As expected, emerging adults showed greater change and diversity in change than young adults. However, the six life events had no age‐differential impact on change in single traits and Big Five profiles. Overall, the results indicate that age differences should be considered even in specific life stages to advance the understanding of personality development. © 2018 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Advances in Clinical Personality Measurement: An Item Response Theory Analysis of the MMPI-2 PSY-5 Scales

Item response theory (IRT) provides valuable methods for the analysis of the psychometric properties of a psychological measure. To date, however, these methods have not been used frequently by personality assessment researchers, in part because many researchers have not been introduced to the methods and in part because most of the development of IRT has taken place in applied education assessment settings, resulting in terminology that is ability focused rather than trait focused. The purpose of this article is twofold. First, an overview of IRT is presented, highlighting the concepts of the three-parameter IRT model, item and test information, and conditional standard error of measurement. Second, the psychometric properties of the (MMPI-2) PSY-5 scales are examined to demonstrate IRT's value.     

Measuring Sense of Community Responsibility in Community‐Based Prevention Coalitions: An Item Response Theory Analysis

Research on sense of community (SOC) has traditionally been approached from a resource perspective. Recently, however, research on the experience of SOC has evolved to include a related but distinct construct of sense of community responsibility (SOC‐R), or feelings of accountability for the well‐being of a community. This study applied item response theory to examine the psychometric properties of a SOC‐R scale used in an evaluation of community‐based substance abuse prevention coalitions. Data were collected in 2017 from coalition members (analytic sample = 309) in the northeastern United States. Findings indicate that the scale was reliable, unidimensional, and functioned well, particularly at low and moderate levels of the construct. The addition of two items intended to capture higher levels of the construct improved the scale's functioning at higher levels of SOC‐R. The adapted SOC‐R scale was also shown to have moderately strong relationships with conceptually relevant variables, including SOC, coalition participation, number of roles performed in the coalition, and engagement in community action activities. These findings provide empirical evidence to support the reliability and validity of the SOC‐R scale, and have critical implications for our conceptualization of the SOC construct, its measurement, and for the evaluation of community‐based prevention interventions.     

Psychometric Properties of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales in an Undergraduate Sample: Classical Test Theory,Item Response Theory,and Differential Item Functioning

The Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales are widely used for assessing schizotypy in nonclinical and clinical samples. However, they were developed using classical test theory (CTT) and have not had their psychometric properties examined with more sophisticated measurement models. The present study employed item response theory (IRT) as well as traditional CTT to examine psychometric properties of four of the schizotypy scales on the item and scale level, using a large sample of undergraduate students (n = 6,137). In addition, we investigated differential item functioning (DIF) for sex and ethnicity. The analyses revealed many strengths of the four scales, but some items had low discrimination values and many items had high DIF. The results offer useful guidance for applied users and for future development of these scales.     

The Influence of Authoritative Parenting During Adolescence on Depressive Symptoms in Young Adulthood: Examining the Mediating Roles of Self-Development and Peer Support

A diverse sample of 1,143 high school seniors and 182 students who were part of the same cohort but who left high school without graduating were interviewed during late adolescence (Time 1 [T1]) as well as 2 (Time 2 [T2]) and 4 years later (Time 3 [T3]). Perceived self-development, peer support, and prior levels of depressive symptoms (T2) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between authoritative parenting during adolescence (T1) and depressive symptoms during young adulthood (T3). T2 sense of self as worthy and efficacious and depressive symptoms, but not peer support, fully mediated the effect of authoritative parenting on T3 depressive symptoms. The authors discuss the importance of parenting for healthy, emerging adult self-development and the continuing influence of parenting styles during adolescence on young adult depressive symptoms.     

The Longitudinal Association of Being Bullied and Gender with Suicide Ideations,Self‐Harm,and Suicide Attempts from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: A Cohort Study

Longitudinal associations between being bullied during adolescence and suicide ideations, self‐harm, and suicide attempts into young adulthood were examined. A large representative sample was examined in 1998 (N  = 2,464, MA 13.7), 1999/2000, and 2012 to reassess the outcome measures. At all ages, bullied participants showed more suicide ideation, self‐harm, and suicide attempts, regardless of gender. Bullied females showed a decrease in suicide ideation from adolescence to adulthood, while bullied males showed an increase in suicide attempts in the same time period. Being bullied in adolescence strongly predicts suicidal behavior and self‐harm. Preventive efforts might reduce the risk of later suicidality.     

Deafness and Religiosity in Adolescence: An Occasional Study in the Greek School

This article attempts to understand the religiosity of 25 deaf and hard-of-hearing adolescents and students who attend a public special school for the deaf in Athens. The absence of a formal religious education orientated to the needs of a deaf community, combined with the presence of formal religion in Greek society devoted to hearing believers, makes the opinions of deaf students particularly important. Also, the social perceptions of their relationships with other people, both deaf and hearing, seems to indicate to a point the development of their religiosity.