Initial development and validation of the checklist of risk behaviours for youth (CORBY)

The purpose of this study was to develop and begin to validate a brief self-report measure, the checklist of risk behaviours for youth (CORBY). This 15-item measure was designed to assess, over a 30-day period, multiple youth risk behaviours associated with mental health and well-being concerns. Early research provides initial support for the reliability and validity of the CORBY, but further research is warranted. The present study is the first to describe a brief survey addressing multiple youth risk behaviours, examining both the severity of health risk and number of behaviours in which youth are engaged. Such a measure may have important implications for both research and clinical applications.     

Development and initial validation of the Spanish form of the adjustment scales for preschool intervention (ASPI)

The purpose of the study was to develop and validate a Spanish language form of the Adjustment Scales for Preschool Intervention (ASPI) for use by early childhood teachers. A multi-step, mixed method adaptation and translation process of the English form was used to increase the cultural relevance, linguistic comparability, and metric equivalence of the measure in its Spanish language form. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses in a diverse sample of preschool children from low-income families (N = 4077) revealed two higher order behavioral dimensions of Overactivity and Underactivity. ASPI dimension scores across Spanish and English language forms were horizontally equated through IRT. Criterion-related validity using multilevel models was established through concurrent associations with social, emotional, behavioral, and academic readiness skills. Policy and practice applications, and future directions for the use of scale scores are discussed.     

Enhancing the academic success of competitive student athletes using a motivation treatment intervention (Attributional Retraining)

Competitive student athletes who experience the typical challenges inherent in high school-to-university transitions must also overcome sport-related difficulties which can undermine their academic motivation and class attendance due to competitions, fatigue, injuries, identity issues, and novel training environments (MacNamara & Collins, 2010; Simons et al., 1999). In an eight-month quasi-experimental, randomized treatment field study, an attribution-based motivation treatment (Attributional Retraining: AR) was administered to student athletes (n = 185) and non-athletes (n = 281) who differed in perceived control beliefs (±1 SD) in a two-semester, online course. Simple slope regression analyses revealed the AR (vs. no-AR) treatment assisted competitive student athletes who had low control beliefs by increasing perceived success in the course (b = 0.84, p = 0.038), post-treatment test performance (b = 11.68, p = 0.001), year-end course grades (b = 6.32, p = 0.017), and by reducing course withdrawals (b = −1.00, p = 0.034, OR = 0.37). These results demonstrate the benefits of an attribution-based motivation treatment for vulnerable student-athletes in terms of perceived course success, performance, and persistence in making the transition from high school to college.     

An advocacy intervention program for women with abusive partners: Initial evaluation

Experimentally tested the hypotheses that (1) battered women are in need of numerous community resources upon exit from a domestic violence shelter, (2) working with advocates increases women's effectiveness in obtaining needed resources and social support, and (3) success in obtaining resources and social support increases women's levels of life satisfaction and decreases their risk of further abuse. The initial findings of a short-term intervention project designed to provide postshelter advocacy services to women with abusive partners are presented. One-hundred forty-one battered women were interviewed immediately upon their exit from a domestic violence shelter as well as 10 weeks thereafter. Half the sample was randomly assigned to receive the services of trained advocates who assisted them in accessing needed community resources. Women who worked with advocates reported being more effective in accessing resources and had higher levels of social support and overall quality of life postintervention. Although all women reported some decrease in postshelter abuse, there were no differences between those with and those without advocates, and abuse continued to be a problem for many women.     

Psychometric properties of the Social Skills Questionnaire: Portuguese adaptation of the student form (grades 7 to 12)

The present study aims to analyze the psychometric properties of the student form (Grades 7 to 12) of the Social Skills Questionnaire authored by Gresham and Elliott (1990), on a sample of Portuguese adolescents. Participants included 573 students, both female and male, aged 14 to 19. Reliability was assessed through Cronbach's alpha and was .87 for the total scale, ranging from.58 to .72 for the subscales. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the main adjustment indices presented unexpected values. A principal components analysis indicated that several items of the cooperation subscale correlated with other factors. Adequate adjustment indices were found when cooperation was removed from the model. Semantic dualities due to cultural factors and difficulties assuming the cooperation dimension as an independent dimension might explain the results observed. The reorganization of the SSQ offers a reliable and valid instrument for research within the Portuguese population.     

Developing an efficient clinical information system for a comprehensive psychiatric institute: II. Initial evaluation form

This paper describes the objectives, design, organization, content, evaluation, and implementation of the initial evaluation form, first component of a comprehensive psychiatric institute’s clinical information system. Major features of this effort are the involvement of a large number of clinicians in the form’s development, the use of complementary narrative and standardized components, the use of an expanded DSM-III multiaxial diagnostic format, pilot testing with over 1,000 patients, the evaluation of the form’s usefulness and interrater reliability, the form’s computerization, facilitating data retrieval and coordination with other institutional data bases, and the form’s monitoring.     

Toward an ecology of student development

A key assumption behind the Cube is that the work of counselors can be more effective as they strive toward the developmental and organizational ends of those dimensions, using whichever methods are appropriate. Blocher fills in some of the detail behind this assumption with his example of life in the elementary school classroom. He posits three subsystems in the classroom ecology. The first he calls “opportunity structure,” the second “support structure,” and the third “reward structure.” The implementation of an ecological approach to student development will require the preparation of a professional with quite different competencies and interests than has been the case. The last section of this issue is addressed to that concern.     

The development of a short form of the JEPQ (JEPQ-S): Its use in measuring personality and religion

A short form of the JEPQ, consisting of four scales of six items each, is developed from the JEPQ. The properties of this short questionnaire, its correlations with the parent longer questionnaire and the relationship between both short and long forms of the questionnaire and religiosity are explored among 181 15- and 16-year olds. The short questionnaire is recommended as a functional equivalent to the JEPQ in certain contexts.     

Extent and limits of the matching concept in monkeys (Cebus apella)

In Experiment 1, 8 monkeys, experimentally naive with regard to visual stimuli, were trained on identity matching with a two-sample set based on two-dimensional stimuli. On a subsequent test employing two new samples, 4 of the 8 applied the matching rule to the new sample stimuli (as defined by our transfer criterion), and 3 showed substantial savings in learning to match the new samples. Two of these 3 transferred the matching rule when given a second test with two new samples, and the third showed immediate and complete transfer when tested with a third pair of new stimuli. These results indicate a much stronger representation of the matching concept in monkeys than in pigeons, even when the conditions of assessment are reasonably comparable. In Experiment 2, however, 4 monkeys from Experiment 1 failed to transfer the matching rule to steady versus flashing green samples, indicating that the matching concept did not immediately extend beyond the general class of visual stimuli with which it was developed. These and related results in the literature suggest that representation of the matching concept in animals varies along a specificity-abstractness dimension, reflecting the degree to which the concept is tied to the conditions and context of its development.     

Integration of student development theory into the academic classroom

This paper demonstrates how collaboration among student development educators and university instructors can utilize the content of academic courses to facilitate personal development in adolescent college students. Through an application of Chickering's (1969) seven vectors of human development (which occur during adolescence and early adulthood), this objective was accomplished in a course entitled Drinking and Driving: Legal and Social Aspects. Essay exams were analyzed for self-reported anecdotal behavioral examples of developmental growth attributable to participation in this course. Analysis of the results indicated that the class content had a definite developmental impact on the students, in addition to intellectual growth. By helping academic educators recognize that within their course content and structure they can and do affect adolescents on many developmental dimensions, the end result can be a richer, holistic educational experience for students.     

Development and Initial Validation of the Multicultural Personality Inventory (MPI)

Two studies summarize the development and initial validation of the Multicultural Personality Inventory (MPI). In Study 1, the 115-item prototype MPI was administered to 415 university students where exploratory factor analysis resulted in a 70-item, 7-factor model. In Study 2, the 70-item MPI and theoretically related companion instruments were administered to a multisite sample of 576 university students. Confirmatory factory analysis found the 7-factor structure to be a relatively good fit to the data (Comparative Fit Index =.954; root mean square error of approximation =.057), and MPI factors predicted variance in criterion variables above and beyond the variance accounted for by broad personality traits (i.e., Big Five). Study limitations and directions for further validation research are specified.     

Reinforcer magnitude (sucrose concentration) and the matching law theory of response strength

This experiment investigated the relationship between reinforcer magnitude (sucrose concentration) and response rate. The purpose was to evaluate the behavior of two parameters of an equation that predicts absolute response rate as a function of reinforcement rate and two free parameters. According to Herrnstein's (1970) theory of reinforced behavior, one parameter of this "response-strength equation" measures the efficacy of the reinforcer maintaining responding and the other parameter measures motoric components of response rate, such as response duration. Seven rats served as subjects. Experimental sessions consisted of a series of five different variable-interval schedules of reinforcement, each in effect for 5 minutes. Within each session, obtained reinforcement rates varied over more than a 30-fold range, from about 20 per hour to 700 per hour. The reinforcer was sucrose solution, and, between sessions, its concentration was varied from 0.0 to 0.64 molar (0 to 21.9%). For sucrose concentrations of 0.16 to 0.64 m, response rate was a negatively accelerated function of reinforcement rate. Increases in sucrose concentration increased response rates maintained by low but not high reinforcement rates. This pattern of changes corresponds to a change in the reinforcement-efficacy parameter of the response-strength equation. In contrast, the motor-performance parameter did not change as a function of sucrose concentration. These findings are inconsistent with the results of a similar study (Bradshaw, Szabadi, & Bevan, 1978) but support Herrnstein's theory of reinforced behavior.     

Quantity matching by an orangutan (Pongo abelii)

An adult male orangutan (Pongo abelii) was presented with a series of delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) tasks in which he was to match images based on (a) the number of individual animals depicted in the photograph (from 1 to 4), (b) the number of abstract shapes presented in the stimulus (from 1 to 4), or (c) the number of dots presented in the stimulus (from 1 to 4, 4–7, or 7–10). The spatial arrangement of the dots and the background color of the stimuli varied, and the size of the dots was manipulated to control for overall ratio of foreground to background. The subject’s performance was not affected by these perceptual features, but was affected by the absolute difference and ratio between number of elements in the comparison stimuli. However, the relationship between these variables and his performance was not always linear as predicted by the analog magnitude model. In addition, the subject showed a high degree of transfer to novel numerosities up to ten, indicating that orangutans are capable of estimating quantity for a greater number of items than can presumably be subtilized by humans.     

Delayed symbolic matching in honeybees (Apis mellifera)

In a recent experiment on short-term memory (P. A. Couvillon, T. P. Ferreira, & M. E. Bitterman, 2003), honeybees (Apis mellifera) learned to choose between 2 colors on the basis of immediately preceding experience with 1 of them. Some learned to choose the same color as the sample (perseveration or matching), others to choose the alternative color (alternation or nonmatching). Performance in the 2 problems was very much the same. In the present experiment, honeybees learned no less readily to choose between the 2 colors on the basis of sample stimuli that were different from the colors (symbolic matching). A simple associative interpretation of the results is proposed.