A Confirmatory Comparison of the Factor Structure of the Children's Depression Inventory between European American and African American Youth

We examined the factor structure of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) among a sample of 523 African American children (m age = 12.76) and a sample of 564 European American youth (m age = 12.43). Previous investigations have produced discrepant factor structures among samples of predominantly majority-culture children, but fewer investigations of the factor structure of the CDI have been conducted among non-European American samples. Confirmatory factor analyses of the original 5 factors identified by Kovacs (1983, 1991) revealed that the items had invariant measurement properties across the samples. The latent factor structure, however, revealed telling differences between the two samples. For European American youth, only one of the original five factors was meaningfully differentiated from the others, whereas for the African American youth, two of the factors clearly emerged as unique facets of depression. Consistent with other reports, between-group mean differences on the CDI and its factors were noted. We argue that further validation of the CDI among traditionally underserved populations is warranted. Predictive validation investigations, in particular, are needed to examine the relationship between CDI factor scores and clinical outcomes.     

Adolescent identity formation: a Swedish study of identity status using the EOM-EIS-II

The aim of this study was to examine ego identity status among Swedish adolescents using the EOM-EIS-II. Identity status scores and distributions were examined for 222 (108 female, 114 male) Swedish high school students. Identity status differences were found between genders. There was a greater likelihood of female adolescents being categorized as moratoriums than were males, and there was a greater likelihood of males being categorized as diffusions than were females. Statistically significant differences were found between genders on the following subscales: moratorium, foreclosure, and diffusion. No statistically significant differences were found between females and males on the identity achievement subscale. To achieve a preliminary construct validation of the results from the EOM-EIS-II, four of the 222 participants were also assessed using Marcia's identity status interview. A fairly good accordance between the interview assessment of identity status and the EOM-EIS-II assessment were found. Interview results showed differences between the interviewers on each subscale (IA, M, F, and D). The same differences were detected on three of four subscales when assessing these individuals' identity statuses using the EOM-EIS-II.     

Normative Developmental Trajectories of Aggressive Behaviors in African American,American Indian,Asian American,Caucasian, and Hispanic Children and Early Adolescents

The current 5-year accelerated longitudinal investigation modeled the developmental trajectories of aggressive behaviors in 10,107 predominantly minority (>70%; African American, American Indian, Asian American, and Hispanic) children and early adolescents (Kindergarten through 8th grade, 49% female youth) from lower to lower-middle socioeconomic strata. Based on a two-part latent growth model, findings suggest that the probability and frequency of aggressive behavior use decreases slightly (linear) through the elementary school years and then increases as children move into middle school (quadratic). Though mean level differences were found across ethnic and racial groups, socioeconomic strata, and particularly by sex at initial status, rates of change over time across all groups were invariant. Findings suggest that potential socialization differences, if any, occur pre-Kindergarten in all groups.     

Student Preferences in Divisional Studies and their Preferential Activities

Samples of preadolescents, adolescents, and young adults of middle-class backgrounds from Canadian and Asian-Indian populations were used to assess the hypothesis that with age, individuals reveal increasing differentiation in categories of personal characteristics, when evaluating themselves. The results of this cross-cultural study showed a linear increase in variance with age, in both cultural samples, and confirmed the findings of earlier investigations conducted exclusively with American-born subjects. Consistency of the findings of increasing differentiation in self-evaluations with age in the American, Canadian, and Asian samples suggests that such differentiation is a basic developmental factor in the organization of self-evaluations across cultures. In addition, it was found that, as compared with the Canadian sample, the Asian sample had significantly lower mean summation self-evaluation scores and lower mean variance scores at each age level. The implications of these cultural differences are discussed.     

Factorial invariance and latent mean differences of scores on trait emotional intelligence across gender and age

Little is known about the factorial invariance and latent mean difference across sex and age in trait emotional intelligence (EI). The purpose of this study was to examine whether the measurement structure underlying trait EI is equivalent across sex and age groups. The sample consisted of 2919 teenagers, youths and adults. In order to investigate the above hypothesis the measurement and structural equivalence as well as the equality of latent means of scores across sex and age were tested. The multi-group confirmatory factor analysis results revealed that configural, metric, scalar and structural invariance exist across sex and age samples. Findings regarding the latent mean differences across sex and age groups are discussed with reference to recent and past findings.     

The Peer Interaction in Primary School Questionnaire: testing for measurement equivalence and latent mean differences in bullying between gender in Egypt,Saudi Arabia and the USA

The Peer Interaction in Primary School Questionnaire (PIPSQ) was developed to assess individuals’ levels of bullying and victimization. This study used the approach of latent means analysis (LMA) within the framework of structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the factor structure and gender differences associated with the PIPSQ in a sample of Egyptian (N = 361), Saudi Arabian (N = 350) and USA (270) children. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis are consistent with previous work and support the cross-cultural validity of the PIPSQ factor structure. The PIPSQ factor loadings were invariant across Egyptian and Saudi samples, whereas only partial invariance was met between Egyptian or Saudi samples and the USA sample. Full measurement invariance was met between gender within the three cultures, that is the PIPSQ was useful to compare bullying and victims between gender within the three cultures, but it is only valid to compare those two constructs between Egyptian and Saudi boys and girls. The results indicated that Egyptian and Saudi boys/girls had a higher level of bullying than American boys/girls, whereas no differences were displayed among the three cultures on the victimization subscale. Boys had a higher level of bullying than girls in the three cultures, and boys and girls had a similar level of victimization in three cultures.     

Assessing Measurement Invariance of the Children's Depression Inventory in Chinese and Italian Primary School Student Samples

This study tested the measurement invariance of Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and compared its factorial variance/covariance and latent means among Chinese and Italian children. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis of the original five factors identified by Kovacs revealed that full measurement invariance did not hold. Further analysis showed that 4 of 21 factor loadings, 14 of 26 intercepts, and 12 of 26 item errors were noninvariant. Factor variance and covariance invariant tests revealed significant differences between Chinese and Italian samples. The latent factor mean comparison suggested no significant difference across the two groups. Nevertheless, the finding of partial metric and scalar invariance suggested that observed mean differences on the CDI items cannot be fully explained by the mean differences in the latent factor. These results suggest that researchers and practitioners exercise caution when gauging the size of the true national population differences in depressive symptoms among Italian and Chinese children when assessed via CDI. In addition to providing needed evidence on the use of the CDI in Italian and Chinese children specifically, the methods used in this research can serve more generally as an example for other cross-cultural assessment research to test structural equivalence and measurement invariance of scales and to determine why it is important to do so.     

The survey of personal beliefs: comparison of south african, mexican and american samples

In order to investigate the cross-cultural reliability and independence of subscales of the Survey of Personal Beliefs (SPB) data from 751 undergraduate Psychology students (189 White South African students, 114 Black South African students, 262 Mexican students and 186 American students) were compared. Coefficient alphas for the subscales in all samples were low, ranging from .33 to .76. However, alphas for the total scale across all subgroups were high. A comparison of the rank ordering of alpha coefficients for subscales in the different samples partially supported the cross-cultural reliability of the SPB for White South African and Mexican students, and for Black South African and American students. The similarities across samples regarding intercorrelations and shared variance between subscales also provided some evidence for the possible cross-cultural independence of subscales of the SPB. Comparison of total and mean subscale scores showed no significant differences between males and females within samples. However, a significant effect for culture, with significant between-subject effects for all the subscales as well as for the total score, was found. This may be indicative of real differences in irrational belief styles between the groups or may be a result of the insufficient cross-cultural reliability of the SPB.     

大学生自我同一性发展特点研究

目的:调查并探讨大学生自我同一性状态发展特点。方法:从湖南某大学随机抽取320名大学生,采用王树青等人修订的EOM-EIS-II量表作为测量青少年自我同一性的工具。结果:(1)大学生自我同一性的性别、独生和非独生、城乡的差异比较结果显示,不同性别、独生非独生大学生在自我同一性的一些维度上存在显著差异,而来自城市和来自农村的大学生之间不存在差异;(2)不同年级大学生的同一性状态得分的方差分析结果显示,不同年级大学生在总体获得、总体延缓、总体早闭、意识早闭、人际早闭、人际延缓和人际获得7个维度上差异显著。结论:大学生自我同一性的发展存在一定的不平衡性。     

Testing the measurement equivalence of personality adjective items across cultures

Although previous research has examined cross-cultural differences in personality, many of these studies neglected to first establish that the measures being used were equivalent in meaning across cultures. Using samples of Chinese, Greek, and American respondents, the measurement equivalence of the Big Five Mini-Markers [Saucier, G. (1994). Mini-markers: A brief version of Goldberg’s unipolar Big-Five markers. Journal of Personality assessment, 63, 506–516] was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis. The results indicate that all of the scales demonstrate configural invariance, but fail to show metric or scalar invariance. Several adjectives from these scales were found to exhibit bias at the item-level. The practical implications of these results are discussed and future research is suggested.     

Ethnic differences in affect intensity,emotion judgments,display rule attitudes,and self-reported emotional expression in an American sample

Research of the past two decades has shown that cultures exert considerable influence over emotion. Most, if not all, of the cross-cultural research reported to date have been on samples obtained in different countries. Although it is important to address questions of cross-cultural similarities and differences via the testing of between-country differences, we need to be concerned with possible cultural differenceswithin countries as well. The assessment of cultural differences within countries would have implications for not only our conceptual understanding of cultural influences on emotion, but also our empirical methods and procedures. In this study, American subjects were self-classified into one of four ethnic groups, and provided us with data concerning affect intensity, display rule attitudes, self-reported emotional expression, emotion labeling, and intensity ratings. The results indicated considerable differences in emotion judgments, display rules, and self-reported emotional expressions as a function of ethnicity within an American sample. The differences are discussed in terms of the need to search for psychologically meaningful and relevant definitions of culture which would cut across ethnicity or country.     

Sex differences in face cognition

Although there is abundant evidence for female superiority in Face Cognition (FC), a number of questions regarding sex differences remain to be addressed. Here we report a reanalysis of data on the level of latent factors, modeled on the basis of an extensive test battery applied to three samples of over 800 adults in all. In independent samples the measurement structure of FC was invariant for both sexes, indicating that the measurement of the construct does not depend on the context variable sex, and investigating mean performance differences will not be biased by measurement issues — a neglected aspect in previous studies. We confirmed female superiority for face perception (FP) and face memory (FM). For the first time we could show that these sex differences prevailed after accounting for sex differences in broadly measured general cognitive functioning and in object perception. Across adult age, sex differences in FM increased due to the rapid decline of this ability in men, whereas performance in women remained stable across adult age. Self-reported social involvement and things-oriented activities moderated sex-differences in FM. Results show that sex differences are salient at the level of specific FC constructs and that they can be partially explained by social involvement.     

Me,Myself, and Mobility: The Relevance of Region for Young Adults' Identity Development

As residential mobility is a common life event that particularly affects young adults, regional identity may be relevant for young adults. We therefore extended the three‐dimensional identity model to the regional domain. The development of regional identity was studied using a prospective design over six months with a sample of 1,795 post‐secondary graduates (71% female, mean age of 24.54 years), containing both movers and non‐movers. Latent profile analyses and latent profile transition analyses revealed three main findings: First, solutions with four regional identity statuses—moratorium, searching moratorium, closure, and achievement—were found to be most interpretable. Second, the emergent statuses differed substantially in terms of Big Five personality traits and life satisfaction, as well as with moving experience. Third, the stability of identity status membership across a period of six months was highest for the non‐movers group. Comparatively less stability across time was found for the movers, underscoring the relevance of transitions for identity development. Taken together, these findings show that even in a mobile world, region matters in identity development. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Multidimensional structure and measurement invariance of school engagement

This study examined the multidimensional structure and measurement invariance of a school engagement instrument using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), bifactor CFA (BCFA), and bifactor ESEM (BESEM). Participants consisted of 1731 students in Grades 9 - 11 from the 4-H Study of Positive Youth Development in the United States. The use of the CFA, ESEM, BCFA, and BESEM models was expected to provide more insight into the cross-loading and hierarchical structures of school engagement. We found empirical evidence to support the (a) tripartite factor structure of school engagement, (b) existence of cross-loadings and hierarchical structures, (c) measurement invariance across gender (male vs female) and race (European American vs African American), and (d) expected latent means differences by gender.     

Measurement issues associated with conditional reasoning tests: indirect measurement and test faking

Conditional reasoning is a new measurement technique used to measure cognitive biases associated with latent personality motives. The current article describes 3 studies examining 2 related measurement issues associated with conditional reasoning tests (CRTs). Study 1 examined the necessity of maintaining indirect assessment when administering CRTs. Results indicated that, compared with a control condition, 2 experimental conditions that disclosed the purpose of assessment yielded significant mean shifts on a CRT. Study 2 explored whether CRTs could be faked when the purpose of assessment was not disclosed. Results indicated that when indirect measurement was maintained, CRTs appeared to be resistant to faking. Study 3 compared scores on the Conditional Reasoning Test for Aggression across student, applicant, and incumbent samples. Results indicated no significant mean differences among these samples.     

Stress assessment during adolescence: Psychometric properties and measurement invariance of the Student Stress Inventory-Stress Manifestations across gender and age

The main purpose of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties and measurement invariance across gender and age of the Student Stress Inventory-Stress Manifestations (SSI-SM) scores in a large sample of adolescents. The sample was comprised by a total of 1108 students (482 were male), with a mean age of 14.61 years (SD = 1.71). The results indicated that the SSI-SM scores presented adequate psychometric properties from both classical test theory and Item Response Theory (IRT). Confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA), showed that both the bifactor model and a three-factor model (emotional, physiological, and behavioural) were adequate. Multi-group CFA showed that the three-factor model had strong measurement invariance across gender and age. Statistically significant differences in gender were found between latent means as well as raw scores of SSI-SM. Ordinal alpha was .78 for Physiological, .90 for the Emotional, and .79 for the Behavioural subscales. Using IRT, the SSI-SM provides more accuracy information at the medium level of the latent trait. SSI-SM subscales were associated with emotional and behavioural problems. These results provided new sources of validity evidence of the SSI-SM scores in adolescents from general population. The SSI-SM appears to be a useful, brief, and easy to administrate self-report instrument for the screening of stress manifestations at school and educational settings.     

Examining the feasibility of the integrated hope scale in American college students

The Integrated Hope Scale (IHS) provides a multi-dimensional evaluation of factors common across measures of hope, examining social relationships, trust and confidence, perspectives of the future, and a lack of hopefulness. Despite promise for the instrument’s utility, research on the IHS is sparse has been limited to non-English-speaking populations, requiring translated items, and the cross-cultural transportability of hope constructs has previously been raised. Predominant theories of hope used in American populations have been criticized for not measuring important aspects that are included within the IHS. Using confirmatory factor analysis and latent class analysis, this study explored the IHS’s structural integrity and interpretive potential using a regionally and racially diverse sample of American college students. Results suggest that the IHS offers a valid global assessment of hope as well as for targeted measurement of discrete areas identified by instrument factor scores. The IHS also shows promise in differentiating individuals according to their level of hopefulness.     

On the context dependence of emotion displays: Perceptions of gold medalists’ expressions of pride

In spite of various claims for cross-cultural differences in the experience of pride, studies on the expression of pride have revealed few cross-cultural differences. Five studies using archival data from Olympic and national championships do show cross-cultural differences in the expression of pride and other positive emotions in pride-eliciting contexts, contingent on the social context of the expression, notably the in-group or out-group status of the audience. Chinese gold medalists were perceived to express less pride than American medalists when outperforming in-group competitors; when outperforming out-group members, however, no or smaller cross-cultural differences were observed. These findings are important because they indicate that cultural norms about emotion expression may be activated only in situations in which they serve a function in coordinating people's behaviour.     

Cross-cultural invariance of the basic psychological needs in exercise scale and need satisfaction latent mean differences among Greek,Spanish, Portuguese and Turkish samples

ObjectivesThe present study examined the extent to which scores from the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale are measurement invariant across Greek, Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish samples of exercise participants.DesignA cross-sectional design wherein responses were analyzed from 504 Greek participants, 518 Spanish participants, 989 Portuguese participants, and 686 Turkish participants.MethodsData on exercise participants' need satisfaction were collected using the Basic Psychological Needs in Exercise Scale (Vlachopoulos & Michailidou, 2006) after back translation for the languages involved in the study.ResultsMulti-sample confirmatory factor analyses showed that BPNES scores were largely invariant at the configural, metric, and strong invariance levels, but not at the strict invariance level for Spanish, Portuguese, and Turkish samples compared to the Greek sample. Portuguese participants reported higher levels of satisfaction for all three needs compared to Greek participants, while for Spanish participants this was the case only for competence and relatedness. Turkish participants did not differ from Greek participants.ConclusionsThe present findings support valid cross-cultural comparisons at the latent variance/covariance level and the latent/observed mean level of the constructs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness using the BPNES.     

A cross-culturally standardized set of pictures for younger and older adults: American and Chinese norms for name agreement, concept agreement, and familiarity.

The present study presents normative measures for 260 line drawings of everyday objects, found in Snodgrass and Vanderwart (1980), viewed by individuals in China and the United States. Within each cultural group, name agreement, concept agreement, and familiarity measures were obtained separately for younger adults and older adults. For a subset of 57 pictures (22%), there was equivalence in both name agreement and concept agreement, and for an additional subset of 29 pictures (11%), there was nonequivalent name agreement but equivalent concept agreement, across all culture-by-age groups. The data indicate substantial differences across culture-by-age groups in name agreement percentages and number of distinct name responses provided. We discovered significant differences between older and younger American adults in both name agreement percentages (67 pictures, or 26%) and concept agreement percentages (44 pictures, or 17%). Written naming responses collected for the entire set of Snodgrass and Vanderwart pictures showed shifts in both naming and concept agreement percentages over the intervening decades: Although correlations in name agreement were strong (r = .71, p < .001) between our younger American samples and those of Snodgrass and Vanderwart, name agreement percentages have changed for a substantial proportion (33%) of the 260 pictures; moreover, 63% of the stimuli for which Snodgrass and Vanderwart reported concept agreement now appear to differ. We provide comprehensive comparison statistics and tests for both the present study and prior ones, finding differences across numerous item-level measures. The corpus of data suggests that substantial differences in all measures can be found across age as well as culture, so that unequivocal conclusions with respect to cross-cultural or age-related differences in cognition can be made only when appropriate stimuli are selected for studies. Data for all 260 pictures, for each of the four groups, and all supporting materials and tests are freely archived at http://agingmind.cns.uiuc.edu/Pict_Norms. The full set of these norms may be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.