Influence of subject and interviewer characteristics on the reliability of young adults' self-reports of drinking

The influence of subject and interviewer characteristics on the reliability of self-reports of alcohol consumption among young adults was investigated. Data were gathered from black and white college students of both sexes (N's=24) using a time-line procedure. The results snowed that these young adults provided highly reliable self-reports regarding their use of alcohol. Test-retest correlations for a criterion interval of 90 days were .96, .93, and .97 for the numbers of abstinent, moderate-drinking, and heavy-drinking days, respectively. Analyses also showed that white female subjects generally provided more reliable reports of abstinent and heavy-drinking days and that white female interviewers gathered more reliable reports across the three drinking disposition categories. These findings suggest that nonalcoholic young adults' retrospective reports of their drinking behavior can be reliably assessed using the time-line methodology. Future research is required to determine the validity of these self-reports and to understand the differential influence of subject and interviewer characteristics on the levels of reliability found.     

Comparing persistent juvenile delinquents and normative peers with the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Recent research suggests that personality traits are associated with delinquency. T-tests were run to identify which traits and facets of the Five-Factor Model of Personality contributed to differentiate persistent juvenile delinquents (n = 48) from normative peers (n = 48). Results showed that two traits, namely Agreeableness and Neuroticism, and 12 facets differed significantly between the groups. Observed effect sizes varied from medium to large.     

Childhood Predictors of Desistance and Level of Persistence in Offending in Early Onset Offenders

Childhood predictors of adolescent offending careers were studied in 310 boys from the longitudinal Pittsburgh Youth Study who started offending prior to age 12. Three main groups were distinguished: serious persisters (n = 95), moderately serious persisters (n = 117), desisters (n = 63), and an intermittent group (n = 35). Group membership was predicted using risk and promotive factors measured in childhood. Serious and moderately serious persisters could be distinguished well from desisters (29.2% and 32.3% explained variance). Distinction between the two persister groups proved somewhat more difficult (20.9% explained variance). More serious persisters than desisters showed disruptive behavior, while moderately serious persisters fell in between. Further, more moderately serious persisters were marked by social disadvantage. Family involvement, small family and positive peer relationships were promotive of desistance. Concluding, early onset offenders show considerable heterogeneity in their adolescent offending careers which seem to some extent to be predicted by different sets of risk and promotive factors.     

Informant impressions of retardate personality: reliability with extraversion, emotionality, toughmindedness

To assess extraversion, emotionality and toughmindedness among retarded persons with limited linguistic skills the 18-item Personal Reactions and Habits Questionnaire (PRHQ) was created. The responses of 2 interviewed informants, each well acquainted with a target person, are summed to obtain scores for each of the personality factors identified by Eysenck and Eysenck (1975). To establish the reliability of this procedure 4 interviewers inquired of 35 informants about a total of 54 target Ss of a wide range of mental retardation and living variously in the natural home, a group home or in a large state-operated institution. One-week test-retest reliability coefficients, e.g. r=0.93 for Extraversion, r=0.86 for Emotionality and r=0.92 for Toughmindedness, suggest the PRHQ to be a promising instrument for research on personality of Ss unable to provide self-reports. The possible use of the PRHQ to assess concordance of self-reports with personality impressions of others is also discussed.     

Relationships between identity domains and life satisfaction in minority and majority youth in Albania,Bulgaria, Czech Republic,Kosovo, and Romania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between identity domains (educational and relational identity) and life satisfaction in a cross-national perspective, by targeting minority (Roma) and majority youth in Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania. Based on the three-factor identity formation model, we investigated the interplay between three identity processes (i.e., commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) and life satisfaction. Participants were 1860 adolescents aged 12–19 years from Albania (n = 350), Bulgaria (n = 398), the Czech Republic (n = 293), Kosovo (n = 542), and Romania (n = 277). They completed self-reports of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) and the Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS). We adopted a structural equation modelling approach to test (a) measurement invariance of identity and life satisfaction models across groups and (b) associations between identity domains (educational and relational) and life satisfaction. Findings indicated measurement invariance for identity and life satisfaction measures across cultural groups. In the total sample, life satisfaction was consistently associated with high commitment, high in-depth exploration, and low reconsideration of commitment in the educational identity domain. Sample-specific associations highlighted important cultural differences. Implications of these findings for identity and well-being in minority and mainstream youth across the countries under investigation are discussed.     

Number of Sexual Partners and Social Disorganization: A Developmental Trajectory Approach

Utilizing a developmental trajectory approach, this study examines whether or not the perceived presence of social disorganization within communities contributes to the experience of having multiple sexual partners. The sample consists of African-American self-reports (n = 402) originating from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79). Analysis centers on responses from individuals who were ages 15 to 17 in 1998, 17 to 19 in 2000, 19 to 21 in 2002, 21 to 23 in 2004, 23 to 25 in 2006, and 25 to 27 in 2008. Following trajectory analysis of their reported number of sexual partners and perceptions of social disorganization, three groups are identified, showing variations in perceptions and number of sexual partners. Overall, results from these groups indicate that perceived social disorganization among African Americans has some impact on their number of sexual partners. Implications and directions for future research concerning social disorganization and public health are discussed.     

Social-Emotional Adjustment and Patterns of Alcohol Use among Young Adults

ABSTRACT Individual differences in social-emotional adjustment, jointly defined by levels of distress and self-restraint, were used to evaluate (a) patterns of alcohol use, (b) reasons for use, and (c) associated problems in two college samples of young adults (N= 287 and N= 215). As hypothesized, low self-restraint was associated with high levels of alcohol use, drinking to increase positive affect, and high levels of alcohol-related problems. Subjective distress was not related to levels of use; however, it was associated with drinking to escape negative moods and social discomfort and with excessive alcohol-related problems. Both high distress and low self-restraint predicted problem drinking beyond what could be accounted for by quantity or frequency of alcohol use or by peers' use. Within Weinberger and Schwartz's (1990) six-group typology, reactive individuals (high distress–low restraint) were especially likely to be problem drinkers, even when compared to groups with equivalent alcohol use. In a separate study, knowledgeable peers' reports validated the differences between reactive and repressive individuals, the two groups most likely to have inaccurate self-reports.     

Combined Medication and CBT for Generalized Anxiety Disorder With African American Participants: Reliability and Validity of Assessments and Preliminary Outcomes

Using data from a study of combined cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and venlafaxine XR in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), the current article examines the reliability and convergent validity of scales, and preliminary outcomes, for African American compared with European American patients. Internal consistency and short-term stability coefficients for African Americans (n = 42) were adequate and similar or higher compared with those found for European Americans (n = 164) for standard scales used in GAD treatment research. Correlations among outcome measures among African Americans were in general not significantly different for African Americans compared with European Americans. A subset of patients with DSM-IV–diagnosed GAD (n = 24 African Americans; n = 52 European Americans) were randomly selected to be offered the option of adding 12 sessions of CBT to venlafaxine XR treatment. Of those offered CBT, 33.3% (n = 8) of the African Americans and 32.6% (n = 17) of the European Americans accepted and attended at least one CBT treatment session. The outcomes for African Americans receiving combined treatment were not significantly different from European Americans receiving combined treatment on primary or secondary efficacy measures.     

An exploratory investigation of the reliability and validity of the Independent-Interdependent Problem-Solving Style Scale

The Independent-Interdependent Problem-Solving Scale is based on Cross et al.'s conceptualisation of relational-interdependent self-construal. The IIPSS provides a relatively context-free measure of people's tendencies to solve problems independently or with the help of others. Because previous investigations have not provided extensive evidence for the reliability and validity of the IIPSS, the current research aimed to test the psychometric properties of this novel measure. Investigations of four student samples (combined N = 1157) and one sample comprised of academic researchers (N = 198) generally supported the reliability and validity of the IIPSS. Exploratory factor analysis of IIPSS items yielded a single factor structure. However, confirmatory factor analyses did not demonstrate good model fit for the one factor solution and instead yielded good model fit for two underlying factors. The IIPSS showed adequate test–retest reliability and predicted positive associations with social personality traits. It also showed no significant associations with measures of demand characteristics and social desirability. Future research needs to be undertaken to further assess the factor structure and address shortcomings of the present research such as utilising objective data in addition to self-reports to assess the scale's validity.     

A cognitive and an affective dimension of alexithymia in six languages and seven populations

The Dutch Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) is translated into various languages. The aim of this research was to establish the factor structure of subscales on seven cultural groups. The BVAQ consists of five subscales of eight items each: Emotionalising, Fantasising, Analysing, Identifying, and Verbalising emotions. The BVAQ was administered to a group of Dutch students (n=375), a group of English students (n=175), a group of Australian students, university employees and visitors (n=216), a group of French speaking Belgian students (n=175), a group of Italian people (n=791; a mix of various clinical groups), a group of Polish people (n=427; also a mix of various clinical groups) and a group of Russian people (n=141; general population). The hypothesised two-factor structure of an affective alexithymia dimension (Emotionalising, Fantasising) and a cognitive alexithymia dimension (Insight and Verbalising), with “Analysing emotions” loading on both factors, was clearly supported by confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Both orthogonal and oblique principal components analyses (PCA), without restriction concerning the number of factors, provided the same two-factor solution in all groups explaining between 55% and 64% of the variance. Oblique rotation further demonstrated that the correlations between these two factors were low in all populations. The combined CFA and PCA results, therefore, indicated that a model with two independent factors has to be preferred over the model assuming two correlated factors.     

Thyroid hormones,psychophysiological reactivity,and anxiety

Thirty-eight adults were assigned to three groups: posttreatment hyperthyroid (n=13), low euthyroid (n=12), and high euthyroid (n=13). Physiological and subjective responses to three anxiety-induction procedures—public speaking, personally distressing imagery, and threat of shock—were compared across groups. Although there were differences across stressors for physiological and subjective measures, group differences were not detected. Results are discussed with regard to the risk for residual anxiety following treatment for hyperthyroidism and the possible influence of thyroid function on the etiology or maintenance of anxiety.     

Swedish Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (SAAQ): a psychometric evaluation

Psychological inflexibility and experiential avoidance are equivalent (with somewhat different connotations) concepts and refer to an unwillingness to remain in contact with particular private events. This concept is most often measured by the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II) and is strongly related to psychopathology and behavioral effectiveness. In this study, the preliminary psychometric properties of the Swedish version of the AAQ-II (Swedish Acceptance and Action Questionnaire—SAAQ) are presented. The study is done in two steps. In the first step, the 10-item version of the AAQ-II is investigated through principal component analysis (n = 147). Secondly, due to problems with the component structure, the instrument is reduced to a six-item version and its validity and internal consistency are investigated (n = 154). The six-item version shows good concurrent and convergent validity as well as satisfying internal consistency (α = .85). Furthermore, the Swedish six-item version of the AAQ-II showed one strong component. Test–retest reliability was satisfactory (r = .80; n = 228). In future research, predictive and external validity would be important to investigate in order to further ensure that the SAAQ is a useful measure for clinical research. In conclusion, the SAAQ has satisfactory psychometric properties, but more data need to be gathered to further explore the possibilities for the instruments in Swedish contexts.     

The Effect of Induced Mood on Children’s Social Information Processing: Goal Clarification and Response Decision

We investigated whether induced mood influenced the social information processing steps of goal clarification and response decision in 480 1st–3rd graders, and in more selected groups of low accepted-aggressive (n = 39), average accepted-nonaggressive (n = 103), and high accepted-nonaggressive children (n = 68). Children participated in two sessions; in the first session peer assessments were administered. In the second session children were randomly assigned to receive either a happy, angry, or neutral mood induction prior to participating in a social cognitive interview assessing goals, outcome expectancies, and self efficacy for competent, hostile, and passive responses in the context of ambiguous provocations. Results revealed that an angry mood increased focus on instrumental goals. Low accepted-aggressive children were more susceptible to the effects of mood than were high accepted- and average-nonaggressive children. In addition, children’s predominant goal orientation was related to children’s response decisions; children with predominantly instrumental goals evaluated nonhostile responses to provocation more negatively and had higher self efficacy for hostile responses. Implications and future research directions are discussed.     

Reliability of alcohol abusers' self-reports of drinking behavior.

The test-retest reliability of alcohol abusers' self-reports of their daily drinking and daily drinking, alcohol-related incarcerations and their drinking problem history were highly reliable (r = +0.79 to +0.98). Limits on the generalizability of these finclings are discussed. ing dispositions for the 360-day period preceding admission to treatment. Results indicated that. over a 6-week test-retest interval, outpatient male alcohol abusers' self-reports of their daily drinking, alcohol-related incarcerations and their drinking problem history were highly reliable (r = +0.79 to +0.98). Limits on the generalizability of these finclings are discussed.     

Children's memory of events: effects of stress,age, time delay and location of interview

To examine the ability of children aged between 4 and 12 years to recall a stressful event (venipuncture) compared with a non-stressful event (demonstration of venipuncture), recall was tested after 6–8 weeks. Half also had recall tested after 2–7 days. Testing took place where the stressful event occurred (n=122) or at a neutral location (n=127). Children who experienced the stressful event were less likely to give inaccurate responses in free recall or to acquiesce to suggestive misleading questions. Apart from incorrect responses in free recall, correct responses increased and incorrect responses decreased with increasing age. Recall after 2–7 days was superior to recall after 6–8 weeks. Those who had an early and a late interview had better recall at the late interview than those who had a late interview only. The location of interview showed no effects on recall. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Mental rotation performance and the effect of gender in fourth graders and adults

The DSM-IV implicitly assumes that development is uniform across ability domains, which implies that relationships between ability measures do not differ across development. We assessed whether correlations between measures of nine ability constructs differed across samples of children aged 3 – 5 (n = 117), 6 – 8 (n = 116), 9 – 11 (n = 124) and 12 – 14 years (n = 92). LISREL analyses show that correlations in each age group differ from those of each other age group. Parallel analyses indicate that the latent structure of ability differs across age groups. We conclude that shared maturational processes, including changes in the connectivity of neural systems, are responsible for decreasingly and increasingly strong relationships between some ability measures.     

Bottled memories: On how alcohol affects eyewitness recall

This study investigated how different doses of alcohol affected eyewitness recall. Participants (N = 126) were randomly assigned to three groups with different blood alcohol concentration (BAC), either a control group (mean BAC 0.00%, N = 42), a lower alcohol dose group (mean BAC 0.04%, N = 40), or a higher alcohol dose group (mean BAC 0.06%, N = 44). After consumption, participants witnessed a movie of a mock crime and were interviewed one week later. The main results showed that witnesses with the higher intoxication level recalled fewer details compared to witnesses with the lower intoxication level. The amount of alcohol consumed did not have an impact on the accuracy rate. No sex differences were found. The results are discussed in the light of past research. We conclude that more studies are needed before recommendations can be made to an applied setting.     

Mindfulness or expectancy? The label of mindfulness leads to expectancy effects

The increasing popularity of mindfulness practices has seen an accompanying growth in research that includes the development of several self-report mindfulness measures. However, while caution has been recommended in the use of these self-reports, there has been little direct assessment of their susceptibility to expectancy effects. This research aimed at understanding whether expectancy effects exist for self-reported mindfulness measures (Study 1; n = 60), and how expectancy effects might manifest in relation to positive and negative expectancy (Study 2; n = 60). The first study manipulated whether (i) the task (jigsaws) was labelled as “mindfulness,” and (ii) whether “authentic” mindfulness instructions were given. Given any increases in self-reported mindfulness might potentially occur due to engaging in the mindful and attentionally demanding task, the second study manipulated whether the introduction placed mindfulness in a positive or negative context. A pre-/post-test design was employed using the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and Applied Mindfulness Process Scale self-report measures for mindfulness and the Perceived Stress Scale for well-being. The findings revealed expectancy effects for simply using the term mindfulness and that the direction of effects could be manipulated. This research suggests that researchers need to be cautious in evaluating self-reports of mindfulness practice due to expectancy effects, especially in the context of brief interventions without objective measures.     

Social modeling of exercise inventory: A measure of exercise‐specific social influence

Because social modeling relates to exercise behavior, the Social Modeling of Exercise Inventory (SMExI) was developed to assess this form of social influence. In Study 1a, participants (n = 294) were asked how others help them to exercise regularly. Based on these responses, Study 1b (n = 246) and Study 1c (n = 146) examined the created scale’s factor structure. Study 2a (n = 265) established reliability and validity and examined predictive power toward theoretically relevant variables. Study 2b (n = 123) validated a 7‐day response format. The SMExI demonstrated high reliability and good measurement validity. It was related to other exercise‐specific social influences, predicted the amount to which individuals engaged in regular exercise, and provided incremental validity beyond existing measures of social influence. The SMExI provides a specific instrument that can be used to examine the extent to which social modeling relates to exercise behavior. Limitations and future directions for research and application are discussed.     

儿童青少年返回抑制发展的实验研究

采用返回抑制线索——靶子模式,比较了单线索和双线索条件下儿童返回抑制的发展变化。选取了4组被试,6岁、9岁、12岁和17岁各20名。结果显示:(1)儿童返回抑制在单线索条件下出现的晚,而在双线索条件下出现的早;(2)返回抑制出现的时间进程随年龄的增长而逐渐显现,年龄对返回抑制有重要影响;(3)儿童返回抑制发展的关键期可能是在12岁左右。