The Beck Inventory: psychometric properties in university students

The psychometric properties of the Beck Inventory (BI), a revised, copyrighted version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), were investigated in 204 university students. Two-week test-retest reliability was .90, coefficient alpha was .87, concurrent validity using the BDI as the criterion was .94, and the correlation between level of depression as measured by the two instruments was .86. The mean score on the BI was significantly but only one-half point lower than that on the BDI. Individual items were all highly and significantly correlated, but a significantly lower BI mean score occurred on the Sadness, Suicidal Ideas and Insomnia items. Depression was not significantly related to demographic variables.     

The German Version of the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents: Associations with Emotion Regulation and Psychosocial Adjustment

The psychometric properties of the Beck Inventory (BI), a revised, copyrighted version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), were investigated in 204 university students. Two-week test-retest reliability was .90, coefficient alpha was .87, concurrent validity using the BDI as the criterion was .94, and the correlation between level of depression as measured by the two instrument was .86. The mean score on the DI was significantly but only one-half point lower than that on the BDI. Individual items were all highly and significantly correlated, but items. Depression was not significantly related to demographic variables.     

Psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) in general population

This is the first study that provides normative, reliability, factor validity and discriminant validity data of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) in the Spanish general population, Sanz and Navarro's (2003) Spanish version of the BAI was administered to 249 adults. Factor analyses suggested that the BAI taps a general anxiety dimension comprising two related factors (somatic and affective-cognitive symptoms), but these factors hardly explained any additional variance and, therefore, little information is lost in considering only full-scale scores. Internal consistency estimate for the BAI was high (alpha = .93). The BAI was correlated .63 with the BDI-II and .32 with the Trait-Anger scale of the STAXI 2, but a factor analysis of their items revealed three factors, suggesting that the correlations between the instruments may be better accounted for by relationships between anxiety, depression, and anger, than by problems of discriminant validity. The mean BAI total score and the distribution of BAI scores were similar to those found in other countries. BAI norm scores for the community sample were provided from the total sample and from the male and female subsamples, as females scored higher than males. The utility of these scores for assessing clinical significance of treatment outcomes for anxiety is discussed.     

Behaviour–emotional characteristics of primary‐school children rated as having language problems

Background Primary‐school teachers are expected to detect problems related to language function, but the teachers' evaluations may be heavily influenced by gender and classroom behaviour. Aim To investigate the relationship between language problems (LPs) and behaviour–emotional problems as rated by primary‐school teachers. Methods All participants participated in a population‐based study, the Bergen Child Study (BCS). Teachers of 9,072 children and parents of 6,234 children completed forms containing questions pertaining to language function and the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) to screen for behaviour–emotional problems. LP was defined as a score above the 95th percentile on the sum score of five language items. Children achieving a total SDQ score above the 90th percentile were defined as high scorers, indicating a high risk for behavioural–emotional problems. Results Based on teacher reports, 540 children were defined as having LP, more boys (N = 366) than girls. Children defined as having LP were reported to have significantly higher scores on all SDQ subscales, and a higher total difficulty score than children without language problems (NLP). More LP boys than LP girls were defined as high scorers on the SDQ, with the highest effect size on the hyperactivity–inattention subscore. The agreement between teachers and parents was moderate to low, with the highest consensus of behaviour–emotional problems in children with LP. Conclusions Primary‐school children defined as having LP according to their teachers are frequently characterized by behavioural–emotional problems. Further assessment is warranted for primary‐school children defined as having LP by their teachers.     

Functional Impulsivity and Speeded Ability Test Performance

The current study examines the influence of functional impulsivity on speeded ability test performance. As predicted, functional impulsivity was positively related to number of items attempted (i.e., speed), but its impact on total score was more complex. In particular, analysis of the relations between ability, functional impulsivity and accuracy revealed evidence of a suppressor effect. Specifically, functional impulsivity was found to be negatively related to accuracy, but only after ability differences were controlled. Taken as whole, the current results suggest functional impulsivity may influence test‐taking behavior, but it likely does not result in a systematic influence on observed scores. Directions for further research needed to clarify these relations are discussed.     

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Male Body Attitudes Scale (MBAS)

A measure of men's attitudes toward their body (MBAS) was developed and evaluated via three independent samples of college men. In Studies 1 and 2, factor analyses determined and cross-validated the MBAS's underlying structure. Three factors emerged from the items: muscularity, low body fat, and height. Studies 1 and 2 provided construct (i.e., convergent, concurrent, and discriminant) validity evidence for the MBAS total scale and subscales; they were related or not related as expected to drive for muscularity, body esteem, internalization of the muscular ideal, pressures for muscularity, pressures for thinness, self-esteem, body comparison, eating disorder symptomatology, and impression management. Study 3 revealed that the MBAS total score and subscale scores were stable over a 2-week period. The internal consistency reliabilities for the total score and subscale scores were high across all three studies. The MBAS should prove useful for researchers and clinicians interested in men's body image assessment.     

Psychometric Meta‐Analysis of the English Version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory

This meta‐analysis reviewed 192 scholarly works from 1993 to 2013 using the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck & Steer, 1993 ). Aggregated internal consistency (coefficient alpha) was .91 (k = 117), and test–retest reliability was .65 (k = 18). Convergent comparisons were robust across 33 different anxiety instruments and the Beck Depression Inventory–II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996 ). Structural validity primarily supported the original 2‐factor solution proposed by Beck and Steer ( 1993 ), and diagnostic accuracy varied according to the sample size and criterion cutoff score.     

Measuring Attitudes Toward Acceptable and Unacceptable Parenting Practices

This study investigated the properties of a new rating instrument, the Parenting Questionnaire (PQ), designed to measure attitudes about acceptable and unacceptable parenting practices. In Study 1, subject matter experts representing culturally diverse psychologists, parents, and college students were consulted to identify 110 items receiving high endorsement. In Study 2, items were administered to 1,398 undergraduate students to examine their factor structure and the effects of ethnicity and gender differences on PQ factors. In Study 3, test–retest reliability (N = 92) and convergent validity (N = 142) of the PQ factors were examined. Exploratory factor analysis revealed three factors (total of 63 items) with high internal consistencies that accounted for a moderate amount of total variance (R ² = .38). The factors were Critical Feedback (26 items), Supportive Feedback (26 items), and Physical Discipline (11 items). Significant ethnicity and gender differences were found on the three PQ factors, as well as a significant interaction between ethnicity and gender on the Supportive Feedback factor. PQ factor scores demonstrated good temporal stability, internal consistency, and convergent validity. Overall findings suggest that the PQ is a reliable, stable, and valid measure of attitudes toward parenting with three distinct factors. Future research directions with parents are discussed.     

Construction and initial validation of the Self‐Worth Protection Scale

Background: The self‐worth theory of achievement motivation holds that in certain circumstances students stand to gain by deliberately withdrawing effort. When failure occurs despite effort, students are likely to conclude that failure resulted from lack of ability. Thus, withdrawing effort offers a defence against conclusions of low ability, thereby protecting self‐worth. Aim: We undertook to assess the psychometric properties of the Self‐Worth Protection Scale (SWPS). Sample: Data were obtained from 243 participants (Study 1) and 411 participants (Study 2) enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses at a university in the United States. Method: We administered a number of scales, including the SWPS and scales assessing a fear of negative evaluation, academic self‐esteem, uncertain global self‐evaluations, self‐handicapping, and causal uncertainty. Results: Exploratory factor analysis indicated a three‐factor solution (ability doubts, the importance of ability as a criterion of self‐worth, and an avoidance orientation) utilising 33 of the original 44 items. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that this three‐factor solution was a poor fit of the data. After modifying the model, a confirmatory factor analysis indicated that a three‐factor solution with 26 of the original items and a higher order factor of self‐worth protection was an adequate fit of the data. Reliability measures were acceptable for the three subscales and total score. The total score of the SWPS was positively correlated with theoretically related constructs, demonstrating construct validity. Conclusions: The SWPS appears to be a psychometrically sound scale to assist in identifying individuals who manifest self‐worth protection in achievement situations.     

Personality factors in dysphoria: A psychometric refinement of beck's Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale

The Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (SAS) was developed as a means of assessing two cognitive-personality constructs postulated as vulnerability factors in depression (Beck, 1983). While studies have confirmed the validity of the SAS Sociotropy Scale, the construct validity of the Autonomy Scale has not been well supported. The present study was conducted to improve on the measurement of autonomy by generating additional items which were added to the original questionnaire. This 93-item SAS was administered to 485 undergraduates along with the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, PRF Affiliation and Autonomy Scales, Positive and Negative Emotionality Measures, and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale. Four factors labeled Sociotropy, Solitude/Interpersonal Insensitivity, Independence, and Individualistic Achievement emerged from a principal-factor analysis of the SAS item pool. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that positive emotionality and solitude/interpersonal insensitivity were specifically related to dysphoria, while negative emotionality and sociotropy had significant associations with both anxious and depressed mood states.This research was supported by University of New Brunswick Research Grant 22–51 awarded to the first author.     

Is the Political Skill Inventory Fit for Personnel Selection? An Experimental Field Study

The political skill inventory (PSI) assesses social effectiveness in organizations by self‐reports and has demonstrated strong evidence of validity. It was the purpose of this experimental field study to investigate construct and criterion‐related validity of the PSI when used under conditions of personnel selection. In the experimental group (n=102), the instructions asked job incumbents to work on the PSI, a social desirability scale, and a Big‐Five personality inventory as if they took part in a personnel selection procedure for a personally very attractive position. Additionally, they were asked to report yearly income. In the control group (n=110), job incumbents were asked to answer the items honestly. As expected, in both conditions, the PSI did not correlate with social desirability, but it correlated positively with extraversion, conscientiousness, and income, and negatively with neuroticism, thus demonstrating construct and incremental criterion‐related validity under both conditions. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

The depressive personality disorder inventory and current depressive symptoms: implications for the assessment of depressive personality

The Depressive Personality Disorder Inventory (DPDI; Huprich, Margrett, Barthelemy, & Fine, 1996; see Appendix) was created to assess Depressive Personality Disorder in clinical and nonclinical samples. Since its creation, the DPDI has been used in multiple studies, and the psychometric properties of the measure have generally supported its reliability, convergent validity, and construct validity; however, evidence for the measure's discriminant validity has been mixed. Specifically, the DPDI tends to correlate highly with measures of current depressive symptoms, which limits its efficacy in differentiating current depressive symptoms from a depressive personality structure. A principal components analysis of 362 individuals who completed both the DPDI and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) found that 49% of the variance was accounted for in two components. Seven items from the DPDI loaded more strongly on the first component composed of many BDI-II items. These items were removed in order to create a measure believed to assess DPD without the confounding influence of current depressive symptomology. Principal components analysis of the revised measure yielded three components, accounting for 46% of the variance. The revised DPDI was used to calculate convergent, discriminant, and construct validity coefficients from measures used in former studies. Virtually no improvement in the validity coefficients was observed. It is concluded that assessing DPD via self-report is limited in its utility.     

Construct validity of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART): associations with psychopathy and impulsivity

To continue research assessing the validity of the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART) as a measure of risk taking, the BART was administered to a nonforensic sample of individuals with varying levels of psychopathic characteristics. Construct validity of the BART was evaluated by measuring risk-taking behavior in relation to self-reported psychopathy, anxiety, psychophysiological data, and demographic variables. Supporting the construct validity of the BART, while controlling for variance accounted for by interrelated variables in the context of hierarchical regression analyses, higher self-reported psychopathy was significantly predictive of increased risk taking on the BART. Findings also revealed interesting gender differences in self-reported psychopathy and a trend for men to engage in riskier behavior. Limitations and research directions are presented.     

Measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation: initial scale development and implications

A scale measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation (NMR) was developed. The construct was defined as the expectancy that some behavior or cognition will alleviate a negative mood state. Data from five samples of college undergraduates (N = 1,630) were reported. Internal consistency, discriminant validity from social desirability, and temporal stability were demonstrated for a 30-item scale derived from an initial pool of 50 items. Further analyses revealed (a) modest correlations of the 30-item scale with internal-external control, (b) that high scorers on the NMR scale reported few symptoms of depression, and (c) that the NMR scale predicted a different pattern of emotions than the Beck Depression Inventory did. Discussion focused on possible roles for expectancies for negative mood regulation in the coping process and directions for future research on the mood regulation process.     

Measuring Generalized Expectancies for Negative Mood Regulation: Initial Scale Development and Implications

A scale measuring generalized expectancies for negative mood regulation (NMR) was developed. The construct was defined as the expectancy that some behavior or cognition will alleviate a negative mood state. Data from five samples of college undergraduates (N = 1,630) were reported. Internal consistency, discriminant validity from social desirability, and temporal stability were demonstrated for a 30-item scale derived from an initial pool of 50 items. Further analyses revealed (a) modest correlations of the 30-item scale with internal-external control, (b) that high scorers on the NMR scale reported few symptoms of depression, and (c) that the NMR scale predicted a different pattern of emotions than the Beck Depression Inventory did. Discussion focused on possible roles for expectancies for negative mood regulation in the coping process and directions for future research on the mood regulation process.     

Beck Depression Inventory-II items associated with self-reported symptoms of ADHD in adult psychiatric outpatients

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) and the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale-Self-Report: Screening Version (CAARS-S:SV; Conners, Erhardt, & Sparrow, 1999) were administered to 371 (64%) female and 204 (36%) male adult (> 18 years old) outpatients who were diagnosed with various psychiatric disorders to determine whether any of the 21 items or subsets of items in the BDI-II were related to symptoms of attention deficits and hyperactivity as measured by the CAARS-S:SV DSM-IV Total ADHD Symptoms scale (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [ADHD] Symptoms). Stepwise multiple-regression analyses found that the BDI-II Concentration Difficulty explained 30% of the variance in these total scores. Ratings > 1 for the BDI-II Concentration Difficulty item were discussed as being useful for ruling out possible symptoms of ADHD.     

The perception of false self scale for adolescents: Reliability,validity, and longitudinal relationships with depressive and anxious symptoms

A scale assessing generalized false self‐perceptions (Perceptions of False Self, POFS) was developed and tested across three studies involving a total of 331 adolescents (11–16 years). In Study 1, interviews were conducted to develop items for the scale. In Study 2, psychometric techniques were used to derive a scale composed of 16 items. Study 2 also assessed the validity of the scale: depressive symptoms were found to increase POFS across 10 weeks, whereas false self‐perceptions had a reciprocal effect on anxiety. In Study 3, the convergent validity of the POFS scale was established. Overall, the evidence suggests that the POFS scale is a reliable and valid measure of generalized false self‐perceptions.     

Validity of the German Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI‐G) in an Australian sample

Test anxiety (TA) is a prevalent issue among students that can result in deleterious consequences, such as underachievement. However, a contemporary measure that has been validated for use with Australian students seems to be lacking. This study, therefore, investigated the suitability of the German Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI‐G) for use with Australian university students. While the original TAI‐G contains 30 items and was designed to measure four factors (worry, emotionality, interference, and lack of confidence), differing factorial models have been supported in the literature using either the original or a shortened 17‐item version of the measure. These differing TAI‐G models were tested and compared in the current study via confirmatory factor analysis using 224 Australian university students. As expected, results supported the superior fit of the 17‐item four‐factor model. Additionally, the convergent validity of the measure was supported since measures of self‐esteem, self‐efficacy, and general anxiety were all found to correlate significantly with the TAI‐G in the hypothesised directions. Finally, the finding that all of the TAI‐G subscales had acceptably high reliabilities led to the conclusion that the 17‐item TAI‐G is a valid and reliable measure of TA in an Australian university population.     

‘Good Impression’ as a Moderator in Employment‐related Assessment

There is widespread agreement that response bias variables, such as good impression, have little relevance, either as moderators or suppressors, in efforts to improve the accuracy of employment‐related predictions based on personality test scores. However, a recent review found that there were relatively few methodologically sound real‐life studies of the moderator function. Reported here are four such studies involving the prediction of job performance. As hypothesized, a significant moderator effect was shown in the two studies that utilized ‘transparent’ job‐related predictors, with useful prediction only at the lower levels of good impression, but not in the two studies that utilized personality variables as predictors. These results confirm that validity when using transparent items to predict employment‐related success can be affected by the operation of good‐impression response bias. Further research is needed to delineate other relevant effects of good impression in such situations.     

Use of the Beck Depression Inventory-II with depressed geriatric inpatients

To provide information about the clinical utility of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) [Beck, A.T., Steer, R.A., & Brown, G.K. (1996b). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation] with geriatric inpatients, the BDI-II was administered to 130 psychiatric inpatients who were 55 years old or above and who were diagnosed with principal DSM-IV major depressive disorders (MDD) (N = 85, 65%) or adjustment disorders with depressed mood (N = 45, 35%). The internal consistency of the BDI-II was high (coefficient alpha = 0.90), and its total score was not significantly related to sex, age, or ethnicity. An iterated maximum-likelihood factor analysis found the Cognitive and Noncognitive dimensions which have been reported for the BDI-II by Steer and co-workers (Steer R.A., Ball R., Ranieri W.F., & Beck A.T. (1999). Dimensions of the Beck Depression Inventory-II in clinically depressed outpatients. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 55, 117-128) in a younger sample of clinically depressed psychiatric outpatients. The mean BDI-II total score of the 85 geriatric inpatients with MDD was also comparable to that of 42 younger (< or = 54 years old) inpatients with MDD. The results were discussed as supporting the use of the BDI-II with clinically depressed geriatric inpatients.