Validation of the BRIEF-P in a sample of Canadian preschool children

The Behavior Rating Inventory for Executive Function-Preschool (BRIEF-P) is an instrument designed to assess preschoolers’ executive function (EF) in the context of where the behavior occurs. The present study examined the psychometric properties and measurement structure of the BRIEF-P using parents’ and teachers’ reports on 625 typically developing children aged 25 to 74 months. Results indicated that the BRIEF-P scales had good internal consistency and convergent validity in this sample of children. However, the measurement models examined exhibited poor fit statistics and showed that the EF construct was not unidimensional but rather multidimensional with interrelated subconstructs. Further analyses showed that three of the clinical scales (Emotional Control, Plan/Organize, and Working Memory) were unidimensional and invariant across informant. The other two clinical scales (Inhibit and Shift) were multidimensional and differed by informant. Results support a multidimensional construct of EF and, accordingly, different measurement models are proposed by informant.     

Death anxiety and death depression in Spanish nurses

This study examined the dimensional structure of Tomás-Sábado and Gómez-Benito's Death Anxiety Inventory and Templer, et al.'s Death Depression Scale-Revised. The responses of 244 Spanish nurses to the Spanish forms of both scales were evaluated by means of a principal axis factor analysis with direct Oblimin rotation. Five significant factors were identified: Internally Generated Death Anxiety, Death Depression, Externally Generated Death Anxiety, Death Threat, and Death Sadness, accounting for 51.6% of the variance. The distribution of the factor loadings for the items of both scales on the five factors supported the discriminant validity of the constructs specific to each of the scales and justified their use in evaluating death anxiety and death depression independently.     

Confirming,Validating, and Norming the Factor Structure of Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change Initial and Intersession

Progress or feedback research tracks and feeds back client progress data throughout the course of psychotherapy. In the effort to empirically ground psychotherapeutic practice, feedback research is both a complement and alternative to empirically supported manualized treatments. Evidence suggests that tracking and feeding back progress data with individual or nonsystemic feedback systems improves outcomes in individual and couple therapy. The research reported in this article pertains to the STIC^® (Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change)—the first client‐report feedback system designed to empirically assess and track change within client systems from multisystemic and multidimensional perspectives in individual, couple, and family therapy. Clients complete the STIC Initial before the first session and the shorter STIC Intersession before every subsequent session. This study tested and its results supported the hypothesized factor structure of the six scales that comprise both STIC forms in a clinical outpatient sample and in a normal, random representative sample of the U.S. population. This study also tested the STIC's concurrent validity and found that its 6 scales and 40 of its 41 subscales differentiated the clinical and normal samples. Lastly, the study derived clinical cut‐offs for each scale and subscale to determine whether and how much a client's score falls in the normal or clinical range. Beyond supporting the factorial and concurrent validity of both STIC forms, this research supported the reliabilities of the six scales (Omega_hierarchical) as well as the reliabilities of most subscales (alpha and rate–rerate). This article delineates clinical implications and directions for future research.     

Flow and outdoor adventure recreation: Using flow measures to re-examine motives for participation

Adventure participants have traditionally been viewed as having thrill or risk-seeking motives, and this perception remains despite empirical research suggesting that other motives may drive participation. This study was conducted to extend understanding of participation motives of adventure recreation participants in relation to Csiksentmihalyi’s nine-dimension model of flow and other proposed motivational constructs. Participants (n = 199) who had typically engaged in their adventure recreation activity (i.e., highlining, rock climbing, downhill mountain biking, freefalling, snow sports) regularly, and with considerable competence, took part in this investigation by completing self-report measures of dispositional flow (The Dispositional Flow Scale; DFS-2), state flow (The Short Flow State Scale; SFSS), and participation motives in their adventure recreation environments. Support was observed in confirmatory factor analytic procedures for the factorial validity of DFS-2 and SFSS data obtained from adventure recreation participants. Mean scores from measures on participant experience of flow in adventure recreation were generally found to be significantly higher than previously observed in other physical activity domains, with some differences also being observed among adventure recreation subgroups. Contrary to traditional explanations of adventure recreation participation, risk-seeking was not supported as a key underlying motive by participants in this study. Mastery of one’s adventure recreation activity, perceived connection to one’s activity, and trust in one’s skills, were identified as important participation motives. This study demonstrated that the DFS-2 and SFSS were able to satisfactorily assess flow constructs in adventure recreation, and supported recent research demonstrating flow to be a relevant experience to this setting. The implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research directions in adventure recreation are discussed.     

Different Games for Different Motives: Comment on Haesevoets,Folmer, and Van Hiel (2015)

Recently, Haesevoets, Folmer, and Van Hiel (2015) strongly questioned the comparability and equivalence of different mixed‐motive situations as modelled in economic games. Particularly, the authors found that different games correlated only weakly on average and loaded on two separate factors. In turn, personality traits failed to consistently account for behavioural tendencies across games. Contrary to the conclusions of Haesevoets et al., these findings are actually perfectly in line with the game‐theoretic understanding of the different economic games. If one considers the variety of specific motives underlying decisions in different games, Haesevoets et al.'s findings actually support the validity of different games rather than questioning it. This, in turn, emphasizes the necessity for the plethora of different games that have been developed over decades in economics and psychology. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Factorial validity and measurement invariance of the Revised Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP-R) in three countries

The revised physical self-perception profile (PSPP-R) was constructed to measure both perceived competence and importance linked to domains of the physical self. In the present study, we tested the factorial validity of the PSPP-R, using confirmatory factor analytic approach, on samples of university students from three different countries: Sweden, Turkey, and the UK. Multi-sample covariance structure analyses were also used to test the invariance of the PSPP-R across the three national samples. First-order four-factor models, including the latent factors of sport competence, physical conditioning, body attractiveness and physical strength, demonstrated good-fit with the data both for competence and importance factors. Second-order factor models, incorporating the second-order latent domain factor of physical self-worth also exhibited good-fit with the data. Factor patterns and covariances were invariant across samples for both competence and importance scales. Item intercepts were also invariant for the importance scales, whereas partial invariance of intercepts was supported for competence scales. The results are discussed with reference to the validity of the original physical self-perception profile and cross-cultural studies on the physical self.     

Assessing the Validity of Self Construal Scales

We disagree with Levine et al.'s (2003) conclusion that the 3 self construal scales currently in use have “severe” or “fatal” flaws. We argue that the results of Levine et al.'s meta‐analysis and priming studies do not raise problems with the validity of self construal scales, in part, because their results are compatible with theorizing about self construals. We also contend that Levine et al.'s measurement studies do not necessarily lead to the conclusion that there are problems with the validity of the scales (e.g., there may be multiple dimensions that form independent and interdependent self construals in second‐order factor analyses). We summarize other evidence for the construct validity of self construal scales which indicates that there are theoretically consistent findings across approximately 50 studies using the 3 scales. This would not be possible if there were major problems with the 2‐dimensional model of self construals or the scales used to measure them. We conclude that the 2‐dimensional model of self construals and the current scales are viable for use in future research.     

French Validation of the Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale (FVCAAS)

The aim of this study was to propose a French Validation of the Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale (FVCAAS). The instrument was developed from the original version, which is composed of two subscales (six items by subscales) assessing aggressiveness and anger in competitive athletes (CAAS, Maxwell & Moores, 2007). Four studies have been conducted with 1428 competitors. In the first study, the exploratory factor analysis extracted the two-factor structure from the original version, both with good internal consistency. The second study confirmed that the two-factor structure of the instrument was consistent with the original version and showed its partial invariance across genders. The third study demonstrated the temporal stability of the FVCAAS. In the fourth study, both concurrent and discriminant validities were confirmed, supporting the validity and reliability of the FVCAAS. The contributions of this study and limitations are discussed, together with perspectives for future studies of aggressiveness in competitive sports.     

A comparison of two multidimensional health locus of control instruments

This study examined the factor structure, internal consistency reliability, and construct validity of the multidimensional health locus of control (MHLC) instruments developed by K.A. Wallston, B.S. Wallston, and DeVellis (1978) and Lau (Lau, 1982; Lau & Ware, 1981). Both measures were administered to a sample of Veterans Administration (VA) medical outpatients (N = 181). Only minimal evidence of convergence was found between corresponding scales of the two MHLC instruments. Low convergent validity appears attributable to the poor internal consistency reliability of the Lau-Ware subscales. Moreover, results of factor analysis largely supported the a priori factor structure of the K.A. Wallston et al. (1978) MHLC instrument but failed to support the factor structure of the Lau-Ware instrument. Health locus of control (HLC) dimensions that emerged from simultaneous factor analysis of both instruments were most consistent with a three-dimensional typology (i.e., Personal Control, Professional Control, and Chance) rather than the four-dimensional typology proposed by Lau (Lau, 1982; Lau & Ware, 1981). Implications for HLC conceptualization and measurement are discussed.     

Development of the Parent Emotion Regulation Scale (PERS): Factor Structure and Psychometric Qualities

This study aims to develop a self-report measure based on a multidimensional conceptualization of the regulation of negative emotions in the context of parenting. We examined the factor structure, factorial invariance, internal consistency and construct validity of the newly developed measure, the Parent Emotion Regulation Scale (PERS). The sample was composed of 254 mothers of children aged 3 to 15 years old (M?=?8.54, SD?=?3.53) who participated in an online study. Exploratory factor analysis of the PERS yielded a four-factor structure with the following factors: parents’ orientation to the child’s emotions, parents’ avoidance of the child’s emotions, parents’ lack of emotional control and parents’ acceptance of the child’s and their own emotions. Confirmatory factorial analysis supported the four-factor model, showing an adequate fit for this structure. Additionally, the model displayed configural, metric, scalar and residual invariance across the children’s sex groups. Cronbach’s alpha values and mean inter-item correlations indicated an adequate internal consistency. Correlations between the PERS scale and the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) indicated that the different dimensions of parents’ emotion regulation were significantly associated with both positive and negative reactions to the children’s negative emotions. Furthermore, the emotion regulation dimensions showed incremental validity in the prediction of the child’s adjustment. This study provides preliminary support for the adequacy of this newly developed measure, although further studies are needed to establish its psychometric qualities in more diverse populations.     

Validation of the Italian Emotion Awareness Questionnaire for children and adolescents

This study aimed at validating the Emotion Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ, Rieffe et al., 2008) for Italian children and adolescents. Emotion awareness is a prerequisite of emotion regulation including the abilities to monitor and differentiate emotions, locate their antecedents, and value the importance of one's own and others' emotions. The EAQ consists of six scales: Differentiating Emotions, Verbal Sharing of Emotions, Not Hiding Emotions, Bodily Awareness of Emotions, Attending to Others' Emotions, and Analyses of (Own) Emotions. The questionnaire was filled in twice with a one-year time interval. At T1, 420 Italian children and adolescents took part (M = 12.65; SD = 1.41). Additionally, the Somatic Complaints List was administered to examine the concurrent validity of the EAQ. Results confirmed the six-factor structure, showed good psychometric properties of the separate scales and a good concurrent validity, which make the EAQ a reliable instrument to administer emotion awareness in Italian youth.     

Reexamining the Factor Structure of the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: Commentary on Gignac,Palmer, and Stough

Gignac, Palmer, and Stough (2007/this issue) test a number of different latent factor models for the TAS–20 using a community sample of 355 participants and conclude that this scale is best represented by a “nested factors model,” with five substantive factors and a method factor. Gignac et al. also report that the correlated three-factor model and a comparable higher order model supported by most studies produced poor levels of incremental close fit. In this article, we challenge Gignac et al.'s unheralded and largely unsupported use of nested model fitting and the uncritical acceptance of exceptionally high cutoff levels to assess goodness of fit (GOF). Using more traditional and empirically supported model testing procedures and a more flexible approach to the interpretation of multiple tests of GOF, we interpret Gignac et al.'s results as actually supportive of the traditional three-factor model and one that has been recovered in 17 of the 24 factor analytic studies of the TAS–20.     

Validation française du questionnaire d’évaluation de l’environnement invalidant durant l’enfance : the Invalidating Childhood Environments Scale (ICES)

IntroductionThe Invalidating Childhood Environments Scale (ICES) was developed by Mountford et al. (2007) in order to measure the parental invalidation of the child's emotional needs from the adolescent or young adult perception.ObjectiveThe aim of this study is the validation in French of the ICES based on its factorial structure and psychometric property.MethodParticipants included 585 freshmen university students (186 males, 399 females), aged 18–22.ResultsResults show that the French version had good psychometric validity. Factorial analyses indicate a two dimensions construct structure identical for each parent. These dimensions were labeled “personal distress” and “inability of empathy” in reference of Batson's studies on altruism (Batson, 1991). The convergent validity of the ICES is supported by the relationship between the scores on the different dimensions and the depression symptomatology.ConclusionImplications of the perception of these two dimensions of empathy and the family environment in the psychological health are addressed.     

Validation of a Portuguese Version of the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale

The paper describes the development of the Portuguese version of the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale and the examination of its psychometric properties. A sample of 367 Portuguese students completed the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS; Huebner in Sch Psychol Int 12:231–240, 1991a), Children’s Hope Scale (CHS; Synder in J Pediatr Psychol 22:399–421, 1997), Global Self-Worth Sub-scale (Harter, S. (1985). Manual for the self-perception profile for children. Denver: University of Denver) and Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5; Berwick et al. in Medical Care 29:169–176, 1991). The first step includes translation, back-translation, inspection for lexical equivalence and content validity, and cognitive debriefing. Then we considered reliability, factor structure, and criterion-related validity. The validation process of the Portuguese SLSS version shows psychometric properties similar to the English language SLSS, suggesting that it measures the same construct in the same way. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Psychometric comparison of Chinese and English versions of the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire with bilingual Hong Kong Chinese students

The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ; Gross & John, 2003) assesses two emotion regulation (ER) strategies: cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. Researchers have used the ERQ in cross-national studies, such as with participants in Hong Kong. There is inconsistency in psychometric equivalence data for the ERQ in Chinese among adults, and prior research in Hong Kong contradicted the ERQ's original factor structure (Matsumoto et al., 2008). The present study examined the factor structure, reliability and validity of a translated Traditional Chinese-ERQ and the English-ERQ with Hong Kong college students. Results revealed that both versions replicated the original two-factor structure of the ERQ (Gross & John, 2003). Evidence of the measure's convergent, discriminant and predictive validity was obtained as well. Implications for cross-cultural scale validation particularly with Hong Kong Chinese students are discussed.     

A further psychometric investigation of the sensation seeking scale form-v and its relationship to the EPQ-R and the I.7 impulsiveness questionnaire

The present study was an investigation of the basic psychometric properties and the factor structure of the Sensation Seeking Scale (Form-V). The relationship between Zuckerman's concept of Sensation Seeking and the Eysenckian dimensions of personality was also investigated. The SSS (Form-V), the EPQ-R and the I.7 were administered to 192 S's (58 male and 134 female). Means and standard deviations were calculated for all scales and reliability was tested. Discrepancies are reported between the mean scale scores obtained in the present study and those reported by Eysenck et al. (1985a, b) and Zuckerman et al. (1978). Item factor analysis (ML) was performed on the SSS (Form-V). The results of this suggests that the factor structure of the SSS (Form-V) is similar to that reported by Zuckerman et al., for the female Ss, in the present study. For the male Ss, however, the factor structure is not in keeping with that reported by other writers. Intercorrelations were run between the sub-scales of the SSS (Form-V), the EPQ-R scales and the I.7 scales, for males and females separately. A rather curious positive correlation emerged between P and L, which is not in keeping with previous work in this area. These matrices were subsequently factor analysed. Four factors were extracted for both the male and female sub-samples and identified as P, E, N and General Sensation Seeking. The results of this analysis, taken with the results of multiple regression analysis suggests that the SSS (Form-V) does not share very much identity or relationship with the EPQ-R or the I.7.     

The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ): factorial structure, relations to global subjective memory ratings, and Swedish norms

The factorial structure of the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ; Smith et al., 2000) was examined in a Swedish population based sample (N= 540, age range; 35-90 years). Concurrent validity was assessed by relating PRMQ to global ratings of memory. Confirmatory factor analyses of the PRMQ items indicated a superior fit of a three-factor model, with prospective and retrospective memory as orthogonal factors and episodic memory as a common factor. Furthermore, the PRMQ scales correlated with the global ratings of memory, suggesting that each rating contributed with unique variance in predicting PRMQ scores. Given differences in levels of complaints as compared with prior research (Crawford et al., 2003) norms for the Swedish version are provided. In conclusion, the present findings extend earlier work by providing additional support for the construct and concurrent validity of the PRMQ scales.     

Validation française du Caregiving Strain Questionnaire sur une population de parents d’enfants avec troubles du spectre de l’autisme

The Caregiving Strain Questionnaire (CGSQ-21) allows the assessment of the burden of family caregivers. The objective of this study is to present a validation of a French translation of this questionnaire (FCGSQ-21) to parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A literature review from 2002 to 2012 highlighted that five scales measured caregivers’ burden regarding children and only one English scale examined parents of children with ASD's burden. The CGSQ-21 was chosen for this study and has been validated with 167 French parents who completed an online survey. Those parents filled out a total of six questionnaires measuring optimism, perceived social support, care satisfaction, anxiety, depression and perceived burden. The factorial and convergent validities as well as the internal consistency of the FCGSQ-21 have been tested with an exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A three factors model was found to best fit the structure of this scale, those include the objective burden as well as the internalized and externalized subjective burdens. The convergent validity brings to light significant correlations between many scales of the protocol. In the present study, the FCGSQ-21's homogeneity is excellent with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.90. The FCGSQ-21 is a valid and useful tool to measure the burden perceived by parents of children with ASD. This study's objective was to confirm the tool's validity in order to improve clinical practice with children and their parents. This scale evaluates parents’ levels of burden perceived for the purpose of adapting interventions given to the children while taking into account parental well-being's specificities highlighted by the FCGSQ-21.     

Reliability and validity of three screening measures of borderline personality disorder in a nonclinical population

This study explored reliability and validity of three self-report screening measures of borderline personality disorder (BPD): the Personality Assessment Inventory-Borderline Features Scale (PAI-BOR; Morey, 1991), Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire-4-BPD scale (PDQ4-BPD; Hyler, 1994) and Mclean Screening Instrument for BPD (MSI-BPD; Zanarini et al., 2003). Participants (N = 523) were drawn predominantly from community and student populations. All three measures were internally consistent. Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the PAI-BOR did not support Jackson and Trull’s (2001) six-factor structure or Morey’s (1991) four-factor structure. The three measures converged highly, despite the broader theoretical basis of the PAI-BOR. Expected demographic differences on the measures supported construct validity, and concurrent validity in relation to theoretical-related criteria was also supported. Only the PAI-BOR and PDQ4-BPD showed incremental validity in predicting specific criteria, although, the amount of unique variance predicted was small.     

Using contextual effects to derive psychophysical scales

This paper presents a functional measurement analysis of Parducci’s range-frequency theory. The theory provides a basis for (1)finding context-invariant psychophysical scales, (2)establishing the validity of rating scales, and (3) explaining contextual effects in judgment. In an experimental illustration, Ss judged the magnitude of numerals in nine different distributions. All data were used to obtain the psychophysical function for numerals and also to test the model. The large contextual effects were consistent with the model. Quantitative tests of fit supported the equal-interval assumption of the category scale. The psychophysical function appeared nearly linear but with a significant negative acceleration. The data were shown to be qualitatively inconsistent with generalizations of Helson’s theory of adaptation level and Johnson’s correlation-regression theory. They supported Parducci’s range-frequency theory and illustrated how it could be used to factor out contextual effects from effects of stimulus magnitude. Extensions of the range-frequency approach are also discussed.