A Psychometric Analysis of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale—Parent Version in a Clinical Sample

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale—Parent Version (RCADS-P) is a 47-item parent-report questionnaire of youth anxiety and depression, with scales corresponding to the DSM-IV categories of Separation Anxiety Disorder, Social Phobia, Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Panic Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The RCADS-P is currently the only parent-report questionnaire that concurrently assesses youth symptomatology of individual anxiety disorders as well as depression in accordance with DSM-IV nosology. The present study examined the psychometric properties of the RCADS-P in a large (N = 490), clinic-referred sample of youths. The RCADS-P demonstrated favorable psychometric properties, including high internal consistency, convergent/divergent validity, as well as strong discriminant validity—evidencing an ability to discriminate between anxiety and depressive disorders, as well as between the targeted anxiety disorders. Support for the DSM-related six-factor RCADS-P structure was also evidenced. This structure demonstrated superior fit to a recently suggested alternative to the DSM-IV classification of anxiety and affective disorders—namely, the MDD/GAD “distress” factor.     

A Psychometric Analysis of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scales—Parent Version in a School Sample

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale—Parent Version (RCADS-P) is a parent-report questionnaire of youth anxiety and depression with scales corresponding to the DSM diagnoses of separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and major depressive disorder. The RCADS-P was recently developed and has previously demonstrated strong psychometric properties in a clinic-referred sample (Ebesutani et al., Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 38, 249–260, 2010b). The present study examined the psychometric properties of the RCADS-P in a school-based population. As completed by parents of 967 children and adolescents, the RCADS-P demonstrated high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and good convergent/divergent validity, supporting the RCADS-P as a measure of internalizing problems specific to depression and five anxiety disorders in school samples. Normative data are also reported to allow for the derivation of T-scores to enhance clinicians’ ability to make classification decisions using RCADS-P subscale scores.     

Childhood Anxiety/Withdrawal, Adolescent Parent–Child Attachment and Later Risk of Depression and Anxiety Disorder

Previous research has shown that children with high levels of early anxiety/withdrawal are at increased risk of later anxiety and depression. It has also been found that positive parent–child attachment reduces the risk of these disorders. The aim of this paper was to examine the extent to which positive parent–child attachment acted to mitigate the risk of later internalising disorders amongst children with high levels of early anxiety/withdrawal using data from a 30 years longitudinal study of a New Zealand birth cohort. The findings of this study showed that: (a) increasing rates of early anxiety/withdrawal were associated with an increased risk of later anxiety and depression; (b) positive parent–child attachment in adolescence was associated with a decline in the risk of later anxiety and depression; and (c) these associations persisted even after controlling for confounding factors. The implications of these findings for the role of parent–child attachment in mitigating the adverse effects of early anxiety/withdrawal are discussed. It is concluded that positive parent–child attachment in adolescence may act as a compensatory factor which buffers the adverse effects of childhood anxiety/withdrawal on risks of developing later anxiety and depression.     

Development of a Brief Version of the Social Anxiety – Acceptance and Action Questionnaire

The Social Anxiety – Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (SA-AAQ; MacKenzie and Kocovski 2010) is a 19-item self-report measure designed to assess acceptance and action specific to social anxiety symptoms. The present research was designed to evaluate an abbreviated version of the SA-AAQ. This abbreviated scale was confirmed using an undergraduate sample (N = 148) in Study 1 and a clinical sample of individuals with social anxiety disorder in Study 2 (N = 137). Results indicated that an eight-item, two-factor model (acceptance and action) provided a good fit for the Brief SA-AAQ in both samples. Finally, we also found preliminary evidence in support of the convergent, discriminant/divergent, and incremental validity of the shortened scale. The Brief SA-AAQ shows promise as a useful and brief tool for the measurement of acceptance of social anxiety symptoms in socially anxious populations.     

The psychometric qualities of a short version of the Experiences in Close Relationships Scale – Revised Child version

The Experiences in Close Relationships Scale – Revised Child version (ECR-RC; Brenning, Soenens, Braet, & Bosmans, 2011a) is a valuable tool for measuring anxious and avoidant attachment to parents in middle childhood and adolescence. However, given its substantial length, the present study aimed to develop an abridged ECR-RC. Four separate samples were used to attain this goal. First (Sample 1, N = 1880; M = 12 years), item selection resulted in a 12-item version, comprising six items for attachment anxiety and six items for attachment avoidance. Next, psychometric properties of this brief ECR-RC were investigated in Sample 1 and cross-validated in an older sample (Sample 2, N = 310; M = 16 years) and in a clinical sample (Sample 3, N = 99; M = 14 years). In all three samples, comparison of the full and reduced ECR-RC revealed similar psychometric properties. In a final sample (Sample 4, N = 110; M = 18 years), we assessed reliability, factor structure and validity when administering the 12-item ECR-RC as a stand-alone instrument. In conclusion, the brief ECR-RC showed excellent reliability and validity.     

A Psychometric Evaluation of the Chinese Version of the Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale

The present study reported the initial validation of an abbreviated version of the Students' Life Satisfaction Scale- Chinese version (SLSS-Chinese) in two samples of Chinese middle school students. Initial analyses based on the original 7-item scale suggested that the two reverse-worded items functioned differently compared to other items. The plausible reasons behind this finding were discussed based on extant literature on mixed worded scales and cross-cultural research on life satisfaction scales. Then we compared the validity of three formats of the SLSS-Chinese: the 7-item (full scale), the 5-item (positively worded items only), and the 2-item (reverseworded items only) scales, respectively. Convergent evidence suggested that the two reverse-worded items hampered the scale's internal consistency, dimensionality, and validity. Also, the 5-item scale demonstrated good psychometric properties, and was clearly superior compared to the 7-item scale. These findings provide a solid foundation for applying the 5-item SLSS-Chinese in measuring Chinese adolescents' life satisfaction.     

Associations of Parent–Child Anxious and Depressive Symptoms When a Caregiver Has a History of Depression

We examined the associations between parent and child anxious and depressive symptoms controlling for co-occurring symptoms in both. One hundred and four families participated, including 131 9–15 year old children considered at risk for anxiety and/or depression due to a history of depression in a parent. Parents and children completed questionnaires assessing depressive and anxious symptoms. Linear Mixed Models analyses controlling for the alternate parent and child symptoms indicated that both parent and child depressive symptoms and parent and child anxious symptoms were positively associated. Parental depressive symptoms were not positively associated with child anxious symptoms, and parental anxious symptoms were not positively associated with child depressive symptoms. The findings provide evidence for positive specific links between parent and child development of same-syndrome, but not cross-syndrome, symptoms when a caregiver has a history of depression.     

Parental Anxiety Disorders, Child Anxiety Disorders, and the Perceived Parent–Child Relationship in an Australian High-Risk Sample

This study was designed to explore the role of perceived parenting behavior in the relationship between parent and offspring anxiety disorders in a high-risk sample of adolescents. We examined the relationship between parental and child anxiety disorders and tested whether perceived parenting behavior acted as a mediator between these variables. Analyses were performed on a high-risk sample of 816 fifteen-year-olds drawn from a birth cohort in Queensland, Australia. Parental depression and income were covaried. Maternal anxiety disorder significantly predicted the presence of anxiety disorders in children; the association between paternal anxiety disorder and child anxiety disorder was not significant. There was no evidence that perceived parenting played a mediating role in the association between mother and child anxiety disorders. These results replicate earlier studies' findings of elevated rates of anxiety disorders among the offspring of anxious parents, but only when the child's mother is the anxious parent.     

Psychometric Evaluation of the Factor Structure of the Teasing Questionnaire – Revised (TQ-R)

Recent literature has focused on the relation between childhood teasing and adulthood psychopathology, with the majority of this work dependent on a single measure, the Teasing Questionnaire-Revised (TQ-R; Storch et al. Journal of Anxiety Disorders 18:681–694, 2004). However, the factor structure and reliability of the TQ-R requires further examination. The present investigation reevaluated the factor structure of the TQ-R in two large samples. In Study 1, three previous factor models were investigated through confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) in a large clinical sample. Due to their poor fit, exploratory factor analyses (EFAs) were used to investigate alternative factor models. In Study 2, the factor structure of the previous models and new models from Study 1 EFAs were investigated through CFAs and estimates of internal consistency in a large college sample. Together, these findings provided the most support for a new 21-item five factor model, identified in the Study 1 EFAs and supported by the Study 2 CFAs, with the content of the teasing subscales consistent with the constructs of anxiety, appearance, academics, weight, and height.     

The Wechsler Memory Scale—Revised: Psychometric characteristics and clinical application

The psychometric characteristics of the Wechsler Memory Scale—Revised (WMS-R) are evaluated and related to dits clinical utility. The accuracy of the scale scores is shown to be limited by their high standard error, low reliabilities, and consequent large standard errors of measurement. Specific procedures are discussed for establishing confidence intervals and for testing the significance of differences between scores. It is concluded that the WMS-R, like the original Wechsler Memory Scale, provides only a rough estimate of overall memory functioning. The multidimensional index scores have not been shown effective in describing the nature or the pattern of memory deficits. Recommendations for the clinical use of the WMS-R are provided.     

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 validation of the Flourishing-at-Work Scale – Short Form (FWS-SF): Results and implications of a South African study

The aim of this study was to validate the Flourishing-at-Work Scale Short Form (FWS-SF) in a South African fast-moving consumable goods industry. Participants were a stratified random sample of 779 employees of an alcoholic beverage company (female = 40.4%, black = 33.4%). The FWS-SF and a biographical questionnaire were administered. Latent variable modelling was applied to assess the psychometric properties of the FWS-SF. The results supported the three-factor structure of FWS-SF. Scores from the FWS-SM showed acceptable reliability. A total of 8% of participants were languishing, while 35.9% were flourishing. The FWS-SF appears valid for research use in assessing the work-related well-being of individuals in organisations.     

Revisiting the factor structure of the 12-item Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale – Revised: Evidence for a third component

The 12-item Disgust Propensity and Sensitivity Scale – Revised (DPSS-12) is widely used to assess the tendency for an individual to respond with disgust (i.e., disgust propensity) and how bothered an individual is by the experience of disgust (i.e., disgust sensitivity). However, heterogeneous items included in the DPSS-12 call into question the adequacy of its two-factor structure. The current study examined the factor structure of the DPSS-12 using two large, nonclinical student samples. Exploratory factor analyses revealed three lower order factors: (1) disgust propensity, (2) disgust sensitivity, and (3) self-focused/ruminative disgust. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the three-factor solution and demonstrated that the model fit better than a unidimensional or two-factor model. Further, a modified two-factor model that excluded the third factor provided a better fit than the original two-factor model. Additionally, the third domain explained a significant portion of the total variance, and evidenced a distinctive pattern of association with relevant constructs including obsessional symptoms. These data suggest the need to refine our knowledge about the latent structure of disgust reflected by this measure.     

Development of the Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale - Short Version (SCAS-S)

The literature provides several examples of anxiety symptoms questionnaires for children. However, these questionnaires generally contain many items, and might not be ideal for screening in large populations, or repeated testing in clinical settings. The Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale (SCAS) is an extensively used and evaluated 44-item questionnaire developed to assess anxiety symptoms in children, and provides a sound base for the development of an abbreviated anxiety symptoms questionnaire. Although methodological standards have been presented in how to develop abbreviated questionnaires, previous studies have often suffered from several limitations regarding validating procedures. Guided by these methodological standards, the current study aimed at developing an abbreviated version of the SCAS, while retaining the content, convergent, and divergent validity of the original scale. A school-based sample (n?=?750) was used to reduce the number of items, and an independent school-based sample (n?=?371) together with a clinical sample (n?=?93), were used to validate the abbreviated scale. The abbreviated version of the SCAS contained 19 items, it showed a clear factor structure as evaluated in the independent sample, and it performed as good as the original questionnaire regarding classification accuracy, convergent, and divergent validity. In our view, the abbreviated version is a very good alternative to the original scale especially for younger children, in initial screening, or in order to reduce response burden.     

The Psychometric Properties of the Children’s Social Understanding Scale among Atypically Developing Children and Adolescents

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Theory of mind (ToM) has been frequently assessed via behavioral assessments. Recently, Tahiroglu and colleagues developed the parent-report Children’s...     

The Italian Validation of Singelis’s Self-Construal Scale (SCS): a Short 10-Item Version Shows Improved Psychometric Properties

This study validates an Italian version of Singelis’s Independent and Interdependent Self-Construal Scale (SCS; Singelis in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 580–591, 1994; Singelis et al. in Cross-Cultural Research, 29, 240–275, 1995), a scale intended to measure individuals' feelings of connectedness to and separateness from social situations. Results of the Italian validation, carried out through three studies involved a total of 803 Italian university students, has led to a short 10-item version, with two 5-item orthogonal factors respectively reflecting independent self-construal and interdependent self-construal. The new short version of Singelis’s scale, as examined through exploratory and confirmatory factorial analyses, shows a more stable factor structure than the original version, maintaining the same internal consistency and obtaining improved indexes of concurrent validity for the Interdependent Self-Construal Scale, as explored by investigating the relationships with self-esteem.     

Assessing the Quality of the Parent–Child Relationship: Validity and Reliability of the Child–Parent Relationship Test (ChiP-C)

The ChiP-C is a clinically oriented questionnaire for assessing the quality of the child-parent relationship according to the child’s subjective appraisal. The ChiP-C is based on family systems theory and a cumulative vulnerability model. The questionnaire consists of 36 items representing three resource scales, five risk scales, and one additional scale. This article presents the theoretical framework and main psychometric properties of the ChiP-C. A school-based sample of 1,377 youth (ages 10–20; M = 14.4) and a clinic-referred consecutive sample of 197 patients (ages 10–18, M = 14.0) were surveyed. Construct validity was determined by confirmatory factor analyses. The mean of the internal consistencies was 0.79. Systematic correlations between the ChiP-C scales and the German EMBU confirmed the convergent and discriminant validity of the ChiP-C. Moreover, all ChiP-C scales were shown to be significantly correlated with psychopathological symptoms as measured by parent and youth questionnaires. The ChiP-C can be considered an economical screening instrument for a reliable and valid assessment of strengths and disturbances of the child-parent relationship according to the child’s subjective appraisal.     

Psychometric Properties of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire – II for Taiwanese College Students and Elite Athletes

The aim of this study was to validate the Taiwanese version of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II (AAQ-II) using a population that consisted of college students and athletes. The authors conducted three independent studies to examine the psychometric properties of the AAQ-II. Study 1 examined the validity of the AAQ-II in a sample of undergraduate students. Study 2 examined the group invariance of the AAQ-II between undergraduate students and athletes. Study 3 examined nomological validity by testing the mediating role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between perceived autonomy support and well?/ill-being indicators. Overall, the results of the confirmatory factor analyses conducted in Study 1 demonstrated the existence of a unidimensional AAQ-II. AAQ-II was positively correlated with depression. The internal consistency of the scale was 0.81. In Study 2, factorial invariance of the AAQ-II was demonstrated across undergraduate students and adolescent athletes. Study 3 showed that perceived autonomy support was related to both depression and negative emotion through experiential avoidance. However, experiential avoidance did not mediate the relationship between perceived autonomy support and positive emotion and life satisfaction. In summary, this study provided preliminary evidence to support the validity and reliability of the AAQ-II and opened a new avenue for cross-cultural researchers.     

Structure of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Revised in the Italian Normal Standardisation Sample

Six multifactor correlated traits models and a single-factor model of the WAIS-R's factor pattern were examined by confirmatory maximum likelihood factor analyses of a data matrix from the WAIS-R's Italian normative sample raw scores (N=2284). The main aim was to identify what model(s) best fit(s) the data for the different age groups considered. Analyses were designed to determine which of seven hypothesised factor solutions best explained the intellectual ability of four age bands (16 to 74 years of age) and of all samples. Results showed the same three-correlated-factors model (Verbal, Performance, and Freedom From Distractibility) for the younger (16 to 24 years of age) and for more aged (65 to 74 years of age), and two different three-factor models for the adult (band from 25 to 64 years of age) that had in common the presence of Digit Symbol loading on Freedom From Distractibility, that in the younger and aged band loaded on Perceptual Organisation. The individuals may use different strategies when performing a given task on the WAIS-R. Such differences in latent variability may represent real differences in neuropsychological functioning, and as such can account for some of the variability in results noted in the literature. Differences in latent variability across distinct demographic and clinical groups could provide important insight into brain–behaviour relationships.