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.     

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.     

Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS): Psychometric Properties with a Sample of Polish Adolescents

Applied Research in Quality of Life - The Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS) is one of the most frequently used measures of children’s and adolescents’ overall satisfaction...     

Psychometric Properties of a Spanish Translation of the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale – Parent Version

The Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale – Parent Version (RCADS-P) is a parent-report questionnaire that assesses dimensions of DSM anxiety and depressive disorders in youths. Previous studies have found that the RCADS-P possesses clinical utility and strong psychometric properties in both clinic- and school-based populations. To increase applicability of the measure to a greater proportion of the individuals accessing mental health services, the present study sought to develop and examine the psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the RCADS-P. As completed by parents of 85 publicly referred children and adolescents, the RCADS-P demonstrated good internal consistency and convergent, discriminant, and divergent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis also supported a six-factor model consistent with the measure’s six subscales: separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and major depressive disorder. A secondary aim of this study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of a shortened, 25-item version of the Spanish translation of the RCADS-P, which also evidenced favorable psychometric properties. Findings provide support for the Spanish version of the RCADS-P as an efficient and informative parent-report measure of youths' internalizing behaviors.     

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 Moral Injury Symptoms Scale–Military Version–Short Form: Further Scale Validation in a U.S. Veteran Sample

Journal of Religion and Health - This study assessed the Moral Injury Symptoms Scale – Military Version – Short Form’s (MISS-M-SF) factor structure and construct validity....     

Development and Validation of the Short Grit Scale (Grit–S)

Two experiments investigated the possibility that external statements in the Rotter I-E scale are more depressing in tone than internal statements, and thus depressed subjects may respond to external items due to item mood level rather than locus of control content. Results of Experiment 1 revealed that the external alternative was rated as more depressing than its internal counterpart for the majority Of the 23 I-E items (18 for females and 15 for males), while a small number of I-E items (3 for females and 6 for males) contained internal and external statements rated as balanced for depressing Content. For two I-E items the internal alternative was rated as more depressing. Results of Experiment 2 revealed that endorsement of external items was significantly related to self-reported depression for both total I-E score and for the item subset where external statements(as revealed in Experiment 1) were the more depressing of the item pair. External endorsement was not significantly related to depression for the I-E item subset where options are balanced for mood level, while endorsement of internal statements was related to depression only for the item subset where the internal option was rated as more depressing. These results were interpreted as supporting prior research which demonstrated mood response set using altered Rotter I-E scale items, Implications for use of the Rotter I-E scale in the study of depression were 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.     

The Conner’s Adult ADHD Rating Scales-Long Self-Report and Observer Forms: Validation of the Catalan Version

Assessment and diagnosis of adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is complex, involving multiple tasks and several sources of information. The suitability of the instruments needs to be tested in the cultural context in which they will be applied. This study validates the Catalan adaptation of the Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales-Long Version (CAARS: L), in both its self-report and observer forms. The sample comprised 606 participants. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the dimensional structure. Reliability was analysed in terms of internal consistency, test-retest and informant agreement. Age and gender differences were studied, and differential item functioning (DIF) in relation to these variables was tested. Results show that the four-factor model (i.e., Inattention/Memory Problems, Hyperactivity/Restlessness, Impulsivity/Emotional Lability, and Problems with Self-Concept), similar to the original version, presented an adequate fit for both forms. Internal consistency and test-retest correlations reached very high values for the two forms, and informant agreement was high at both test and retest. There were significant gender and age differences that were not due to bias in the measurement instrument, since no item showed differential behaviour with respect to these two variables. The Catalan versions of the CAARS: L present adequate validity and reliability, and they can therefore be used for diagnostic purposes and cross-cultural comparisons.     

Identifying an Empirically-Derived 10-item Religiousness Measure from Lipsmeyer’s Personal Religious Inventory: Psychometric Properties of the PRI-10

Pastoral Psychology - Although it is used throughout social scientific research and is psychometrically robust, Lipsmeyer’s (1984) 45-item Personal Religious Inventory (PRI) is notably...     

Development and Validation of the Affect in Play Scale–Brief Rating Version (APS–BR)

The concurrence of psychiatric and MMPI based diagnoses for 78 consecutively admitted patients was examined. The results suggest diagnostic coincidence for only 21 of the admitted patients, with the majority being in the differentiation of psychoneurosis from psychosis. Patient sex and chronological age did not appear to be factors in either form of diagnosis.     

Psychometric properties of the French version of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES-12f)

IntroductionSelf-efficacy appears to be an important resource for teachers assessed by the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES; Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001).ObjectiveThe current study aims to explore psychometric properties the TSES short form translated into French, taking account of teachers’ experience with special needs students.MethodA sample of 283 primary and secondary teachers completed the scale.ResultsResults of confirmatory factor analyses confirm the tridimensional structure of the scale, which shows satisfactory psychometric properties.ConclusionThe usefulness of this scale is discussed considering the context of inclusive education reforms, as well as the potential protective effect of self-efficacy for teachers.     

Experiencing Adverse Social Relationships: the Development and Validation of a Self-Report Scale that Measures Individuals’ Histories of Social Punishment (HoSP)

Although the relationship between childhood trauma and psychological maladjustment is well established, the link between punishing social interactions and psychopathology has yet to be explored. This may be due, in part, to the lack of appropriate measurement tools. This investigation aimed to develop and validate an instrument to measure histories of social punishment defined as adverse, day-to-day interactions with significant others. Study 1 examined the factor structure and test-retest reliability of the scale. Study 2 confirmed the factor structure solution and tested its convergent and discriminant validity. Study 3 explored the relationship between social punishment and obsessive-compulsive disorder and depression, as well as the role of gender. Overall, the scale had very good to excellent psychometric properties. Significant correlations were found between ratings of social punishment and certain pathological behaviors. Further, our findings demonstrated that males tended to report more adverse social experiences than females and as a consequence more symptoms of psychopathology. These findings extend and support the link between adverse experiences and the development of various psychopathological conditions.     

The aim of Russell’s early logicism: a reinterpretation

I argue that three main interpretations of the aim of Russell’s early logicism in The Principles of Mathematics (1903) are mistaken, and propose a new interpretation. According to this new interpretation, the aim of Russell’s logicism is to show, in opposition to Kant, that mathematical propositions have a certain sort of complete generality which entails that their truth is independent of space and time. I argue that on this interpretation two often-heard objections to Russell’s logicism, deriving from Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and from the non-logical character of some of the axioms of Principia Mathematica respectively, can be seen to be inconclusive. I then proceed to identify two challenges that Russell’s logicism, as presently construed, faces, but argue that these challenges do not appear unanswerable.     

The Development of the Santa Clara Brief Compassion Scale: An Abbreviation of Sprecher and Fehr’s Compassionate Love Scale

This purpose of this study is to develop a brief version of Sprecher and Fehr’s Compassionate Love Scale (2005). This was accomplished by administering the 21-item scale to college student participants and subsequently selecting five items for a brief version. The five items were selected based on the evaluation of high correlation coefficients between individual item responses and the overall total 21 questions from the original scale, the results of factor analysis, and items that had moderate means and high standard deviations. The correlation between the original and brief version is 0.96, while the internal reliability of the brief version, using Cronbach’s alpha, is 0.90.     

The Two-Factor Solution to Allen and Meyer’s (1990) Affective Commitment Scale: Effects of Negatively Worded Items

Purpose

Affective organizational commitment is a construct important to both practitioners and researchers; thus, construct-valid measurement is needed. Allen and Meyer’s (J Occup Psychol 63:1–18, 1990) Affective Commitment Scale is a popular measure of affective organizational commitment. Although conceptualized as unidimensional, a two-factor solution sometimes emerges. Whether the two factors are substantive, reflecting AC-love and AC-joy constructs, or methodological, reflecting positively and negatively worded items, is unclear. This issue is examined in five studies.

Design/Methodology/Approach

In a new approach, conditions designed to produce cognitive fatigue are manipulated. Support for the method factor interpretation would be provided if the two-factor solution emerges only when participants are fatigued and negatively worded items are present. Cross-sample analyses are also conducted.

Findings

Analyses indicated that the two-factor solution fit the data well only when (a) participants were cognitively fatigued and (b) negatively worded items were present. This finding extended to both students and employees, and it held regardless of which items were negatively worded or whether negatively worded items were emphasized.

Implications

Results suggest that the second factor is likely methodological and seems to result from careless responding or fatigue on negatively worded items. It is suggested that users modify the items to be positively worded or administer the scale when respondents have sufficient cognitive resources to respond.

Originality/Value

This study was the first to use experimental methodology to test whether the two-factor solution is methodological or substantive. Results provide guidance for improving the scale’s construct validity in research and in practical applications.     

Beyond Death’s (and Conception’s) Door: The Unsettling Limitations of Incarnate Existence

The psychological effects of contemplating one’s death have received much empirical attention, but the impact of thinking about one’s conception—the other temporal endpoint of physical existence—has not. Across three experiments, reflecting on conception or death (vs. a neutral topic) led to increased framing of sexual reproduction as miraculous and sacred, intensified belief in discarnate immortality, and a greater desire to experience a discarnate state that offered no direct assurance of literal immortality. Thinking about death uniquely evoked greater anxiety as well as greater desire for an experience that offered assurance of literal immortality, congruent with the tenets of terror management theory. Nevertheless, the parallel effects evoked by reflecting on conception and death also suggest that both amplify the aversive salience of the limitations inherent to physical existence, such that people respond by seeking experiences and adjusting attitudes/beliefs to divert attention from the physical body.     

Analysis of the Children’s Personal Attributes Questionnaire (Short Form) with a Sample of African American Adolescents

This article is based on a partial replication of a previous study in which the Childrens Personal Attributes Questionnaire (CPAQ) was administered to a European American sample of children. The sample of the current study included 328 African American adolescents who completed the CPAQs short form. Psychometric analysis indicated acceptable reliabilities on two of the three subscales, and gender differences were found. A factor analysis yielded three factors, each of which represented a combination of items from the three original subscales. In general, the results closely parallel those reported with European American samples. The findings are discussed in terms of the CPAQs suitability for an African American adolescent sample.