Four studies extending the utility of the Schwartz Outcome Scale (SOS-10)

The Schwartz Outcome Scale (SOS-10; Blais et al., 1999) is a brief, cost free, and easy to administer assessment device designed to measure a broad domain of psychological health. The 4 studies using the SOS-10 reported here extend the initial reliability and validity studies beyond psychiatric patients in a hospital setting to examine (a) test-retest reliability in a college student population, (b) concurrent validity with college students using an indirect technique assessing maladjustment, (c) concurrent validity with college counseling center clients using a self-report measure of client distress, and (d) sensitivity to treatment changes with outpatient clients. These studies lend further support for using the SOS-10 as a measure of psychological well-being and as an outcome measure in varied settings.     

The Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance: Concurrent Validity

The Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance (SAED) is a standardized, norm-referenced measure designed to operationalize the federal definition of Emotional Disturbance. It has demonstrated content validity and reliability. The two studies reported here address the SAED's concurrent validity. Samples in each study consisted of students identified with Emotional Disturbance. In both studies, special education teachers rated students on the SAED and a second measure of children's emotional and behavior problems. In the first study the SAED was compared to the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist. Correlations were generally moderate to high for similar subscales and low for dissimilar subscales. In the second study, the SAED was compared to the Teacher Report Form. Again, correlations generally were as expected and compatible with results of the first study. Results indicate that the SAED emotional and behavior problem subscales measure constructs akin to emotional and behavior problems measured by similar collections of item on the Revised Behavior Problem Checklist and Teacher Report Form. Implications of results and recommendations for use of the SAED are discussed.     

Reliability and Validity of the Spiritual Care-Giving Scale in a Turkish Population

This study aimed to adapt an English version of the survey tool Spiritual Care-Giving Scale for Turkish students and to evaluate its psychometric properties. Spiritual care is a central element of holistic nursing, but is not often made explicit in the theoretical and practical components of preregistration nursing programs. A composite scale will assist in identifying students’ perceptions and issues to be addressed in curricula and practice settings in Turkey. The scale was composed of 35 items and five subscales. Cronbach’s α reliability coefficient was .96, and item–total point correlations were between .37 and .77. In addition, split-half reliability coefficient was .88. The Spiritual Care-Giving Scale was found to be a valid and reliable instrument for measuring the multifaceted perspectives of spirituality and spiritual care in practice by students. Further testing of this scale is required with other student populations and clinicians.     

Predictive Validity of the Suicide Probability Scale in a Male Inmate Population

This paper describes the predictive power of the Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) within a male inmate population. The SPS scores of 1,047 inmates from 1995 to 1996 were compared against their suicidal behaviors in the following 10 years. The SPS probability score and the scores on its four subscales were found to be significantly higher in the group that engaged in at least one of three types of suicidal behavior: suicide, non-lethal self-harm and serious suicidal intentions. However, the SPS did not discriminate the inmates who went on to commit suicide. The SPS’s capacity to predict suicidal behavior proved limited in terms of sensitivity. In this regard, the SPS’s low and high risk levels correctly identified 36% of inmates who later engaged in suicidal behavior. The specificity was 0.85. These results confirm the SPS’s predictive power with male prisoners. These findings are the first to demonstrate the predictive validity of the SPS.     

Developing a Brief Sensation Seeking Scale for Children: Establishing Concurrent Validity With Video Game Use and Rule-Breaking Behavior

Despite the importance of life-cycle models to sensation seeking research, past studies have typically focused on adolescents and adults. This is especially problematic for researchers studying the role of media use in the development of risky behaviors (e.g., violent video game consumption and aggressive behavior). To facilitate research with child populations, a brief sensation seeking scale for children (BSSS-C) is developed and validated with a sample of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders (N = 136). The BSSS-C is found to be internally reliable (α = .82) as well as a strong predictor of several risky child behaviors. Higher sensation seeking children were more likely to play video games, including violent subgenres (e.g., shooters), and to enjoy playing video games that contained specific acts of violence (e.g., weapon use). Higher sensation seekers were also more likely to engage in rule-breaking behavior, such as bringing prohibited cell phones to school. The results suggest that sensation seeking may be related to risky behavior at a very young age.     

Concurrent Validity of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire in an Indigenous Pre-School Population

The strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) is a frequently used tool for universal screening of pre-schoolers’ behavioural and emotional problems. However, evidence for its concurrent validity is equivocal and has not been tested in a Māori population. We aimed to evaluate the concurrent validity of the strengths and difficulties questionnaire (SDQ) in Māori pre-schoolers (tamariki), aged 4 and 5. We carried out a prospective study of 225 tamariki (46% female) for whom a recent SDQ was available from the New Zealand Ministry of Health’s Before School Check database. A trained nurse carried out a standardised wellbeing and behavioural assessment for these children. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive and negative predictive values were calculated, using optimal total difficulty scale threshold values published for the SDQ (parent version SDQ-P; teacher version SDQ-T). Primary outcome: an assessment-based child referral to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services or to a Paediatric outpatient service. Secondary outcomes: assessment-based parental referral to a parenting programme and combined referral. The optimal thresholds for child referral were low for the SDQ-P (13) and SDQ-T (7). Child referral SDQ-P: sensitivity 62%, specificity 83%, positive predictive value 0.35, negative predictive value 0.94. Child referral SDQ-T: sensitivity 77%, specificity 78%, positive predictive value 0.31, negative predictive value 0.96. The findings demonstrate optimal threshold values for referral for Māori on the SDQ-P and SDQ-T are much lower when compared to published thresholds (17 vs. 16). Sensitivity values were also low. A surveillance approach for the assessment of psychosocial problems is recommended for pre-schoolers.     

The Construct Validity of the MMPI Alexithymia Scale With Psychiatric Inpatients

Relatively few studies have addressed the issue of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) alexithymia scale's construct validity. In this study, the validity of the scale is supported by the finding of a significantly lower percentage of alexithymic individuals in a large sample of psychiatric inpatients than in samples of patients with a variety of physical disorders (i.e., migraine headaches, asthma bronchitis/emphysema, and hypertension). Validity of the scale is further supported through a comparison of the alexithymic and nonalexithymic psychiatric inpatients on a series of Rorschach and MMPI variables. As predicted, alexithymics were less verbally productive, displayed less ability to fantasize, and demonstrated greater defensive pseudonormality. Results suggest the measure may be of value in studies of psychiatric patients as well as those with physical disorders.     

The Social Behavior Scale for Preschool Children: Factorial Structure and Concurrent Validity

The aims of the present study were to examine the factor validity of a new social behavior assessment - the Social Behavior Scale (SBS) - using exploratory (sample 1, n = 169) and confirmatory (sample 2, n = 127) factor analysis, and to test factor invariance across gender in a sample of Italian preschoolers. The concurrent validity of the SBS was examined with measures of peer nominations and observed interactions (sample 3, n = 277). Findings confirmed the three-factor structure of the SBS: Emotional Competence, Social Engagement and Aggressiveness. Multigroup analysis provided evidence of factor invariance across gender. Concerning concurrent validity, results confirmed a great association between teacher-rating SBS and the other concurrent measures.     

Testing the Validity and Reliability of the Perceived Employability Scale (PES) Among a Culturally Diverse Population

This article reports the results of a study designed to test the validity and reliability of a newly developed career self-efficacy test called the Perceived Employability Scale (PES). A large group (N = 2,600) of low-income women with diverse cultural, ethnic, and racial backgrounds living in Hawaii participated in this investigation. Recommendations for researchers and practitioners who are employment counselors are discussed.     

Concurrent Validity Studies of the Facial Discrimination Task

We examined the concurrent validity properties of the Facial Discrimination Task (FDT), an instrument for the assessment of facial emotion recognition by comparing it with the widely used Pictures of Facial Affect (PFA). In Study 1, 100 adults with heterogeneous psychiatric diagnoses were administered items of the FDT Emotion Task, the FDT Age Task, and PFA. In Study 2, 25 normally developing preschool children were instructed to label happy, sad, or neutral facial expressions from the FDT and the PFA. Despite methodological differences between the two studies, very similar and high correlations were found between the FDT and the PFA overall correct scores (r = .79 and r = .77, respectively). The data suggest that the FDT and the PFA measure similar competencies in preschoolers and in adults with psychiatric disorders. This finding is important because it establishes the concurrent validity of the FDT in child and adult populations.     

Using the Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory's Scale B and the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale to Identify Alcoholics With Concurrent Psychiatric Diagnoses

The ability of the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC) and Scale B of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) to discriminate independently defined alcoholics with psychiatric diagnoses from other psychiatric patients was examined for males and all alcoholics, using three different criteria of alcoholism. The MAC identified from 80% to 87% of male alcoholics and 76% to 82% of all alcoholics, and from 25% to 52% of male nonalcoholics and 55% to 75% of all nonalcoholics, resulting in a large number of false positives. Scale B identified from 31% to 60% of male alcoholics and 33% to 43% of all alcoholics, and from 73% to 85% of male nonalcoholics and 85% to 94% of all nonalcoholics. The operating characteristics of Scale B showed that it was not as efficient in identifying alcoholics as previous work had indicated. We suggest that Scale B should not be used and the MAC should be used cautiously to discriminate alcoholics with psychiatric disorders from patients without alcoholism.     

Afterlife Motivation Scale: Correlations With Maladjustment and Incremental Validity in Iranian Muslims

In a previous study of Iranian Muslims, two scales measuring religious commitments based on a desire to avoid hell and to reach heaven predicted maladjustment. The responding of Iranian university students in this investigation revealed that these two forms of desire could be reduced to a single factor that was adequately operationalized in a brief six-item instrument. This Afterlife Motivation Scale displayed strong internal consistency and correlated positively with the extrinsic personal, extrinsic social, and intrinsic religious orientations and with nearness to God, depression, anxiety, and death anxiety. Multiple regression analyses indicated that this scale recorded a specific form of religious psychological functioning that could not be reduced to more general intrinsic and extrinsic forms of religiousness. This brief instrument could be useful in future efforts to better understand one way in which heaven and hell might be meaningful for Iranian and perhaps other Muslims and for followers of other religious traditions.     

Validity of the Sheltered Care Environment Scale

The Sheltered Care Environment Scale (SCES) and a parallel open-ended interview were administered to 25 residents of a geriatric long-term-care facility. A multitrait-multimethod validity matrix was generated and contained intercorrelations among the 7 subscales of the SCES and interview ratings. Evidence of construct validity was strong for the subscales of conflict, resident influence, and self-exploration; moderate for organization; and lacking for cohesion, independence, and physical comfort. The lack of validity for these 3 subscales was revealed by a content analysis of interview responses. Items in these subscales do not sufficiently encompass major aspects of the environmental dimensions they are purported to measure.