The Estonian version of the NEO‐PI‐R: an examination of universal and culture‐specific aspects of the Five‐Factor Model

In this article, we examine universal and culture‐specific aspects of the Five‐Factor Model measured with the Revised NEO Personality Inventory. First, our purpose was to test the replicability of the original (North American) factor structure in the Estonian‐speaking population. The translation was administered to 711 Estonian men and women aged 18 to 82. When the 30 facet scales were factored, parallel analysis suggested that five components should be retained. In the interpersonal plane defined by Extraversion and Agreeableness factors, Estonian facets formed a semicircular array that resembled the American pattern at a distance of about 21°. After these axes were aligned by Procrustes rotation, all five factor congruences exceeded 0.96, providing further evidence that the underlying five‐factor structure of the personality instrument is replicable in languages and cultures which differ substantially from those in which it was originally identified. Second, we tested the hypothesis that the orientation of varimax axes in the interpersonal plane is associated with the culture's degree of individualism–collectivism. We calculated the angular degree of difference between E and A factors in the American sample and in 21 other available samples, correlated it with individualism ratings, and found mixed support for the hypothesis, suggesting that continued research on this issue is merited. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A MULTIVARIATE INVESTIGATION OF PREFERENCES

The performance of four rules for determining the number of components to retain (Kaiser's eigenvalue greater than unity, Cattell's SCREE, Bartlett's test, and Velicer's MAP) was investigated across four systematically varied factors (sample size, number of variables, number of components, and component saturation). Ten sample correlation matrices were generated from each of 48 known population correlation matrices representing the combinations of conditions. The performance of the SCREE and MAP rules was generally the best across all situations. Bartlett's test was generally adequate except when the number of variables was close to the sample size. Kaiser's rule tended to severely overestimate the number of components.     

Development and Validation of a Situational Judgment Test of Emotional Intelligence

The present study describes the development and validation of a situational judgment test (SJT) of emotional intelligence (EI). Initially, 80 situations and three response alternatives for each situation were created based on the available theoretical models. Principal component factor analysis with direct oblimin rotation of data (N = 213) yielded a three‐factor structure with 46 items. These factors were (1) utilizing own emotion, (2) sensing other's emotion, and (3) understanding emotional context. Additional studies showed that the measure had good internal consistency and test‐retest reliability. None of the three factors strongly correlated with the Big Five factors of personality (NEO Five‐Factor Inventory, thus establishing its identity as a construct distinct from personality. Findings of confirmatory factor analysis on secondary data reconfirm the three‐factor model for a 46‐item SJT of EI. The second study also found no correlation among these three factors, intelligence scores measured using Raven's Matrices, and trait EI score measured using the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. The third study was conducted in order to determine the relationship of SJT of EI with academic achievement and life satisfaction. All three factors of SJT‐based EI measure were significantly associated with academic achievement and life satisfaction.     

The Dutch DAPP-BQ: improvements, lower- and higher-order dimensions, and relationship with the 5DPT

After modifying 53 items in a previous Dutch translation of the Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology-Basic Questionnaire (DAPP-BQ; Livesley & Jackson, 2002), the present DAPP-BQ scales (with or without Self-Harm included) were subjected to a principal components analysis with oblimin or varimax rotation in a general population sample of 478 subjects, retaining four factors. All four (higherorder) factors (Emotional Dysregulation, Dissocial, Inhibition, and Compulsivity) proved identical to the factors originally derived in Canada, with Tucker coefficients of factor similarity approaching unity. Particularly the (unexpected) finding that the present Dutch version of the DAPP-BQ also resulted in an Inhibition factor (and not, like the former Dutch version, in an Intimacy Problems factor) was considered positive. In addition, a principal components analysis with oblimin rotation was conducted on the 282 items contained in the 18 DAPP-BQ scales, investigating the lower-order structure of the DAPP-BQ; in this case, 18 factors were retained. Although the structure originally derived by Livesley and colleagues could not be recovered completely, the degree of similarity was of such a magnitude that the 18 DAPP-BQ scales were considered to give a dependable account of the "true" lower-order structure of disordered personality. Moreover, based on the finding that the 18 scales are sufficiently reliable (Cronbach's alpha) and correlate as predicted in a subsample of 284 subjects with the normal personality scales of Van Kampen's 5DPT (or, Five-Dimensional Personality Test), the DAPP-BQ appears to be a valuable instrument.     

Investigating the Factor Structure of the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale in Community and Clinical Samples of the Australian Population

The Kessler 10 Psychological Distress Scale (K10) is a brief dimensional scale designed to measure and monitor trends of psychological distress. Recently the scale has been utilised by general practitioners and clinicians to screen for common mental disorders and measure treatment outcomes. Despite the K10 demonstrating a sound one dimensional structure in the general population, the scale??s structure has yet to be comprehensively tested in clinical samples. The current study aimed to use confirmatory factor analysis to test three theoretical structure models of the K10 and one model for the K6 (a six item variant) in a sample from a tertiary referral clinic for mood and anxiety disorders and compare those results with a population sample from the Australian National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing. The results demonstrated that a two factor model with correlated latent factors representing depression and anxiety fit the clinical sample the best whilst a one factor model with correlated errors between several items fit the population sample the best. The results are discussed further in relation to scoring and interpreting the Kessler scales.     

Delivered as Described: A Successful Case of Cognitive Processing Therapy With an Older Woman Veteran With PTSD

Cognitive processing therapy (CPT) is a first-line, evidence-based treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Little is known, however, about the use of CPT for older adults. As the United States population continues to grow and age, an understanding of the utility of CPT for older adults is vital. We present a case study describing the assessment and cognitive treatment of a 74-year-old woman veteran with PTSD secondary to military sexual trauma. CPT was associated with decreased PTSD symptoms as measured before and after treatment. Factors contributing to the veteran’s response, as well as contextual and environmental factors, are discussed. The case demonstrates that CPT may be effective for older adults without major modification.     

On Berliner's Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Are of Improvisation

In order to characterize divergent thinking, the author performed self-organization feature mapping on the multidimensional data of Williams's (1980) Creative Thinking Tests. The resultant population map of cluster was obtained. Principal-components analysis was also applied to determine the most significant features characterizing divergent thinking. Using the two most significant features to define a 2-dimensional space, the author ascertained characterizations of each cluster over the population map. The results obtained compared favorably with the topological structure of the population map. A secondary differentiation was found in the divergent thinking test. The topological structure for divergent thinking should prove useful for characterization of creative thinking.     

Principal self-efficacy and work engagement: assessing a Norwegian Principal Self-Efficacy Scale

One purpose of the present study was to develop and test the factor structure of a multidimensional and hierarchical Norwegian Principal Self-Efficacy Scale (NPSES). Another purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between principal self-efficacy and work engagement. Principal self-efficacy was measured by the 22-item NPSES. Work engagement was measured by a modified version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). The participants in the study were 300 principals randomly drawn from the population of Norwegian principals. Data were collected by means of an electronic questionnaire. Both the NPSES and the UWES were investigated through confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) before two structural equation models were tested. Both models specified principal self-efficacy as an exogenous variable and work engagement as an endogenous variable. The data were analyzed by means of a SEM analysis for latent variables using the AMOS 18 program. Three different models of NPSES were tested. Both a first- and second-order CFA confirmed that principal self-efficacy constitutes eight dimensions. Furthermore, both structural models had an acceptable fit to data and revealed that principal self-efficacy was positively related to work engagement. The results of the study are discussed together with limitations and suggestions for further research.     

The acute effects of nicotine on positive and negative affect in adolescent smokers

Although adolescent cigarette smoking remains a critical public health concern, little is known about the reinforcing mechanisms governing smoking in this vulnerable population. To assess predictions derived from both positive and negative reinforcement models of drug use, the authors measured the acute effects of nicotine, as administered via tobacco cigarettes, on both positive and negative affect in a group of 15- to 18-year-old smokers. A matched group of nonsmokers served as a comparison group. Findings revealed that whereas adolescents who smoked a cigarette experienced reductions in both positive and negative affect, the observed reductions in negative affect were moderated by nicotine content of the cigarette (high yield vs. denicotinized), level of nicotine dependence, level of baseline craving, and smoking expectancies pertinent to negative affect regulation. Nonsmokers experienced no change in affect over the 10-min assessment period, and no interaction effects were observed for positive affect. Overall, the findings conform to a negative reinforcement model of nicotine effects and strongly suggest that, even among young light smokers, nicotine dependence and resultant withdrawal symptomatology may serve as motivating factors governing smoking behavior.     

A Third Moment Adjusted Test Statistic for Small Sample Factor Analysis

Goodness-of-fit testing in factor analysis is based on the assumption that the test statistic is asymptotically chi-square, but this property may not hold in small samples even when the factors and errors are normally distributed in the population. Robust methods such as Browne's (1984) asymptotically distribution-free method and Satorra Bentler's (1988, 1994) mean scaling statistic were developed under the presumption of nonnormality in the factors and errors. This article finds new application to the case where factors and errors are normally distributed in the population but the skewness of the obtained test statistic is still high due to sampling error in the observed indicators. An extension of Satorra Bentler's statistic is proposed that not only scales the mean but also adjusts the degrees of freedom based on the skewness of the obtained test statistic in order to improve its robustness under small samples. A simple simulation study shows that this third moment adjusted statistic asymptotically performs on par with previously proposed methods and at a very small sample size offers superior Type I error rates under a properly specified model. Data from Mardia, Kent, and Bibby's (1980) study of students tested for their ability in 5 content areas that were either open or closed book were used to illustrate the real-world performance of this statistic.     

Intimate Partner Violence Among Transitional-Aged Women With and Without Disabilities: Implications for Social Work Practice

Although women with disabilities are at increased risk for intimate partner violence (IPV), little is known about how this phenomenon impacts transitional-aged young women with disabilities who are still trying to master the developmental challenges of adolescence. This study explores risk factors for and prevalence of IPV by drawing on a population-based sample of women ages 18–21 with (N = 1,616,207) and without (N = 7,554,064) self-reported disabilities. Findings suggest that risk factors for IPV were more prevalent among sample members, as was past year experience of IPV. This study has implications for school social workers and disability service providers who interact with this population.     

Factor structure of the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery-children's revision with learning-disabled children

The factor structure of the Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery-Children's Revision (LNNB-Children's Revision) was examined in a population of learning-disabled children. The LNNB-Children's Revision was administered to 100 learning-disabled children. Factor analysis and varimax rotation revealed three factors: a language-general intellectual factor, a reading-written expression factor, and a sensory-motor factor. The LNNB-Children's Revision may be useful in differentiating learning-disabled children from normals. The three factors identified in this study provide some evidence for the factor validity of the LNNB-Children's Revision and may be useful in clinical diagnosis.     

Measurement Structure of the Turkish Translation of the Child Behavior Checklist Using Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approaches to Validation of Syndromal Constructs

The new correlated 8-factor measurement structure of the Child Behavior Checklist for ages 6-18 (CBCL/6-18; T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001) derived from an American sample was used as a benchmark to evaluate its generalizability to Turkish general population (N = 5,195) and clinical (N = 963) samples. Item-level confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the adequacy of the correlated 8-factor model across 3 sample conditions (general population, clinical, and combined sample whose Total Problems scores were above the Turkish national median). The results supported the generalizability of the overall measurement structure of the CBCL to the Turkish population.     

The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire in the Norwegian Context: Relations to Mental Health,Quality of Life,and Self-Efficacy

The Sources of Meaning and Meaning in Life Questionnaire (SoMe) offers dimensional measures of meaningfulness, crisis of meaning, and 26 sources of meaning. It allows for a clearer understanding of the variety of existential orientations, which are known to be linked to both mental and physical health. The Norwegian version of the SoMe was validated by testing 925 randomly selected individuals who were representative for the Norwegian population. Reliability scores were satisfactory; factor analyses suggested a 6-factor structure of the sources of meaning scales. Expected patterns of associations with mental health and quality-of-life factors attested the instrument’s construct validity: Meaningfulness showed positive relationships to all quality-of-life factors. There was no relationship with anxiety but negative relationships with depression and distress. Crisis of meaning established a strong positive relationship with anxiety, depression, and distress and a negative relationship with quality-of-life factors. Criterion validity was documented by expected differences in meaningfulness and crisis of meaning between groups with and without presence of depression disorder. Self-efficacy correlated strongly with sources of meaning from the dimension “accomplishment” and moderately negatively with sources of meaning from the dimension “vertical selftranscendence.”     

Pregnancy hypertension and the risk for neuropsychological difficulties across early development: A brief report

Despite documented effects on fetal brain development, little is currently known about the relationship between maternal pregnancy hypertension and child neuropsychological outcomes. This brief report examined the association between maternal hypertension during pregnancy and children’s social cognition and executive functioning when children were 18 months, 3 years, and 4.5 years. A community sample of 501 families (23 hypertensive mothers; 478 nonhypertensive) was recruited when children were newborns. Social cognition (including theory of mind [ToM]) and executive functioning (EF) were measured using a battery of age-appropriate standardized and/or observational tasks. Information on pregnancy and prenatal factors were measured via maternal report when children were newborns. After controlling for prenatal and demographic covariates, the presence of hypertension difficulties during pregnancy was associated with all measures of social cognition, ToM, and EF. A secondary analysis comparing the hypertension group (n = 23) to a nonhypertensive matched control group (n = 23) supported the effect of pregnancy hypertension on children’s social-cognitive and EF development. Future studies using obstetrical records are encouraged based on these preliminary findings.     

Aggregating and Testing Intra-Individual Correlations: Methods and Comparisons

From a longitudinal study, we have repeatedly measured data from multiple individuals at multiple occasions. For each individual, the relation between 2 variables can be measured by the Pearson’s correlation. The question is how to aggregate the multiple correlations and conduct statistical inference on the aggregated intra-individual correlation. Several methods are proposed to aggregate and test intra-individual correlations: (a) a meta-analysis method based on Fisher’s Z transformed correlations, (b) a meta-analysis method based on the Pearson’s correlations, and (c) a multilevel modeling method using data standardized within each individual. The performance of the methods after bias corrections was compared using simulations with considering factors including numbers of individuals, numbers of time points, population effect sizes, and their distribution forms (homogeneous vs heterogeneous). The results from the simulation studies show that estimation biases were found using the meta-analytic methods and suggestions on when and how to correct biases were provided based on the simulation results. Furthermore, the performance of the 3 methods after necessary bias corrections was found to be comparable and reasonably good, indicating that all 3 methods worked for aggregating and testing intra-individual correlations. An empirical daily diary data set was then used to illustrate the applications of the 3 methods. The assumptions, advantages and disadvantages, and possible extensions of the 3 methods were discussed.     

Evaluating the invariance and validity of the structure of dysfunctional attitudes in an adolescent population

Form A of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-A), a self-report measure of depressive beliefs, is widely used to test Beck's cognitive model of depression. The present study is the first to evaluate the DAS-A factor structure in an adolescent population of 542 high school juniors and the first to examine a hierarchical model. Findings support the existence of a hierarchical structure consisting of two conceptually meaningful group factors (Dysfunctional Attitudes About Achievement and Dysfunctional Attitudes About Needing Approval), a method factor consisting of reverse-worded items, and a general factor, which accounts for 65% of the variance in total scores. The general factor is related to sociotropy, autonomy, and neuroticism, whereas the Dysfunctional Attitudes About Achievement and Dysfunctional Attitudes About Needing Approval factors demonstrate convergent and discriminant validity with respect to autonomy and sociotropy. The structure displays partial metric invariance in female and male students as well as in Caucasian and Non-Caucasian students.     

Intergenerational Coresidence and Life Satisfaction in Old Age: The Moderating Role of Homeownership

Household structure for older people’s subjective well-being is important to promote healthy ageing in the context of the rapid increase of the older population. Living with adult children is known to promote older people’s life satisfaction, a key indicator of subjective well-being, whereas others claim a negative impact of such intergenerational coresidence. This study aims to empirically test these theories (family support vs. family conflict), by examining the role of homeownership–another important factor contributing to subjective well-being–in this association between intergenerational coresidence and life satisfaction. Analysing the nationally representative data on the elderly population in South Korea, the findings showed that intergenerational coresidence decreases life satisfaction when the elderly achieve a certain level of housing security by living in owner-occupied housing. Living with adult children is negatively associated with life satisfaction particularly for older old homeowners compared to younger old owners. Our findings provide implications for public policies promoting intergenerational coresidence and asset-based welfare to enhance older people’s well-being in Korea and more broadly in East Asia.

     

Psychiatric Distress and Suicidal Tendencies in Adult Cancer Survivors: Verifying the Validity of the Brief Symptom Inventory-18 for Identifying Suicidal Ideation in the Hospitalized Population of Mainland China

The Brief Symptom Inventory-18 (BSI-18) is widely used to assess psychiatric distress but has not been verified in the Chinese population. From March to April 2019, 293 hospitalized cancer patients, aged 20–87, completed the cross-sectional survey with demographics questionnaire, BSI-18, and PHQ-9. We analyzed the single suicide-related item of PHQ-9 with the full score clinical outpoint for BSI-18 and PHQ-9 using SPSS 22.0 and R 2.15, including Pearson's χ² test and ROC curve analyses. A Pearson's χ² test was carried out to compare the three different methods with the gold screening criteria. The p-value was correspondingly to .006, .066, .838. When the PHQ-9?≥?10 criteria for the BSI-18, receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that AUC values were 0.839, optimal cut-off points for both BSI-18?≥?50, the sensitivity of 85.8%, and 62.5%, respectively. The BSI-18 is suitable for a screening tool for psychological distress and could also be used in clinical settings for preliminary screening of hospitalized cancer patients.