An evaluation of differential prediction of WIAT achievement scores from WISC-III FSIQ across ethnic and gender groups

This study examines differential prediction of WIAT achievement scores based on WISC-III FSIQ in white as compared with African American and Hispanic children, and in females as compared with males. A procedure which allows simultaneous comparisons of slopes and intercepts across groups is employed. The results are consistent with previous research findings in supporting the general absence of bias in predicting achievement from IQ.     

Age and cohort effects on personality factor scores across sexes and racial/ethnic groups

Substantial differences exist across ethnic groups and sexes in generational changes in status among groups residing in Hawaii. Despite these generational differences across groups, age differences in personality are remarkably consistent across sexes and racial/ethnic groups, and the few Sex x Age, Ethnicity x Age or Sex x Ethnicity x Age interactions account for little variance in scores. It is concluded that age/generational differences in personality factor scores in these populations result from age and not, to any major degree, from cohort effects.     

Factorial invariance of the theory of planned behavior applied to physical activity across gender,age, and ethnic groups

Objectives:The present study assessed the generalizability of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) applied to physical activity and to examine if the TPB operates equivalently across gender, age, and ethnic sub-groups.Design/Methods:Measurement equivalence was evaluated for gender (male/female), age (19–34/35–54/55+) and ethnicity (Japanese/Hawaiian or part Hawaiian/Filipino/White) in a random sample (n = 3533) using Multisample Structural Equation Modeling.Results:Measurement equivalence was found for all variables and for their intercorrelations. Of the 100 possible TPB variable relationships between groups, only 6 were significant. The differences were found in explained variances of physical activity.Conclusions:The findings indicate that TPB measures apply over a range of population sub-groups, and should be considered comprehensively when designing interventions.     

A Swedish translation of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale: cross-validation of the factor structure

The purpose of this study was to develop a new Swedish translation of the twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and to examine if the theoretical structure that underlies the factor structure of the English version of the TAS-20 could be recovered in this Swedish translation of the instrument. A sample of 157 undergraduate students of psychology was tested. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the previously established three-factor TAS-20 model was found to be replicable in this sample. In addition, the Swedish translation of the TAS-20 showed adequate internal reliability. The present study also illustrates the importance of using back translation methodology when transposing psychometric instruments from one language to another.     

Factorial structure and invariance across gender of the Swedish self-consciousness scale

In this study, I tested different factor models and the factorial invariance across gender for the Self-Consciousness Scale (Fenigstein, Scheier, & Buss (1975) using confirmatory factor analyses. University students (251 women and 259 men) completed the Swedish version of the scale. A respecified (Item 15 loading on the factor Internal State Awareness [ISA] instead of on the factor Self-Reflection [SR]) 17-item, 4-factor model of Burnkrant and Page (1984) including the factors SR, ISA, Public Self-Consciousness, and Social Anxiety demonstrated the best fit for both men and women. Factor intercorrelations were overall stronger for women. The respecified model demonstrated factorial invariance across gender. I discuss the strengthening of scale reliability through the expansion of subscale items and invariance testing across groups.     

The Five-factor Personality Inventory as a measure of the Five-factor Model: Belgian, American, and Hungarian comparisons with the NEO-PI-R

The lexically based Five-Factor Personality Inventory (FFPI) was correlated with the factors and facets of the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) in Belgian (N = 265), American (N = 116), and Hungarian (N = 320) samples. Results were similar across the three cultures. Analysis of orthogonalized FFPI factors showed that three of them--emotional stability, extraversion, and agreeableness--showed a direct correspondence to their NEO-PI-R counterparts. Autonomy, however, was not clearly related to openness, and facet analysis suggested that it might be interpreted as a dominance factor Better matches to NEO-PI-R conscientiousness and openness could be obtained by using vectors rotated 30 degrees from the FFPI positions. Raw scale scores showed similar results. Researchers should not assume that all measures of the Five-Factor Model are qualitatively similar     

Measurement equivalence/invariance of the abusive supervision measure across workers from Taiwan and the United States

Growing international research interest in negative-leadership behaviors prompts the need to examine whether measures of ineffective leadership developed in the United States are equivalent across countries outside the United States. B. J. Tepper's (2000) abusive supervision measure has been used widely inside and outside the United States and merits research attention on its construct equivalence across different cultural settings. The authors conducted a series of multigroup confirmatory factor analyses to investigate the measurement equivalence of this measure across Taiwan (N = 256) and the United States (N = 389). Configural invariance was established, suggesting that both U.S. and Taiwanese samples perceive abusive supervision as a single-factor concept. Furthermore, the establishment of partial metric invariance and partial scalar invariance suggests that the abusive supervision measure is applicable to crosscultural comparisons in latent means, construct variance, construct covariances, and unstandardized path coefficients with the caution that workers from different cultures calibrate their responses differently when answering some items.     

Social cognitive model of adjustment to engineering majors: Longitudinal test across gender and race/ethnicity

We conducted a longitudinal test of a social cognitive model of academic adjustment in a sample of 732 engineering students. The model, designed to explain students' satisfaction with and intentions to persist in their majors, integrated features of social cognitive career theory's (SCCT) segmental models of satisfaction, interest, choice, and performance (Lent & Brown, 2006; Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994). Students completed measures of academic support, self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, satisfaction, positive affect, and intended persistence at three time points (at the end of their second, third, and fourth semesters in engineering). A bidirectional version of the model offered good fit to the data, both in the larger sample and across gender and racial/ethnic groups. Self-efficacy was the most reliable direct predictor of academic satisfaction and intended persistence across the third and fourth semesters, though other social cognitive variables also contributed, either directly or indirectly, to predictions at one time point or the other. We consider implications of the findings for further research and practice on academic adjustment and persistence in STEM fields.     

Testing the equivalence of the socialization factor structure for criminals and noncriminals

Considerable evidence supports the criterion-related validity of the Socialization (So) scale of the California Psychological Inventory (Gough, 1948, 1994, 1996) for the prediction of antisocial and prosocial behavior. However, no research has examined the similarity of the So construct for the two populations. Meaningful interpretation of So scores is possible if the factor structure is equivalent for antisocial and prosocial groups.     

Measuring depression for Swedish nonclinical adolescents: Factorial validity and equivalence of the Beck Depression Inventory across gender

Building upon earlier confirmatory factor analytic research that validated a 2nd-order 4-factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory for Canadian and Swedish nonclinical adolescents, the purposes of the present study were twofold: (a) to test the factorial structure of the Swedish version of the instrument separately for males ( n = 559) and females ( n = 537), and (b) to test for its measurement and structural equivalence across gender. Except for three minor discrepancies involving correlated errors, the hypothesized model best described the data for both males and females. Nonetheless, the imposition of equality constraints across sex revealed differences bearing on the measurement of six items, and latent construct relations involving the Somatic Elements factor. Four gender differences in factorial structure replicated findings for Canadian adolescents. Results have important implications for researchers, clinicians, and others whose interests focus on nonclinical adolescent depression.     

Reliability and concurrent validation of the IPIP Big-Five factor markers in China: Consistencies in factor structure between Internet-obtained heterosexual and homosexual samples

Previous studies have suggested the cross-cultural generalizability of a 5-factor structure for personality traits. In this article, we analyzed the utility of 2 versions (100-item and 50-item) of the IPIP Big-Five factor markers in both heterosexual (N = 633) and homosexual (N = 437) samples in China. Factor analysis within versions showed that both versions of these IPIP measures showed clear 5-factor orthogonal structures that were nearly identical to the American structure in both subject samples. The reliabilities of the five factors were quite high except for the 50-item measure of Agreeableness. The part-whole correlations between the 100-item and 50-item factors were high, as were the factor congruence coefficients between the heterosexual and the homosexual samples. Both versions of the IPIP Big-Five factor markers were strongly correlated with the scales from the Big-Five Inventory (BFI: John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991), thus providing some concurrent validation in a Chinese context.     

The factor structure and factorial invariance of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) across time: evidence from two community-based samples

This study provides new knowledge about the factor structure of the 12-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12; D. Goldberg, 1972) through the application of confirmatory factor analysis to longitudinal data, thereby enabling investigation of the factor structure, its invariance across time, and the rank-order stability of the factors. Two community-based longitudinal adult samples with 1-year (n = 640) and 6-year (n = 330) follow-up times were studied. As a result, the correlated 3-factor model (i.e., Anxiety/Depression, Social Dysfunction, and Loss of Confidence) showed a better fit with both samples than the alternative models. The correlated 3-factor structure was also relatively invariant across time in both samples, indicating that the scale has good construct validity. The rank-order stabilities of the factors were low across time, which suggests that the GHQ-12 measures temporal mental state.     

Rethinking the gender identity crossover hypothesis: A test of a new model

Both self-report and projective assessment techniques were used to examine whether there exists a gender identity crossover at midlife such that men develop a communal or affiliative orientation and women become more interested in agency and power. A sample of 150 predominantly Caucasian men and women ages 24–84 were divided into three age groups for comparison: (1) young (ages 20–39); (2) middle-aged (ages 40–65); and (3) old (ages 66–84). Measures included six pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test, which were coded for achievement, power, intimacy, and affiliation needs, and the Goldberg 50-Bipolar, from which items were selected to derive agency and communion scales. Middle-aged men were lower in the need for power and higher in the need for affiliation than were younger men; there were no age differences in self attributions of agency and communion. Results are discussed in terms of the traditionality of the men and the nontraditionality of the women with respect to work and family roles.This research was supported in part by grants to Margie Lachman from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Successful Midlife Development and the National Institute on Aging (AG06038).     

Factor structure and measurement invariance of the Wisconsin Schizotypy scales across gender and age

The Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales are among the most widely used instruments for the assessment of psychosis proneness. The main goal of the present work was to study the dimensional structure underlying the Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale (RPhA), the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS), the Magical Ideation Scale (MIS) and the Perceptual Aberration Scale (PAS). It was also explored whether the dimensions underlying these scales were invariant across gender and age. The sample was made up of 710 university students with a mean age of 19.8 years (SD = 1.9). The results showed that the dimensional structure of the Wisconsin scales was similar to that found in previous studies, displaying a Positive dimension and a Negative dimension, the Social Anhedonia Scale being related to both dimensions. Moreover, the factor structure of the schizotypy scales was found to be invariant across participants' gender and age.     

Validating the Student-Teacher Relationship Scale: testing factor structure and measurement invariance across child gender and age in a Dutch sample

The Student-Teacher Relationship Scale (STRS) is widely used to examine teachers' relationships with young students in terms of closeness, conflict, and dependency. This study aimed to verify the dimensional structure of the STRS with confirmatory factor analysis, test its measurement invariance across child gender and age, improve its measurement of the dependency construct, and extend its age range. Teachers completed a slightly adapted STRS for a Dutch sample of 2335 children aged 3 to 12. Overall, the 3-factor model showed an acceptable fit. Results indicated metric invariance across gender and age up to 8years. Scalar invariance generally did not hold. Lack of metric invariance at ages 8 to 12 primarily involved Conflict items, whereas scale differences across gender and age primarily involved Closeness items. The adapted Dependency scale showed strong invariance and higher internal consistencies than the original scale for this Dutch sample. Importantly, the revealed non-invariance for gender and age did not influence mean group comparisons.     

A Test of the Factor Structure Equivalence of the 50-Item IPIP Five-Factor Model Measure Across Gender and Ethnic Groups

The study aims were to identify the interpersonal style characteristics of Vietnam Era veterans by comparison with World War II veterans. The sample included 3,075 veterans in treatment in 47 VA health care facilities. Patients were categorized as medical-surgical, psychiatric, and drug addicted, and divided by age into the 24 or less, and the 45 to 55 age groups. The measuring device was the Interpersonal Style Inventory. Group differences on the 17 scores were tested by discriminant function analyses. The Vietnam Era veterans were found to be more rebellious, mistrustful, adventure-seeking and expedient than the older veterans.     

Perception of racial discrimination and psychopathology across three U.S. ethnic minority groups

To examine the association between the perception of racial discrimination and the lifetime prevalence rates of psychological disorders in the three most common ethnic minorities in the United States, we analyzed data from a sample consisting of 793 Asian Americans, 951 Hispanic Americans, and 2,795 African Americans who received the Composite International Diagnostic Interview through the Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Studies. The perception of racial discrimination was associated with the endorsement of major depressive disorder, panic disorder with agoraphobia, agoraphobia without history of panic disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorders in varying degrees among the three minority groups, independent of the socioeconomic status, level of education, age, and gender of participants. The results suggest that the perception of racial discrimination is associated with psychopathology in the three most common U.S. minority groups.     

Psychopathy and the Five-factor model of personality: a replication and extension

It has recently been argued that psychopathy can be understood and represented using common dimensions of personality taken from the Five-factor model (FFM). In this research, we examined this possibility by using the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa & McCrae, 1992) to assess psychopathy in an undergraduate sample. Specifically, we matched individuals' NEO-PI-R profiles with an expert-generated psychopathy prototype to yield a psychopathy score. These scores were correlated with self-reports of drug use, delinquency, risky sex, aggression, and several laboratory tasks. FFM psychopathy was significantly related to all forms of deviance, although the effects tended to be small in size. Moreover, individuals who more closely resembled the prototypic FFM psychopath were more aggressive in a laboratory aggression task, less willing to delay gratification in a time discounting task, and demonstrated a preference for aggressive responses in a social information-processing paradigm.