Validating Sizing Them Up: A parent-proxy weight-related quality-of-life measure,with community-based children

Background/Objective: A weight-related Quality of Life (QoL) questionnaire elicits parents’ perceptions to understand the impacts of weight on children's QoL. Sizing Them Up, a parent-proxy of a weight-related instrument, is a proper measure for the purpose, but its psychometric properties have not been validated on a non-clinical child population. This study aimed to thoroughly examine the psychometric properties of the Sizing Them Up on a non-clinical child population. Methods: Children from Taiwan (M_age = 11; SD = 1.02; N = 236) filled out a weight-related QoL instrument (Sizing Me Up) while their parents completed Sizing Them Up and two generic QoL instruments. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), concurrent validity, and known-group validity were conducted. Results: CFA supported the factor structure of Sizing Them Up. The concurrent validity of the Sizing Them Up total score was satisfactory: r = .46 to .53 with other QoL instruments. Known-group validity was supported as obese children had significantly lower Sizing Them Up total score than did normal-weight and underweight children. Conclusions: We extended the use of Sizing Them Up from clinically obese children to a community-based sample of underweight as well as overweight children. Healthcare providers may use Sizing Them Up to measure the weight-related QoL for children.     

MEASUREMENT ERROR IN RESEARCH ON HUMAN RESOURCES and FIRM PERFORMANCE: HOW MUCH ERROR IS THERE AND HOW DOES IT INFLUENCE EFFECT SIZE ESTIMATES?

Studies of the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance typically use a single respondent to assess firm level HR practices or HR effectiveness. However, previous research in other substantive areas suggests that rater differences are a potentially important source of measurement error. We demonstrate analytically the potential consequences of both random and systematic measurement error in research on HR and firm performance. However, our main focus is on random error and we show how generalizability theory can be applied to obtain better estimates of reliability by simultaneously recognizing multiple sources (e.g., items, raters) of random measurement error. These more inclusive reliability estimates, in turn, offer the possibility of more precisely quantifying substantive relationships in the HR and firm performance literature. In our sample, reliabilities (as estimated by generalizability coefficients) for single-rater assessments of HR variables were generally below .50. This degree of measurement error, if present in substantive studies on HR and firm performance, could lead to considerable bias, given that an unstandardized regression coefficient is corrected for measurement error in the independent variable by dividing by its reliability coefficient (not its square root). We also found only limited convergent validity between HR and line managers ratings of a second type of HR measure, HR effectiveness. In general, our findings suggest that future researchers need to devote greater attention to measurement error and construct validity issues. Our study provides an example of how generalizability theory can be useful in this pursuit.     

An enlarging hole on the palm illusion and a theory of the moon on the horizon

An illustration that both the palm illusion and the moon's illusory size on the horizon are explained by the context which provides a contrast created by perceptual constancy.     

Overt vs covert problem solving, transfer effects, and programming sequence: I: Inverted triangles

129 college students were individually requested to successively turn 2 of 3 upright triangles upside-down. Triangle consists of 3 rows of coins: 1 on top, 2 in the middle, and 3 at the bottom. Only 2 coins may be relocated. Triangle B has 4 rows with 4 coins at the bottom. Only 3 coins may be moved. Triangle C is arranged in 5 rows with 5 coins at the bottom. Only 5 coins are allowed to change places. Analysis shows (a) Problem A is the easiest, B in between, and C the hardest. (b) Overt manipulation is more efficient than a covert method. (c) Transfer in all cases is positive, the amount increasing with difficulty of the preceding problem. (d) From easy to difficult problems is more economical than the opposite sequence as measured by the total time required to solve both problems. The advantage is a little greater under the overt than the covert condition.     

The dimensions of clinical behavior analysis

In most talk therapies for outpatient adults, the therapist has no contro over the client's daily life or contingencies outside the treatment session. The fundamental theoretical issue facing the behavior analyst is, "How can the talking that goes on during the session help the client with problems that occur outside the session in the client's daily life?" An historical analysis and the application of verbal behavior principles are used to answer the question and form the basis of clinical behavior analysis (CBA). The implications of CBA range from providing a theoretical base for psychotherapy to suggesting new forms of treatment.     

Supporting intimates on faith

What is the role of faith in the familiar practice of supporting intimates in their personal projects? Is there anything distinctly valuable about such faith-based support? I argue that the virtue of being supportive, a characteristic of the good friend or lover, involves a distinctive kind of faith: faith in another persons’ chosen self-expressive pursuit(s). Support based on such faith enables the supported party to enjoy a more meaningful and autonomous exercise of agency in self-expressive arenas, and engenders a sense of relational unity or solidarity, deepening the normative and emotional bonds of the relationship.     

Cultural Differences in the Reciprocal Relations between Emotion Suppression Coping,Depressive Symptoms and Interpersonal Functioning among Adolescents

The current study examined the prospective relations between emotion suppression and maladjustment (i.e., depressive symptoms, family stress events, peer stress events, and family and peer support) among Vietnamese American (n = 372) and European American adolescents (n = 304). We found that at baseline Vietnamese Americans adolescents reported greater use of emotion suppression coping than European American adolescents. Multi-group structural equation modeling indicated that for European American teens emotion suppression was significantly related to increased depression symptoms and decreased quality of peer relationships. In contrast, for the Vietnamese Americans teens emotion suppression relations to later maladjustment was either nonsignificant or attenuated relative to the European American. These findings suggest ethnic group differences in both the utilization, and consequences and function of emotion suppression among Vietnamese American and European American adolescents.