The relationships between personality traits and one-year outcomes in patients with major depressive disorder without psychotic features

Introduction

Besides the intensity of depression, the main predictors of the outcome of a depressive episode are the comorbid disorders and certain personality traits.

Structure factorielle et qualités psychométriques de la version française du questionnaire d’auto-description pour adultes (adult self-report) d’Achenbach et Rescorla

Because of the frequent comorbidities, clinicians need to get a comprehensive picture of the behavioral and emotional problems presented by their patients, but structured interviews allowing for such a survey are time consuming and sometimes tedious, and no French language self-report questionnaire is currently available. The aim of the present study was to verify the factorial structure and some psychometric properties of the French version of the Achenbach and Rescorla's (2003) adult self-report (ASR), which is designed to assess 120 behavioral and emotional problems. We collected ASR forms completed by 905 students enrolled in a university having schools of humanities, social sciences, sports, laws and economics (699 women, 669 students in psychology, 862 aged 18–35 years). The confirmatory factor analyses yielded the expected eight-factor structure (RMSEA = .037; CFI = .931). The internal consistency was similar to the original, and the test-retest reliability was satisfactory. French subjects, especially men, scored higher than their American counterparts on several scales, but the effect sizes were small to medium. French women and men's scores differed only on the Rule-Breaking Behavior scale, with men scoring higher; however, students in psychology, whichever was their gender, scored higher than other students on scales measuring internalizing problems and attention problems. Despite some limitations, the main of which is that all participants were students from the same university, these results speak in favor of the use of the French adult self-report in both research and clinical practice.     

Structure factorielle et qualités psychométriques du questionnaire d’auto-évaluation pour adolescents (Youth Self-Report) d’Achenbach et Rescorla

IntroductionRecent research on the prognostic significance of subthreshold comorbid disorders highlighted the need for instruments allowing for the comprehensive exploration of symptomatology of adolescents.ObjectiveTo verify the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Achenbach and Rescorla's Youth Self-Report French translation, which allows this investigation.MethodWe had 1450 adolescents 11–17- year old (747 girls) complete the YSR in secondary schools in the Paris metropolitan area.ResultsConfirmatory Factor Analyses and Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling supported the 8-syndrome structure. However, since ESEM allows cross-loadings, the number of indicators for each factor in the ESEM models is much higher than in the CFA models. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were satisfactory, and multigroup analyses confirmed the metric and scalar invariance across age and gender of most of the items examined (70 out of 89). We can therefore affirm that girls score lower on Social problems than boys, 15–17-year-old adolescent score higher on Thought problems, Attention problems, and Rule-Breaking Behavior than the younger, and these differences are substantive and independent of differential item functioning.ConclusionThese results are likely to encourage the use of YSR in research and clinical practice with French-speaking adolescents.     

The relationships between television viewing in midlife and the development of Alzheimer's disease in a case-control study

The relationship between leisure activities and development of cognitive impairment in aging has been the subject of recent research. We examined television viewing in association with risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a case-control study. Given recent focus on the importance of intellectually stimulating activities as preventive measures against cognitive decline, it is important to examine the effects of less stimulating but common activities. Data are from 135 Alzheimer's disease cases and 331 healthy controls. Demographic characteristics and life history questionnaire responses on the number of hours spent on 26 leisure activities during middle-adulthood (ages 40-59) were analyzed. Logistic regression was used to examine the effects of middle-adulthood leisure activities on case vs. control status. Results indicate that for each additional daily hour of middle-adulthood television viewing the associated risk of AD development, controlling for year of birth, gender, income, and education, increased 1.3 times. Participation in intellectually stimulating activities and social activities reduced the associated risk of developing AD. Findings are consistent with the view that participation in non-intellectually stimulating activities is associated with increased risk of developing AD, and suggest television viewing may be a marker of reduced participation in intellectually stimulating activities.     

Structure factorielle et qualités psychométriques de la version française de l’inventaire de comportements des adultes (Adult Behavior Checklist) d’Achenbach et Rescorla

While they often need to obtain information about their patients’ functioning from friends, relatives or spouse, French clinicians currently lack a reliable and handy other-report instrument allowing for a comprehensive review of the behavioral and emotional problems presented by an adult person. The aim of the present study is to verify the factor structure and psychometric properties of the French version of the Achenbach and Rescorla's Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL). We collected 403 ABCL forms completed by informants, who all were third-year students in psychology. The subjects (198 women) were aged 18 to 59 years and came from families with a large variety of socioeconomic status. The confirmatory factor analyses yielded the expected eight-syndrome first order factor structure and supported the measurement models implied by the DSM-oriented scales more recently added to the ABCL. French people scored higher than American on almost all scales. Women scored higher than men on the scales measuring anxiety, and lower on those measuring attention problems and rule-breaking behavior. Middle-aged people scored lower than younger on attention problems and rule-breaking behavior. Despite some limitations, these results speak in favor of the use of the French Adult Behavior Checklist in both research and clinical practice.