Search

Building on previous studies that formulated measures for assessing self-efficacy beliefs regarding the management of anger/irritation and despondency/sadness, we developed 3 new scales to assess perceived self-efficacy in managing fear, shame/embarrassment, and guilt. In Study 1, the internal and construct validity of the 5 aforementioned measures were assessed in a sample of 403 Italian young adults. Study 2 was designed to examine the comparability of the aforementioned measures across Italy and the United States and involved the previous sample and a sample of 380 U.S college students. The best fitting model overall, across the sexes and across countries, had the following characteristics: (a) the 5 types of self-efficacy loaded separately on first-order factors; (b) self-efficacy in managing anger/irritation and despondency/sadness loaded on one second-order factor, and self-efficacy in managing shame/embarrassment, and guilt loaded on another; (c) self-efficacy in managing fear and the 2 second-order factors loaded on a common higher order factor. The various modes of emotional self-efficacy correlated in conceptually coherent ways to measures of emotional stability, irritability, depression, shyness, fearful affect, and need for reparation. (Contains 3 tables, 1 figure and 1 footnote.)

The Regulatory Emotional Self-Efficacy (RESE) scale was developed to assess perceived self-efficacy in managing negative (NEG) and in expressing positive (POS) affect (G. V. Caprara & M. Gerbino, 2001). In this study of young adults, the factorial structure of the RESE scale was found to be similar in Italy, the United States, and Bolivia: In addition to a factor for POS, NEG was represented by a second-order factor of 2 different negative affects: despondency-distress (DES) and anger-irritation (ANG). Overall, there was partial invariance at both metric and scalar levels across gender and countries. Discriminant and convergent validity of the RESE scale was further examined in the Italian sample. Stronger patterns of association of POS with prosocial behavior, of ANG with low aggressive behavior problems and irritability, and of DES with low anxiety/depressive problems and shyness and high self-esteem were found. (Contains 5 tables, 1 figure, and 4 footnotes.)

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test the invariance of an oppositional defiant disorder toward adults, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-hyperactivity/impulsivity, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder-inattention, and an Academic Competence factor model between mothers' and fathers' ratings within Brazilian (n = 894), Thai (n = 2,075), and American (n = 817) children with the Child and Adolescent Disruptive Behavior Inventory (G. L. Burns, T. Taylor, & J. Rusby, 2001a, 2001b). The results showed invariance of item loadings, intercepts, and residuals, as well as factor variances, covariances, and means between mothers' and fathers' ratings within each sample. Convergent and discriminant validity was also observed for the between-parent factor correlations, thus providing additional support for the construct validity of the Child and Adolescent Disruptive Behavior Inventory. The confirmatory factor analysis invariance procedure provides a much better way to examine between-source ratings of behavior problems in children than do the simple correlation and raw discrepancy score procedures. (Contains 1 figure and 7 tables.)

Accumulating evidence suggests that anxiety sensitivity (fear of arousal-related sensations) plays an important role in many clinical conditions, particularly anxiety disorders. Research has increasingly focused on how the basic dimensions of anxiety sensitivity are related to various forms of psychopathology. Such work has been hampered because the original measure--the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI)--was not designed to be multidimensional. Subsequently developed multidimensional measures have unstable factor structures or measure only a subset of the most widely replicated factors. Therefore, the authors developed, via factor analysis of responses from U.S. and Canadian nonclinical participants (n = 2,361), an 18-item measure, the ASI-3, which assesses the 3 factors best replicated in previous research: Physical, Cognitive, and Social Concerns. Factorial validity of the ASI-3 was supported by confirmatory factor analyses of 6 replication samples, including nonclinical samples from the United States and Canada, France, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Spain (n = 4,494) and a clinical sample from the United States and Canada (n = 390). The ASI-3 displayed generally good performance on other indices of reliability and validity, along with evidence of improved psychometric properties over the original ASI.

The Bicultural Identity Integration Scale (BIIS-2) and the Multicultural Identity Styles Scale (MISS) were designed to assess different aspects of bicultural identity. The BIIS-2 captures characteristics of a bicultural identity in the domains of affect (harmony vs. conflict) and cognition (blendedness vs. compartmentalization). The MISS measures 2 distinct strategies (hybrid and alternating identity styles) used to achieve and maintain a bicultural identity. The aims of the present study were to investigate the factor structures of MISS and BIIS-2 scores using confirmatory factor analysis and to examine potential construct overlap between the 2 measures using exploratory structural equation modeling. Measures were administered twice (11 days apart) to a sample of 836 Hispanic young adults in the United States. Confirmatory factor analytic results supported the 2-factor structure of the MISS. The BIIS-2 items patterned onto 4 factors: harmony, conflict, blendedness, and compartmentalization. Configural, metric, and scalar equivalence of the factor structures of both measures were established across time. The exploratory structural equation modeling indicated no salient cross-loadings between the MISS and the BIIS-2 subscales, and this independence was consistent across time. Interfactor correlations indicated a strong, positive relationship between the hybrid identity style and BII-blendedness subscales. Scores on the alternating identity style subscale were positively related to the BII-conflict, BII-compartmentalization, and BII-blendedness subscales. Overall, findings provide evidence for the construct validity of the MISS and its empirical distinctiveness from the BIIS-2 and suggest a 4-factor structure for the BIIS-2. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a complex construct composed of the means and the motivations by which a person harms his or her intimate partner. Existing measures only assess forms of IPA perpetration while neglecting to measure the motivations for aggressing. The present study sought to fill this lacuna by adapting and validating an existing measure of the forms and functions of adolescent peer aggression to assess IPA perpetration in adults. This new measure-the Forms and Functions of Intimate Partner Aggression (FFIPA)-comprises 4 latent dimensions of IPA (i.e., overt, relational, proactive, and reactive). Participants were 341 heavy-drinking heterosexual couples (N = 682) with a recent history of psychological and/or physical IPA recruited from 2 metropolitan cities in the United States. The FFIPA demonstrated good model fit and internal validity. Unique patterns of convergent and criterion-related validity supported the 4 dimensions of the FFIPA. Results also indicated women perpetrated significantly more overt and relational aggression than men. Findings support the FFIPA as a valid measure of the forms and functions of IPA perpetration. More important, as the only instrument that parses the forms and functions of IPA perpetration, the FFIPA delineates the unique motivations of an aggressive partner separately from the form of his or her aggressive behavior(s). Further replication is needed to generalize this measure to nonconflictual and other types of intimate relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a 2-phase study to revise the Hispanic Stress Inventory (HSI; Cervantes, Padilla, & Salgado de Snyder, 1991). The necessity for a revised stress-assessment instrument was determined by demographic and political shifts affecting Latin American immigrants and later-generation Hispanics in the United States in the 2 decades since the development of the HSI. The data for the revision of the HSI (termed the HSI2) was collected at 4 sites: Los Angeles, El Paso, Miami, and Boston, and included 941 immigrants and 575 U.S.-born Hispanics and a diverse population of Hispanic subgroups. The immigrant version of the HSI2 includes 10 stress subscales, whereas the U.S.-born version includes 6 stress subscales. Both versions of the HSI2 are shown to possess satisfactory Cronbach's alpha reliabilities and demonstrate expert-based content validity, as well as concurrent validity when correlated with subscales of the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). The new HSI2 instruments are recommended for use by clinicians and researchers interested in assessing psychosocial stress among diverse Hispanic populations of various ethnic subgroups, age groups, and geographic location. (PsycINFO Database Record [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]