Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment最新文献

Behavioural assessments offer clinically relevant insights into anxious symptomatology, complementing self-report questionnaires in monitoring treatment effects. However, as a behavioural test is a form of brief exposure, it might not solely measure distress, but also influence it. In this study, we investigated whether measuring spider avoidance behaviour changes spider-related distress. Seventy-five individuals with a broad range of spider fear provided self-reported fear and disgust ratings, using the Spider Distress Scale, before and after engaging in a tarantula and in a house spider behavioural approach task (BAT). We found that self-reported fear, but not disgust, decreased after engaging in the behavioural assessments. A subsequent exploration within low- and high-fear subgroups showed that this pattern was driven by low-fear individuals, as in high-fear individuals spider fear and disgust remained unaffected by the behavioural assessments. Spider fear did not decrease on two exploratory questionnaires. In principle, these findings are promising for the validity of behavioural assessments in translational research where sub-clinical samples are typically targeted. However, they emphasise the need to carefully translate laboratory findings to (sub-)clinical populations, not only due to varying fear levels, but also because behavioural assessments may be experienced differently in the context of a treatment study.

Harmonizing the scores obtained by different instruments that measure the same construct enable researchers to combine them in one analysis. An important step in harmonization is checking whether there is measurement invariance across populations. This study aimed to examine whether the harmonized scores for anxiety/depression and ADHD obtained by two different instruments (the Child Behaviour Check List (CBCL) and the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)) are measurement invariant across other countries, languages, and age groups. We used cohorts from Australia (1330 children aged 10-11.5 years), the Netherlands (943 children aged 11-13.5 years) and the United Kingdom (4504 children aged 14-19). We used the Bayesian method for modeling measurement non-invariance proposed by Verhagen and Fox, 2013a that we adapted for using on polytomous items and in a relatively small number of groups (cohorts). Results showed that there is hardly any differential functioning of harmonized anxiety/depression and ADHD scores obtained by CBCL and SDQ across cohorts. The same model that harmonizes measures in Australian 10-year-old children can also be used in cohorts from the UK and the Netherlands.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10862-025-10204-0.

The Estudio de la Vida Bajo Estres (My Life Under Stress [MI-VIDA] Study) aims to investigate risk and resilience factors associated with the development of PTSD in a trauma-exposed sample of more than 500 Colombian residents exposed to this country's armed conflict. The study utilised a longitudinal case-control design capturing psychosocial data over 18 months, in addition to baseline DNA samples for a parallel genomic analysis. This paper specifically provides an overview of the design and methodology of the wider investigation, and reports baseline characteristics including sociodemographic information and mental health outcome prevalences from this hard-to-reach and under-researched population. Results of baseline analysis suggested that one third (34.88%) of this trauma-exposed sample screened positively for PTSD. Participants endorsed high numbers of potentially traumatic experiences including Forced Displacement (88.61%), Exposure to Severe Human Suffering (53.91%), Combat Exposure (53.02%), and Physical Assault (51.78%). Participants also reported relatively high levels of mental ill-health including depression (29.90%) and anxiety (27.56%). The number of traumas experienced, and the reported comorbid difficulties were generally higher among those who screened positive for PTSD. These preliminary analyses detail the baseline characteristics, and the relative burden of mental ill-health in this trauma-exposed sample. The wider study comprising longitudinal measurement of these conditions has the potential to make a significant contribution to the understanding of risk and resiliency factors for posttraumatic stress in this unique Latin American context.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10862-025-10203-1.