Psicothema最新文献

Background: Experiencing psychological problems during childhood and adolescence is common. However, the detection of behaviors as symptoms of psychopathologies requiring clinical diagnosis and treatment remains low. In order to advance understanding of psychological phenomena and particularly their behavioral manifestations, new theoretical and methodological perspectives such as network analysis are applied.

Method: In the present study, we explore the dynamics of the symptoms of different internalizing, externalizing, and personal-contextual problems using network analysis. We estimate networks of regularized partial correlations, including measures of standard centrality, and the global and structural impact of symptoms on each network.

Results: The results show that the syndromes we studied are activated through dynamics of symptoms that are strongly related to each other and act as intermediaries of potential psychopathological problems in children and adolescents (e.g., "feels sad", "worries", "won't talk", "nausea", "threatens others", "steals outside"). Centrality measures and impact coefficient ranges were strength (—2.39, 2.05), betweenness (—1.43, 3.38), closeness (—2.60, 2.23), and expected influence (—2.87, 2.13).

Conclusions: The results suggest the need to explore attribute dynamics as well as symptomatic comorbidity between them.

Background: During the 20th century the alpha coefficient (α) was widely used in the estimation of the internal consistency reliability of test scores. After misuses were identified in the early 21st century alternatives became widespread, especially the omega coefficient (ω). Nowadays, α is re-emerging as an acceptable option for reliability estimation.

Method: A review of the recent academic contributions, journal publication habits and recommendations from normative texts was carried out to identify good practices in estimation of internal consistency reliability.

Results: To guide the analysis, we propose a three-phase decision diagram, which includes item description, fit of the measurement model for the test, and choice of the reliability coefficient for test score(s). We also provide recommendations on the use of R, Jamovi, JASP, Mplus, SPSS and Stata software to perform the analysis.

Conclusions: Both α and ω are suitable for items with approximately normal distributions and approximately unidimensional and congeneric measures without extreme factor loadings. When items show non-normal distributions, strong specific components, or correlated errors, variants of ω are more appropriate. Some require specific data gathering designs. On a practical level we recommend a critical approach when using the software.

Background: Repeated measures designs are commonly used in health and social sciences research. Although there are other, more advanced, statistical analyses, the F-statistic of repeated measures analysis of variance (RM-ANOVA) remains the most widely used procedure for analyzing differences in means. The impact of the violation of normality has been extensively studied for between-subjects ANOVA, but this is not the case for RM-ANOVA. Therefore, studies that extensively and systematically analyze the robustness of RM-ANOVA under the violation of normality are needed. This paper reports the results of two simulation studies aimed at analyzing the Type I error and power of RM-ANOVA when the normality assumption is violated but sphericity is fulfilled.

Method: Study 1 considered 20 distributions, both known and unknown, and we manipulated the number of repeated measures (3, 4, 6, and 8) and sample size (from 10 to 300). Study 2 involved unequal distributions in each repeated measure. The distributions analyzed represent slight, moderate, and severe deviation from normality.

Results: Overall, the results show that the Type I error and power of the F-statistic are not altered by the violation of normality.

Conclusions: RM-ANOVA is generally robust to non-normality when the sphericity assumption is met.

Background: Deficits in information processing, sustained attention and social cognition have important implications for the daily functioning of people with schizophrenia. The present study analyzed the relationship between processing speed, sustained attention, social cognition, and functioning in clinically stable people with schizophrenia.

Method: Ninety people with schizophrenia and 100 healthy controls completed a battery of measures to assess clinical symptoms, processing speed, sustained attention, social cognition, and functioning. GLMMs and SEM were used to assess the relationships between these variables.

Results: People with schizophrenia had impaired performance in all cognitive outcomes compared to healthy controls. Processing speed and sustained attention, together in a latent variable, had a strong effect on functioning (Beta = 0.32; p <.05). However, social cognition had also a strong effect on functioning (Beta = 0.29; p <.001) in the mediation model, which exhibited better indices of fit than the model including neurocognition alone (e.g. RMSEA_basic = 0.131 and RMSEA_mediator = 0.054).

Conclusions: The mediating effect of social cognition on the relationship between processing speed, sustained attention, and functioning in people with schizophrenia suggests the importance of including both domains of neurocognition along with social cognition as treatment targets in rehabilitation interventions to optimize improvements in functioning in schizophrenia.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way organizations operate, forcing many of them to opt for remote-working as an alternative to the face-to-face mode. This global phenomenon has increased the importance of studying the psychosocial risks linked to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as technostress. This study aims to provide validity evidence for the Technostress Creators Scale in Spain and to test its measurement invariance in terms of gender.

Method: We analyzed the psychometric properties of the scale, its factor solution, and gender invariance in a sample of 931 employees from Spain.

Results: The Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) showed that the Spanish version maintained the five factors from the original version: techno-overload, techno-invasion, techno-complexity, techno-insecurity, and techno-uncertainty. The instrument demonstrated adequate reliability. The results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) also replicated the five-factor structure of the English version. Additionally, measurement invariance tests indicated differences between genders.

Conclusions: The resulting Spanish scale has 18 items, which is shorter than the original version. The implications and limitations of the Spanish version of the instrument are detailed in the discussion.

Background: Statistics anxiety is a common problem in students taking statistics courses in the social sciences. It is most widely measured by the statistical anxiety scale. The various adaptations of this instrument have shown certain problems in the replication of its factorial structure and do not have a system to control possible response bias effects. The objective of our study was to propose a short test to measure statistical anxiety that also includes a scale to control social desirability bias.

Method: We developed a revised version of the statistical anxiety scale using procedures for controlling response biases and examined its factorial structure using exploratory and confirmatory analysis in a sample of 531 students.

Results: The revised version showed a clear four-factor structure in exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses with the expected three content factors plus one social desirability factor. The scales showed no acquiescence effects and moderate social desirability effects, and had a clear relationship with academic success.

Conclusions: The revised version of the statistical anxiety scale improves on the psychometric properties of the original version and may overcome the problems detected in some adaptations of the previous version.

Background: Little is known about the role of emotion regulation in driving. This study analyzed the psychometric properties of one of the most commonly-used tests for the evaluation of emotion regulation in a drivers' sample.

Methods: A total of 318 male drivers (M age = 41.6 years, SD = 11.1, age range 20-69 years, half with road traffic offences and half, matched controls), participated in the study by filling out the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ). Data analysis was carried out using the Rasch Rating Scale Model (RSM).

Results: The performance of the response categories was inadequate. After collapsing the seven original response categories into three, the categories were functional, the unidimensionality requirement was met, and data-model fit was adequate. Both person reliability and item reliability were adequate for the two subscales of ERQ. There was a significant difference between the two groups in the cognitive reappraisal subscale.

Conclusions: Given the adequate psychometric properties of the ERQ, it is suggested that the role of cognitive reappraisal in driving contexts be explored in depth.

Background: Patients with depression and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are at greater risk of developing dementia. Depression involves a higher risk of suicidal ideation (SI) and suicide attempts (SA). Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease (AD) could help to clarify the role of depression and SI in AD.

Method: Fifty-nine participants aged > 50 with criteria of MCI positive (MCI-AD) (n=22) and negative (MCI-Non AD) (n=24) AD and healthy controls (HC) (n=13) were evaluated. We used the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-30) and the GDS-SI factor to measure depression and indirect risk for suicide, respectively. Additionally, AD biomarkers such as amyloid-ß (Aß), hyperphosphorilated tau (P-tau), and total tau (T-tau) in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) were analyzed.

Results: No significant differences between the groups were found in depression. However, in the MCI-AD group, lower P-tau and T-tau levels were related to higher GDS-SI scores, suggesting that MCI-AD patients with lower AD pathology are at a higher risk of suicide.

Conclusions: The result highlights the importance of considering SI in the initial phases of AD, and the potential role of AD biomarkers in early detection of symptoms.

Background: Self-Compassion is crucial for assessing how people relate to their suffering in moments of personal difficulty. The objective of this study was to check the psychometric properties of the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) in a Colombian sample.

Method: The Spanish version of the SCS was adapted to the Colombian context via a content validity technique. This version was administered to 751 Colombians from the general community. Psychometric analysis was performed using R studio packages.

Results: 7 models were tested, the best fit was found for the bifactor ESEM model (χ2/df = 0.86, CFI = 1, TLI= 1, RMSEA= 0.00, SRMR= 0.01). This model produced optimal reliability indices (ωh = 0.83, FD= 0.93, H= 0.96).

Conclusions: The study produced initial psychometric evidence of the structure of the SCS in Colombia, with evidence of a general factor in the bifactor ESEM model. More research is needed to justify the complete usage of the SCS in the country.

Background: Psychometric symptom validity instruments (SVTs) can be vulnerable to coaching, which can negatively affect their performance. Our aim was to assess the impact that different types of coaching may have on the sensitivity of the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS).

Methods: A simulation design was used with 232 non-clinical adults divided into five experimental simulation conditions and 58 patients with anxious-depressive symptomatology derived from a traffic accident. All simulators received a basic scenario and, in addition, the second group was instructed on the symptomatology, the third was warned about the risk of exaggerating the presentation, the fourth received a combination of the two previous groups and the fifth received specific training on SVTs.

Results: The discriminative ability of the SIMS was higher in the basic and symptom information groups, and it decreased significantly in the specific training group on SVTs.

Conclusions: SIMS seems not to be severely impacted by a variety of symptom coaching styles, although test coaching diminished its performance.