Bruno Chauvin

Contribution du paradigme psychométrique à l'étude de la perception des risques: une revue de littérature de 1978 à 2005

Cette revue de litterature rend compte des apports du paradigme psychometrique a l’etude de la perception des risques. En le positionnant par rapport aux paradigmes cognitif et de l’utilite esperee, ce travail commence par preciser que le paradigme psychometrique concoit le risque comme un construct subjectivement defini et socialement determine. Cet article evoque ensuite quatre types de recherches psychometriques: (a) les etudes americaines princeps a l’origine de la mise en place du paradigme psychometrique; (b) les etudes internationales comparatives qui ont permis de montrer l’efficacite du paradigme psychometrique a l’echelle internationale pour caracteriser et structurer le risque percu; (c) les etudes qui ont permis le developpement du paradigme psychometrique via l’examen de nouveaux risques, de nouvelles caracteristiques et de nouvelles structurations factorielles; (d) les etudes qui ont identifie les determinants proximaux a l’origine des perceptions des risques. Pour terminer, les apports et les limites du paradigme psychometrique a l’etude du risque sont discutes.

Sleep-related Cognitions Mediate the Impact of Neuroticism on Insomnia.

OBJECTIVES Our study aimed to explore how neuroticism and neuroticism-related traits as well as sleep-related cognitions (dysfunctional beliefs and subjective quality of sleep) influence the emergence of insomnia using a mediational model. METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted in which 159 insomniac patients paired with 159 normal sleepers in sex and age (N = 318) completed an online questionnaire. RESULTS At the global level, dysfunctional beliefs and poor subjective quality of sleep mediated the neuroticism-insomnia path; at the trait-specific level, these variables mediated the anxiety-insomnia path and partially mediated the effects of vulnerability and self-consciousness on insomnia; some other relations were essentially indirect effects (between depression and insomnia). CONCLUSIONS These findings extend our understanding of how neuroticism is a predisposing factor of insomnia. This knowledge could be helpful to shape prevention and intervention programs to treat insomnia.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) Revisited in a French-Speaking Population: Proposition of a Reduced Version of the Parent SDQ.

Key concerns about the psychometric properties of the 25-item version of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) have consistently been raised in the literature. The present study aimed at examining the meaningfulness of an alternative model to the SDQ in which 7 problematic items are excluded. French-speaking parents of 262 boys and 263 girls aged 6 to 16 years completed the SDQ. Through confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs), results provided support for a new, reduced, and psychometrically sound version of the SDQ called SDQ-R that displayed good factorial validity, construct validity, reliability, and multi-group invariance across gender. Overall, the attractive features of the SDQ-R make it a promising instrument for quickly screening emotional and behavioral problems in children and adolescents.