Eduardo García-Cueto

Effect of the Number of Response Categories on the Reliability and Validity of Rating Scales

The Likert-type format is one of the most widely used in all types of scales in the field of social sciences. Nevertheless, there is no definitive agreement on the number of response categories that optimizes the psychometric properties of the scales. The aim of the present work is to determine in a systematic fashion the number of response alternatives that maximizes the fundamental psychometric properties of a scale: reliability and validity. The study is carried out with data simulated using the Monte Carlo method. We simulate responses to 30 items with correlations between them ranging from 0.2 to 0.9. We also manipulate sample size, analyzing four different sizes: 50, 100, 200, and 500 cases. The number of response options employed ranges from two to nine. The results show that as the number of response alternatives increases, both reliability and validity improve. The optimum number of alternatives is between four and seven. With fewer than four alternatives the reliability and validity decrease, an...

Schizotypy in Adolescence : The Role of Gender and Age

Schizotypy is a multidimensional personality construct that appears to indicate psychosis proneness. Supposedly, schizotypal traits behave differently depending on a persons age and gender, but few studies have examined this relationship. In our study we used the Thinking and Perceptual Style Questionnaire and the Junior Schizotypy Scales. The sample was made up of 321 students (169 males) with an age range of 12 to 17 years. The results show significant differences in gender and age groups. Males score higher than females on Physical Anhedonia, Social Anhedonia, and Impulsive Non-Conformity scales, while females score higher or Positive Symptoms, Negative Evaluation, and Social Paranoia scales. Significant differences were also found among age groups: Unusual experiences, self-referent ideation, social paranoia, thought disorder, and negative evaluation were more frequent in later stages of adolescence. However, the meaning of this difference could be interpreted in terms of emotional turbulence rather than as a direct indicator of vulnerability to psychosis.

Psychometric Properties of the Revised Physical and Social Anhedonia Scales in Non-Clinical Young Adults

Anhedonia, a central dimension within the schizotypy construct, has been considered to be a promising vulnerability marker for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale (RPhA) and Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (RSAS) are two self-reports widely used in the assessment of anhedonia; however, they psychometric characteristics have been scarcely investigated in Spanish population. The objective of the current work was to study the psychometric properties of the Revised Physical and Social Anhedonia Scales in non-clinical young adults. The sample was composed of 728 college students with a mean age of 20.1 years (SD = 2.5). The data indicated that the scales showed adequate psychometric characteristics. The Cronbach alpha was 0.95 (RSAS) and 0.92 (RPhA) respectively. The confirmatory factor analysis carried out on the matrix of tetrachoric correlations showed that both scales presented an essentially unidimensional solution. The Revised Physical and Social Anhedonia Scales seem to be adequate for psychosis-risk assessment in non-clinical populations. Future research should further investigate the construct validity in other populations and cultures as well as study its relation to emotional aspects and cognitive endophenotypes.

Development and validation of the Granada Burnout Questionnaire in Spanish police

The goal of the present study is to develop a questionnaire, with proper psychometric properties and current norms, to evaluate the burnout syndrome in Spain. The operative definition of burnout proposed by Maslach and Jackson is used to define three dimensions (Emotional exhaustion, Depersonalization and Personal accomplishment). A total of 2,403 national Spanish police participated. Evidence of construct validity was checked through cross validation (showing a good fit of the three factors model to the data). Using the MBI, NEO-FII and CECAD evidence of convergent validity and criteria validity were developed (showing that the relations are similar to the ones that appear in other research). The discrimination, mean, standard deviation, and typical error of the average of the items composing the various dimensions were analyzed. Both the Cronbach´s alpha coefficient and the conditional standard error of measurement (CSEM) were calculated for each of the dimensions. The results showed good internal consistency (all ? values > .85). Finally, the questionnaire was scaled using T scores. The psychometrical properties reported here support the use of this new questionnaire for the burnout evaluation in Spanish police.

Validation of a computer-adaptive test to evaluate generic health-related quality of life.

BackgroundHealth Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) is a relevant variable in the evaluation of health outcomes. Questionnaires based on Classical Test Theory typically require a large number of items to evaluate HRQoL. Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) can be used to reduce tests length while maintaining and, in some cases, improving accuracy. This study aimed at validating a CAT based on Item Response Theory (IRT) for evaluation of generic HRQoL: the CAT-Health instrument.MethodsCross-sectional study of subjects aged over 18 attending Primary Care Centres for any reason. CAT-Health was administered along with the SF-12 Health Survey. Age, gender and a checklist of chronic conditions were also collected. CAT-Health was evaluated considering: 1) feasibility: completion time and test length; 2) content range coverage, Item Exposure Rate (IER) and test precision; and 3) construct validity: differences in the CAT-Health scores according to clinical variables and correlations between both questionnaires.Results396 subjects answered CAT-Health and SF-12, 67.2% females, mean age (SD) 48.6 (17.7) years. 36.9% did not report any chronic condition. Median completion time for CAT-Health was 81 seconds (IQ range = 59-118) and it increased with age (p < 0.001). The median number of items administered was 8 (IQ range = 6-10). Neither ceiling nor floor effects were found for the score. None of the items in the pool had an IER of 100% and it was over 5% for 27.1% of the items. Test Information Function (TIF) peaked between levels -1 and 0 of HRQoL. Statistically significant differences were observed in the CAT-Health scores according to the number and type of conditions.ConclusionsAlthough domain-specific CATs exist for various areas of HRQoL, CAT-Health is one of the first IRT-based CATs designed to evaluate generic HRQoL and it has proven feasible, valid and efficient, when administered to a broad sample of individuals attending primary care settings.

Screening Enterprising Personality in Youth: An Empirical Model

Entrepreneurial attitudes of individuals are determined by different variables, some of them related to the cognitive and personality characteristics of the person, and others focused on contextual aspects. The aim of this study is to review the essential dimensions of enterprising personality and develop a test that will permit their thorough assessment. Nine dimensions were identified: achievement motivation, risk taking, innovativeness, autonomy, internal locus of control, external locus of control, stress tolerance, self-efficacy and optimism. For the assessment of these dimensions, 161 items were developed which were applied to a sample of 416 students, 54% male and 46% female (M = 17.89 years old, SD = 3.26). After conducting several qualitative and quantitative analyses, the final test was composed of 127 items with acceptable psychometric properties. Alpha coefficients for the subscales ranged from .81 to .98. The validity evidence relative to the content was provided by experts (V = .71, 95% CI = .56 - .85). Construct validity was assessed using different factorial analyses, obtaining a dimensional structure in accordance with the proposed model of nine interdependent dimensions as well as a global factor that groups these nine dimensions (explained variance = 49.07%; χ2/df = 1.78; GFI= .97; SRMR = .07). Nine out of the 127 items showed Differential Item Functioning as a function of gender (p < .01, R 2 >.035). The results obtained are discussed and future lines of research analyzed.

Development of the Gender Role Attitudes Scale (GRAS) amongst young Spanish people

Gender roles depend on the attitudes and beliefs about them, which at the same time facilitate the formation of stereotypes that will foster violence in interpersonal relationships in couples. The assessment tools used tend to represent the sexist attitude towards women, without taking into account that men can also be recipients of the same behavior from their partner. The objective of the study is to provide an improved scale for the assessment of gender role attitudes, based on the theoretical perspective of gender equality. The sample comprises 2,136 young Spanish men and women, students in Vocational Training (Spanish acronym FP) and at university in the age range 15-26 years old. The results show the existence of a single bipolar factor - transcendent attitudes vs. sexist attitudes - fulfilling psychometric fit indices, and providing the basis for modifying attitudes depending on the difficulty of the items for such modification. The implications for intervention are oriented based on the perspective of prevention and changing sexist gender attitudes.

Adaptación y validación española del Adolescent-Cannabis Problems Questionnaire (CPQ-A)

El cannabis es una sustancia cuyo consumo esta altamente extendido entre jovenes y adolescentes. Sin embargo, la demanda de ayuda y tratamiento en esas edades sigue siendo baja. En estas condiciones resulta esencial el desarrollo de instrumentos especialmente disenados para la deteccion precoz de los problemas asociados al consumo de cannabis en esa poblacion. El proposito de este trabajo es adaptar y validar en poblacion espanola el CPQ-A (Adolescent- Cannabis Problems Questionnaire) como herramienta de screening. La muestra utilizada esta formada por 144 jovenes (71,4% chicos), con edades comprendidas entre 16 y 20 anos (M = 17,12; DT = 1,17), que habian consumido cannabis en el ultimo mes, y que se encontraban cursando algun tipo de formacion en diversos centros educativos de Asturias. El analisis factorial del CPQ-A en esta muestra apunta a una solucion unidimensional, con un Alfa de Cronbach de 0,86 para el total del cuestionario. Las evidencias de validez convergente de la prueba son buenas. La puntuacion en el CPQ-A permite discriminar entre consumidores de cannabis moderados y excesivos en el ultimo mes, esta positivamente relacionada con el CAST (Cannabis Abuse Screening Test) y presenta una sensibilidad y especificidad adecuadas para determinar casos de abuso y dependencia del cannabis segun los criterios del DSM IV-TR. Ademas, es sensible al grado de preocupacion que genera en los jovenes el consumo de cannabis y los efectos psicopatologicos asociados al consumo. Los resultados obtenidos permiten afirmar que es una prueba util para el screening de jovenes consumidores de cannabis con problemas.

A Comparison of Anchor-Item Designs for the Concurrent Calibration of Large Banks of Likert-Type Items.

Current interest in measuring quality of life is generating interest in the construction of computerized adaptive tests (CATs) with Likert-type items. Calibration of an item bank for use in CAT requires collecting responses to a large number of candidate items. However, the number is usually too large to administer to each subject in the calibration sample. The concurrent anchor-item design solves this problem by splitting the items into separate subtests, with some common items across subtests; then administering each subtest to a different sample; and finally running estimation algorithms once on the aggregated data array, from which a substantial number of responses are then missing. Although the use of anchor-item designs is widespread, the consequences of several configuration decisions on the accuracy of parameter estimates have never been studied in the polytomous case. The present study addresses this question by simulation, comparing the outcomes of several alternatives on the configuration of the anchor-item design. The factors defining variants of the anchor-item design are (a) subtest size, (b) balance of common and unique items per subtest, (c) characteristics of the common items, and (d) criteria for the distribution of unique items across subtests. The results of this study indicate that maximizing accuracy in item parameter recovery requires subtests of the largest possible number of items and the smallest possible number of common items; the characteristics of the common items and the criterion for distribution of unique items do not affect accuracy.

Enterprising personality profile in youth: Components and assessment

BACKGROUND In the study of enterprising personality, there are two main approaches, the utilization of general personality traits, such as Big Five, and the use of more specific traits. The aim of the present work is to develop and validate a new measurement instrument that will permit a rigorous assessment of the basic traits of enterprising personality in young people. METHOD A sample of 2,693 students (51% males) from different regions in northern Spain was used. Mean age was 16.52 years (SD = 1.38), with an age range of 16 to 23. Eight principal dimensions of enterprising personality were identified, and a new battery of tests was developed for their assessment. RESULTS The reliability coefficients of the battery scales were over .80. Common variance among the eight specific personality dimensions and the Big Five factors was 24%, and with three emotional intelligence dimensions, it was 16%. The enterprising personality traits show a very low correlation with socio-economic status (r = .126), and a moderate correlation with estimations of entrepreneurial spirit by teachers (r = .385). CONCLUSIONS Eight specific dimensions of enterprising personality in youth have been identified, and a new battery for their assessment, with adequate psychometric properties, was developed.