Robert K. Gable

Gender-Role Conflict Scale: College Men's Fear of Femininity.

Gender-role conflict exists when gender roles have negative consequences for people. This research reports initial validity and reliability data on measures of gender-role conflict for men. Two measures, Gender Role Conflict Scale I and II (GRCS-I and GRCS-II) were constructed to assess patterns of gender-role conflict described in the literature. GRCS-I assesses mens personal gender-role attitudes, behaviors, and conflicts. GRCS-II assesses mens gender-role conflicts in specific gender-role conflict situations. Both GRCS measures and the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ) were administered to male college students (N=527). Initial factor-analytic data for GRCS-I and GRCS-II demonstrated eight meaningful factors. Acceptable test-retest and internal consistency reliabilities were found for both measures. MANOVA, ANOVA, and Tukey procedures indicated differences for subjects across the four PAQ categories. Significant gender-role conflict differences across the factors were found for men who were instrumental, expressive, or both instrumental and expressive. Results of these differences are reported, as well as implications for future development of both scales.

Postpartum Depression Screening Scale: Development and Psychometric Testing

BACKGROUND Approximately 400,000 mothers in the United States experience postpartum depression each year. However, only a small proportion of these women are identified as depressed by health care professionals. OBJECTIVES To improve detection of this postpartum mood disorder, the purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of a newly devised instrument, the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), a 35-item Likert-type self-report instrument. METHODS Content validity was supported through the literature and the judgments rendered by a panel of five content experts and a focus group. The PDSS was administered to 525 new mothers. RESULTS Confirmatory factor analysis provided empirical support for the existence of the hypothesized seven dimensions. A Tucker-Lewis goodness-of-fit index of 0.87 and a root mean square residual of 0.05 were judged supportive of model fit. Item response theory techniques provided further construct validity support for finer interpretations of the respective seven dimensions. Analysis of the Likert 5-point response categories further supported meaningful score interpretations. Alpha internal consistency reliabilities ranged from 0.83 (sleeping/eating disturbances) to 0.94 (loss of self). CONCLUSIONS Empirically, all of the reliability and validity analyses supported the score interpretations posited for the PDSS. Currently, the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of the PDSS are being determined.

Comparative Analysis of the Performance of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale With Two Other Depression Instruments

BackgroundPostpartum depression affects approximately 13% of mothers but up to 50% of all cases of this tragic illness can go undetected. ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to compare the performance of a newly created instrument, the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and a general depression scale, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). MethodIn this methodological design a total of 150 new mothers completed these three instruments in random order, followed immediately by a DSM-IV diagnostic interview. Using the LABROC I program, the areas under each of the instrument’s Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curves were compared to determine if they were significantly different. ResultsEighteen (12%) of the women were diagnosed with major postpartum depression, 28 women (19%) with minor postpartum depression, and 104 women (69%) with no depression. Compared to the EPDS, the PDSS had a significantly larger area under the ROC curve when screening for major or minor postpartum depression. When using the published recommended cut-off scores for major depression for the three instruments, the PDSS achieved the highest combination of sensitivity, 94%, and specificity, 98%. When detecting women with major or minor postpartum depression, the PDSS again yielded the highest combination of sensitivity (91%) and specificity (72%) of the three instruments. The PDSS identified 17 (94%) of the women diagnosed with major postpartum depression, the EPDS identified 14 of these women (78%), and the BDI-II identified 10 of the 18 women (56%). ConclusionIf mothers identified as “most depressed” are substantially determined by the instrument used, the implications for both research and clinical practice are significant. Researchers and clinicians need to be aware of the differential sensitivity of depression instruments which, while supposedly measuring the same construct, are focused on different components of this mood disorder.

Further validation of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale.

BackgroundUp to 50% of all cases of postpartum depression go undetected. The Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) has been the only instrument available that was specifically designed to screen for this mood disorder. None of the items on the EPDS, however, are written in the context of new motherhood. ObjectiveThe purpose of this study was to further assess the construct validity of the newly designed Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) along with its sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. MethodA total sample of 150 mothers within 12 weeks postpartum participated in the study.Each mother completed in random order three questionnaires: The PDSS, EPDS, and The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Immediately after completing these three questionnaires, each woman was interviewed by a nurse psychotherapist using the Structural Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis 1 Disorders. ResultsTwelve percent (n = 18) of the mothers were diagnosed with major postpartum depression, 19% (n = 28) with minor postpartum depression, and 69% (n = 104) with no depression. The PDSS was strongly correlated with both the BDI-II (r = 0.81) and the EPDS (r = 0.79). The ability of the PDSS to explain variance in diagnostic classification of postpartum depression above that explained by the BDI-II and EPDS (i.e., incremental validity) was assessed using hierarchical regression. After explaining variance in group classification by the other two depression instruments, the PDSS explained an additional 9% of the variance in depression diagnosis. Using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, a PDSS cut-off score of 80 (sensitivity 94% and specificity 98%) is recommended for major postpartum depression and a cut-off score of 60 (sensitivity 91% and specificity 72%) for major or minor depression. ConclusionBased on the results of this psychometric testing, the PDSS is considered ready for use in routine screening of mothers.

The Impact of Positive and Negative Item Stems on the Validity of a Computer Anxiety Scale

For a sample of 270 high school students, the differences between positive and negative item stems are studied using three forms of a computer anxiety scale (original scale, negated items, and mixed stems) to ascertain if the items for each form tended to define a single construct or two different constructs. Internal-consistency estimates of reliability for each form yielded alpha coefficients which ranged from .73 for the mixed-stem format to .95 for the original format. Confirmatory factor analysis (LISREL VI) was employed to test the hypothesis that, for high school students, negative and positive item stems are indicative of different latent variables. The findings tended to support the hypothesis and were consistent with those obtained by other researchers (Benson, 1987 Benson and Hocevar, 1985; Schmitt and Stults, 1985). It was concluded that one should view results with caution when the instrument includes mixed stems, as the two sets of items do not appear to define a single construct.

The Development and Validation of a Measure of General Attitudes Toward Computers.

The development and factorial validity of an instrument to measure the attitudes of students toward the use of computers are described. A factor analysis of the intercorrelations of responses to 30 items for a sample of 233 seventh- and eighth-grade students in a white middle-class school revealed one identifiable factor dimension entitled General Attitudes Toward Computers with an estimated alpha internal consistency reliability of .87.

Ensuring content validity: an illustration of the process.

Assessing content validity is one of the most critical steps in instrument development. Neither statistical elegance nor sophisticated measurement strategies are substitutes for validity. Systematic in-depth approaches to the assessment of content validity are needed, including a priori and a posteriori procedures. In this manuscript the a priori approach of specifying an instrument’s content domain is addressed along with the a posteriori procedure of having a panel of judges assess the validation of the items. This article focuses on the process used to assess the content validity. Data from the psychometric testing of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) are used to illustrate this process. The PDSS is a Likert-type self-report composed of seven dimensions: Sleeping/Eating Disturbances, Anxiety/Insecurity, Emotional Lability, Cognitive Impairment, Loss of Self, Guilt/Shame, and Contemplating Harming Oneself. Items on the PDSS were generated from a series of qualitative research studies on postpartum depression. Content validity was assessed using two approaches to review the scale: (a) a panel of five content experts with professional expertise in postpartum depression, and (b) a focus group of 15 nurses knowledgeable in the field.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in New Mothers: Results from a Two-Stage U.S. National Survey

BACKGROUND Prevalence rates of women in community samples who screened positive for meeting the DSM-IV criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder after childbirth range from 1.7 to 9 percent. A positive screen indicates a high likelihood of this postpartum anxiety disorder. The objective of this analysis was to examine the results that focus on the posttraumatic stress disorder data obtained from a two-stage United States national survey conducted by Childbirth Connection: Listening to Mothers II (LTM II) and Listening to Mothers II Postpartum Survey (LTM II/PP). METHODS In the LTM II study, 1,373 women completed the survey online, and 200 mothers were interviewed by telephone. The same mothers were recontacted and asked to complete a second questionnaire 6 months later and of those, 859 women completed the online survey and 44 a telephone interview. Data obtained from three instruments are reported in this article: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Scale-Self Report (PSS-SR), Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), and the Patient Health Questionnaire-2 (PHQ-2). RESULTS Nine percent of the sample screened positive for meeting the diagnostic criteria of posttraumatic stress disorder after childbirth as determined by responses on the PSS-SR. A total of 18 percent of women scored above the cutoff score on the PSS-SR, which indicated that they were experiencing elevated levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms. The following variables were significantly related to elevated posttraumatic stress symptoms levels: low partner support, elevated postpartum depressive symptoms, more physical problems since birth, and less health-promoting behaviors. In addition, eight variables significantly differentiated women who had elevated posttraumatic stress symptom levels from those who did not: no private health insurance, unplanned pregnancy, pressure to have an induction and epidural analgesia, planned cesarean birth, not breastfeeding as long as wanted, not exclusively breastfeeding at 1 month, and consulting with a clinician about mental well-being since birth. A stepwise multiple regression revealed that two predictor variables significantly explained 55 percent of the variance in posttraumatic stress symptom scores: depressive symptom scores on the PHQ-2 and total number of physical symptoms women were experiencing at the time they completed the LTM II/PP survey. CONCLUSION In this two-stage national survey the high percentage of mothers who screened positive for meeting all the DSM-IV criteria for a posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis is a sobering statistic.

Students' Perceptions of Classroom Activities: Are There Grade-Level and Gender Differences?.

The authors investigated whether differences existed in perceptions of class activities for students in Grades 3–8 and between genders. Specifically, the frequency that students perceived opportunities for interest, challenge, choice, and enjoyment in their classrooms was assessed using the affective instrument, My Class Activities (M. Gentry & R. K. Gable, 2001). Significant main effects existed for grade level and gender, with no interaction of the 2 variables. In general, middle school students found their classroom activities less frequently interesting and enjoyable, with fewer opportunities for choice, than did elementary students. These variables declined steadily from lower to upper grades. Girls indicated that their class activities were more frequently interesting and enjoyable than did boys, which contributed to the significant gender differences.

Screening Performance of the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale—Spanish Version

The purpose of this study was to further assess measures of validity for the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS)- Spanish Version on sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values. The convenience sample consisted of 150 Hispanic mothers from New England and Texas. Each woman first completed the PDSS-Spanish Version followed by a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) diagnostic interview. For analysis purposes, the Hispanic women were divided into three subgroups: Puerto Rican/Caribbean (n = 68), Mexican (n = 64), and Central/South American (n = 18). For the three subgroups, the PDSS total score alpha reliabilities were .96, .95, and .95, respectively. Based on the reciever operating characterisitc (ROC) curve analysis, a cutoff score of 60 is recommended as a positive screen for combined major and minor depression. This cutoff point obtained a sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 84%. When compared to the original English version of the PDSS, the psychometrics for the Spanish version were slightly lower but well within the acceptable range.