Taciano L. Milfont

Testing measurement invariance across groups: applications in crosscultural research

Researchers often compare groups of individuals on psychological variables. When comparing groups an assumption is made that the instrument measures the same psychological construct in all groups. If this assumption holds, the comparisons are valid and differences/similarities between groups can be meaningfully interpreted. If this assumption does not hold, comparisons and interpretations are not fully meaningful. The establishment of measurement invariance is a prerequisite for meaningful comparisons across groups. This paper first reviews the importance of equivalence in psychological research, and then the main theoretical and methodological issues regarding measurement invariance within the framework of confirmatory factor analysis. A step-by-step empirical example of measurement invariance testing is provided along with syntax examples for fitting such models in LISREL

A Global Look at Time: A 24-Country Study of the Equivalence of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory

In this article, we assess the structural equivalence of the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZTPI) across 26 samples from 24 countries (N = 12,200). The ZTPI is proven to be a valid and reliable index of individual differences in time perspective across five temporal categories: Past Negative, Past Positive, Present Fatalistic, Present Hedonistic, and Future. We obtained evidence for invariance of 36 items (out of 56) and also the five-factor structure of ZTPI across 23 countries. The short ZTPI scales are reliable for country-level analysis, whereas we recommend the use of the full scales for individual-level analysis. The short version of ZTPI will further promote integration of research in the time perspective domain in relation to many different psycho-social processes.

A CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY OF ENVIRONMENTAL MOTIVE CONCERNS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS FOR PROENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOR

Environmental concern can be driven by biospheric, egoistic or altruistic motives. Few studies, however, have compared these three environmental motive concerns across cultural groups. This study investigated differences between European New Zealanders and Asian New Zealanders in environmental motive concerns and their implications for proenvironmental behaviors. The results demonstrated that the tripartite model of environmental concerns provided good fit in both samples. They also indicated that Asian New Zealanders were significantly higher than European New Zealanders on egoistic concern, whereas European New Zealanders were significantly higher on biospheric concern. For European New Zealanders, biospheric concern predicted proenvironmental behavior positively, whereas egoistic concern predicted it negatively. For Asian New Zealanders, in contrast, both biospheric and altruistic concerns predicted proenvironmental behavior positively. The implications of these findings for environmental education campaigns are discussed.

The Interplay Between Knowledge, Perceived Efficacy, and Concern About Global Warming and Climate Change: A One-Year Longitudinal Study

If the long-term goal of limiting warming to less than 2°C is to be achieved, rapid and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are required. These reductions will demand political leadership and widespread public support for action on global warming and climate change. Public knowledge, level of concern, and perceived personal efficacy, in positively affecting these issues are key variables in understanding public support for mitigation action. Previous research has documented some contradictory associations between knowledge, personal efficacy, and concern about global warming and climate change, but these cross-sectional findings limit inferences about temporal stability and direction of influence. This study examines the relationships between these three variables over a one-year period and three waves with national data from New Zealand. Results showed a positive association between the variables, and the pattern of findings was stable and consistent across the three data points. More importantly, results indicate that concern mediates the influence of knowledge on personal efficacy. Knowing more about global warming and climate change increases overall concern about the risks of these issues, and this increased concern leads to greater perceived efficacy and responsibility to help solving them. Implications for risk communication are discussed.

Testing the Moderating Role of the Components of Norm Activation on the Relationship Between Values and Environmental Behavior

This study replicates and expands Schultz et al.’s findings regarding the applicability of the norm-activation model on self-reported environmental behavior. As expected, a significant three-way interaction was found among perceived seriousness of global environmental problems, ascription of responsibility for global environmental problems, and altruistic values when predicting environmental behaviors. This held even considering smaller measures, an online procedure to gather data, a diverse sample from more than 50 countries, and controlling for content overlap between measures.

Evaluating the short form of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale in New Zealand adolescents.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to examine the reliability and validity of the short form of the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS-SF). Method: A sample of 9567 randomly selected New Zealand secondary school students participated in the Youth2000 Health and Wellbeing Survey that included the full-length version of the RADS. The reliability and validity of the subset of items that make up the RADS-SF and its comparability to the original version were assessed using Cronbachs alpha, kappa statistics, correlations between the two versions of the instrument, confirmatory factor analysis and correlation to other questions in the survey considered likely to be associated with depression. Results: The RADS-SF had Cronbachs alpha of 0.88, was strongly correlated (0.95) to the RADS, had acceptable fit for the data (χ2=2823.27, df=35, comparative fit index=0.96, root mean square error of approximation=0.092, 90% confidence interval=0.089–0.095, standardized root mean square residual=0.042), showed configural invariance across gender, age and ethnic groups, and was strongly correlated with other depression-related questions, such as suicidal ideation (r=0.48). While the overall agreement for classification of depression by the two scores was good (κ=0.75), a higher percentage of students were classified as having depressive symptoms using the recommended RADS-SF cut-off point of 26 compared with the RADS criteria. Conclusions: The RADS-SF was found to have acceptable reliability and validity and to have psychometric properties comparable to the RADS in a large population of New Zealand adolescents.

Environmental Consequences of the Desire to Dominate and Be Superior

A belief in human dominance over nature lies at the heart of current environmental problems. In this article, we extend the theoretical scope of social dominance theory by arguing that social dominance orientation (SDO) is an important variable in understanding person–environment relations. We argue that individuals high in SDO are more willing to exploit the environment in unsustainable ways because SDO promotes human hierarchical dominance over nature. Four studies provide support for this perspective. High SDO was associated with lower levels of environmental concern in a nationally representative New Zealand sample (Study 1) and in country-level data across 27 nations (Study 2). SDO was also positively related to utilization attitudes toward nature (Study 3) and mediated the gender difference in beliefs about anthropogenic climate change (Study 4), and both occurred independently of right-wing authoritarianism. Implications for the human-dominated view of nature subscribed to by those high in SDO are discussed.

Time Perspective and Sustainable Behavior Evidence for the Distinction Between Consideration of Immediate and Future Consequences

The authors examined the efficacy of a two-factor model of consideration of future consequences (CFC) in understanding environmentally sustainable behaviors. In Study 1, individual differences in CFC-Immediate and CFC-Future were examined as predictors of environmental concern (EC) and behavior motivation (EB), controlling for values and sociodemographic variables. Results showed that low scores on the CFC-Immediate predicted EC and EB, with nonsignificant effects for CFC-Future. A prospect-concept priming task was used in Study 2 to implicitly activate future thinking which resulted in increases in ECs and behaviors, and these links were partially mediated by CFC-Immediate but not CFC-Future. The findings show that the associations between future time perspective and sustainable behaviors are driven by reduced immediate concerns. Implications for the role of time perspective in understanding and affecting sustainability efforts are discussed.

Valores humanos como explicadores de atitudes ambientais e intenção de comportamento pró-ambiental

Human values have been pointed out as important predictors of environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviors. Although the literature supports the relationship between these three constructs, no information was found considering Brazilian samples. This study aimed to contribute to this gap. Participated in this study a number of 208 undergraduate students; most of them were from a private university (63.8%), female (73.4%) and with mean age of 28 years (SD = 7.0). They answered the Schwartz Values Survey and the Echocentric and Anthropocentric Attitudes Scale, an item to measure intention of pro-environment behaviors, and demographic questions. Results support previous studies. Specifically, self-transcendence values were the most important to explain pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors. These findings are discussed regarding the possibility of using human values in interventions to promote behaviors on behalf of the environment.

Hand-held internet tablets for school-based data collection

BackgroundIn the last 20 years, researchers have been using computer self-administered questionnaires to gather data on a wide range of adolescent health related behaviours. More recently, researchers collecting data in schools have started to use smaller hand-held computers for their ease of use and portability. The aim of this study is to describe a new technology with wi-fi enabled hand-held internet tablets and to compare adolescent preferences of laptop computers or hand-held internet tablets in administering a youth health and well-being questionnaire in a school setting.MethodsA total of 177 students took part in a pilot study of a national youth health and wellbeing survey. Students were randomly assigned to internet tablets or laptops at the start of the survey and were changed to the alternate mode of administration about half-way through the questionnaire. Students at the end of the questionnaire were asked which of the two modes of administration (1) they preferred, (2) was easier to use, (3) was more private and confidential, and (4) was easier to answer truthfully.ResultsMany students expressed no preference between laptop computers or internet tablets. However, among the students who expressed a preference between laptop computers or internet tablets, the majority of students found the internet tablets more private and confidential (p < 0.001) and easier to answer questions truthfully (p < 0.001) compared to laptop computers.ConclusionThis study demonstrates that using wi-fi enabled hand-held internet tablets is a feasible methodology for school-based surveys especially when asking about sensitive information.