Assessment

Misophonia is a sound sensitivity disorder characterized by a strong aversion to specific sounds (e.g., chewing). Here we present the Sussex Misophonia Scale for Adults ( SMS-Adult ), within an online open-access portal, with automated scoring and results that can be shared ethically with users and professionals. Receiver operator characteristics show our questionnaire to be "excellent" and "good-to-excellent" at classifying misophonia, both when dividing our n = 501 adult participants by recruitment stream (self-declared misophonics vs...

Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) includes different forms of digital violence, such as online gender-based violence, online gender- and sexuality-based violence, digital sexual harassment, online sexual coercion, and nonconsensual pornography. The aim of this study was to design and validate a measure to assess the perpetration and victimization of each dimension of TFSV. The relationships between the different dimensions and differences by gender and sexual orientation were also analyzed. The participants were a sample of 2,486 adults (69% women) from Spain, aged between 16 and 79 ( M = 25...

The Hearts and Flowers (H&F) task is a computerized executive functioning (EF) assessment that has been used to measure EF from early childhood to adulthood. It provides data on accuracy and reaction time (RT) across three different task blocks (hearts, flowers, and mixed). However, there is a lack of consensus in the field on how to score the task that makes it difficult to interpret findings across studies. The current study, which includes a demographically diverse population of kindergarteners from Boston Public Schools ( N = 946), compares the predictive and concurrent validity of 30 ways of scoring H&F, each with a different combination of accuracy, RT, and task block(s)...

Psychological distress often onsets during adolescence, necessitating an accurate understanding of its development. Assessing change in distress is based on the seldom examined premise of longitudinal measurement invariance (MI). Thus, we used three waves of data from Next Steps, a representative cohort of young people in the UK ( N = 13,539) to examine MI of the General Health Questionnaire-12 (GHQ-12). We examined MI across time and gender from ages 15 to 25 in four competing latent models: (a) a single-factor model, (b) a three-factor correlated model, (c) a bifactor model of "general distress" and two orthogonal specific factors capturing positive and negative wording, and (d) a single-factor model including error covariances of negatively phrased items...

The PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) and the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5) are two of the most widely used and well-validated PTSD measures providing total and subscale scores that correspond with DSM-5 PTSD symptoms. However, there is little information about the utility of subscale scores above and beyond the total score for either measure. The current study compared the proposed DSM-5 four-factor model to a bifactor model across both measures using a sample of veterans ( N = 1,240) presenting to a Veterans Affairs (VA) PTSD specialty clinic...

An individual's flourishing is sustained by and dependent on their community's well-being. We provide one of the first studies of a measure of communal subjective well-being, focusing on individuals' relationships with their community. Using two samples from the Greater Columbus, Ohio region, we provide evidence of the reliability and validity of the Subjective Community Well-being (SCWB) assessment. The five domains of the SCWB are Good Relationships (α = .92), Proficient Leadership (α = .93), Healthy Practices (α = ...

Missing data are pervasive in risk assessment but their impact on predictive accuracy has largely been unexplored. Common techniques for handling missing risk data include summing available items or proration; however, multiple imputation is a more defensible approach that has not been methodically tested against these simpler techniques. We compared the validity of these three missing data techniques across six conditions using STABLE-2007 ( N = 4,286) and SARA-V2 ( N = 455) assessments from men on community supervision in Canada...

Interoception (e.g., abilities to recognize/attend to internal sensations) is robustly associated with psychopathology. One form of interoception, body trust, is relevant for the development of disordered eating and suicidal thoughts/behaviors. However, measures of body trust are narrow, despite research suggesting body trust is multifaceted. The aim of this study was to develop a comprehensive measure of body trust: The Body Trust Scale (BTS). 479 U.S. adults completed self-report surveys containing the BTS and psychopathology measures...

Social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) skills encompass a broad range of interpersonal and intrapersonal abilities that are crucial for establishing and maintaining relationships, managing emotions, setting and pursuing goals, and exploring new learning opportunities. To address the lack of consensus regarding terminology, definition, and assessment of SEB skills, Soto et al. developed the Behavioral, Emotional, and Social Skills Inventory (BESSI), which consists of 192 items, 32 facets, and 5 domains. The objective of the current study was to adapt the BESSI to Spanish (referred to as BESSI-Sp) and enhance the overall understanding of the BESSI framework...

Adults with clinical anxiety have significant symptom overlap and above average rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Despite this, ADHD remains a vastly under-detected disorder among this population, indicating the need for a screener with well-understood symptom dimensions and good discriminant validity. The current study compared competing models of ADHD as well as discriminant properties of self-reported ADHD symptoms as measured by the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) in 618 adults with clinical anxiety...

In typical Dark Triad (DT) questionnaires, generic items oftentimes refer to "others" or "people" in general. Hence, respondents have to mentally aggregate their behavior across several kinds of "others" (e.g., work colleagues, family members, and friends). It remains unknown if individuals consider different kinds of interaction partners equally or if their self-reports contain "hidden" interaction partner-specific tendencies. To shed light on this issue, we assessed generic and contextualized DT items (referring to family, friends, work, and strangers; N = 814 from the general population)...

The Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) captures six different types of cognitive appraisals in anticipation of an upcoming stressful situation. The goal of this article was to examine the factorial structure and the validity of the scale in the French language while accounting for existing limitations in the literature. These include factorial structure instability and low internal consistency for specific subscales across multiple validation studies in other languages. In the first study ( N = 425), the results from an exploratory factor analysis reliably suggested the removal of five items, the bridging of the threat and challenge subscales as one, and a new general five-factor structure...

The time period over which relevant symptoms shifts unfold is not uniform across individuals. This article proposes an adaptation of the Reliable Change Index (RCI) to detect symptom changes of varying durations in individual patients' time series: the Duration-Adjusted RCI (DARCI). The DARCI proportionally raises the RCI cut-off to account for its extension over additional time increments, resulting in different DARCI thresholds for different change durations. The method is illustrated with a simulation study of depressive symptom time series with varying degrees of discontinuity and overall mean change, and four empirical case examples from two clinical samples...

The Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders: Parent Version (SCARED-P) was originally developed for use in middle childhood and adolescence. The present study examined the psychometric properties and validity of the SCARED-P in an early childhood sample (predominantly aged 4-7 years). The 41-item version of the SCARED-P was administered to the parents of 233 children (mean age = 6.31 years, SD = 1.08; females = 34.3%). Confirmatory factor analysis provided mixed support for the original five-factor model of the SCARED-P...

Anxiety is the most prevalent mental health disorder among adults worldwide. Given its increased prevalence among migrants due to their marginalized position in the societies where they reside, psychometric evaluations of anxiety measures such as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) are needed for use with migrants. The present study is the first attempt to compare the structure of GAD-7 scores for (a) different Latino groups in the same country and (b) the same Latino group in two different countries...

This study involved a psychometric evaluation of the Short Executive Function Scale (SEFS), a new 15-item self-report questionnaire measuring five constructs: Planning, Inhibition, Working Memory, Shifting, and Emotional Control. Participants included 717 U.S. undergraduate students ( M = 18.9 years old, SD = 1.9; 78.8% cisgender female, 81.7% White) who completed the SEFS. A subset of 156 participants ( M = 18.8 years old, SD = 0.9; 79.5% cisgender female, 83.3% White) completed the SEFS again at 2- to 3-month retest along with the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult (BRIEF-A) and the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-8)...

Noncompletion of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) surveys is a common issue and may yield bias in results if not properly handled. Using data observed at scheduled times as well as data retrieved later to fill missing responses, this study aims to investigate predictors of EMA completion, including demographic characteristics, time-related factors, and momentary experiences/behaviors. Data were from a 30-day EMA study including 145 women currently experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) and using substances...

Eating disorders are severe and often chronic mental illnesses that are associated with high impairment and mortality rates. Recent estimates suggest that eating disorder prevalence rates are on the rise, indicating an increased need for accurate assessment and detection. The current review provides an overview of transdiagnostic eating disorder assessments, including interview, self-report, health and primary care screeners, and technology-based and objective assessments. We focused on assessments that are transdiagnostic in nature and exhibit high impact in the field...

Spirituality is an important aspect of treatment and recovery for substance use disorders (SUDs), but ambiguities in measurement can make it difficult to incorporate as part of routine care. We evaluated the psychometric properties of an adapted short-form version of the Spirituality Scale (the Spirituality Scale-Short-Form; SS-SF) for use in SUD treatment settings. Participants were adult patients ( N = 1,388; Mage = 41.23 years, SDage = 11.55; 68% male; 86% White) who entered a large, clinically mixed inpatient SUD treatment program...

Traditional validation processes for psychological surveys tend to focus on analyzing item responses instead of the cognitive processes that participants use to generate these responses. When screening for invalid responses, researchers typically focus on participants who manipulate their answers for personal gain or respond carelessly. In this paper, we introduce a new invalid response process, discordant responding, that arises when participants disagree with the use of the survey and discuss similarities and differences between this response style and protective responding...