Adult-equivalence scales and the economic implementation of interpersonal comparisons of well-being

Equivalence Scale Exactness (ESE) or Independence of Base (IB), a condition on household preferences and interpersonal comparisons, makes adult-equivalence scales independent of utility levels. ESE is characterized by Income-Ratio Comparability (IRC) which assumes that utility equality is preserved by income scaling. If ESE/IRC is a maintained hypothesis, equivalence scales can be estimated from behaviour alone if preferences are not piglog. This condition is not met by a family of translog expenditure functions or by the Almost Ideal Demand System. A translog expenditure function can be used for the reference household, however, together with an independent specification of the equivalence scale.Earlier versions of this paper [1987–1992] have been presented at Amsterdam, Augsburg, Barcelona, Bilbao, CORE, Essex, GREQE, Kiel, Leyden, Madrid, Southhampton, Toulouse, UBC, and Valencia. We thank the seminar participants and the referees of this journal, and are especially indebted to Kenneth Arrow, Martin Browning, Dale Jorgenson, Joseph Ostroy, Shelley Phipps, J. Ruiz-Castillo, Daniel Slesnick, Terry Wales and John Weymark. We also thank Amartya Sen whose remarks on another paper inspired the approach we have taken in this one.     

Effects on reliability and validity of egocentered network measurements

This paper examines the reliability and validity of egocentered networks. Reliability and validity are estimated by the multitrait-multimethod (MTMM) approach. A split ballot MTMM design [Saris, W.E., 1999. Forced choice or agree/disagree questions? An evaluation by the split ballot MTMM experiment. In: Proceeding of the Meeting of the IRMCS, pp. 122–146; Kogovšek, T., Ferligoj, A., Coenders, G. Saris, W. E., 2002. Estimating the reliability and validity of personal support measures: full information ml estimation with planned incomplete data. Social Networks 24, 1–20] is used, in which separate groups of respondents received different combinations of two methods. The effect of factors such as the methods used and the personal characteristics of respondents that can affect the quality of data was estimated by a meta analysis.Measurement method, type of question, network size, age, gender, extraversion and emotional stability all had statistically significant effects on the validity of measurement. After the list of alters is obtained with name generators, name interpreter questions can be asked in two ways. One way (“by alters”) is to take each alter individually and to ask all the questions about him/her, going alter by alter until the end of the list of alters. The other way (“by questions”) is to take the question and ask this question for all alters on the list, going question by question until the end of the list of name interpreter questions. Telephone interviewing (both by alters and by questions) gave more valid measurements than face-to-face interviews.Behavioral questions were more valid than questions with emotional content. The characteristics of ties were more validly measured in smaller networks. With reference to respondents’ personal characteristics younger respondents, men, extraverted and emotionally stable respondents all had more valid measurements. Reliability was significantly affected by the measurement method, the type of question and age. The telephone/by alters method was the most reliable measurement method. Behavioral questions were more reliable than questions with emotional content. Measurements among younger respondents were also more reliable.     

The impact of respondent attentiveness on reliability and validity

This study aims to assess whether respondent inattentiveness causes systematic and unsystematic measurement error that influences survey data quality. To determine the impact of (in)attentiveness on the reliability and validity of target measures, we compared respondents from a German online survey (N = 5205) who had passed two attention checks with those who had failed. Our results show that inattentiveness induces both random and systematic measurement error, which impacts estimates of the reliability and validity of multi-item scales. In addition, we conducted a sensitivity analysis, which revealed that the impact of inattentiveness on analyses can be substantial.     

The impact of retirement on psychological well-being in Canada

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of retirement on psychological wellbeing. The empirical part of this study uses seven longitudinal waves of the Canadian National Population Health Survey, spanning 1994 through 2006. To account for biases due to unobserved individual specific heterogeneity, this study deploys panel data methodologies such as fixed effect method, fixed effect logistic method, and instrumental variable fixed effect method. Using age specific retirement incentives provided by Canada's Income Security System as instruments for retirement behavior, the study finds that retirement has significant positive impact on subsequent psychological well-being. The findings of the study would substantiate the continuity theory notion that retirement may actually improve psychological well-being.     

An assessment of the validity and reliability of the SOGS-RA

The present is a validation study seeking to determine the degree of confidence that can be placed on inferences about problem gambling among adolescents in the Atlantic provinces, based on their South Oaks Gambling Screen-Revised for Adolescents (SOGS-RA) scores. The major source of data was a 1998 survey of 13,549 students in junior and high school of the public school systems of the 4 Atlantic provinces of Canada. The SOGS-RA was found to have adequate stability and internal consistency reliability. Statistically significant gender differences were demonstrated relative to endorsement and construct validity. Regarding the latter, this study shows that the existing cut-point of the SOGS-RA score for problem gambling identifies as problem gamblers, markedly different proportions of male than female daily gamblers. Regarding construct validity in relation to the Atlantic Alcohol and Drug Risk Continua, this study suggests that while statistically highly significant, the association between problem gambling and substance-related problems may be of low clinical significance. Regarding criterion validity, there is an urgent need to perform the types of enquiry that will allow clarification about how adolescent problem gambling is conceptualized, by adults versus adolescents, by males versus females, and from a clinical versus a public or population health perspective.     

Ethnic community supports and psychological well-being of Vietnamese refugees

This study examines the psychological well-being of 160 Vietnamese refugees in the US. Path analysis was performed by using version 6 of LISREL to assess the structural relationships between variables included in the analysis. The findings reveal that ethnic community supports, self-esteem, and income have significant direct effects on psychological well-being. In addition, education, length of residence, English speaking ability, and social adjustment have significant indirect effects on psychological well-being     

A validity scale for the Sharp consumer satisfaction scales.

Because of the apparently inflated scores commonly reported for consumer satisfaction with mental health services, we developed a 5-item validity scale for the SHARP questionnaire. The scale discriminated significantly (P less than .001) between those former clients who offered suggestions for improvement of services and those who did not (N = 38). In another experiment, the scale significantly improved the ability to predict the 46 clients' true scores from their obtained scores via stepwise regression (p less than .01). Weights were obtained from that sample of former clients, which significantly reduced the deviation of the obtained satisfaction scores from the true scores, with all p less than .05. In two successive experiments (N = 49 and 26), weights were applied to new samples, significantly reducing deviation from the criterion scores for 5 of the 6 scales (p less than .05), and new weights were then derived. A final set of weights was derived from the combined samples of the three experiments, (N = 121) which significantly improved prediction of the criterion and lowered the mean on all scales, with all p less than .05.     

Marital status and psychological well-being: An individual-environment congruence perspective

The role of the individual's relationship to his environment has achieved central prominence in social science theory, but has not yet been adequately represented and measured through numerical methods. A variety of multivariate regression techniques have been proposed to incorporate individual and environmental level measures in a single regression equation. This article presents a special case of a contextual analysis model in which two sets of predictor variables are statistically treated to create a third set of predictor variables called congruence measures. Each of the three sets of predictor variables are then run separately in multiple regression equations against a fourth set of individual level outcome variables to determine the relative gain in predictive power of the congruence measures over the individual and environmental level variables when they are run alone. Martital status variables are used to illustrate and examine the model.     

Adolescent love and well-being: the role of dating relationships for psychological adjustment

Love has been identified as one of the most important aspects of interpersonal strength. During adolescence, the main social contexts in relation to love are friendships and dating relationships. The aim of this study was to measure the link between romantic relationship experience and personal adjustment, taking into account effects of age and sex, and to analyse the effect of adolescent dating relationship quality on personal adjustment. A total of 3258 Spanish adolescents were surveyed. The results indicated that dating status does not affect adolescent self-esteem, but has a significant effect on internalizing and externalizing behaviours and sexist beliefs. Regarding relationship quality, those adolescents who had a very good-quality relationship reported higher levels of psychological adjustment in terms of the variables measured. Results are discussed according to their utility for positive social development and its links to dating relationship quality during adolescence.     

The reliability and validity of the physical activity survey in long-term care

The purpose of this study was to develop and test a measure of physical activity for residents in long-term-care facilities, the Physical Activity Survey in Long-Term Care (PAS-LTC). Sixty-six activities are included in the PAS-LTC: routine physical activity, personal-care activities, structured exercise, recreational activities, caretaking activities, and repetitive activities. The study included 13 residents in a long-term-care facility, most of whom were women (62%), with an average age of 84 years (+/- 6.0) and an average Mini Mental State Examination score of 6 (+/- 6.9). There was evidence of interrater reliability of the PAS-LTC with intraclass correlations of .83-.94. There was some evidence of validity of the measure with statistically significant correlations between PAS-LTC recorded during the evening and night shifts and the number of counts of activity per the ActiGraph (r = .60 and r = .57, respectively, p < .05) and the calories estimated (r = .58 and r = .60, respectively, p < .05). The PAS-LTC completed during the day shift and total activity based on the PAS-LTC showed nonsignificant correlations of .40 or greater with the ActiGraph activity counts and calories.     

Comparing poverty and deprivation dynamics: Issues of reliability and validity

In this paper we seek to establish if earlier findings relating to the relationship between income poverty persistence and deprivation persistence could be due to a failure to take measurement error into account. To address this question, we apply a model of dynamics incorporating structural and error components. Our analysis shows a general similarity between latent poverty and deprivation dynamics. In both cases we substantially over-estimate the probability of exiting from poverty or deprivation. We observe a striking similarity across dimensions for both observed and latent outcomes. In both cases levels of poverty and deprivation persistence are higher for the latent case. However, there is no evidence that earlier results relating to the differences in the determinants of poverty and deprivation persistence are a consequence of differential patterns of reliability. Taking measurement error into account seems more likely to accentuate rather than diminish the contrasts highlighted by earlier research. Since longitudinal differences relating to poverty and deprivation cannot be accounted for by measurement error, it seems that we must accept that we are confronted with issues relating to validity rather than reliability. Even where we measure these dimensions over reasonable periods of time and allow for measurement error, they continue to tap relatively distinct phenomenon. Thus, if measures of persistent poverty are to constitute an important component of EU social indicators, a strong case can be made for including parallel measures of deprivation persistence and continuing to explore the relationship between them.     

Post‐socialist language ideologies in action: Linking interview context and language ideology through stance

Changes associated with the post‐socialist period in Albania have complicated the legacy of language ideologies grounded in Ottoman‐era and socialist‐era politics. In this article, I analyze two metalinguistic interviews with young adults in the Albanian capital of Tirana in order to investigate the status of standardizing and anti‐standardizing language ideologies while also raising a methodological question regarding interview context and researcher role as persistent issues in sociolinguistic research. As acts of evaluation, language ideologies can be linked to interactional positionings and alignments via stance, which is significant for understanding aspects of identity and context in the interview. I argue that this framework provides a better understanding of interview dynamics than previous style shifting approaches, as any explanation of differences in interview interactions must simultaneously consider macro‐level influences of ideology and micro‐level interactional developments.     

Ethiopian refugee resettlement in the Western United States: social context and psychological well-being

The reported high level of depression and suicide among 59 Ethiopian single male refugees is often related to their being culturally and ethnically distinct in the US. Research investigating the psychological well-being of these refugees in California, Washington, and Nevada indicates that the level of stress among Ethiopian refugees resettled by agencies is higher than the stress of those resettled by volunteers. When English facility is held constant, the differential ability of these 2 resettlement methodologies to provide appropriate employment and access to higher education varies directly with the stress levels. Recommendations for improvement of resettlement are offered.     

Asian adolescent and young adult adoptees' psychological well-being: Examining the mediating role of marginality

Adolescent adoptees from an ethnic minority background different from that of their adoptive parents can face unique challenges to their psychosocial adjustment that may include, for some, a sense of marginality and low self-esteem. Using a web-based survey design with a sample of 100 internationally adopted Asian adolescent and young adults, the present study examined how feelings of marginality mediate the relationship between ethnic and racial socialization and psychological well-being among Asian adoptees. The results showed that (a) supports for racial socialization decreased adoptees' feeling of marginality and thereby, increased their positive sense of self; and (b) ethnic socialization was not related to feelings of marginality and self-esteem. This study illustrates the importance of providing post adoption services addressing racial socialization issues. Further, adoptive parents should teach their children how to deal with racial prejudice and discrimination, and prepare them by helping them to develop positive coping strategies.