Emotional Strain in Caregiving Among African American Grandmothers Raising Their Grandchildren

African Americans are disproportionately represented in the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren. Using Role Strain Theory and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, this study examines how older grandmothers fare relative to their younger counterparts. Eighty-five custodial African American grandmothers, aged 33–88 years old, completed demographic questionnaires and scales of Role Demand, Emotional Strain, Caregiving Strain Index, and Level of Care. Results showed older grandmothers experienced less emotional and caregiving strain relative to younger grandmothers. Furthermore, married grandmothers experienced less caregiving strain, and their age did not insulate them from the strain associated with the level of care. Implications are discussed.     

Emotional strain in caregiving among African American grandmothers raising their grandchildren

African Americans are disproportionately represented in the number of grandparents raising their grandchildren. Using Role Strain Theory and Socioemotional Selectivity Theory, this study examines how older grandmothers fare relative to their younger counterparts. Eighty-five custodial African American grandmothers, aged 33-88 years old, completed demographic questionnaires and scales of Role Demand, Emotional Strain, Caregiving Strain Index, and Level of Care. Results showed older grandmothers experienced less emotional and caregiving strain relative to younger grandmothers. Furthermore, married grandmothers experienced less caregiving strain, and their age did not insulate them from the strain associated with the level of care. Implications are discussed.     

Psychological Well-Being,Job Strain and Education Among Young Finnish Precarious Employees

This study examined the effect of precarious work (temporary and part-time present employment and unstable work history) on psychological well-being among young employees at age 31, controlling for prior mental disorders, education and job strain. The data of 1,070 women and 1,030 men was derived from the prospective unselected population-based Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort study. Results of univariate logistic regression models showed that among men, precarious work associated with all psychological well-being outcomes. Among women, only depressive symptoms at 31 years associated with precarious work. Among both genders, the association between precarious work and well-being outcomes diminished to a statistically non-significant level in multivariate analyses including prior mental diagnosis, education level and job strain. In the final multivariate logistic regression models, job strain and education level were the strongest factors associating with the well-being outcomes. The association between depression symptoms and precarious work was strongest in the highest educational class among men. These results emphasize the role of education and job strain in the enhancement of psychological well-being among young employees doing precarious work. The role of education seems to differ among genders, so that for women education acts as a resource also in precarious work while among highly educated men, not having a stable employment history increases the risk for depressive symptoms.     

A Psychometric Review of Measures Assessing Discrimination Against Sexual Minorities

ABSTRACT

Discrimination against sexual minorities is widespread and has deleterious consequences on victims’ psychological and physical wellbeing. However, a review of the psychometric properties of instruments measuring lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) discrimination has not been conducted. The results of this review, which involved evaluating 162 articles, reveal that most have suboptimal psychometric properties. Specifically, myriad scales possess questionable content validity as (1) items are not created in collaboration with sexual minorities; (2) measures possess a small number of items and, thus, may not sufficiently represent the domain of interest; and (3) scales are “adapted” from measures designed to examine race- and gender-based discrimination. Additional limitations include (1) summed scores are computed, often in the absence of scale score reliability metrics; (2) summed scores operate from the questionable assumption that diverse forms of discrimination are necessarily interrelated; (3) the dimensionality of instruments presumed to consist of subscales is seldom tested; (4) tests of criterion-related validity are routinely omitted; and (5) formal tests of measures’ construct validity are seldom provided, necessitating that one infer validity based on the results obtained. The absence of “gold standard” measures, the attendant difficulty in formulating a coherent picture of this body of research, and suggestions for psychometric improvements are noted.     

Validation of the 12 Item Short form Health Survey in a Sample from Region Central Jutland

In 2010 the Danish regions started a new program of public health surveillance in collaboration with the national and local health authorities using the short form health survey (SF-12) for measuring and reporting on health related quality of life among the Danish adult population. The instrument has not, however, been validated in a Danish setting. The aim of this study was to assess the reliability and validity of the physical component summary (PCS) and the mental component summary (MCS) score of the 12-item short form health survey (SF-12) in a sample from Central Denmark Region. A total of 26,397 persons above the age of 25 were included in the analyses. Reliability was assessed by Cronbach’s α. The validity was assessed using known-groups comparisons and convergent validity. The factor structure was investigated through exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The Cronbach’s α showed high reliability with a score of 0.90 and 0.85 for PCS and MCS respectively. The SF-12 discriminated well with respect to gender, age, educational status and long term illness. Individual items correlated higher with own hypothesized scales than with other scales and summary measures corroborating the convergent validity. The EFA gave a two-factor structure. Irrespective of the chosen rotation method (varimax and oblimin) the items related to PCS loaded on one factor and the items related to MCS loaded on another factor. The factor structure was validated with acceptable model-fit values in CFA. The SF-12 instrument is a reliable and valid measure of health related quality of life among the population of Central Denmark Region.     

Measuring the affective quality of life of university students: The validation of an instrument

The purpose of this study is to develop an instrument for measuring the quality of life of university students, and to report its validity and reliability. The study used a representative sample of undergraduate and graduate students in the faculty of education at a major Canadian university. The construct validity of the scales was assessed by Piazza's technique for the analysis of attitude items. The findings supported conceptualizing the quality of life of university students in four dimensions including Positive Affect, Interaction with Students, Interaction with Professors, and Negative Affect. The alpha reliabilities of these scales ranged from 0.75 to 0.93. Some potential applications of this instrument for understanding educational attainment, as well as for the evaluation of university departments and faculties, are mentioned.     

The construct validity of the life satisfaction index a and affect balance scales: A serendipitous analysis

This paper addresses the problem of construct validity in measures of life satisfaction and well-being through an analysis of unsolicited comments made by respondents during face-to-face interviews. This serendipitous examination focuses on two established indicators: The Life Satisfaction Index A and the Affect Balance Scale. The observations volunteered by respondents cast doubt upon the construct validity of a number of the items in each of the scales as measures of the subjective states they purport to index. The findings indicate avenues for improving existing scales but the author concludes that greater use of qualitative approaches may be the most constructive solution.     

How Cognitive Interviewing can Provide Validity Evidence of the Response Processes to Scale Items

The current theory about validity reflected in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA et al. in Standards for educational and psychological testing, American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, 1999), offers no clear indications about the methods for gathering validity evidence about the response processes. Cognitive interviewing (CI) can play an important role answering the current demand about empirical and theoretical analyses of the response processes as a source of validity evidence in psychological testing. CI can provide validity evidence for investigating substantive aspects of construct validity and for contributing to the explanations for item and test scores (Zumbo in Handbook of statistics, vol 26, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 45–79, 2007; The concept of validity: revisions, new directions and applications, IAP—Information Age Publishing Inc., Charlotte, NC, pp. 65–82, 2009). The aim of the study was to illustrate the use of cognitive interviewing method for gathering validity evidence on response processes. The search for evidence about the “response process” was guided by an argument-based approach to validity (Kane in Psychological Bulletin 1992; Educational measurement, American Council on Education/Praeger, Washington, DC, pp. 17–64, 2006). 21 cognitive interviews were carried out during the cognitive testing of the APGAR psychological scale intended to measure the “family support” construct. Cognitive interviewing provided validity evidence that explains how respondents interpret and respond to the APGAR items. Respondents maintained a shared interpretation of “family concept” while answering the APGAR scale items. Nevertheless, they included in the concept of family not only family members they live with but also other family members and even friends. CI participants were also capable of classifying their answers about the family support perception following a polythomous response system. Lastly, the role of CI in the Kane’s argument-based approach and Zumbo’s contextualized view of validity will be discussed.     

Development and Evaluation of a Parent-Employee Interrole Conflict Scale

We took a deductive (theoretically-based) approach to develop scales to measure a specific aspect of work-family conflict: interrole conflict between individuals' roles as parents and as employees, or parent-employee conflict (P-E conflict). Results supported (a) three empirically distinct aspects of P-E conflict: parenting interfering with work (PIW), work interfering with parenting (WIP) and general P-E conflict (G), (b) the discriminant validity of PIW, WIP, and G as compared to general work-family conflict (W-FC) and work role conflict (WRC), and (c) the nomological validity of P-E conflict scales in terms of predicted relationships with measures of other related constructs. Scale items are presented, and recommendations for scale use and future research directions are offered.     

Examining the content validity of the WHOQOL-BREF from respondents’ perspective by quantitative methods

Content validity, the extent to which a measurement reflects the specific intended domain of content, is a basic type of validity for a valid measurement. It was usually examined qualitatively and relied on experts’ subjective judgments, not on respondents’ responses. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to introduce and demonstrate how to use quantitative methods to examine the content validity for a certain measurement from respondents’ viewpoint with quantitative methods. In the current study, content validity of the WHOQOL-BREF was examined with quantitative methods among 102 undergraduate students and 128 community adults. They were asked to rate the appropriateness of each item with the four domains of the WHOQOL-BREF respectively and also asked to sort the items into the four domains. Then, three quantitative methods on examining content validity were applied to analyze the rating and sorting data, including (1) proportion of substantive agreement, (2) substantive validity, and (3) ANOVA approach. These results were used to compare with the original content structure of the WHOQOL-BREF, to see if the original structure is consistent with the structure of subjects’ judgments. The results showed that the content structure gained from appropriateness rating and item sorting was not totally consistent with the original content structure of the WHOQOL-BREF. Among 24 items, 12 items did not have adequate content validity. More discussion on these items and the issue of content validity were further provided.     

Techniques For Developing Health Quality of Life Scales for Point of Service Use

Clinical and health policy research frequently involves health status measurement using generic or disease specific instruments. These instruments are generally developed to arrive at several scales, each measuring a distinct domain of health quality of life (HQOL). Clinical settings are starting to explore how to integrate patient perspectives of HQOL outcomes into patient care. However, the length of many HQOL instruments poses a challenge in terms of patient burden, as well as clinic flow time. The most popular paradigm for scale construction utilizes classical test theory methodology and can lead to excessive and redundant items in an effort to bolster reliability measurements such as Cronbach’s alpha above levels of accepted reliability. This paper presents techniques for utilizing item response theory to arrive at single item scales that are diagnostically informative and short enough to have clinical utility. A danger of such dramatic scale reduction is that validity might be compromised. This danger is addressed in terms of criterion related validity and sensitivity to clinical changes over a 36 months period. The reduction methods are illustrated using selected scales from the Arthritis Impact Measurement Scales 2 (AIMS2) with data obtained from the study Pharmaceutical Care Outcomes: The Patient Role (PCOPR).     

Subjective Health-Related Quality of Life in Homeless and Vulnerably Housed Individuals and Its Relationship with Self-Reported Physical and Mental Health Status

Although the association between homelessness and objective indicators of poor health is well-established, little research has focused on the subjective health-related quality of life of homeless and vulnerably housed (HVH) individuals. This study examined the subjective health-related quality of life of HVH individuals, using the Multiple Discrepancies Theory (MDT) Scale for Health of the Quality of Life for Homeless and Hard-to-House Individuals (QoLHHI) Inventory, and its association with self-reported functional health status, as measured by the SF-12, and self-reported physical and mental health conditions in a sample of 100 HVH individuals recruited in Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa. Our findings indicate that physical and mental health conditions are highly prevalent among HVH individuals and that the SF-12 Physical and Mental Component Summary scores are substantially lower compared to US population norms. The MDT Health items were not statistically significantly associated with physical or mental health conditions and only showed correlations of small to moderate magnitude with the SF-12 Component Summary Scales. These findings suggest that the QoLHHI MDT Scale for Health can provide information about HVH individuals’ subjective health experiences that is different from, and can serve as a valuable complement to, health status information for use in research and evaluation studies, as well as for policy purposes to make informed decisions based on subjective health-related quality of life data from HVH individuals.     

Is Psychological Well-Being Linked to the Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables?

Little is known about the influence of people’s diet on their psychological well-being. This study provides evidence of a link between the consumption of fruit and vegetables and high well-being. In cross-sectional data, happiness and mental health rise in an approximately dose–response way with the number of daily portions of fruit and vegetables. Well-being peaks at approximately 7 portions per day. We document this relationship in three data sets, covering approximately 80,000 randomly selected British individuals, and for seven measures of well-being (life satisfaction, WEMWBS mental well-being, GHQ mental disorders, self-reported health, happiness, nervousness, and feeling low). The pattern is robust to adjustment for a large number of other demographic, social and economic variables. Reverse causality and problems of confounding remain possible. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our analysis, how government policy-makers might wish to react to it, and what kinds of further research—especially randomized trials—would be valuable.     

What Makes Koreans Happy?: Exploration on the Structure of Happy Life among Korean Adults

The current study explored the perceptions of Korean people about what can make them happy and constructed a comprehensive measurement of happiness of Korean. A total of 61 Korean adults participated in Focused Group Interview (FGI), where they were asked three questions (e.g., What makes you happy? What could make you happier than now? In general, who is a happy person?). Participants’ responses were reviewed by the present investigators independently and 152 statements of happy life with 18 categories were derived from content-analysis. The list of 152 statements of happy life was administered to 517 Korean adults to assess the importance of each item for Koreans’ happy life through the objective rating scale (6-point Likert scale). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that most factors were unidimensional. The items with low reliability were deleted and some new items were added, resulting in the experimental form of the Happy Life Inventory with 156 items and 18 categories including a new category of religion. The preliminary form of the Happy Life Inventory and the Psychological Well-being scale were administered to a nationwide sample of 1503 Korean adults in order to assess their happiness through 6-point Likert scale. The responses from 877 participants were submitted to exploratory factor analysis. The items with low factor loadings were excluded and 98 items with 16 factors were included in the final version of the Happy Life Inventory. Confirmatory factor analysis of the responses from 611 subjects confirmed that the 16 factor model was appropriate and most categories had one underlying dimension with moderate to high reliabilities. Correlations between the Happy Life Inventory and the psychological well-being scale supported construct validity of the Happy Life Inventory. Suggestions for further research were discussed.     

New Well-being Measures: Short Scales to Assess Flourishing and Positive and Negative Feelings

Measures of well-being were created to assess psychological flourishing and feelings—positive feelings, negative feelings, and the difference between the two. The scales were evaluated in a sample of 689 college students from six locations. The Flourishing Scale is a brief 8-item summary measure of the respondent’s self-perceived success in important areas such as relationships, self-esteem, purpose, and optimism. The scale provides a single psychological well-being score. The measure has good psychometric properties, and is strongly associated with other psychological well-being scales. The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience produces a score for positive feelings (6 items), a score for negative feelings (6 items), and the two can be combined to create a balance score. This 12-item brief scale has a number of desirable features compared to earlier measures of positive and negative emotions. In particular, the scale assesses with a few items a broad range of negative and positive experiences and feelings, not just those of a certain type, and is based on the amount of time the feelings were experienced during the past 4 weeks. The scale converges well with measures of emotions and affective well-being.     

Do women who choose to become surrogate mothers have different psychological profiles compared to a normative female sample?

BackgroundSurrogate mothers are routinely assessed for their suitability to function in the role of surrogacy. Such assessments often include psychological testing including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Revised (MMPI-2). There has been a paucity of research detailing the personality structures of these women, especially with the MMPI-2.Research objectiveThe current study examined the validity and clinical profiles of surrogate mothers (N = 43) compared to a non-patient, normative reference sample of women (N = 40) using their MMPI-2 results.MethodThis study examined between group differences among the 68 scales of the MMPI-2. Independent-sample t-tests were conducted for each of the scales, with those violating homogeneity of variance assessed with a non-parametric, Mann–Whitney U test.FindingsThe findings demonstrated that surrogate mothers produce profiles with lower values than normative samples across several MMPI-2 scales. For this unique group, elevations were observed on scales that assess profile validity, views on traditional gender roles, repression, ego strength, social obligation and duties, and contained hostility, relative to the normative group.ConclusionThe findings provide an initial examination of the profiles of surrogate mothers on the MMPI-2. The findings revealed that the psychological suitability of surrogate mother candidates appear to be a composite of being both tough-minded and sensitive, sufficiently resilient to manage the role of surrogacy, and aware of the importance of emotional boundary-setting related to pre-natal attachment.     

Reliability,Validity, and Variability of the Subjective Well-Being Questions in the 2010 American Time Use Survey

Part of a wider range of investigations to produce generally acceptable standards for measuring affective well-being, time diary surveys have tested several approaches to measuring subjective well-being during diary days. As an alternative to the standard approach of asking a single question about each activity reported in time diary surveys, the 2010 module of the American Time Use Survey asked six emotion questions about three activities. The perception questions captured how happy, meaningful, sad, tired, stressed, or in pain respondents felt on a 7-point scale. To evaluate this approach, our research examined the reliability and validity of the six emotion questions, and assessed their variability across activities. Using principal component analysis, we assessed the associations among items and obtained two activity-level components with Cronbach’s alphas of 0.68 and 0.59 and two respondent-level components with Cronbach’s alphas of 0.74 and 0.65. To test validity, we regressed self-rated health on the underlying components and socio-demographic controls. Both of the respondent level components were significantly associated with better health (odds ratio 1.81, 1.27). Using each of the perceptions individually, we found that happiness, meaningfulness, and lack of fatigue, stress, and pain were related to better health, but none as strongly as the first component. Finally, we examined the coefficients of variation to assess the variability in the well-being measures across activities. Measurement implications and limitations of this study are discussed.     

The Measurement and Evaluation of Social Attitudes in Two British Cohort Studies

This paper presents an empirical evaluation of the internal consistency and validity of six attitudes scales assessing left–right beliefs, political cynicism, antiracism, libertarian-authoritarian views, and gender equality (two versions) in two large nationally representative samples of the British population born in 1958 and 1970. In the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) 10,827 participants completed a series of social attitudes items in 1991 at age 33 and again in 2000 at age 42. In 2000 at age 30, 11,114 participants of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70) completed a broadly similar set of items of which 8,906 participants had also completed a shorter version of the same social attitudes questionnaires 4 years earlier in 1996, at age 26. Based on the data from the two cohorts we conducted confirmatory analyses to evaluate the factor structure of the six social attitudes scales using Structural Equation Modelling. In addition we tested the predictive as well as concurrent validity of the scales by establishing associations within the scales across time and their associations with indicators of voting behaviour and political interest. All six attitudes scales have good internal reliability and factorial stability, and external validity, they are robust and consistent over time. The measures also have wide applicability for researchers interested in social attitudes and behaviour in times of social change.     

Similarities and Differences Among the Taiwan,China, and Hong-Kong Versions of the WHOQOL Questionnaire

To facilitate comparison across cultures, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been developing a universal measure of quality of life (QOL) called the WHOQOL Questionnaire. This questionnaire contains 24 facets organized into six broad domains: physical, psychological, level of independence, social relationships, environment, and spirituality/religion/personal beliefs. The standard WHOQOL is designed for cross-cultural comparison. However, to obtain a valid QOL measure that can be applied in diverse populations, cultural adaptation of the WHOQOL has been encouraged. Each culture is permitted to add culture-specific questions, called national items, so that the questionnaire can also reflect cultural attributes. Three Chinese versions of the WHOQOL have been developed for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. National items were selected for each version according to the criteria proposed by the WHOQOL Group. The purpose of this paper is to compare the Taiwan version to the China and Hong Kong versions. The questionnaire development process, response scale generation, psychometric properties (reliability and validity), national items, and population means were all examined. Results indicated that not only is cultural adaptation of WHOQOL measures necessary for individual cultures, but also for sub-cultures, as these differences must be considered in order to provide effective health care and treatment.     

Confirmatory Factor Analysis of Scales Measuring Trust,and Control-Self-efficacy of Young Iranian Women

This study is among the first to assess Trust and Control-Self-efficacy scales as measures of cognitive social capital in transitional societies such as Iran. 391 Iranian young women aged between 18 and 35 years (M 27.3, SD 4.8) were recruited at ten sites in the city of Shiraz by cluster convenience sampling to participate in this cross-sectional study. The measures used included “Trust” and “Control-Self-efficacy” scales adapted from the British General Household Survey social capital survey. Confirmatory factor analysis with Structural Equation Modelling was used to assess the model adequacy. In addition, reliability and validity of the model was measured. After assessing all possible models to yield the best fit for the data, the “Trust” scale model represents a change of structure from three subscales to four subscales which provided a best fit with the data (χ² = 2.231, RMSEA = 0.056). While for “Control-Self-efficacy” scale with three subscales, five items were deleted in order to have a fit model (χ² = 2.128, RMSEA = 0.054). As a result, the collective evidence suggested that the instrument includes relevant items for its target population and can be a reliable and valid measure for the population of interest.