Gambling Screens: Does Shortening the Time Frame Affect their Psychometric Properties?

Gambling screening tools such as the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and a DSM-IV Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS) developed by the National Opinion Research Council have psychometrically validated lifetime and past-year versions. As research questions often dictate shorter time intervals, researchers have adapted the time frames of these instruments to their specific purposes without examining whether changing the time frame affects the psychometric properties. In this study, 3-month versions of SOGS and NODS were administered to a sample of 80 pathological gamblers (59 men, 21 women, mean age 44) seeking treatment at a state-funded facility. The 3-months versions had good internal consistency, good convergent validity with each other, with gambling behaviors assessed via the timeline followback method, and with measures of impulsivity. The 3-month versions also showed good discriminant validity with demographic variables and a measure of verbal IQ. Together the data indicate that shortening the time frame to 3 months does not seem to have adverse effects on the psychometric properties of SOGS and NODS. Thus these adapted versions could profitably be used for shorter time intervals, including as pre/post-treatment and follow-up measures in treatment outcome studies.     

Assessing the Reliability and Validity of the Jump$tart Survey of Financial Literacy

Financial education represents an area of popular interest, owing largely to the Jump$tart surveys of financial literacy. However, while the surveys represent indicators of financial knowledge among high school seniors, these measures have not been statistically validated. This article describes an assessment of the surveys reliability (internal consistency), and validity. It reports a moderately high degree of consistency overall, however, discloses low to moderate internal consistencies among subscales. It also finds significant response differences to one quarter of comparable items between surveys. The researcher observes challenges to affirming the surveys validity and offers statistics suggesting social bias among survey items. He calls for further research into measures of financial literacy.The author appreciates the guidance and support of Dr. Duane Giannangelo, Dr. Jean Steiz, Dr. Lou Franceschini, and Dr. Steven Ross.     

论我国相对集中行政处罚权的合法性

相对集中行政处罚权是我国的一项制度创新,但是这一创新存在着是否合法的问题。从我国的试点城市看,这种相对集中行政处罚权在权力来源、权力行使主体和权力范围等方面与法律存在冲突。为此,在制度创新的同时,我们需要制定配套措施,解决合法性问题,以实现我国法制的统一性。     

Third-grade retention and reading achievement in Texas: A nine year panel study

The academic performance of over 38,000 Texas students who failed the state’s 1994 reading test was examined through their sophomore year in high school. Propensity score matching resulted in strata with retained and promoted students of comparable observed characteristics. Reading scores were analyzed using a two-level hierarchical linear model. Same grade comparisons show that third graders failing the state-mandated reading test who repeated the grade consistently outperformed in later grades the socially promoted children who also failed the third grade test. Additional analyses indicate that alternative explanations for the findings such as omitted variables, regression to the mean, differential panel attrition and cohort effects are not supported. The results are consistent with findings from other recent studies which suggest that grade retention in third grade may help increase student achievement.     

对耻辱刑的理性思考

耻辱刑在古代各国都存在过,后来被认为是不人道、不文明的刑罚而被废除,近来,又在有的地方重现。耻辱刑是诉诸人内心的一种刑罚,因而这种刑罚的主观色彩十分强烈,对这种刑罚反应的个体差异很大。同样的耻辱刑,对不同的人来说,可能意味着轻罪重罚或重罪轻罚。因而,耻辱刑是一种不科学的刑罚类型,对于现代法制文明社会来说是不可取的。     

论求真务实的实践本性

"求真"与"务实"是辩正统一的关系,二者统一于人们的社会实践.因此,在方法论上,坚持求真务实,最重要的就是要积极投身到"求真"与"务实"的实践中去,把求真务实落实到具体的行动上.     

Factor Structure and Reliability of the Advantages of Children Scale with Latino and Caucasian Male Emerging Adults

Abstract

Based on the value of children theory, the purpose of this study was to develop and establish the factor structure and internal consistency reliability of the Advantages of Children Scale (ACS), a self-report measure of a modification of Hoffman and Hoffman’s value scheme of the psychological needs children meet for their parents. Data were collected from 685 emerging adult men identifying as Latino or Caucasian who were not parents. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis found a good fit for the six hypothesized subscales on the ACS: connectedness, expansion of self, family heritage, adult status and social identity, development of self, and family maintenance. We discuss potential applications of the measure in research and practice.     

Investigating the impact of violations of the “left and top means first” heuristic on response behavior and data quality

ABSTRACT

Web surveys are an established data collection mode that use written language to provide information. The written language is accompanied by visual elements, such as presentation formats and shapes. However, research has shown that visual elements influence response behavior because respondents sometimes use interpretive heuristics to make sense of the visual elements. One such heuristic is the ‘left and top means first’ (LTMF) heuristic, which suggests that respondents tend to believe that a response scale consistently runs from left to right or from top to bottom. We conducted a web survey experiment to investigate how violations of the LTMF heuristic affect response behavior and data quality. For this purpose, a random half of respondents received response options that followed a consistent order and the other half received response options that followed an inconsistent order. The results reveal significantly different response distributions between the two groups. We also found that inconsistently ordered response options significantly increase response times and decrease data quality in terms of criterion validity. We, therefore, recommend using options that follow the design strategies of the LTMF heuristic.     

财税政策促进中小微企业发展的有效性分析--以绍兴市为例

中小微企业的发展不管是对就业、创新，还是对经济发展都非常重要，但中小微企业的健康发展也需要政府财税政策的支持。以员工增长率、总资产增长率、销售收入增长率、息税前利润率等四项指标作为财税政策支持中小微企业发展效果的检验变量，以绍兴市的中小微企业为观测样本，通过非参数检验方法论证并证实了不同组别四个检验变量的分布存在显著差异，说明财税政策有效地促进中小微企业发展。