Psychometric validation of the survey of autobiographical memory: confirmatory factor analysis and network analysis

A psychometric network perspective to oral health literacy: Examining the replicability of network properties across the general community and older adults from Brazil

Objectives

To evaluate the replicability of oral health literacy (OHL) network models across the general community and a sample of older adults from Brazil.

Methods

Data were obtained from two oral health surveys conducted with a total of 1138 participants. OHL was measured using the short form Health Literacy in Dentistry scale (HeLD‐14). A regularized partial correlation network was estimated for each sample. Dimensionality and structural stability were examined via exploratory graph analysis. Network properties compared included global strength, edge weights, and centrality estimates. Model replicability was examined fitting the general community model to the older participants' data.

Results

Six dimensions with the exact same item composition were detected in both network models. Only the Receptivity domain in the older adults sample yielded low structural stability. Strong correlations were observed between edge weights (τ: 0.68; 95% CI: 0.62–0.74) and between node strength estimates (τ: 0.63; 95% CI: 0.36–0.89). No statistically significant differences were found for global strength. The fit of the older adults sample to the HeLD‐14 network structure of the general community sample was satisfactory.

Conclusion

Network models OHL replicated across the general community and a sample of older adults. The psychometric network approach is a useful tool to evaluate the measurement equivalence of OHL instruments across populations.

Troubled past: A critical psychometric assessment of the self-report Survey of Autobiographical Memory (SAM)

The Survey of Autobiographical Memory (SAM) was designed as an easy-to-administer measure of self-perceived autobiographical memory (AM) recollection capacity. We provide a comprehensive psychometric evaluation of the SAM in younger and older adults. First, we evaluated the reliability of the SAM as a measure of self-perceived recollective capacity. Next, we tested whether the SAM was a valid measure of episodic and autobiographical memory performance, as assessed with widely used performance-based measures. Finally, we investigated associations between the SAM, cognitive measures and self-reported assessments of psychological functioning. The SAM demonstrated reliability as a self-report measure of perceived recollective capacity. High internal consistency was observed across subscales, with the exception of SAM-semantic. Evidence for independence among the subscales was mixed: SAM-episodic and SAM-semantic items showed poor correspondence with respective subscales. Good correspondence was observed between the future and spatial items and their SAM subscales. The SAM showed limited associations with AM performance as measured by the Autobiographical Interview (AI), yet was broadly associated with self-reported AI event vividness. SAM scores were weakly associated with performance-based memory measures and were age-invariant, inconsistent with known age effects on declarative memory. Converging evidence indicated that SAM-episodic and SAM-semantic subscales are not independent and should not be interpreted as specific measures of episodic or semantic memory. The SAM was robustly associated with self-efficacy, suggesting an association with confidence in domain general self-report abilities. We urge caution in the use and interpretation of the SAM as a measure of AM, pending revision and further psychometric validation.