To Reverse Item Orientation or Not to Reverse Item Orientation, That Is the Question

The reliability and validity of the brief measures of perceived childhood harshness and unpredictability: A revised Chinese version for emerging adults

BACKGROUND

Childhood harshness and unpredictability significantly shape life history strategies, as well as downstream psychological and behavioral patterns. However, prior research involving Chinese populations has suffered from inconsistent metrics and limited measurement items.

OBJECTIVE

We adapted the English version of Maranges et al.'s (2022) Harshness and Unpredictability Scale in Childhood, translating it into Chinese and assessing its reliability and validity.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

Six groups of different college student samples have been collected and the Chinese version of the Harshness and Unpredictability scales has been revised in two separate studies.

METHODS

We evaluated the factor structure using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, determined internal consistency, item discrimination, concurrent validity, and assessed gender measurement invariance through multiple CFAs. The test-retest reliability was subsequently established by assessing participants after a designated interval.

RESULTS

Both scales passed psychometric tests, including exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and exhibited strong internal consistency and item discrimination. Gender invariance in the measurements was also confirmed.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese version of the Childhood Harshness and Unpredictability Scale demonstrates high reliability and validity, making it suitable for deeper examinations into the relationship between early environments and life history strategies in Chinese contexts.

Clarifying the relationship between trait aggression and self-control using random item slope regression

OBJECTIVE

Myriad psychological research evinces a negative association between self-control and aggression with some arguing for self-control failure as a cause of aggression. Recent literature suggests that the relationship between aggression and self-control is likely more complex and even positive in some cases. One source of such conflict in the literature could be the presence of unaccounted for random item slopes in commonly used measures of self-control which may inflate the likelihood of Type I errors. This study (N = 1386) tested the hypothesis that self-control would share random item slopes with the facets of trait aggression using random item slope regression.

METHOD

We measured trait aggression and self-control via two common self-reports: the Buss-Perry Questionnaire and the Brief Self-Control Scale.

RESULTS

Our analyses revealed that the facets of trait aggression shared significant random item slopes with self-control and that many of these slopes were positive, rather than negative. We also found that Type I error inflation was evident in models that did not account for these random slopes.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings may in part explain some of the conflicting results in the literature and that researchers interested in studying self-control and aggression should test for random item slopes.

Psychometric Properties of the Japanese Version of the Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (HELP-J) Using Rasch Analysis: A Preliminary Study

The Health Enhancement Lifestyle Profile (HELP) was an assessment instrument for health-related behaviors and was translated into Japanese (HELP-J) using subjective rating scales. This study investigated the internal validity of the HELP-J using a Rasch analysis. Snowball and purposive sampling were used for data collection. The data obtained from the 109 respondents were subjected to Rasch analysis to assess their internal validity. The rating scale analysis supported a 3-category scale; five of the seven subscales showed unidimensionality. Thus, this study presents essential information on the possibility of translating the original HELP into Japanese and converting it into a unidimensional scale.

Safety climate and safety behaviors: Adapting and validating a positively worded safety climate scale through the time-lagged approach

BACKGROUND

Contemporary literature raises serious questions about the inclusion of negatively worded items in the safety climate scale. Despite these reservations, limited efforts have been made to address this shortcoming.

OBJECTIVE

The present study aims to adapt and empirically validate the ten-items group-level safety climate scale with the purpose of replacing negatively worded items with positively worded ones after a thorough validation process. The present study is one of the first to propose an empirically validated group-level safety climate scale that uses positive items to measure the safety climate construct.

METHODS

Study 1 was conducted using a sample of 135 participants. Study 2 used a time-lagged approach to validate the scale, with a sample of 173 production workers from six oil and gas organizations in Malaysia. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) method was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

RESULTS

In Study 1, the results of the exploratory factor analysis showed good reliability for the revised scale. In Study 2, the results of the PLS-SEM analysis demonstrated a positive relationship between safety climate and safety behaviors, thereby validating the revised and translated scale of safety climate.

CONCLUSION

The revised safety climate scale will not only improve data quality, but it will also increase response rates. Additionally, the revised scale will assist managers in understanding the true perceptions of safety climate in their organization, regardless of the cultural context in which the scale is used.

Suitability of the Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire Short Form for Use among Adults in Their 50s: A Cross-Sectional e-Survey Study

This cross-sectional e-survey study examines the suitability (reliability and validity) of the 12-item Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire Short Form (AAQ-SF) for use among adults in their 50s. The AAQ-SF instrument was originally designed to capture subjective perceptions of physical change, psychosocial loss, and psychological growth by asking people aged 60 and beyond how they feel about growing older. Our sample comprised 517 people residing in three Canadian provinces. Respondents completed the Attitudes to Aging Questionnaire Short Form, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and a short sociodemographic profile. Our findings replicate the original AAQ-SF structure for physical change, psychosocial loss, and psychological growth, with a promising internal consistency range for the third subscale. In our sample, psychological growth is best represented as 'Self' and 'Generativity', with a particularly greater capacity to explain variations in scores for item 18 and item 21. Physical change and psychosocial loss scores strongly differed based on perceived health and chronic illness presence. Psychosocial loss and psychological growth were moderately correlated with two aspects of self-esteem. We relate these patterns of findings within the context of prevailing growth and development theory and their perceived implications within the context of COVID-19 and post-pandemic life.

Comparing the Psychometric Properties of a Scale Across Three Likert and Three Alternative Formats: An Application to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale

Zhang and Savalei proposed an alternative scale format to the Likert format, called the Expanded format. In this format, response options are presented in complete sentences, which can reduce acquiescence bias and method effects. The goal of the current study was to compare the psychometric properties of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) in the Expanded format and in two other alternative formats, relative to several versions of the traditional Likert format. We conducted two studies to compare the psychometric properties of the RSES across the different formats. We found that compared with the Likert format, the alternative formats tend to have a unidimensional factor structure, less response inconsistency, and comparable validity. In addition, we found that the Expanded format resulted in the best factor structure among the three alternative formats. Researchers should consider the Expanded format, especially when creating short psychological scales such as the RSES.

Convergence and Psychometric Properties of Character Strengths Measures: The VIA-IS and the VIA-IS-R

This study compares the German versions of the original measure of character strengths (VIA-IS) with its latest revision (VIA-IS-R) regarding reliability and convergent, discriminant, and criterion-related validity. A sample of 499 German-speaking adults (79% women, mean age: 33.3 years) provided self-reports of character strengths (VIA-IS, VIA-IS-R) and several criteria: Core virtues, thriving, and moral behaviors. Results suggested that both measures showed satisfactory internal consistency and converged well in a multitrait-multimethod analysis. Further, both measures were comparable regarding their relationships with the criteria. Overall, the results of the current study suggest that both questionnaires are reliable and valid, and that findings based on these instruments can be considered highly comparable.