Balanced and positively worded personality short-forms: Mini-IPIP validity and cross-cultural invariance

Testing the latent structure, factorial equivalence, and external correlates of the brief self-control scale in a community sample of Spanish adults

The Brief Self-Control Scale (BSCS) is a 13-item personality measure capturing how people differ in their capacity to exert self-control. Although the BSCS was originally regarded as a one-dimensional scale, subsequent psychometric studies have provided support for the empirical distinction of two and four interrelated but distinct components of self-control. Using a large sample of Spanish adults (n = 1,558; 914 female, 58.7%), we performed a comprehensive data-driven comparison of the most well-established item-level latent structures for the BSCS. Results showed that the differentiation between general self-discipline and impulse control offered a better fit to the observed data than did the unidimensional representation of self-control. This two-dimensional structure for the BSCS scores was also supported in terms of its internal consistency, measurement invariance across gender and age groups, and meaningful correlations with wellbeing-related indicators and Big Five personality traits. Plausible implications of these findings are discussed.

The Dark Tetrad: analysis of profiles and relationship with the Big Five personality factors

The Dark Tetrad (DT) is composed of the traits of Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Psychopathy, and Sadism. Most studies analyzing the DT have employed a variable-centered approach, analyzing the traits separately. In the present study, we treat DT as a whole, adopting a person-centered approach. We analyzed different homogeneous subgroups of individuals characterized by specific DT profiles, aiming to examine their relationship with Big Five personality factors. A sample of 1149 participants (50.1% women, 18-79 years) completed The Short Dark Triad and the Assessment of Sadistic Personality instrument to assess DT, while the Mini-IPIP was used to assess the Big Five personality factors. Cluster analysis yielded five groups: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, Mean DT, Low DT, and High DT group. The main results showed that the High DT group was distinguished by higher levels of extraversion and lower levels of agreeableness and conscientiousness (compared with the Low DT group). Moreover, the Narcissism group was characterized by higher scores on emotional stability, openness to experience, and extraversion. Finally, distribution according to gender varied across DT groups (more men than women in the High DT group and the opposite in the Low DT group). Limitations and future lines of research are discussed.

Dark Triad Personality Traits, Second-to-Forth Digit Ratio (2D:4D) and Circulating Testosterone and Cortisol Levels

INTRODUCTION

Dark Triad (DT) personality traits (psychopathy, Machiavellianism, and narcissism) show sex differences and associations with hormones. Understanding aetiology may assist in mitigating the harm of these potentially adverse characteristics. Low second-to-fourth digit ratio (2D:4D) is hypothesised to be a marker of high prenatal testosterone exposure and may provide important information about organisational hormones. The aim of the present study was to measure Dark Triad and Big 5 personality traits in relation to digit ratio, salivary testosterone, and cortisol.

METHODS

A non-clinical sample (N=268; 49.25% Female, age M25.20 ± 8.77yrs) completed the Short Dark Triad and International Personality Inventory Pool - Mini. Afternoon saliva was analysed for testosterone and cortisol, and 2D:4D finger ratios were measured.

RESULTS

Males scored higher on DT traits than females. Females scored higher on Big 5 agreeableness and neuroticism. Males had higher testosterone and cortisol levels and lower 2D:4D than females. Digit ratio correlated inversely with salivary testosterone, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Testosterone levels correlated positively with cortisol levels and psychopathy and negatively with agreeableness, neuroticism, and Machiavellianism.

CONCLUSIONS

These results provide indications that Machiavellianism and psychopathy (Dark Triad) traits, but not narcissism or Big 5 traits, are linked to markers of prenatal testosterone exposure. Results also replicate sex differences seen in 2D:4D digit ratios, with males having a shorter second-relative-to-forth finger. Links between circulating testosterone, digit ratios, cortisol and personality traits provide further information about potential biological bases of personality.

Deploying a robotic positive psychology coach to improve college students' psychological well-being

Despite the increase in awareness and support for mental health, college students' mental health is reported to decline every year in many countries. Several interactive technologies for mental health have been proposed and are aiming to make therapeutic service more accessible, but most of them only provide one-way passive contents for their users, such as psycho-education, health monitoring, and clinical assessment. We present a robotic coach that not only delivers interactive positive psychology interventions but also provides other useful skills to build rapport with college students. Results from our on-campus housing deployment feasibility study showed that the robotic intervention showed significant association with increases in students' psychological well-being, mood, and motivation to change. We further found that students' personality traits were associated with the intervention outcomes as well as their working alliance with the robot and their satisfaction with the interventions. Also, students' working alliance with the robot was shown to be associated with their pre-to-post change in motivation for better well-being. Analyses on students' behavioral cues showed that several verbal and nonverbal behaviors were associated with the change in self-reported intervention outcomes. The qualitative analyses on the post-study interview suggest that the robotic coach's companionship made a positive impression on students, but also revealed areas for improvement in the design of the robotic coach. Results from our feasibility study give insight into how learning users' traits and recognizing behavioral cues can help an AI agent provide personalized intervention experiences for better mental health outcomes.

Is the Predisposition to Have More Children Beneficial among Parents with Only One Child? Evidence from Spanish Parents

The fertility deficit in many European countries is related to a low rate of second births. Understanding the factors associated with the predisposition of one-child parents to have more children could contribute to the search for solutions to this social problem. Although previous evidence highlights the role of employment and social factors, psychological factors have been poorly investigated. This study examines the relationship between different psychosocial factors (rumination, personality, life satisfaction, perfectionism, social support, parental stress, guilt linked to work–family conflict, age and child temperament) and parents’ predisposition to have more children. The sample consisted of 96 one-child Spanish parents whose child was in early childhood education (59.3% women; M_age = 37.41). The results show that one-child parents with the predisposition to have more children, compared to those without a predisposition to have more children, showed higher levels of life satisfaction, extroversion and adaptive perfectionism but lower levels of rumination and parental stress. The social implications of these findings and how they may affect parenting today are discussed.

Assessing Satisfaction With Online Courses: Spanish Version of the Learner Satisfaction Survey

The aim of this study was to develop a Spanish version of the Learner Satisfaction Survey (LSS-S) and to analyze its psychometric properties. The questionnaire was administered to a sample of 1,194 university students. Validity evidence based on the instrument's internal structure and on relationships with other variables (personality and motivation) were analyzed. In addition, reliability of test scores and differences by gender and area of knowledge were examined. The results revealed a factor structure with adequate fit indices based on five first-order factors (learner-content, learner-instructor, learner-learner, and learner-technology interactions, and general satisfaction) and one second-order factor (total score for academic satisfaction). Scores on the LSS-S were positively correlated with scores on conscientiousness, intrinsic motivation, and identified regulation, and negatively correlated with scores on neuroticism and amotivation. Although the magnitude of correlations with personality traits was small, those with motivational factors were moderate or strong. Reliability of LSS-S factor scores may be considered satisfactory, with McDonald's omega ranging from 0.80 to 0.86. These results indicate that the LSS-S has satisfactory psychometric properties and that it is an adequate tool for measuring satisfaction with online courses among Spanish learners in higher education.

Serious game to promote socioemotional learning and mental health (emoTIC): a study protocol for randomised controlled trial

INTRODUCTION

The development of emotional competences may be a protective factor for mental health problems, promoting well-being at such a complex age as adolescence. Technologies may be used to carry out this empowerment because adolescents are attracted to them. The purpose of the study is to design a serious game based on the Mayer et al's emotional intelligence ability model and analyse the effectiveness of the emoTIC programme to develop emotional competences, well-being, mental health, and personal strengths immediately after completion and at 12 months.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

The new version of emoTIC will be designed following the suggestions of the adolescents who participated in the pilot study and the results obtained from the statistical analysis. The participants will be 385 adolescents aged 11-16 years who will be randomly assigned to the control group and the experimental group. The experimental group will complete the emoTIC programme. The primary outcomes include emotional competences and subjective well-being. The secondary outcomes are self-esteem; general self-efficacy; personality; social and personal responsibility; school social climate; somatic complaints; depression, anxiety and stress symptoms; emotional and behavioural difficulties; suicidal behaviour; and subjective happiness. Data will be collected at three moments: baseline (T1), immediately post-intervention (T2) and 12-month follow-up (T3). The effectiveness of the programme will be analysed using different statistical packages.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

The study has been approved by the Ethics Commission of the University of Valencia (H152865096049), and the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki to collect the data will be followed. Results will be disseminated across the scientific community.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

ClinicalTrials.gov Registry (NCT04414449).

TRIAL SPONSOR

University of Valencia. Principal investigator: Inmaculada Montoya-Castilla.

Psychometric Validation of the Spanish Gaming Disorder Test (GDT): Item Response Theory and Measurement Invariance Analysis

Gaming Disorder (GD) has been recently added to the eleventh revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) by the World Health Organization (WHO), as such, psychometrically sound psychological measures are required to assess this disorder. The objective of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Spanish Gaming Disorder Test (GDT) by assessing its dimensionality, reliability, convergent validity, and associations with other variables of importance through polytomous Item Response Theory (IRT) and Measurement Invariance (MI) analysis across genders. To achieve this, a sample of 538 gamers (42.94% female, meanage = 23.29 years, SD = 7.24) was recruited. The results obtained supported a one-factor structure for the Spanish GDT with adequate reliability and convergent validity. Furthermore, satisfactory goodness of fit in the partial credit model (PCM) with more precise scores at high trait levels to assess GD was found, and strict invariance across genders was supported. These findings attest to the suitability of the Spanish GDT for clinical assessment and research on disordered gaming beyond community samples.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11469-021-00704-x.

The Moderating Role of Extroversion and Neuroticism in the Relationship between Autonomy at Work, Burnout, and Job Satisfaction

The main aim of this research project was to determine the relationship that exists between autonomy at work and both burnout and job satisfaction, taking into account the moderating effect of the personality factors extroversion and neuroticism. The study was carried out with 971 volunteers (553 women and 418 men) with a mean age of 37.58 years. The majority had either a university degree (485 participants) or higher education qualifications (Spanish baccalaureate) (202 participants). The following instruments were administered: the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), to measure burnout among participants; the Mini International Personality Item Pool Scale (Mini-IPIP) by Donnellan, Oswald, Baird, and Lucas (2006) to measure the personality factors extroversion and neuroticism; the Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction (BIAJS) by Thompson and Phua (2012); and the Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ) by Karasek (1985) to measure autonomy at work. The results obtained indicate that those who enjoy greater autonomy at work have lower levels of emotional exhaustion. The stronger the effect is, the higher the score for extroversion. The personality factors studied were not found to have a direct influence on the criterion variables. However, the interaction effects were significant, except in the case of neuroticism. The results indicate that there are no differences between those who score highly for extroversion and neuroticism and the rest of the population in terms of predicting emotional exhaustion or job satisfaction. The present study aims to serve as a guideline for recruitment specialists, business owners, and job designers, encouraging them to take into account all these variables in order to foster the development of healthy and competitive organizations. Environmental moderators that could interfere with the result have not been introduced in this research. It has focused on the study of the personality factors of the workers, considering that the professional functions performed by the workers were similar.

The Spanish Version of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF): Further Examination Using Item Response Theory

Internet gaming disorder (IGD) has been recognized by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) as a tentative disorder in the latest (fifth) revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). However, psychometric evaluation of the nine IGD criteria remains necessary to further enhance its assessment. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale-Short Form (IGDS9-SF). The internal structure, internal consistency, temporal stability, and relationships with other variables were assessed. Furthermore, a polytomous item response theory (IRT) approach was used to evaluate the performance of each item and the test as a whole. A sample of 388 online gamers (53.61% women, mean age 25.45 years, standard deviation (SD) = 9.62) was recruited for this study. Similar to previous research, the results supported a one-factor structure for the IGDS9-SF, adequate internal consistency and temporal stability of scores, goodness of fit of the items to the graded response model (GRM), and more precise scores at high trait levels to assess IGD in Spanish populations. These findings corroborate the suitability of the Spanish IGDS9-SF for clinical assessment and research within Spanish-speaking populations.

Advances in the assessment of self-determination: internal structure of a scale for people with intellectual disabilities aged 11 to 40

BACKGROUND

Advances in theoretical frameworks of self-determination require the development of new assessment instruments. This study examines the dimensional structure of a self-determination scale and analyses the factorial invariance of its measurement across age and gender.

METHOD

The AUTODDIS Scale was used to assess the self-determination of 541 people with intellectual disabilities aged from 11 to 40.

RESULTS

Different models (correlational and hierarchical structures) of the scale were tested. The correlational model obtained from the exploratory structural equation model approach provided the best fit for the data. The results also supported measurement invariance across youths (aged 11 to 21 years) and adults (aged 21 to 40 years) and across genders.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to international research on self-determination and the development of assessment tools in this field, offering a better understanding of this multifaceted and complex construct. The results provide construct validity evidence regarding a new measurement tool tested across people aged 11 to 40, using information from third parties. However, further research is needed to explore the best ways to understand and assess the different factors related to self-determination.

The study of Positive and Negative Affect in children and adolescents: New advances in a Spanish version of the PANAS

The study of affective disorders among young population has become increasingly relevant in the last years. The PANAS is a widely used questionnaire devoted to assess positive and negative affect. The main purpose of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the PANAS for children (PANAS). The sample consisted of 1032 children and adolescents aged between 10 and 15 years. The ESEM two factor model (Positive Affect and Negative Affect) was found as the most suitable model. The PANAS scores also showed acceptable internal consistency. The ESEM two factor model was invariant across gender and educational level. Results showed statistically significant differences in the latent mean scores with females scoring higher than males in and younger students scoring lower in PA. Positive and negative affect were related with external variables of well-being. The present psychometric study supports the PANAS as a brief and useful tool for the screening of PA and NA in children and adolescents.