Internal Consistency Estimates Research Articles

Factor Structure of the Sexual Risk Survey Among U.S. College Students with and without ADHD: Assessing Clinical Utility with a High-Risk Population.

Young adults, particularly college students, report a higher prevalence of risky sexual behavior than the general population, increasing their likelihood for unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and negative psychological outcomes. Although sexual risk behavior and its consequences are a major public health concern, current prevention literature is insufficient and relies on sexual risk measures with limited psychometric support. The present study, therefore, examined the psychometric properties of a sexual risk survey (SRS; Turchik, Garske, in Arch Sex Behav 38:936-948, 2009), using data from the first year of a longitudinal study following the outcomes of college students with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; N = 410). Principal components analyses were conducted to assess the factorial structure of the SRS comparing results from a general college population and a college population considered to be high-risk (ADHD). Results revealed four components across both samples. Internal consistency estimates for component scores and total scores ranged from .627 to 918. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future studies are advanced.

Initial Construction and Validation of the Identity Shifting for Black Women Scale

In this study, we aimed to develop and validate the Identity Shifting for Black Women Scale (ISBWS), which assesses the process of altering one’s speech, perceptions, behaviors, and appearance to navigate experiences of discrimination and to enhance intraracial relationships. In Study 1, data from 356 Black women in the United States were used for exploratory factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis results supported a 15-item, two-factor solution that captured the following domains: (a) Navigating Gendered Racial Oppressive Contexts and (b) Enhancing Intraracial Relationships. In Study 2, confirmatory factor analyses were performed with data from 289 United States Black women. Confirmatory factor analyses tested a unidimensional correlated traits model, a two-factor correlated traits model, and a bifactor model. The bifactor model provided optimal fit, and internal consistency estimates for scores on the ISBWS subscales were good. The ISBWS’ construct validity was supported given its association with related measures of shifting and gendered racial microaggressions. The ISBWS also accounted for additional variance in Black women’s anxiety symptoms over and above an existing shifting measure. Our findings support the added value of the ISBWS in understanding Black women’s multifaceted experiences and can be used to inform interventions aimed to maximize the benefits and reduce the costs of shifting among Black women.

Evaluation of a modified and abbreviated scale for assessing chronic illness care for medication therapy management practice.

The central goals of MTM align with those of the Chronic Care Model (CCM). However, reliable and valid assessments are needed to estimate the extent to which components of MTM care delivery are consistent with the CCM. The Assessment of Chronic Illness Care (ACIC) is a 34-item scale for administration in primary care offices to estimate the extent to which chronic care delivery aligns with the six elements of the CCM. The ACIC appears to be responsive for care delivery interventions aimed at improving various chronic illnesses. However, the potential value of the ACIC as a measure for evaluating MTM delivery is unknown. A modified and abbreviated version of the ACIC could be a useful evaluation tool for pharmacist-provided medication therapy management (MTM). The objective of this study was to assess the construct and criterion-related validity, and internal consistency, of the abbreviated (12-item) "MTM ACIC." The abbreviated MTM ACIC was administered to pharmacists employed at 27,560 community pharmacies. Construct validity and internal consistency were estimated through principal components analysis, item-to-total correlations, and Cronbach's alpha estimate of internal consistency. To assess criterion-related validity, a univariate negative binomial model estimated the association between ACIC scores and pharmacy-level MTM completion rates. A one-component model accounted for 64% of the variance, and Cronbach's alpha was 0.95. Scores on the abbreviated MTM ACIC were associated with MTM completion rates (rate ratio: 1.02; 95% CI: 1.01 to 1.03). The abbreviated MTM ACIC exhibited acceptable construct and criterion-related validity and internal consistency and could serve as a valuable tool for evaluating chronic illness care within the MTM setting.

Can Food and Beverage Advertising Questionnaire Predict Overweight and Obesity in Children and Adolescents from Low- and Middle-Income Countries?

Background: Information about the reliability and validity of questionnaires in low- and middle-income countries remains scarce. Objective: To test the reliability and predictive validity of a food and beverage marketing/advertising questionnaire for South American children and adolescents. Methods: A sample of 330 children (3-10 years old) and 215 adolescents (11-18 years old) was included from seven South American cities: Buenos Aires, Lima, Medellín, Montevideo, Santiago, Sao Paulo, and Teresina. The questionnaire consisted of seven questions about food and beverage marketing/advertising and decision influence. We assessed the reliability using temporal stability (2-week interval) and internal consistency. We assessed the predictive validity based on the risk of excess weight. Results: In children, reliability agreement from κ coefficients ranged from 63.7% to 86.3%, and Cronbach's α (internal consistency estimate) ranged from 0.14 to 0.75. In adolescents, the reliability agreement ranged from 78.9% to 85.7%, and Cronbach's α ranged from 0.14 to 0.76. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two factors for both age groups. The predictive probabilities for excess weight ranged from 22.3% to 61.1% in children and from 24.9% to 64.1% in adolescents. Conclusions: The screen/marketing media questionnaire is a reliable and valid measure for the pediatric population from low- and middle-income countries. This subjective tool provides a feasible screening measure for the influence of advertising on children and adolescents at risk of overweight and obesity.

Body Gaze as a Marker of Sexual Objectification: A New Scale for Pervasive Gaze and Gaze Provocation Behaviors in Heterosexual Women and Men

Body gaze behavior is assumed to be a key feature of sexual objectification. However, there are few self-report gaze measures available and none capturing behavior which seeks to invite body gaze from others. Across two studies, we used existing self-report instruments and measurement of eye movements to validate a new self-report scale to measure pervasive body gaze behavior and body gaze provocation behavior in heterosexual women and men. In Study 1, participants (N = 1021) completed a survey with newly created items related to pervasive body gaze and body gaze provocation behavior. Participants also completed preexisting measures of body attitudes, sexual assault attitudes, pornography use, and relationship status. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses across independent samples suggested a 12-item scale for men and women to separately measure pervasive body gaze (5 items) and body gaze provocation (7 items) toward the opposite sex. The two scales yielded excellent internal consistency estimates (.86–.89) and promising convergent validity via positive correlations with body and sexual attitudes. In Study 2, a subsample (N = 167) of participants from Study 1 completed an eye-tracking task to capture their gaze behavior toward matched images of partially and fully dressed female and male subjects. Men exhibited body-biased gaze behavior toward all the female imagery, whereas women exhibited head-biased gaze behavior toward fully clothed male imagery. Importantly, self-reported body gaze correlated positively with some aspects of objectively measured body gaze behavior. Both scales showed good test–retest reliability and were positively correlated with sexual assault attitudes.

Test-retest reliability of the HEXACO-100-And the value of multiple measurements for assessing reliability.

Despite the widespread use of the HEXACO model as a descriptive taxonomy of personality traits, there remains limited information on the test-retest reliability of its commonly-used inventories. Studies typically report internal consistency estimates, such as alpha or omega, but there are good reasons to believe that these do not accurately assess reliability. We report 13-day test-retest correlations of the 100- and 60-item English HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised (HEXACO-100 and HEXACO-60) domains, facets, and items. In order to test the validity of test-retest reliability, we then compare these estimates to correlations between self- and informant-reports (i.e., cross-rater agreement), a widely-used validity criterion. Median estimates of test-retest reliability were .88, .81, and .65 (N = 416) for domains, facets, and items, respectively. Facets' and items' test-retest reliabilities were highly correlated with their cross-rater agreement estimates, whereas internal consistencies were not. Overall, the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised demonstrates test-retest reliability similar to other contemporary measures. We recommend that short-term retest reliability should be routinely calculated to assess reliability.

Whose responsibility?\xa0Part 1 of 2: A\xa0scale to assess how stakeholders apportion responsibilities for addressing the needs of persons with mental health problems

BackgroundIndividuals with mental health problems have multiple, often inadequately met needs. Responsibility for meeting these needs frequently falls to patients, their families/caregivers, and governments. Little is known about stakeholders' views of who should be responsible for these needs and there are no measures to assess this construct. This study’s objectives were to present the newly designed Whose Responsibility Scale (WRS), which assesses how stakeholders apportion responsibility to persons with mental health problems, their families, and the government for addressing various needs of persons with mental health problems, and to report its psychometric properties.MethodsThe 22-item WRS asks respondents to assign relative responsibility to the government versus persons with mental health problems, government versus families, and families versus persons with mental health problems for seven support needs. The items were modelled on a World Values Survey item comparing the government’s and people’s responsibility for ensuring that everyone is provided for. We administered English, Tamil, and French versions to 57 patients, 60 family members, and 27 clinicians at two early psychosis programs in Chennai, India, and Montreal, Canada, evaluating test–retest reliability, internal consistency, and ease of use. Internal consistency estimates were also calculated for confirmatory purposes with the larger samples from the main comparative study.ResultsTest–retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficients) generally ranged from excellent to fair across stakeholders (patients, families, and clinicians), settings (Montreal and Chennai), and languages (English, French, and Tamil). In the standardization and larger confirmatory samples, internal consistency estimates (Cronbach’s alphas) ranged from acceptable to excellent. The WRS scored average on ease of comprehension and completion. Scores were spread across the 1–10 range, suggesting that the scale captured variations in views on how responsibility for meeting needs should be distributed. On select items, scores at one end of the scale were never endorsed, but these reflected expected views about specific needs (e.g., Chennai patients never endorsed patients as being substantially more responsible for housing needs than families).ConclusionsThe WRS is a promising measure for use across geo-cultural contexts to inform mental health policies, and to foster dialogue and accountability among stakeholders about roles and responsibilities. It can help researchers study stakeholders’ views about responsibilities, and how these shape and are shaped by sociocultural contexts and mental healthcare systems.

Çok Boyutlu Bedensel Farkındalık Değerlendirmesi-2 Ölçeği: Dermatoloji Polikliniğine Başvuran Hastalarda Türkçe Geçerlilik ve Güvenilirlik Çalışması

Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the Turkish validity and reliability study of the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness-2 (MAIA-2) Scale for dermatology patients. Material and Methods: The MAIA-2 Scale is a 37-item developed originally in English. A total of 390 patients, 244 (62.5%) females and 146 (37.5%) males diagnosed with the various dermatological disease, admitted to the dermatology clinic between May 2021 and October 2021 were included in the study. The MAIA-2 has been translated into Turkish. In addition, we conducted exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis to analyze the MAIA-2. For reliability analyses, internal structure consistency and test-retest reliability were measured. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated as an estimation of internal consistency. For test-retest reliability, the scale was administered to 30 patients twice, at the beginning and 2 weeks later. Test-retest reliability was statistically evaluated with the Pearson correlation test. Results: The mean age of the patients was found to be 33.50±15.04 (18-60) years in the study. The internal consistency of the scale (Cronbach's alpha coefficient) was found to be 0.944. The correlation coefficient was calculated as r=0.884 in the test-retest reliability. The total MAIA-2 score was 105.34±30.05 (mean±standard deviation). Conclusion: The Turkish version of the MAIA-2 Scale was valid and reliable for Turkish dermatology patients.

The Swedish Version of the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being: First Results From Swedish Students.

Background: Studies investigating the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and mental health have suggested both positive and negative associations, highlighting the importance of multifaceted assessment of these rather broad constructs. The present study aims at contributing to this field of research by providing a validated Swedish version of the Multidimensional Inventory for Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (MI-RSWB-S) and further examining how this instrument relates to Big Five personality factors, Sense of Coherence (SOC), and religiosity.Methods: Data were collected from a total of 1,011 Swedish students (747 females; age range 18–40) via completion of an online survey, including a new Swedish Version of the MI-RSWB-S, the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), the Sense of Coherence Scale (SOC-13), and the Centrality of Religiosity Scale (CRS-5).Results: Results revealed adequate estimates of internal consistency and substantial evidence for the postulated six-dimensional structure. However, confirmatory factor analysis yielded poor fit indices, resulting in the development and validation of a revised measure of Religious/Spiritual Well-Being (RSWB), comprising the subscales General Religiosity and Connectedness. Most of the MI-RSWB-S dimensions were positively correlated with the personality domains Extraversion, Openness to Experience, Conscientiousness, and Agreeableness and negatively related to Neuroticism. SOC was positively linked to Hope Immanent, Forgiveness, Hope Transcendent, and Experiences of Sense of Meaning, whereas CRS exhibited positive correlations with all MI-RSWB-S subscales except Hope Transcendent.Conclusion: The findings of the current study support the validity and reliability of the Swedish adoption of the MI-RSWB and confirm previously reported associations with the Big Five personality traits, SOC, and CRS. More in general, our results underline the putative substantial link between RSWB dimensions and mental health. Further research especially in clinical surroundings as well as by employing more representative samples is now warranted.

Career Adapt-Abilities Scale-Short Form: Validation for Use in India

The Career Adapt-Abilities Scale (CAAS) is popular among researchers and validated in many countries but has not yet been tested for the Indian context. This study examined the CAAS Short Form (CAAS-SF) among a sample of Indian business school students. The CAAS-SF consists of four subscales, each with three items measuring concern, control, curiosity and confidence as psychosocial resources. A sample of 369 Indian business-school students with human resource management as major participated in the scale validation process. The internal consistency estimates for the subscales and total scores were found to be comparable or better than previous CAAS-SF assessments. Based on this study’s findings, the CAAS-SF appears to be appropriate for measuring career adaptability resources in Indian business school students.

Gifted Education’s Legacy of High Stakes Ability Testing: Using Measures for Identification That Perpetuate Inequity

ABSTRACT In this article, we reviewed how intelligence tests were developed and normed, with a careful eye to underserved groups. Based on state recommendations, five group-administered and five individually-administered tests were reviewed for demographics; invariance testing; validity and reliability reporting; and gifted identification suitability. We found only one test included Indigenous youth in their sample; only one test reported racial group means; only two provided internal consistency estimates for different subgroups; and only four reported group invariance testing. Therefore, we concluded that tests developed on samples that omit those to which results are applied, or tests that are developed without regard to how the test functions across different groups should not be used to make high stakes decisions about gifted identification.

Psychometric Testing of a Theory-Based Measure to Evaluate Clinical Performance of Nursing Students.

The aim of this study was to psychometrically test a clinical evaluation tool that measures instructors' gut feelings for placing students on a learning contract. Evaluators feel unprepared or hesitant to fail students who do not meet professional and clinical expectations. A multiphase process was used to determine the reliability and validity of the Gut Feelings Scale. The first phase focused on item generation, the second phase focused on content validity and feedback from expert raters, and the third phase focused on psychometric evaluation to streamline the item pool and explore validity. Correlations and descriptive statistics for each subscale were calculated. Reliability analyses revealed relatively strong estimates of internal consistency; specifically, the reliability estimates surpassed our criteria of >.70. This pilot study established the validity and reliability of the scale and found it to be a reliable tool to guide instructors' evaluative decision-making.

Instrument development and validation of the comprehensive ability of older people assessment scale.

AimThe study is aimed to develop and psychometrically test the Comprehensive Ability of Older People Assessment scale and classify the ability grades.DesignA cross‐sectional design was used for instrument development.MethodThe Comprehensive Ability of Older People Assessment scale was developed by a sample of 971 older people from 4 long‐term care institutions in China. The data were collected between April 2018 and March 2020. One‐way analysis of variance and multiple regression analysis was used to screen scale items, while focus group interviews were used to integrate the subjective and objective items. Confirmative factor analysis and expert judgment were applied to explore construct validity. Reliability was explored through internal consistency estimation using Cronbach's alpha and homogeneity evaluation using corrected item‐total correlations. Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis were used to segment the comprehensive ability assessment scores and discriminant function was established to determine the boundary value of each segment, using correlation analysis to perform reverse verification.ResultsFactor analysis yielded 40 items with six dimensions, including “mentation and cognitive,” “perception and communication,” “emotional problems,” “mental and behavioural problems,” “daily life and social participation,” and “skin and oral status.” The Cronbach's α was 0.951, while the dimensions showed Cronbach's α values ranging from 0.760–0.946. The rationality and scientificity of this scale were proved by the correlation analysis of reverse validation.ConclusionThe 4‐grade Comprehensive Ability of Older People Assessment scale is proved to be with good validity and reliability and should be considered for institutional assessors.ImpactAssessors can accurately evaluate older people's health status and nursing needs through this scale in long‐term care institutions, communities and hospitals, so as to provide accurate and high‐quality nursing services. It will become a scientific basis for the government to offer accurate pension subsidies, purchase pension services scientifically for older people and establish third‐party objective evaluation and supervision.

Reliability of the Urinary Symptom Questionnaires for people with neurogenic bladder (USQNB)who void or use indwelling catheters.

Study Design:Descriptive Psychometrics StudyObjectives:Neurogenic lower urinary tract dysfunction (NLUTD) is a common and disruptive condition in a variety of neurologic diagnoses. Our team developed patient-centered instruments, Urinary Symptom Questionnaires for people with neurogenic bladder (USQNB), specific to people with NLUTD who manage their bladders with intermittent catheterization (IC), indwelling catheters (IDC), or who void (V). This article reports evidence of reliability of the IDC and V instruments.Setting:Online surveys completed by individuals in the United States with NLUTD due to spinal cord injury (SCI), or multiple sclerosis (MS) who manage their bladder with indwelling catheters (SCI, n=306), or by voiding (SCI, n=103; MS, n=383).Methods:Reliability estimates were based on endorsement of the items on the USQNB-IDC and USQNB-V. Reliability evidence was: representativeness of these symptoms for a national sample (by determining if endorsement>10%); internal consistency estimates (by Cronbach’s alpha and item correlation coefficient, ICC); and interrelatedness of the items (by inferred Bayesian Network). We also tested whether a one-factor conceptualization of “urinary symptoms in NLUTD” was supportable for either instrument.Results:All items were endorsed by >20% of our samples. Urine quality symptoms tended to be the most commonly endorsed on both instruments. Cronbach’s alpha and ICC estimates were high (>.74) but not suggestive of redundancy. Bayesian Networks showed interpretable associations among the items, and did not discover uninterpretable or unexpected associations. Neither instrument fit a one-factor model, as expected.Conclusions:The USQNB-IDC and USQNB-V instruments show sufficient, multi-dimensional reliability for implementation and further study.

Internal consistency and test-retest reliability of an affective task-switching paradigm.

Affective flexibility refers to the flexible adaptation of behavior or thought given emotionally relevant stimuli, tasks, or contexts, and has been associated with the efficiency of emotion regulation and dealing with stress and adversity. Experimentally, individual differences in affective flexibility have been measured as behavioral costs (response times, errors rates) of switching between affective and neutral tasks. However, behavioral task measures can only be treated as trait-like characteristics if they have sufficient psychometric quality. We report an analysis of the test-retest reliability (interval 2 weeks) as well as internal consistencies of behavioral switch costs measured in an affective task-switching paradigm. This paradigm elicits strong response time switch costs for both tasks, but higher when switching to the emotion than to the gender task. These "asymmetric switch costs" suggest dominance of the emotional task rule. Reliability analyses indicated excellent internal consistency estimates (Spearman-Brown corrected r = .92 for both switch directions) and good test-retest reliabilities (ICC(2,1) of .78 and .82, respectively) for response time-based switch costs. Effect sizes and reliability estimates were substantially lower for switch costs calculated from error rates, which is consistent with previous literature discussing the psychometric properties of task-based cognitive measures. Reliability measures were lower but still acceptable for valence-specific response time-based switch costs, potentially due to lower trial numbers per cell when increasing granularity of the analysis. In conclusion, our results indicate that response time-based affective switch costs are well-suited as individual differences measure, and thus may be a valuable proxy for assessing affective flexibility. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The viability of the frequency following response characteristics for use as biomarkers of cognitive therapeutics in schizophrenia

Deficits in early auditory information processing contribute to cognitive and psychosocial disability; this has prompted development of interventions that target low-level auditory processing, which may alleviate these disabilities. The frequency following response (FFR) is a constellation of event-related potential and frequency characteristics that reflect the processing of acoustic stimuli at the level of the brainstem and ascending portions of the auditory pathway. While FFR is a promising candidate biomarker of response to auditory-based cognitive training interventions, the psychometric properties of FFR in schizophrenia patients have not been studied. Here we assessed the psychometric reliability and magnitude of group differences across 18 different FFR parameters to determine which of these parameters demonstrate adequate internal consistency. Electroencephalography from 40 schizophrenia patients and 40 nonpsychiatric comparison subjects was recorded during rapid presentation of an auditory speech stimulus (6000 trials). Patients showed normal response amplitudes but longer latencies for most FFR peaks and lower signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) than healthy subjects. Analysis of amplitude and latency estimates of peaks, however, indicated a need for a substantial increase in task length to obtain internal consistency estimates above 0.80. In contrast, excellent internal consistency (>0.95) was shown for FFR sustained responses. Only SNR scores reflecting the FFR sustained response yielded significant group differences and excellent internal consistency, suggesting that this measure is a viable candidate for use in clinical treatment studies. The present study highlights the use of internal consistency estimates to select FFR characteristics for use in future intervention studies interested in individual differences among patients.

Alcohol-related attentional biases in recently detoxified inpatients with severe alcohol use disorder: an eye-tracking approach

BackgroundDominant theoretical models consider that attentional biases (AB) towards alcohol-related stimuli play a key role in the development and maintenance of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Their assessment has however showed high inconsistencies and has been mostly based on unreliable behavioral measures. This study evaluated the presence and extent of alcohol-related AB in recently detoxified inpatients with severe AUD by combining the visual probe task (VPT) paradigm with eye-tracking measures, known to improve the VPT reliability in subclinical populations. MethodsWe recruited 24 patients and 27 matched healthy controls. They performed the VPT (measuring reaction time when processing visual targets preceded by alcoholic and matched non-alcoholic pictures) combined with eye-tracking measures (dwell time, first fixation direction/duration, second fixation direction) during two sessions. Estimates of internal consistency, split-half reliability, and test-retest reliability were measured. ResultsPatients showed shorter dwell time for alcohol cues (p = .004, d=.853) and reduced number of fixations towards alcohol after a first fixation on non-alcohol cues (p = .012, d=.758) compared to controls. These findings suggest the presence of alcohol-related avoidance AB in detoxified patients with severe AUD. The VPT achieved excellent reliability for these eye-tracking measures. Reaction times and first fixation measures did not indicate any AB pattern and showed poor reliability. ConclusionsThe VPT, when combined with dwell time and second fixation direction, constitutes a reliable method for assessing AB in detoxified patients. It showed the presence of an alcohol-related avoidance bias in this clinical population, in contradiction with the approach bias predicted by theoretical models.

Data quality and reliability metrics for event-related potentials (ERPs): The utility of subject-level reliability

Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) represent direct measures of neural activity that are leveraged to understand cognitive, affective, sensory, and motor processes. Every ERP researcher encounters the obstacle of determining whether measurements are precise or psychometrically reliable enough for an intended purpose. In this primer, we review three types of measurements metrics: data quality, group-level internal consistency, and subject-level internal consistency. Data quality estimates characterize the precision of ERP scores but provide no inherent information about whether scores are precise enough for examining individual differences. Group-level internal consistency characterizes the ratio of between-person differences to the precision of those scores, and provides a single internal consistency estimate for an entire group of participants that risks masking low internal consistency for some individuals. Subject-level internal consistency considers the precision of an ERP score for a person relative to between-person differences for a group, and an estimate is yielded for each individual. We apply each metric to published error-related negativity (ERN) and reward positivity (RewP) data and demonstrate how failing to consider data quality and internal consistency can undermine statistical inferences. We conclude with general comments on how these estimates may be used to improve measurement quality and methodological transparency. Subject-level internal consistency computation is implemented within the ERP Reliability Analysis (ERA) Toolbox.

Traditional and Modern Convenience Samples: An Investigation of College Student, Mechanical Turk, and Mechanical Turk College Student Samples

Two of the most popular populations for convenience sampling used in the psychological sciences are college students and Mechanical Turk (MTurk) workers. College students represent a traditional type of convenience sample, whereas MTurk workers provide a more modern source of data. However, little research has examined how these populations differ from each other in salient characteristics. Additionally, no research to date has investigated how MTurk college students (a traditional sample collected using modern methods) compare to either population. The current study examined 1,248 participants comprising three samples: MTurk noncollege workers ( n = 533), MTurk college students ( n = 385), and traditional college students ( n = 330). We compared the samples on demographic characteristics, study completion time, attention, and individual difference variables (i.e., personality, social desirability, need for cognition, personal values, and social attitudes). We examined the individual difference variables in terms of mean responses, internal consistency estimates, and subscale intercorrelations. Results indicated the samples were distinct from each other in terms of all variables assessed; in addition, adding demographic characteristics as covariates to the analyses of individual difference variables did not effectively account for sample differences. We conclude that research using convenience samples should take these differences into account.

Evidence for the Technical Adequacy of the Risk Assessment and Distress Recovery: Examining Risks While Avoiding Profiling Youth With Mental Health Difficulties

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Risk Assessment and Distress Recovery (RADR) Scale—a new self-report psychological screening tool for high school students that explores risk factors related to mental health characteristics of students who have engaged in school violence. The sample consisted of 1093 high school students from all four regions of the United States. A four-factor model consisting of coping skills, depression, suicidal ideation, and narcissism demonstrated good fit. Results of confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance, as well as internal consistency estimates, provide initial evidence for reliability and validity of the RADR. Exploratory analyses between the RADR and characteristics of past school shooters are also presented. Students with disabilities self-reported significantly greater risks for mental health concerns across all four constructs, with small (.15) to large (.80) effect sizes.