Item Overlap Research Articles

The usefulness of Conners' Rating Scales‐Revised in screening for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children with intellectual disabilities and borderline intelligence

Symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) are believed to be common in children with intellectual disabilities (ID). Conners' Rating Scales are widely used for screening ADHD among children who do not have ID, but little is known about their usefulness among children with ID. To find cut-off scores for the Conners' Parent Rating Scales-Revised (CPRS-R) and the Conners' Teacher Rating Scale-Revised (CTRS-R) that will give optimum levels of sensitivity and specificity for screening for ADHD among children with ID and borderline intelligence. Receiver operating characteristic analysis was used to compare a clinical diagnosis of ADHD according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 4th revision-Text Review criteria with scores according to the CPRS-R and the CTRS-R. Among children with ID, a CPRS-R total score of 42 provided a sensitivity of 0.9 and a specificity of 0.67 with an area under the curve of 0.84. Similarly, a CTRS-R total score of 40 provided a sensitivity of 0.69 and a specificity of 0.67 with an area under the curve of 0.71. There was poor concordance between the CPRS-R and the CTRS-R total scores (Intraclass Correlation; ICC = 0.17). There were statistically significant differences in the total score of the CPRS-R and most of its sub-scores between children with ID with and without ADHD. The CTRS-R total score and its sub-scores did not show any statistically significant difference between two groups. Factor analysis showed three clinically distinct factors for both the CPRS-R and the CTRS-R items, although the CPRS-R factors were better and had less item overlap than the CTRS-R factors. The CPRS-R scores may distinguish between children with ID with and without ADHD but not the CTRS-R scores. Many items in the CPRS-R and the CTRS-R are not applicable to children with severe and profound ID who do not have speech. The CPRS-R and the CTRS-R scores did not correlate with each other. There is a need to develop an ADHD screening instrument specifically for children with ID.

Spoken-word processing in aphasia: Effects of item overlap and item repetition

Two studies were carried out to investigate the effects of presentation of primes showing partial (word-initial) or full overlap on processing of spoken target words. The first study investigated whether time compression would interfere with lexical processing so as to elicit aphasic-like performance in non-brain-damaged subjects. The second study was designed to compare effects of item overlap and item repetition in aphasic patients of different diagnostic types. Time compression did not interfere with lexical deactivation for the non-brain-damaged subjects. Furthermore, all aphasic patients showed immediate inhibition of co-activated candidates. These combined results show that deactivation is a fast process. Repetition effects, however, seem to arise only at the longer term in aphasic patients. Importantly, poor performance on diagnostic verbal STM tasks was shown to be related to lexical decision performance in both overlap and repetition conditions, which suggests a common underlying deficit.

The development of a rating scale to screen social and emotional detachment in children and adolescents.

Rating scales to assess psychopathic characteristics in children and adolescents show a considerable item overlap with rating scales to assess attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional-defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD) symptoms. The aim of this study is to preliminary test a short questionnaire clinicians can use to screen the unique characteristics of psychopathy. Parental ratings of psychopathic characteristics and symptoms of ADHD, ODD and CD were gathered in a community sample of 2535 4-18-year-old Dutch children. The dimensionality of the ratings was determined by factor analysis and related to ADHD, ODD and CD. Two factors emerged covering egocentric-narcissistic and callous-unemotional characteristics. To avoid unnecessary stigmatization of youngsters the first factor is referred to as the "social detachment dimension" and the second as the "emotional detachment dimension". Parental ratings were reliable across all age and gender groups, and correlated moderately with ODD and CD, but not with ADHD. Preliminary findings support a two-dimensional syndrome depicting respectively narcissistic and unemotional characteristics. The syndrome is associated with ODD and CD symptoms and possibly depicts a subtype of the ODD/CD childhood disorder.

The intervening role of social worldviews in the relationship between the five‐factor model of personality and social attitudes

The present research investigates in a student (N = 183) and a voter sample (N = 276) whether the relationships between the Five‐Factor Model (FFM) personality dimensions and social attitudes (i.e. Right‐Wing Authoritarianism [RWA] and Social Dominance Orientation [SDO]) are mediated by social worldviews (i.e. dangerous and jungle worldviews). Two important results were obtained. First, the perception of the world as inherently dangerous and chaotic partially mediated the relationships of the personality dimensions Openness and Neuroticism and the social attitude RWA. Second, the jungle worldview completely mediated the relationships between Agreeableness and SDO, but considerable item overlap between the jungle worldview and SDO was also noted. It was further revealed that acquiescence response set and item overlap had an impact on social worldviews and attitudes, but that their relationships were hardly affected by these biases. The discussion focuses on the status of social worldviews to explain social attitudes. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Four-dimensional structure underlying scales for depression anxiety and retardation: emergence of trapped anger and scale improvements

Improvement of rating scales for anxiety and depression has insufficiently been based on their underlying multidimensional structure. The aim of this study was to detect the underlying symptom structure of 3 scales for anxiety, depression, and retardation from the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS), to test its validity, and to investigate whether the scales developed from this structure have lower item overlap than the original scales. All items (N = 21) of the 3 subscales (Brief Anxiety Scale [BAS], Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale [MADRS], and Motivational Inhibition) were selected. Principal components analysis was performed on the scores of 334 outpatients. Correlations between factor-regression scores on the CPRS components and scores on the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire dimensions were analyzed. New rating scales based on the CPRS components were developed and compared with the original scales. Four CPRS components were found: depression, retardation, anxiety, and trapped anger. Each had a specific correlational pattern with the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire dimensions. Overlap between the 4 new scales was lower than that between the original scales. A 4-dimensional symptom structure underlies CPRS scales for anxiety, depression, and retardation. This structure results in the detection of a scale for trapped anger and improvement of the 3 original scales.

Disgust Sensitivity and Anxiety Disorder Symptoms: Psychometric Properties of the Disgust Emotion Scale

Recent research has implicated disgust sensitivity in the etiology of specific anxiety disorders. The Disgust Emotion Scale (DES) is a newly developed measure that was designed to improve the assessment of disgust sensitivity. The present study examines the psychometric properties of the DES. Exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 revealed five factors of disgust towards: (1) rotting foods, (2) blood and injection, (3) smells, (4) mutilation and death, and (5) small animals. The DES demonstrated adequate internal consistency and convergent validity. Significant positive correlations were found between the five factors of the DES and blood-injection-injury fears and obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms. Confirmatory factor analysis in Study 2 provided support for the five-factor model. However, there was indication of item overlap within the factors. These findings suggest that the DES is a reliable measure of disgust as it relates to specific anxiety disorder symptoms.

Are responsibility beliefs inflated in non-checking OCD patients?

Cognitive models of obsessive-compulsive disorder [e.g., Salkovskis, P. M. (1999). Understanding and treating obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37(Suppl. 1), S29–S52] propose a key role for inflated responsibility for harm. Studies evaluating such beliefs typically use heterogeneous samples including several OCD subtypes. A recent investigation by Foa et al. [Foa, E. B., Sacks, M. B., Tolin, D. F., Prezworski, A., & Amir, N. (2002). Inflated perception of responsibility for harm in OCD patients with and without checking compulsions: a replication and extension. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 16(4), 443–453] found responsibility to be elevated in OC checkers, but not in non-checking OCD patients, relative to non-anxious controls. In that study, the responsibility measure included checking scenarios, thus leaving the possibility that these findings may have been due to criterion contamination. The present study investigated responsibility beliefs in OC checkers ( n = 39) and non-checkers ( n = 20), anxious controls ( n = 22), and non-clinical controls ( n = 69), using measures of responsibility which do not have item overlap with OCD symptoms. Results indicated that both OC groups showed greater responsibility beliefs relative to anxious and non-anxious controls. OC checkers endorsed greater responsibility appraisals than anxious and non-clinical control groups. In contrast, non-checking OCs reported greater responsibility appraisals than non-clinical controls, but did not differ from anxious controls and OC checkers. Results are discussed in the context of the cognitive model of OCD.

Two facets of being bothered by bodily sensations: anxiety sensitivity and alexithymia in psychosomatic patients

Objective Anxiety sensitivity (AS) and alexithymia have common characteristics with regard to somatic sensations. The purpose of the present study is to investigate if both constructs are distinct or overlapping in a sample of psychosomatic inpatients. Methods We analyzed the alexithymia scores of extreme groups who are high and low in AS and the correlations between both constructs in 204 patients. Results As predicted, groups with high and low AS differed significantly in their Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) scores. The correlations between the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the TAS-20 were moderately high and were not significantly reduced if conceptually redundant items were removed from the TAS-20. A common factor analysis of the combined items of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the TAS-20 yielded no item overlap between the extracted factors of both measures. Conclusion Results suggest that AS and alexithymia are related, but they are also distinct constructs. Therefore, it is important to assess AS and alexithymia separately.

The meaning in life questionnaire: Assessing the presence of and search for meaning in life.

Counseling psychologists often work with clients to increase their well-being as well as to decrease their distress. One important aspect of well-being, highlighted particularly in humanistic theories of the counseling process, is perceived meaning in life. However, poor measurement has hampered research on meaning in life. In 3 studies, evidence is provided for the internal consistency, temporal stability, factor structure, and validity of the Meaning in Life Questionnaire (MLQ), a new 10-item measure of the presence of, and the search for, meaning in life. A multitrait-multimethod matrix demonstrates the convergent and discriminant validity of the MLQ subscales across time and informants, in comparison with 2 other meaning scales. The MLQ offers several improvements over current meaning in life measures, including no item overlap with distress measures, a stable factor structure, better discriminant validity, a briefer format, and the ability to measure the search for meaning.

Note on Korbanka and Gaede's MMPI-2 Scale of History of Emotional Abuse

Korbanka and Gaede recently developed an MMPI-2 scale by discriminant analysis to identify people who were emotionally abused in childhood or adolescence. The scale had an exceptionally high classification rate in the initial sample of mental health outpatients, and the authors recommended that it be validated in other samples. This note reinforces the recommendation for cross-validation, examines item overlap with other scales, shows emotionally abused patients responded to many items more positively and with more favorable self-description than emotionally unabused patients, and comments on the method used to develop the scale.

Hypergeometric family and item overlap rates in computerized adaptive testing

A computerized adaptive test (CAT) is usually administered to small groups of examinees at frequent time intervals. It is often the case that examinees who take the test earlier share information with examinees who will take the test later, thus increasing the risk that many items may become known. Item overlap rate for a group of examinees refers to the number of overlapping items encountered by these examinees divided by the test length. For a specific item pool, different item selection algorithms may yield different item overlap rates. An important issue in designing a good CAT item selection algorithm is to keep item overlap rate below a preset level. In doing so, it is important to investigate what the lowest rate could be for all possible item selection algorithms. In this paper we rigorously prove that if every item has an equal possibility to be selected from the pool in a fixed-length CAT, the number of overlapping items among any α randomly sampled examinees follows the hypergeometric distribution family for α ≥ 1. Thus, the expected values of the number of overlapping items among any randomly sampled α examinees can be calculated precisely. These values may serve as benchmarks in controlling item overlap rates for fixed-length adaptive tests.

A Comparison of Item Selection Techniques and Exposure Control Mechanisms in CATs Using the Generalized Partial Credit Model

The use of more performance items in large-scale testing has led to an increase in the research investigating the use of polytomously scored items in computer adaptive testing (CAT). Because this research has yet to be complimented with information pertaining to exposure control, the present research investigated the impact of using .ve different exposure control algorithms in two sized item pools calibrated using the generalized partial credit model. The results of the simulation study indicated that the a-stratified design, in comparison to a no-exposure control condition, could be used to reduce item exposure and overlap, increase pool utilization, and only minorly degrade measurement precision. Use of the more restrictive exposure control algorithms, such as the Sympson-Hetter and conditional Sympson-Hetter, controlled exposure to a greater extent but at the cost of measurement precision. Because convergence of the exposure control parameters was problematic for some of the more restrictive exposure control algorithms, use of the more simplistic exposure control mechanisms, particularly when the test length to item pool size ratio is large, is recommended.

Revealing the relation between temperament and behavior problem symptoms by eliminating measurement confounding: expert ratings and factor analyses.

This study examined the hypothesis that item overlap, or measurement confounding, accounts for the correlation between temperament and behavior problem symptoms in children. First, a conceptual approach was taken in which 41 experts rated temperament (Children's Behavior Questionnaire, CBQ) and behavior problem symptom items (Preschool Behavior Questionnaire, PBQ) for their fit to both constructs. With this approach, 10% of temperament and 38% of symptom items were confounded. Second, an empirical approach was taken and CBQ and PBQ items were factor analyzed with data from a multi-informant longitudinal study of 451 children. Using this method, 9% of temperament and 23% of symptom items were confounded. Most importantly, removing the confounded items from the CBQ and PBQ scales did not affect the relation between temperament and symptoms, suggesting that the associations were not due to measurement confounding. In addition, the predictive power of earlier temperament for DSM-IV symptoms (Health and Behavior Questionnaire) remained high with the purified CBQ scale. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of the relation between normal-range temperament and extreme behavior.

Joint Factor Analysis of the Children's Depression Inventory and the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale

Used a joint factor analysis with the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; Kovacs, 1980/81, 1992) and Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS; C. R. Reynolds & Richmond, 1978, 1985) to identify items that uniquely measured depression and anxiety. Data from 750 youngsters in Grades 4 through 7 were analyzed using principal-axis factoring with an oblique rotation. Salient factors were identified using guidelines provide by Gorsuch (1997). Item overlap and the large negative affectivity component across instruments were evident. Items that overlapped or had nonsalient loadings were eliminated. The sample was randomly split into 2 groups of 375 and analyses were repeated. Results indicated that a unique 9-item depression factor composed largely of items representing a negative view of oneself existed. In addition, a unique 7-item anxiety factor emerged that consisted of items reflecting worry. The validity of these abbreviated scales was explored using a separate sample of 131 students in Grades 4 through 9. The abbreviated scales were correlated with scales of positive and negative affect consistent with predictions. Findings suggest exploring alternative scoring strategies for the CDI and RCMAS to eliminate problems associated with overlapping items.

Problem of item overlap between the Psychopathy Screening Device and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder rating scales.

Content validity requires a clear definition of the construct of interest and the delineation of the construct from similar constructs. Content validity also requires that the items be representative of the construct as well as specific to the construct. An examination of the items on the Psychopathy Screening Device (PSD), a parent- and teacher-rating scale of childhood psychopathy, indicates significant overlap with the symptoms and associated features of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD). The failure of the PSD to have unique items results in poor discriminant validity with ADHD, ODD, and CD rating scales. More careful attention to content validation guidelines is required to develop a more useful measure of childhood psychopathy.

Problem of item overlap between the Psychopathy Screening Device and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder rating scales.

Problem of item overlap between the Psychopathy Screening Device and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder rating scales.

The Marks Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire: Further Validation and Examination of Responsiveness to Change

We performed analyses to examine the structure, validity, and responsiveness to change of the Marks Asthma Quality of Life Questionnaire (AQLQ), originally validated in Australia in a self-administered format, among 539 U.S. subjects with asthma. Subjects were interviewed twice by telephone over an 18-month period. Based on factor analyses, the subscale structure of the AQLQ was modified slightly to eliminate item overlap among subscale scores. Cross-sectionally, total AQLQ scores were significantly correlated in expected directions with baseline asthma severity scores ( r = 0.58), SF-36 physical ( r =−0.66) and mental ( r = –0.40) health status scores, and pulmonary function (FEV 1% predicted, r = –0.14). Longitudinally, changes in AQLQ total and subscale scores were significantly (P < 0.01) associated with changes in asthma severity and both physical and mental status. The AQLQ, administered by telephone, appears to be useful for assessing changes in the impact of adult asthma.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN OVERT AND PERSONALITY‐BASED INTEGRITY TESTS

Overt and personality‐based integrity tests are used for the same purposes, but the relationship between the two kinds of measures is unclear. Moreover, although the construct validity of personality‐based integrity measures is well understood, the psychological meaning of overt integrity measures is unclear. A sample of applicants (N= 2,168) for driver, warehouse, and clerical jobs completed an overt integrity test (Reid Report), a personality‐based integrity test (Employee Reliability Index) and a measure of normal personality (Hogan Personality Inventory). A principal components analysis of the intercorrelations between the overt and the personality‐based integrity item responses revealed four themes: (a) punitive attitudes, (b) admissions of illegal drug use, (c) reliability, and (d) theft admissions. A model testing for a general conscientiousness factor provided a good fit for the overt and personality‐based integrity test variables, although item overlap between the two test types was minimal. Finally, the punitive attitudes and theft admissions components of the Reid item pool are most closely related to the Big Five personality factors of conscientiousness and emotional stability; the Reid component of illegal drug use was unrelated to personality measures.

Development of a Brief, Multidimensional, Self-Report Instrument for Treatment Outcomes Assessment in Psychiatric Settings: Preliminary Findings.

Preliminary reliability and validity data are reported on a new, brief measure of psychiatric symptomatology. The Symptom Assessment-45 Questionnaire (SA-45) is a 45-item, patient self-report symptom inventory derived from the original Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90), using cluster analytic methods. The SA-45 consists of nine 5-item scales assessing each of the same symptom domains as its parent instrument with no item overlap across domains. The vast majority of the internal consistency reliabilities for the SA-45's nine scales were in the .70s and .80s across different age and patient status samples. As expected, both adolescent and adult patient samples generally differed significantly from nonpatient control samples, and patients at treatment follow-up differed significantly from patients at intake. Moreover, depressed patients with and without psychotic features differed significantly on three scales. A cluster analysis generally supported the nine-scale structure of the inventory, but it failed to consistently support the distinction between the Paranoid Ideation and Interpersonal Sensitivity scales. Limitations to the study are noted, but overall, the initial findings support the use of the SA-45 in clinical settings. Suggestions for needed future research are presented.

Predictor-Criterion Relationships as a Function of Item Compatibility

This study examined which of two measures of femininity would better predict women's responses to an adjective checklist. It was confirmed for a sample of 150 undergraduate women that a femininity scale which focuses on “internal” states was superior to one which concentrates on external behavior in predicting “internal” criteria. What role item overlap plays has yet to be determined.