An essential task of diagnosticians is the accurate assessment of behavioral skills. Traditionally, deficit-based behavioral assessments have underscored student social skill deficits. Strength-based assessments delineate student competencies and are useful for individualized education program (IEP) and behavioral intervention plan (BIP)…

This study investigated the relationship between discourse deficits to a broader range of other symptoms in 57 children with autism. We hypothesized that autism symptomatology, as measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), would be related to the children?s difficulty in maintaining an ongoing topic of discourse. Children…

In this study, a two-group structural equation model was proposed and tested to investigate the change in faculty members' perceptions of their worklife and satisfaction over time. Using the National Study of Postsecondary Faculty [i.e., NSOPF:93-99, National Center for Educational Statistics, US Department of Education, National Study of…

Substitution tests have a long history in psychology because of their simplicity of administration and their sensitivity to individual differences related to complex cognitive performance. Despite their widespread use there is no agreement on what the substitution test measures. The present study approached this question by applying a method of…

Background: Epilepsy is common in people with intellectual disability, yet clinicians and researchers seldom obtain information directly from the client. The development and preliminary validation of a novel measure for use with people with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities is described. Methods: Focus group methods (6 groups; 24…

The Physical Education Teacher Attitudes Toward Fitness Test Scale (PETAFTS) produces reliable and valid scores. There were 4 stages and 4 sets of participants in the development of the PETAFTS. First, the domains of attitude were defined and cognitive and affective components were developed, organized, and validated. In the second stage, 134…

The author investigated the role of phonological neighborhood on visual word recognition. Using a lexical decision task, the author showed in Experiment 1 that words with large phonological neighborhoods were processed more rapidly than those with smaller phonological neighborhoods. This facilitative effect was obtained even when the nonword…

Workplace climate refers to formal and informal organizational characteristics contributing to employee welfare. Workplace climates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) employees range from actively supportive to openly hostile. An instrument measuring LGBT workplace climate will enable research on vocational adjustment of LGBT…

To address criticisms that the empirical literature on assessment of career decision making has tended to lack a theoretical base, the present study explored the relevance of a general theory of decision making to career decision making by assessing the psychometric properties of the Decision Making Inventory (DMI), designed to measure Johnson's…

The utility of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet,& Farley, 1988) was investigated within a sample of 290 Mexican American adolescents. Results suggested that the three-subscale structure (Family, Friends, and Significant Other) of the MSPSS was confirmed, and adequate internal reliability for the…

This study aims to advance our understanding of the assessment of numerous factors associated with recidivism among females and males involved in the juvenile justice system. In particular, this study examined the reliability (i.e., inter-rater) and validity (i.e., construct, criterion, and predictive) of the Santa Barbara Assets and Risks…

Background: The Quality of Life Questionnaire (QOL-Q) is used widely to evaluate the quality of life of persons with intellectual disability (ID). Its validity for use with Spanish-speaking cultures has been demonstrated for individuals with visual disabilities, but not for those with physical or intellectual disabilities. Such was the purpose of…

In Ontario, Canada, there is a demand for psychometrically robust screening tools capable of efficiently identifying students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), such as dyslexia. The present study investigated the ability of the Dyslexia Adult Screening Test (DAST) to discriminate between 117 post-secondary students with carefully…

Technical characteristics of Slosson Phonics and Structural Analysis Test (SP-SAT) scores were studied using three independent samples of boys and girls aged 6 years, 6 months, through 9 years, 11 months. A decision efficiency study (n = 100) resulted in a total predictive value of .86 (sensitivity = .95, specificity = .77, positive predictive…

Measures of values typically appraise the construct globally, across life domains or relative to a broad life domain such as work. We conducted two studies to construct and initially validate an occupation- and context-specific values measure. Study 1, based on a sample of 192 medical students, describes the initial construction and item analysis…