The purpose of the present study was to document the development and standardization of the "Preschool Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale" and to examine its factor structure, internal consistency, and criterion validity. Data from a nationally representative sample (N = 1,471) of preschool children with and without disabilities were…

Background: Social cognitive theory describes self-efficacy and proxy efficacy as influences on fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC). Proxy efficacy was defined as a child's confidence in his or her skills and abilities to get others to act in one's interests to provide fruit and vegetable (FV) opportunities. The purpose of this study was to…

A new Spanish version of the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) was created to be used explicitly with Argentinean university students. The scale was translated and verified through blind back translation and given to a large sample of students majoring in psychology or chemistry (N = 752). Exploratory Factor Analysis (N = 376) showed an internal…

The dimensional structure of higher functioning autism phenotype was investigated by factor analysis. The goal of this study was to identify the degree to which early symptoms of autism (measured using the ADI-R) could be predictive of the current symptoms of autism as identified using the ADOS, the adaptive behavior scales, IQ scores and theory…

The development of reading-related phonological processing abilities represents an important developmental milestone in the process of learning to read. In this cross-sectional study, confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the structure of phonological processing abilities in 129 younger preschoolers (M = 40.88 months, SD = 4.65) and 304…

Responding to international concerns regarding childhood bullying and a need to identify a common bullying measure, this study examines the comparability of children's self-reports of bullying across five countries. The Pacific-Rim Bullying Measure, a self-report measure of students' experiences with six different types of bullying behaviour and…

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the cross-ethnic construct validity of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Method: The sample consisted of 1,166 individuals diagnosed with severe and persistent mental illness who were receiving treatment in community-based mental health programs. Multiple-group confirmatory factor…

Hope is a motivational construct that has been associated with many positive outcomes in children, adolescents, and adults. Although research with the Children's Hope Scale (CHS) has demonstrated support for the reliability and validity of the CHS with various samples of youth, there is little empirical evidence for its use with Latino youth. The…

Ideally, the unit of analysis in psychology is the individual. However, many psychological methods do not cope well, either at the level of construct definition or at the level of measurement, with individuality in behavior. There is little leeway for constructs to be both idiosyncratically tailored to the individual, and still identified as…

This study investigated the usefulness of the bifactor model in the investigation of score equivalence from computerized and paper-and-pencil formats of the same reading tests. Concerns about the equivalence of the paper-and-pencil and computerized formats were warranted because of the use of reading passages, computer unfamiliarity of primary…

This study entailed the development and implementation of a classroom activity designed to introduce students to the concept of factor analysis. We implemented the activity in both a personality theories course and a tests and measurements course. Data suggest that students learned about factor analysis from this activity, while enjoying it.…

In the exploratory factor analysis, when the number of factors exceeds the true number of factors, the likelihood ratio test statistic no longer follows the chi-square distribution due to a problem of rank deficiency and nonidentifiability of model parameters. As a result, decisions regarding the number of factors may be incorrect. Several…

In two recent papers, Johnson & Bouchard [Johnson, W., & Bouchard, T. J., Jr. (2005a). The structure of human intelligence: It is verbal, perceptual, and image rotation (VPR) , not fluid and crystallized. "Intelligence," 33, 393-416, Johnson W., & Bouchard, T. J., Jr. (2005b). Constructive replication of the visual…

This article tackles several issues involved in specifying, fitting, and interpreting the results of multilevel factor models for ordinal variables. First, the problem of model specification and identification is addressed, outlining parameter interpretation. Special attention is devoted to the consequences on interpretation stemming from the…

Problem Statement: It is a known fact that educational activities contribute in an important way to the approaches for creating lasting solutions for environmental problems. In relation to the environment, it is necessary to develop awareness and sensitivity in terms of the rights and responsibilities of all individuals, and thus environmental…