Sources of population heterogeneity may or may not be observed. If the sources of heterogeneity are observed (e.g., gender), the sample can be split into groups and the data analyzed with methods for multiple groups. If the sources of population heterogeneity are unobserved, the data can be analyzed with latent class models. Factor mixture models…

Relations between self-concept and mental health are best understood from a multidimensional perspective. For responses by 903 adolescents (mean age = 12.6) to a new French translation of the Self Description Questionnaire II (SDQII), confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a well-defined multidimensional factor structure of reliable, highly…

Background: Violence and aggression in the classroom are often cited as a major concern within the teaching community. Teachers' perceptions of the appropriateness of intervention behaviours during aggressive incidents, however, are less often examined (Meyer, Astor, & Behre, 2002), nor how they compare to the perceptions of training teachers…

Covariance structure models are applied to gene expression data using a factor model, a path model, and their combination. The factor model is based on a few factors that capture most of the expression information. A common factor of a group of genes may represent a common protein factor for the transcript of the co-expressed genes, and hence, it…

Almost all modern rotation of factor loadings is based on optimizing a criterion, for example, the quartimax criterion for quartimax rotation. Recent advancements in numerical methods have led to general orthogonal and oblique algorithms for optimizing essentially any rotation criterion. All that is required for a specific application is a…

The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (CES-D) was developed to assess the population prevalence of depression. The CES-D was developed and normed on an adult population. Since the CES-D's publication, various studies have both used and psychometrically assessed the scale for older adolescent populations. However, we found no…

An operational definition for "rural area" is pivotal if proposals, policies and decisions aimed at optimising the distribution of resources, closing the gap on inequity between areas and raising standards of living for the least advantaged populations are to be put in place. The concept of rurality, however, is often based on…

Teacher efficacy is linked to student achievement and classroom practices in general and special education, but has not been explored in early intervention (EI). Based upon the work of Gibson and Dembo [Gibson, S., & Dembo, M. H. (1984). Teacher efficacy: A contrast validation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76(4) 569-582], a 15-item early…

Establishing an instrument's factorial invariance provides the empirical foundation to compare an individual's score across time or to examine the pattern of correlations between variables in differentiated age groups. In the recently published Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability (WJ COG) and Achievement (WJ ACH) Third Edition (III) the…

Classical factor analysis assumes independent and identically distributed observations. Educational data, however, are often hierarchically structured, with, for example, students being nested within classes. In this study, data on self-esteem gathered in a sample of 1,107 students within 72 school classes in Switzerland were analyzed using…

The purpose of the present study is to investigate evidence of the validity of Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics Scale (SATS) scores and their relationship with scores from two other measures of attitudes toward statistics, the Attitude Toward Statistics Scale (ATS) and the Statistics Attitude Survey. The pre- and postcourse responses of 342…

The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) is one of the most widely used measures in psychiatric outcome and clinical psychopharmacology research. To date, however, research on the psychometric properties of the expanded version of the BPRS (BPRS-E) has been limited. An exploratory factor analysis (n = 360) using maximum likelihood extraction with…

Using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), perceptions of global stress were assessed in 111women following breast cancer surgery and at 12 and 24 months later. This is the first study to factor analyze the PSS. The PSS data were factor analyzed each time using exploratory factor analysis with oblique direct quartimin rotation. Goodness-of-fit…

This study compared scores on two divergent thinking tests, the Verbal and the Figural Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), with scores on two creativity interest inventories, Davis's How Do You Think? and Raudsepp's How Creative Are You? The creativity interest inventories showed weak correlations with the Verbal TTCT and no correlations…

Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test three plausible conceptualizations of Inattention-Hyperactivity-Impulsivity (Ina-H-I) derived from the Attention Problems syndrome of the Teacher's Report Form (TRF): (a) a one factor model representing a general Ina-H-I factor; (b) a correlated two-factor model representing the Inattention (Ina) and…