Development of a Validity Scale for the Dissociative Experience Scale-Revised: Atypicality,Structure, and Inconsistency

Psychological Injury and Law - The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), the most commonly used scale for assessing dissociation across settings, lacks a validity scale. In this study, six methods...     

Ecological Validity of the Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29): an Italian Study of Court-Ordered,Psychological Injury Evaluations Using the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS) as Criterion Variable

The Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29; Viglione, Giromini, & Landis, Journal of Personality Assessment, 99(5), 534–544, 2017) is a 29-item, recently published, self-administered test aimed at assessing the credibility of various symptom presentations. Although available research strongly supports the use of this symptom validity test in malingering-related contexts, to date, only few studies have analyzed data from real-life forensic evaluations. To fill this gap and explore ecological and convergent validity, the current study analyzed data from 74 court-ordered evaluations aimed at establishing the possible presence of psychological injury. Such evaluations are high-stakes situations in which exaggeration or malingering occur relatively often. We used a research-supported and popular symptom validity test, i.e., the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology (SIMS; Smith & Burger, Journal of the American Academy on Psychiatry and Law, 25:180–183, 1997), as our criterion variable. The IOP-29 produced excellent area under the curve (AUC) values of .98 with a recommended SIMS total score cutoff (≥ 17) and .99 when eliminating too-close-to-classify cases (Rogers & Bender, 2018) and very large Cohen’s d effect sizes of 2.98 and 3.59, respectively. Crucially, when implementing established cut scores from previous research, the IOP-29 yielded very high specificity and sensitivity rates, and the predictions from the two tests were strikingly similar. Taken together, these findings support the strong convergent validity of the IOP-29 and its utility in applied clinical and forensic settings.     

美国未成年人司法制度的发展

本文旨在介绍美国的未成年人司法制度。文中除了介绍其不同于成年人的司法制度之处以外,还特别介绍此制度近期的发展,着重于停止按未成年人司法程序审判(移交成年人法庭)、校园暴力、未成年人团伙及“三击不中”政策等。     

How Social and Mass Media Relate to Youth’s Self-Sexualization: Taking a Cross-National Perspective on Rewarded Appearance Ideals

Although media exposure has been related to cognitive preoccupation with appearance, research rarely investigated adolescents’ behavioral self-sexualization. To address this gap, the present study among 12- to 16-year-olds (N?=?1527; 50.2% girls) in Austria, Belgium, Spain, and South-Korea (1) investigates whether different types of media use relate to self-sexualization, (2) explores the explanatory value of rewarded appearance ideals, and (3) considers culture and gender as moderating factors. Despite cultural variation, a general trend of increasing self-sexualization with social media use and magazine reading appeared across the countries. Moreover, women’s magazine reading and rewards were related to self-sexualization among all the girls across the countries, which suggests that girls may be more vulnerable to the examined effects. Overall, this study provides a better understanding of the unique contribution of specific media genres to youth’s self-sexualization and points at the importance of social media use in girls’ and boys’ engagement in sexualizing appearance behaviors across four countries.     

The Efficacy of a Universal School-Based Prevention Program for Eating Disorders among German Adolescents: Results from a Randomized-Controlled Trial

Disordered eating is highly prevalent during adolescence and has a detrimental effect on further development. Effective prevention programs are needed to prevent unhealthy developmental trajectories. This study evaluated the efficacy of the POPS-program (POtsdam Prevention at Schools), a universal school-based eating disorder prevention program for adolescents. In a cluster-randomized design, we compared the intervention group receiving the prevention program to a waiting control group. Outcomes included indicators of disordered eating and relevant risk factors for eating disorders (body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, perceived media pressure, perfectionism, emotional element of exercise, social comparison, and perceived teasing). Questionnaires were administered at the start of the intervention, 3 and 12 months post intervention. At baseline, 1112 adolescents aged 10 to 16 years participated (49% girls; 51% intervention group). Intention-to-treat analyses with the complete data set and per-protocol analyses as a completer analysis were performed. The intervention group showed a more favorable course compared to the control group regarding all observed risk factors for eating disorders except for perceived teasing. Effect sizes were small but comparable to other primary prevention programs. At 1-year follow-up, a small but significant effect on disordered eating was observed. Results of the per-protocol analyses were mostly confirmed by the intention-to-treat analyses. Results were promising for both genders although girls benefited more regarding disordered eating and internalization of the thin ideal. Further studies are warranted examining successful program elements and whether gender-specific programs are needed.     

Long-Term Risks and Possible Benefits Associated with Late Adolescent Romantic Relationship Quality

Adolescent romantic relationships have the potential to affect psychological functioning well into adulthood. This study assessed adolescent romantic relationship qualities as long-term predictors of psychological functioning utilizing a longitudinal multi-method, multi-informant study of 80 participants (59% female; 54% Caucasian, 35% African American, 11% mixed or other race) assessed at age 17 along with their romantic partners and at ages 25–27. Controlling for gender, family income, and baseline mental health, partner-reported hostile conflict at age 17 predicted relative increases in internalizing behaviors from age 17 to 27. In contrast, observed teen support with their partner during a help-seeking task at age 17 predicted relative decreases in externalizing behaviors over time. The results are interpreted as suggesting qualities that may help determine whether adolescent romances have positive vs. negative long-term psychological health implications.     

How is Civic Engagement Related to Personal Identity and Social Identity in Late Adolescents and Emerging Adults? A Person-Oriented Approach

Adolescence and emerging adulthood are periods in life when individuals both question and define their place in society and form their identity. Meanwhile, active youth civic engagement represents a challenge for each democracy. The purpose of this study was to analyze the different forms of civic engagement among late adolescents and emerging adults and how they are related to personal identity and social identity, while adopting an integrative perspective through the lens of a person-oriented approach. The participants were 1217 (62.3% female) 16–24 year-old French students (M _age ?=?19.17; SD _age ?=?1.83). First, derived from cluster analyses, the findings emphasized diversity in civic engagement, from strong civic participation (in different formal and informal ways) to various forms of passivity. Diversity was also highlighted for personal identity and social identity profiles. Second, a Configural Frequency Analysis revealed a typical pattern associating passivity in civic engagement, personal carefree diffusion and rejection of social identity. Overall, these findings highlight an absence of general youth disaffection and provide a meaningful specific pattern for the understanding of passivity in political and civic matters in late adolescence and emerging adulthood.     

Organized Activity Involvement among Urban Youth: Understanding Family- and Neighborhood- Level Characteristics as Predictors of Involvement

Research examining factors that predict youth’s involvement in organized activities is very limited, despite associations with positive outcomes. Using data from 1043 youth (49% female; 46.4% Hispanic, 35.4% African American, 14.0% Caucasian, and 4.2% other) from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, this study examined how characteristics of parents (supervision, warmth) and neighborhoods (perceived neighborhood safety and collective efficacy) predict patterns of adolescents’ involvement in organized activities concurrently (i.e., intensity) and longitudinally (i.e., type and breadth). Parental supervision predicted adolescents’ participation in organized activities across multiple waves. Neighborhood violence was positively associated with concurrent participation in organized activities after controlling for socioeconomic status (SES), whereas higher neighborhood collective efficacy predicted greater breadth in organized activity participation across time. These findings have important implications regarding how to attract and sustain organized activity participation for low-income, urban youth.     

Psychosocial Adjustment Throughout University: A Longitudinal Investigation of the Roles of Sleep Quality and Emotion Dysregulation

Sleep problems and emotion dysregulation are associated with depressive symptoms and alcohol use but little research has examined the long-term associations and the direction of effects between these factors. We examined these relationships with 1132 undergraduates (70.5% female) over 5 years. Sleep problems and emotion dysregulation, sleep problems and depressive symptoms, and emotion dysregulation and depressive symptoms were all related bidirectionally. Tests of indirect effects indicated that sleep problems predicted depressive symptoms over time (and vice versa) via emotion dysregulation and emotion dysregulation predicted depressive symptoms over time (and vice versa) via sleep problems. The results highlight the need to assess direction of effects, given that many factors that are typically seen as “predictors” also can be framed as “outcomes”.