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The diagnostic process after referral to an acute psychiatric treatment facility consists of more than the clinical investigation and laboratory tests. Psychometric tests in a broad range of languages may be such an augmentation of our diagnostic armamentarium. Whether such tests are in use, and how they are distributed among different patient categories was the aim of the study. All referrals in one calendar year (N=1168), as they are depicted in the hospital computerized medical records, were investigated. Fifty-six (6.1%) out of 926 ethnic Norwegians and six (3.0%) out of 198 non-Western immigrants were tested, whereas none of the 44 Western immigrants. The difference between ethnic Norwegians and the immigrants was significant (Z=-3.05 and P=0.002). Psychometric tests were thus almost not in use, and even lesser so in immigrants. Mean number of resident days was higher among those tested, 11.7 (SD=11.2) versus those not tested, 7.4 (SD=10.4) days, t=2.97 and P=0.004. Length of stay for ethnic Norwegians did not differ from that for non-Western immigrants 11.4 versus 11.7, respectively. The patients tested were older than those not tested. Mean age was 43.0 (SD=14.4) versus 38.8 (SD=12.1), with a t=2.65 and P=0.03. The difference in resident days between all immigrants and ethnic Norwegians was significant with a Z=−2.232 and P=0.026. Level of testing was higher in ethnic Norwegians, and the tested patients stayed longer, maybe indicating more room for testing. Whether this low test-activity influences treatment quality is an unsettled question.

Awareness concerning the benefits of an action is a consistent influential predictor of personal behavior and essential for healthcare providers in assessing the benefits of parental feeding behaviors (BePFB) toward preschoolers. Nevertheless, a valid and reliable measure of assessment has yet to be found. The objective of this study was to develop a questionnaire on the BePFB for preschoolers' parents in urban Thailand.

The instrument development process comprised two phases: scale construction and psychometric property testing. Phase I involved generating an item pool from the literature review and interviews with 17 preschoolers' parents as the measurement format. The items were then reviewed for content validity by five experts, with items selected by evaluating the factor loading and communality score from exploratory factor analysis (n = 310). Phase II involved testing the psychometric properties by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability using internal consistency (n = 303).

The first draft of the “Benefits of Parental Feeding Behaviors Questionnaire” (BePFBQ) contained 24 items. Five items were deleted by the experts due to redundancy. Six items were then removed after evaluating the item selection process. CFA reported a good fit with the data (χ²/df ratio = 1.70, GFI = 0.97, CFI = 0.99, RMSEA = 0.048). The regression weights ranged from 0.50 to 0.74, at a statistically significant level of 0.05 with an acceptable value for Cronbach's alpha (a = 0.91). Finally, the BePFBQ contained 13 items in one dimension, with the 5-point Likert scale.

The BePFBQ is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring the BePFB in preschoolers' parents in urban Thailand.

Psychological assessment refers to the process whereby different methods and techniques are used to test hypotheses about people and their psychological characteristics. Understanding employees' psychological makeup is key to allow effective human resource management, from hiring to retirement. However, the gap between scientific evidence and organizational practices dealing with psychological assessment is still great.

General review along with case study

This paper shows the differences between research and practice, i.e. between what scientific evidence suggests to assess people from a psychological point of view reliably and what practitioners do when they want to reach the same goal.

At the end of the article, two examples of integration between research and practice are presented. We discuss how methods and techniques of psychological assessment can be developed to both respect scientific criteria and meet specific organizational needs.

Child-rearing promoting sexual abstinence has strongly predicted sexual abstinence in Thai female adolescents, and it requires a valid and reliable measurement. However, no such instrument exists. This study aimed to develop a child-rearing promotion of sexual abstinence scale (CPSAS) and assess its validity and reliability.

The scale development consisted of two phases; scale construction and psychometric testing. Phase I included item generation extracted from a literature review and existing measurements. Items were reviewed by five-panel experts and were then selected by considering an inter-item correlation, corrected item-total correlation, factor loading and communality value from the exploratory factor analysis (n = 299). Phase II involved confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for construct validity and scale reliability (n = 300).

The CPSAS, first, contained 25 items with four dimensions; assuring daughter to recognize parental love, teaching daughter sexual abstinence, convincing daughter to recognize parent's expectations of sexual abstinence and encouraging daughter sexual abstinence. Two items were then deleted after the experts reviewed, and six items were removed after item analysis. The CPSAS finally contained 17 items with a 4-point Likert scale. Psychometric testing provided acceptable results. CFA reported the fit indices; χ² = 98.06 p = 0.083, df = 80, χ²/df ratio = 1.220, CFI = 0.996, TLI = 0.992, RMSEA = 0.027 and SRMR = 0.030. The standardized factor loadings were 0.499 to 0.908 (p < 0.05). The S-CVI was 0.96, and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.93.

The CPSAS is a reliable and valid instrument for evaluating child-rearing promoting sexual abstinence in Thai female adolescents.

The study examines the psychometric properties of internal communication satisfaction questionnaire (ICSQ), an instrument originally developed in Croatian. A need for a contemporary instrument validated among a non-English-speaking population of employees who use English as their second language motivated the authors to translate the scale.

ICSQ was validated on a sample of 507 employees of a large Croatian subsidiary of a multinational bank, where English is the official corporate language.

ICSQ displayed satisfactory levels of psychometric properties, retaining the psychometric properties of the original version of the instrument. A confirmatory factor analysis revealed the acceptable model–data fit of the eight-factor model. Additionally, findings supported the reliability and construct validity of the English version of the instrument. Good internal consistencies of all eight internal communication satisfaction (ICS) dimensions and the total ICSQ and an adequate level of scale homogeneity according to the inter-item and inter-total correlations were found.

In order to generalize the study’s results to other business areas and industries, the study should be replicated in other contexts. Additionally, construct validity was tested by applying cross-sectional design, and therefore, no conclusion can be drawn on the causal direction of the relationship. Finally, the discriminant validity of ICSQ was not tested and should be examined in future studies.

The resulting 32-item instrument, in English, can be used for empirical and practical purposes in improving internal communication.

The study confirms that internal communication is a multidimensional construct and should be measured as such.

Kidney transplantation (KT) is the treatment of choice for end-stage chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is well known to improve the clinical outcome of patients. However, the impact of KT on comorbid psychological symptoms, particularly depression and anxiety, is less clear, and recipients of living-donor (LD) organs may have a different psychological outcome from recipients of dead-donor (DD) organs.

In total, 152 patients were included and analyzed using a cross-sectional design. Of these patients, 25 were pre-KT, 13 were post-KT with a LD transplant and 114 were post-KT with a DD transplant. The patients were tested for a variety of psychometric outcomes using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (assessing physical and mental health-related quality of life), the Resilience Scale, the Coping Self-Questionnaire and the Social Support Questionnaire.

The mean age of the patients was 51.25 years and 40 per cent of the patients were female. As expected, the post-KT patients had significantly better scores on the physical component of the Short Form Health Survey than the pre-KT patients, and there were no significant differences between the two post-KT groups. There were no significant differences among the groups in any of the other psychometric outcome parameters tested, including anxiety, depression and the mental component of health-related quality of life.

KT and the origin of the donor organ do not appear to have a significant impact on the psychological well-being of transplant patients with CKD. Although the diagnosis and early treatment of psychological symptoms, such as depression and anxiety, remain important for these patients, decisions regarding KT, including the mode of transplantation, should not be fundamentally influenced by concerns about psychological impairments at the population level.

CKD is a serious condition involving profound impairment of the physical and psychological well-being of patients. KT is considered the treatment of choice for most of these patients. KT has notable advantages over dialysis with regard to the long-term physical functioning of the renal and cardiovascular system and increases the life expectancy of patients. However, the data on the improvement of psychological impairments after KT are less conclusive.

The purpose of the present study is to translate and adapt the Geriatric Anxiety Scale (GAS), a 30-item self-report measure of anxiety among older adults, into Turkish and examine its basic psychometric properties. We tested the translated GAS in a sample of community-dwelling older adults in Konya, Turkey (N=100; M_age=71.4 years, SD=6.5; range=65-88) without a history of mental disorder and sufficient cognitive abilities. To assess the convergent validity, Turkish versions of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) were administered. The mean GAS total score was 13.33 (SD=11.86). Due to low item-total correlations (<0.30), two items (items 2 and 3) were removed from the Turkish version of the GAS. The internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha) was excellent for the total score (0.91) and acceptable for the subscales (somatic = 0.71; cognitive = 0.85; affective = 0.84). Regarding the convergent validity, the GAS total score was significantly and positively correlated with the total scores of the BAI (r=0.87, P<0.05) and GDS (r=0.57, P<0.05), with large effect sizes. Implications: The newly translated Turkish version of the GAS has promising utility in an older adult Turkish sample. Future studies of this measure are warranted.

This study examined the psychometric properties of intention to drop out and study satisfaction measures for first-year South African students. The factorial validity, item bias, measurement invariance and reliability were tested.

A cross-sectional design was used. For the study on intention to drop out, 1,820 first-year students participated, whilst 780 first-year students participated in the study on satisfaction with studies. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), differential item functioning (DIF), measurement invariance and internal consistency were used to test the scales.

A one-factor structure was confirmed for both scales. For the intention to drop out scale, Items 3 and 4 were identified with statistically significant item bias; however, these differences had no practical impact. Except for scalar invariance for language, sufficient measurement invariance was established. No problematic items were identified for the study satisfaction scale.

In essence, this study provides evidence of two short measures that are culturally sensitive that could be used as short and valid measures across contextual boundaries as practically valuable tools to measure intention to drop out and study satisfaction in diverse and multicultural contexts.

This study contributes to limited research on bias and invariance analyses for scales that can be used in interventions to identify students at risk of leaving the university and utilising psychometric analyses to ensure the applicability of these two scales in diverse and multicultural settings.

The article aims to present the results of adapting the team boosting behaviors (TBB) scale to Polish cultural conditions and validating it.

The research methodology consisted of three steps. In the first step, I translated the TBB scale into Polish using a rigorous back-translation method. Next, to assess content validity, nine domain experts reviewed the initial version of the instrument for clarity and relevance. Finally, I applied the scale to a sample of 532 team members and underwent thorough psychometric testing to assess construct validity. I employed structural equation modeling (SEM) with the partial least squares (PLS) factor-based algorithm technique for confirmatory factor analysis to assess the scale’s reliability and validity.

After development, the Polish version of the TBB scale kept its three sub-scale structures. However, the validation process led to a slight reduction in the number of test items compared to the original scale.

The findings imply that the Polish version of the scale is a valid and reliable tool for assessing TBB. However, I recommend additional studies to confirm this instrument’s structure.

The results confirmed the reliability and relevance of the tool for measuring TBBs in Polish cultural conditions. The tool provides the basis for implementing further research with the TBB construct in Poland and internationally.

Psychometric analyses of self-administered questionnaire data tend to focus on items and instruments as a whole. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the functioning of the response scale and its impact on measurement precision. In terms of the response scale direction, existing evidence is mixed and inconclusive.

Three experiments are conducted to examine the functioning of response scales of different direction, ranging from agree to disagree versus from disagree to agree. The response scale direction effect is exemplified by two different latent constructs by applying the Rasch model for measurement.

The agree-to-disagree format generally performs better than the disagree-to-agree variant with spatial proximity between the statement and the agree-pole of the scale appearing to drive the effect. The difference is essentially related to the unit of measurement.

A careful investigation of the functioning of the response scale should be part of every psychometric assessment. The framework of Rasch measurement theory offers unique opportunities in this regard.

Besides content, validity and reliability, academics and practitioners utilising published measurement instruments are advised to consider any evidence on the response scale functioning that is available.

The study exemplifies the application of the Rasch model to assess measurement precision as a function of the design of the response scale. The methodology raises the awareness for the unit of measurement, which typically remains hidden.