scholarly journals Toward a Culturally Robust Measure to Assess Marital Relationships

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 201-225
Author(s):  
Hyanghee Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Intergenerational Relationships ◽  
The United States ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Measurement Properties ◽  
Sexual Intimacy ◽  
Order Factor

Despite the increased use of measures developed in the United States in countries with different cultural value orientations, researchers often do not examine whether scales show invariance across cultures. The goal of this study was to discuss the importance of measurement invariance when conducting research with cultural groups that differ from U.S. populations. As an illustration of this issue, the Marital Comparison Level Index (MCLI; Sabatelli, 1984 ) was revised in a culturally relevant way to be used to study Korean couples and the measurement properties of the scale was explored in samples drawn from the United States and Korea ( N = 676). Results showed that there was a second-order factor, which is marital complaints, that underlies the five first-order factors (i.e., emotional intimacy, sexual intimacy, marital conflicts, intergenerational relationships, and complaints about partner’s lifestyle). The identified second-order factor structure showed an adequate level of measurement invariance, indicating the potential for using the measure to examine marital issues within and between couples from these two countries. Taken together, the present study serves as an impetus for international scholarship that could promote cultural and racial diversity in relationship research.

How Universal Is a Construct of Loneliness? Measurement Invariance of the UCLA Loneliness Scale in Indonesia, Germany, and the United States

Assessment ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 107319112110345
Author(s):  
Joevarian Hudiyana ◽  
Tania M. Lincoln ◽  
Steffi Hartanto ◽  
Muhammad A. Shadiqi ◽  
Mirra N. Milla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Social Isolation ◽  
Total Sample ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Model Fit ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Loneliness Scale ◽  
The One

The UCLA Loneliness Scale (ULS-20) and its short version (ULS-8) are widely used to measure loneliness. However, the question remains whether or not previous studies using the scale to measure loneliness are measuring the construct equally across countries. The present study examined the measurement invariance (MI) of both scales in Germany, Indonesia, and the United States ( N = 2350). The one-, two-, and three-factor structure of the ULS-20 did not meet the model fit cut-off criteria in the total sample. The ULS-8 met the model fit cut-off criteria and has configural, but not metric invariance because two items unrelated to social isolation were not MI. The final six items (ULS-6) exclusively related to social isolation had complete MI. Participants from the United States scored highest in the ULS-6, followed by participants from Germany and then Indonesia. We conclude that the ULS-6 is an appropriate measure for cross-cultural studies on loneliness.

Does School Climate Mean the Same Thing in the United States as in Mexico? A Focus on Measurement Invariance

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathan D. Shukla ◽  
Tracy E. Waasdorp ◽  
Sarah Lindstrom Johnson ◽  
Mercedes Gabriela Orozco Solis ◽  
Amanda J. Nguyen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
School Climate ◽  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
School Students ◽  
Scale Scores ◽  
Partial Invariance ◽  
The U.S

School climate is an important construct for guiding violence prevention efforts in U.S. schools, but there has been less consideration of this concept in its neighboring country Mexico, which has a higher prevalence of violence. The U.S. Department of Education outlined a three-domain conceptualization of school climate (i.e., safe and supportive schools model) that includes engagement, safety, and the school environment. To examine the applicability of this school climate model in Mexico, the present study tested its measurement invariance across middle school students in the United States ( n = 15,099) and Mexico ( n = 2,211). Findings supported full invariance for engagement and modified-safety scales indicating that factor loadings and intercepts contributed almost equally to factor means, and scale scores were comparable across groups. Partial invariance was found for the environment scales. Results of a multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) consisting of all 13 school climate scales indicated significantly positive associations among all scales in the U.S. sample and among most scales in the Mexico sample. Implications of these findings are discussed.

scholarly journals The Instability of Highly Racially Diverse Residential Neighborhoods in the United States

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 365-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Wright ◽  
Mark Ellis ◽  
Steven R. Holloway ◽  
Gemma Catney
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Predominantly White ◽  
Metropolitan Areas ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
Black Population ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racially Diverse ◽  
Absolute Level ◽  
The Stability ◽  
High Diversity

This research concerns the location and stability of highly racially diverse census tracts in the United States. Like some other scholars, the authors define such tracts conservatively, requiring the significant presence of at least three racialized groups. Of the approximately 65,000 tracts in the country, there were 197 highly diverse tracts in 1990 and 998 in 2010. Most were located in large metropolitan areas. Stably integrated highly diverse tracts were the exception rather than the rule. The vast majority of highly diverse tracts transitioned to that state from being predominantly White. Those that transitioned from being highly racially diverse were most likely to transition to being majority Latino. Although the absolute level of metropolitan racial diversity has no effect on the stability of high-diversity tracts, change in both metropolitan-scale racial diversity and population raise the probability of a tract’s transitioning to high diversity. Metropolitan-scale racial diversity did not affect the stability of highly diverse tracts, but it did alter the patterns of succession from them. The authors also found that highly diverse tracts were unstable and less likely to form in metropolitan areas with high percentages of Blacks. Increased metropolitan-level diversity mutes this Black population share effect by reducing the probability of high-diversity tract succession to a Black majority.

Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Irrational Beliefs Inventory for University Students in the United States and Iceland

2020 ◽  
pp. 003329412097177
Author(s):  
Gudmundur T. Heimisson ◽  
Robert F. Dedrick
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
University Students ◽  
Measurement Invariance ◽  
Irrational Beliefs ◽  
Measurement Model ◽  
The United States ◽  
Correlated Errors ◽  
Factor Measurement ◽  
Model Misfit ◽  
The U.S

We used multigroup confirmatory factor analysis to evaluate the five-factor measurement model underlying the 50-item Irrational Beliefs Inventory (IBI) in samples of university students in the United States ( n=827) and Iceland ( n=720). Global model fit was marginally acceptable in each sample. Further analyses identified several sources of model misfit that included weak factor loadings, several item pairs with correlated errors, and items with loadings on more than one factor. Cronbach’s alpha reliability estimates for the five factors were similar for the U.S. and Icelandic samples, and comparable to those reported by the developers of the IBI. Measurement invariance testing supported configural (same form) and metric invariance (equal loadings), but identified only 20 items that had invariant item intercepts across the U.S. and Icelandic groups. Given the finding of partial measurement invariance, we offer caution when using the IBI to make group comparisons for U.S. and Icelandic samples. Recommendations are proposed for ongoing psychometric evaluations of the IBI that would identify strengths of the IBI and items that, if revised or deleted, may improve the quality of the measure for research and clinical purposes.

Values and Political Predispositions in the Age of Polarization: Examining the Relationship between Partisanship and Ideology in the United States, 1988–2012

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 241-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert N. Lupton ◽  
Steven M. Smallpage ◽  
Adam M. Enders
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
The United States ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Value Orientations ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Election Studies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

The correlation between ideology and partisanship in the mass public has increased in recent decades amid a climate of persistent and growing elite polarization. Given that core values shape subsequent political predispositions, as well as the demonstrated asymmetry of elite polarization, this article hypothesizes that egalitarianism and moral traditionalism moderate the relationship between ideology and partisanship in that the latter relationship will have increased over time only among individuals who maintain conservative value orientations. An analysis of pooled American National Election Studies surveys from 1988 to 2012 supports this hypothesis. The results enhance scholarly understanding of the role of core values in shaping mass belief systems and testify to the asymmetric nature and mass public reception of elite cues among liberals and conservatives.

Afro-Latina/os

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Ulises Decena
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
African Ancestry ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Racial Identification ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Race Ethnicity ◽  
Black Populations ◽  
Politics Of Race

The term Afro Latina/os references people in Latin America and in the Latino United States who claim African ancestry. Although the use of the prefix Afrocan be traced back to the work of intellectuals in Cuba, Mexico, and Brazil at the beginning of the 20th century, usages were connected with anti-racist and African Diaspora struggles, organizing, and advocacy in the second half of the 20th century. More recently, the appellation Afro Latina/o has become mobilized in US Latina/o communities as a critique of the processes through which racial diversity and black populations in these communities have been rendered invisible. Because it conjures various meanings and foci, several authors engaged in the study of afrolatinidades suggest that hemispheric, transnational, and comparative approaches are necessary to appreciate the nuances of use, categorization, and experience as Afro Latina/os navigate complex histories and politics of race, ethnicity, and belonging in the United States and the Americas. The author argues that the term appellation does not resolve the complexities of racial subordination, racism, and self-making among Latin Americans and US Latina/os. He further suggests that sites of unintelligibility, confusion, and perplexity are valuable in thinking of “Afro-Latina/o” as a term that points to a cluster of urgent intellectual and political problems stemming from the irreducibility of individual experience to any term or concept. The increase in claims of Afro-Latina/o as a marker of identity must be calibrated by a consideration of how institutional sites and think tanks collaborate in the making and sedimentation of existing and emerging grids of legibility. At the same time, claiming Afro-Latina/o needs to be understood as a project related to yet distinct from one’s racial identification and relationship with blackness, and the experience of US Latina/os and other ethnic/racial minorities suggests that the work continues to be not only to understand how individuals and groups categorize themselves and others, but also to better grasp what it is that terms such as Afro-Latino/a do.

scholarly journals Neighborhood Racial Diversity, Socioeconomic Status, and Perceptions of HIV-Related Discrimination and Internalized HIV Stigma Among Women Living with HIV in the United States

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (6) ◽  
pp. 270-281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaylee B. Crockett ◽  
Andrew Edmonds ◽  
Mallory O. Johnson ◽  
Torsten B. Neilands ◽  
Mirjam-Colette Kempf ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Racial Diversity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Hiv Stigma ◽  
Women Living With Hiv ◽  
Living With Hiv

The Myositis Activities Profile — Initial Validation for Assessment of Polymyositis/Dermatomyositis in the USA

2012 ◽  
Vol 39 (11) ◽  
pp. 2134-2141 ◽  
Author(s):  
HELENE ALEXANDERSON ◽  
ANN M. REED ◽  
STEVEN R. YTTERBERG
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Disease Activity ◽  
Weighted Kappa ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Measurement Properties ◽  
Cronbach’S Alpha ◽  
Cronbach's Alpha ◽  
Initial Validation ◽  
Disease Effect

Objective.To evaluate some measurement properties of the Myositis Activities Profile (MAP) in adult patients with polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM) in the United States.Methods.To assess content validity, patients with PM/DM rated difficulty and importance of items of the MAP using a visual analog scale (VAS), range 0–10. For construct validity, consecutive patients with PM/DM performed the 6-item core set for disease activity including the manual muscle test (MMT) and the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ), the Functional Index-2 (FI-2; muscle endurance), and the MAP plus disease effect on well-being on a VAS. Item fit within subscales was analyzed by Cronbach’s alpha. Patients with stable disease activity filled out the MAP again 1 week later.Results.The median combined difficulty and importance, 0–10, of the 31 items was 5.00 (range 2.10–5.95). One item was added, giving a 32-item MAP. Correlations between the median of subscales/single items of the MAP and the HAQ and disease effect on well-being were rs = 0.69 and rs = 0.68, respectively, with lower correlations to the MMT (rs = −0.35), and the FI-2 (rs = −0.29 to −0.47) and disease activity measures (rs = 0.36–0.41). Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the 4 subscales varied between 0.85 and 0.95. Weighted kappa coefficients (Kw) ranged between 0.77 and 0.93 for the 4 subscales and between 0.74 and 0.83 for the 4 single items without systematic variations (p > 0.05).Conclusion.This initial validation of the MAP indicates promising measurement properties for assessing limitations in activities of daily living and participation in patients with PM/DM in the United States.

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