Development of Stressor Scale for Obese People

Present study was conducted to develop and validate an Indigenous scale to assess the stressors experienced by obese people in different domains of their lives. Mixed method design and purposive sampling technique was used. A list of 29 items was generated after thorough review of the literature and from the details of the interviews conducted with the participants. Validation from expert clinical psychologists was obtained. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with oblimin rotation was run on a sample of 300 participants for current study. Confirmatory factor analysis on a separate sample of 400 participants yielded a good model fit and validated three-factor structure with fit indices ? 2 = 807.45 (df = 320, N = 300), p < .05, RMSEA = .062, CFI = .91 and TLI = .88. The Cronbach alpha valuewas.86 indicating strong internal consistency of the scale. The distress and Well-being subscales of Mental Health Inventory were utilized to assess the convergent and divergent Validity which yielded positive and negative correlation respectively affirming Stressor Scale for Obese people as a valid construct. The study is an initial step to highlight and understand the stressors experienced by obese people and its severity level. This will help doctors and mental health professional to devise effective management of obesity.

Development and Validation of Perceived Inter-Parental Conflict Scale for Adolescents

The study aimed to develop a culturally relevant scale to assess the perceived inter-parental conflicts in adolescents by using a mixed-method approach. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 10 adolescents of age range 14-18 years were conducted along with 3 focus groups of parents and teachers that helped to generate a pool of 88 items. Construct validity and psychometric properties were determined on a sample of 500 adolescent with age range 14-18 years (M = 15.28, SD = 1.07). Principal axis factoring through direct oblimin rotation method postulated 60 items with six distinct factors (named as overt conflicts, familial conflicts, conflicts related emotional reactivity, financial conflicts, child related conflicts, and psychological conflicts) that accounted for 38% variance. The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for total scale was .94 and ranged from .63 to .92 for six emerged factors. The convergent and discriminant validity of the scale was also satisfactory. Perceived Inter-Parental Conflict Scale for Adolescents (PIPCSA) was a reliable and valid measure to assess perceived inter-parental conflicts in adolescents.

Development and psychometric properties of fear of rejection scale (FRS): measuring social and interpersonal rejection among young adults in Pakistan

Purpose Fear of rejection is a feeling experienced by every human, which influences everyday life. It impacts an individual’s physical and mental health. But still there is no valid and reliable measure to assess prevalence of fear of rejection because of interpersonal relationships and social factors. This paper aims to serve the purpose of the establishment of psychometric properties of a scale that measures the fear of rejection. Design/methodology/approach Data was gathered from focus groups to establish item pool and construct the instrument. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the data collected by administering fear of rejection scale (FRS) and it uncovered the structure of the developed scale. Principal component analysis method was conducted by using direct oblimin rotation. Findings A two-factor structure, which includes interpersonal relationships and social factors, was obtained as a result of EFA. The internal consistency of the scale is highly acceptable with a = 0.93, which indicated that the scale is highly reliable. High reliability of subscales was attained as a = 0.90 and 0.86, respectively. Originality/value This research paper is original, which aims to assess the fear of rejection in terms of social and interpersonal rejection. The data collected is valid and authentic. The FRS is constructed with highly reliable results and is a psychometrically sound instrument.

Development of the Woman-Centred Care Scale- Midwife Self Report (WCCS-MSR)

Background Woman-centred care is recognised as a fundamental construct of midwifery practice yet to date, there has been no validated tool available to measure it. This study aims to develop and test a self-report tool to measure woman-centred care in midwives. Methods A staged approach was used for tool development including deductive methods to generate items, testing content validity with a group of experts, and psychometrically testing the instrument with a sample drawn from the target audience. The draft 58 item tool was distributed in an online survey using professional networks in Australia and New Zealand. Testing included item analysis, principal components analysis with direct oblimin rotation and subscale analysis, and internal consistency reliability. Results In total, 319 surveys were returned. Analysis revealed five factors explaining 47.6% of variance. Items were reduced to 40. Internal consistency (.92) was high but varied across factors. Factors reflected the extent to which a midwife meets the woman’s unique needs; balances the woman’s needs within the context of the maternity service; ensures midwifery philosophy underpins practice; uses evidence to inform collaborative practice; and works in partnership with the woman. Conclusion The Woman-Centred Care Scale-Midwife Self Report is the first step in developing a valid and reliable tool to enable midwives to self-assess their woman-centredness. Further research in alternate populations and refinement is warranted.

Development of Street Harassment Scale for Women in Universities

This study is aimed to discuss the manifestations of street harassment among women university students of Lahore. The initial phase of the study involved conducting semi-structured interviews. For this purpose, 20 women university students were interviewed and 19 items were generated. A list of 19 items was given to experts to assess content validity. After removing repetitive statements, 15 item scale was retained and validated by experts. The final 15 item scale was administered to 150 female participants. Factor analysis showed significant KMO value and Bartlett’s test of sphericity which indicated a significant correlation between the items with a few exceptions of weak loadings. Items 12 and 13 showed weak loadings, so these items were discarded and a 13 item scale was retained. Three-factor solutions were suggested through Principle Component Analysis via oblimin rotation and labeled as Behavioral, Verbal, and Eve Teasing. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was further done on a sample of 380 participants to confirm the factors obtained via Exploratory Factor Analysis which overall showed a strong construct validity of the scale and model fit after removal of three items. The final retained version of the scale consisted of 12 items. To assess the convergent validity of the indigenously developed scale, the Sexual Harassment Experience Questionnaire (Kamal & Tariq, 1998) was used as it assessed a similar construct. The correlation coefficient of the two scales was .49 (p < .01). Cronbach alpha value of the developed scale was .82 suggesting a strong inter-item correlation. There are myriad interventions on which the study sheds light.

A Construction of Entrepreneurial Personality Tests: Testing Archetype Personality Inventory in Entrepreneurship

VUCA is about a hyper-competitive and unpredictable environment. It stands for volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Personal attributes are necessary to navigate the VUCA environment. Studies in entrepreneurship show that narratives help people to connect different experiences. Literature shows that a narrative journey can be described through archetypes and relate to entrepreneurial behavior. This study aims to construct and validate measurements of entrepreneurial personality by adapting Pearson & Marr's archetype inventory test within the entrepreneurial context. This study was conducted as an assessment of the measurement psychometric attributes consisting of 12 archetypes. Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) was carried out by Oblimin rotation resulting in 60 final items. This study involved 154 small and medium entrepreneurs in Jakarta and West Java.

A Scale for Measuring Social Distancing Behavior: Survey Questions and National Norms, USA 2020

"Social distancing", a set of "nonpharmaceutical interventions" or NPIs in the medical literature, is a primary defence, perhaps the primary defence, against infectious disease, universally advocated by medical authorities in the US and throughout the world during the current coronavirus pandemic. The idea is not new. Perhaps the first government-directed quarantine system was mid-fourteenth-century Venice's “quaranta giorni", forty days of mandated isolation for incoming ships. We propose a 5-item primary scale of "social distancing" behavior (KEK-3) and a slightly extended variant (KEK-3m), developed for use during the COVID-19 epidemic (and, potentially, beyond). The candidate items all had 7 answer categories. Assessment aligns very well with the classical measurement model for multi-item scales: interitem correlations are high; alpha reliability is 0.86; correlations with criterion variables are similar across the candidate items; factor analysis (oblimin rotation) finds a single dimension with an eigenvalue over 1 and loadings around .7. We provide behavioral norms for America during the 2020 pandemic and describe KEK-3's links to demographic and socioeconomic factors. Developing a replicable scale is especially important now, because many researchers are making erroneous comparisons using the same terminology to describe aspects of the epidemic which have been measured differently. To successfully assess the "...meaning of social change related to COVID-19, the newly emerging social practices due to lockdown measures..." (Esposito, Stark and Squazzoni 2020), high-quality measurements sufficiently reliable and robust to be replicated in different times as the epidemic evolves and in different settings are desperately needed: KEK-3 contributes to such a set of measures. Data: four large national sample surveys conducted April - July, 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic. Data collection was through Amazon.com's Mechanical Turk. This scale may be freely used by other researchers so long as its origin is acknowledged.

Parental Self-Efficacy in Helping Children Succeed in School Favors Math Achievement

Parents play an important role in children’s academic achievement. The purpose of the present study was to explore the internal structure of an established parent survey and to investigate the relationships among different aspects of parental involvement in predicting children’s mathematics achievement. The study involved secondary data from 139 parents and math achievement scores of 121 elementary school-aged children. Guided by Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler’s Revised Parent Involvement Process model, a Principal Component Analysis with direct oblimin rotation was conducted on the parent survey, followed by path analysis to predict children’s math achievement. Five principal components were retained. Standardized results of the path analysis indicated that parental self-efficacy had the largest direct effect on children’s math achievement. Moreover, parental self-efficacy was favored directly by parental perceptions of specific school invitations to become involved. These findings shed light on the interplay between parental involvement and children’s achievement and underscore the importance of school-family collaboration, which can potentially link to parental self-efficacy.

MERIT: a mentor reflection instrument for identifying the personal interpretative framework

Background Essential to the professional development of mentors is making explicit and critically challenging the knowledge and beliefs underpinning their mentoring practice. This paper reports on the development of a survey instrument called MERIT, MEntor Reflection InstrumenT, which was designed to support mentors’ systematic reflection on the how, what and why of their practice. Methods In 2019, a twenty-item survey instrument was developed and piloted. Initial validation data (N = 228) were collected by distributing the survey through the authors’ network. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted and internal consistency reliability coefficients were calculated. Results The Principal Axis EFA with Direct Oblimin rotation (Delta = 0) resulted in four factors: 1) supporting personal development, 2) modelling professional development, 3) fostering autonomy, and 4) monitoring performance. The four factors explained 43% of the total variance of item scores. The Cronbach’s alphas for the subscale scores were between .42 and .75. Conclusions The MERIT can help mentors reflect on their beliefs and professional knowhow. These reflections can serve as input for the faculty development initiatives mentors undertake, which may ultimately improve their knowledge and skills as a mentor.

FACTORIAL STRUCTURE OF THE MORPHOLOGICAL STATUS OF FEMALE CADET HANDBALL PLAYERS

The aim of this research was to determine the constitution and the latent structures on the sample of 124 female handball players, age 13.72 (SD = 5.16). The measuring instruments of this transversal research included the set of 12 anthropometric variables (Mišigoj-Duraković, 1995). The descriptive methods with the statistical significance of p ≤ .05, as well as exploratory factor analysis (EFA), along with the Guttman-Kaiser Criterion for reducing the number of main components using the oblimin rotation of variables were used in the data processing. The obtained results revealed the existence of the relevant four-factor hierarchical model, with 71,44% of the explained variance. The first most informative latent dimension was interpreted as the factor of longitudinal dimensionality of the skeleton (explained 37.02% of the variability), the second was subcutaneous fat (20.25% of the variability), the third is was body mass and volume (7.86% of the variability), and the forth was transversal dimensionality of the skeleton (6.31% of the explained variability). The factorial findings confirmed the hypothetical morphological structure of the extracted mutual factors of the participants, which is in accordance with the results of other researches. This study revealed practical implications and methodological limitations of this empirical research, and thus included recommendations for future research. Key words: Morphological characteristics / younger female cadets / exploratory factor analysis / handball.