Psychological Assessment

Does the Bayley-4 measure the same constructs across girls and boys and infants, toddlers, and preschoolers?
This study tested the assumption that the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Fourth Edition (Bayley-4) functions similarly for boys and girls and for four age groups. The Bayley-4 American norming sample of 1,700 children ages 0–42 months (3.5 years) was used, which included 50% boys and girls. Fifty-three percent of the children identified as White, 22.1% as Hispanic, 12.5% as Black, 8.5% as other, and 4.0% as Asian. A confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated the three-factor structure of cognitive, language, and motor abilities fit the data well (comparative fit index = .99, root-mean-square of error of approximation = .08, standardized root-mean-square residual = .02) and fit significantly better than the two- and one-factor models. The correlations between the latent factors were moderate (r = .73) to large sized (r = .81). Measurement and structural invariance were tested for boys and girls and four age groups (0–5, 6–13, 14–25, and 26–42 months). Residual invariance was supported for girls and boys, and intercept invariance was supported for the four age groups. The measurement invariance results suggest the Bayley-4 is not biased toward these gender and age groups, and group comparisons and decision making can be made with the Bayley-4 scores. Structural invariance findings suggested some differences for gender and age groups. The relations between the cognitive, language, and motor factors and factor variances were equal across girls and boys but differed significantly across the four age groups. Girls scored significantly higher on the three latent means, but these differences were small to negligible. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Development of the Food Addiction Symptom Inventory: The first clinical interview to assess ultra-processed food addiction.
Prior research on ultra-processed food addiction (FA) has utilized the self-report Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) measures to identify individuals who experience indicators of substance-use disorders with respect to their consumption of ultra-processed foods. Studies using the YFAS have provided insight into the clinical utility of FA as both a distinct construct and an indicator of more severe psychopathology among individuals with eating disorders. However, the absence of clinician-administered assessment tools for FA has been identified as a barrier to the evaluation of FA as a novel clinical syndrome. Thus, the present study reflects the development of the Food Addiction Symptom Inventory (FASI), a clinician-administered assessment of FA, adapted from the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth editon modules for diagnosing substance-use disorders. The psychometric properties of the FASI and its concordance with the YFAS 2.0 were evaluated in a cross-sectional study of adults (n = 53) with binge-type eating disorders. The FASI performed appropriately on indices of reliability and validity. Concordance between the FASI and YFAS 2.0 was established for the symptom scores (r = .53, p< .001), and >70% agreement was achieved for FA categorization. Using the FASI, 80% of individuals with bulimia nervosa and 91.7% of those with binge eating disorder were identified as exhibiting FA. While the YFAS 2.0 and FASI both lead to similar assessments of FA symptoms, the FASI provides an essential approach for clinician-guided identification of this phenotype, which may be particularly important when participants have high levels of dietary restraint or limited insight into the impact of their eating behavior. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Development and validation of a method for deriving MMPI-3 scores from MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF item responses.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory–3 (MMPI-3; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2020a) was developed to expand the content coverage of the MMPI-2–Restructured Form (MMPI-2-RF; Ben-Porath & Tellegen, 2008/2011) and to update the test’s norms to better represent the U.S. population. Because most MMPI-3 items were carried over from the MMPI-2-RF, most MMPI-3 scales can be either fully scored or prorated from the MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF item pool. We describe development of a procedure for deriving MMPI-3 scores from MMPI-2/MMPI-2-RF protocols and examine the psychometric properties of prorated MMPI-3 scores across various samples. Following Tarescavage et al. (2016), who developed a method for prorating most MMPI-2-RF scores from the original MMPI, prorated MMPI-3 scales had to meet three criteria: (a) sufficient representation in the MMPI-2-RF item pool, (b) association with the full-length corresponding MMPI-3 scale at r ≥ .90 in multiple samples, and (c) comparable T score means and standard deviations in multiple samples. These criteria resulted in the exclusion of the three MMPI-3 non-content-based Validity Scales, as well as nine Specific Problems Scales, yielding 16 MMPI-3 scales that can be fully scored and 24 for which psychometrically comparable prorated score estimates can be derived from responses to the MMPI-2 or MMPI-2-RF item pools. Evidence of the psychometric functioning of the resulting scale scores and their comparability with the full versions of these scales across samples is presented and discussed. This procedure provides a means to study 40 of the 52 MMPI-3 scales using archival data obtained with older versions of the inventory. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Prospectively predicting violent and aggressive incidents in prison practice with the Risk Screener Violence (RS-V): Results from a multisite prison study.
Preventing in-prison violence and maintaining a safe environment is an important goal within prison settings. Screening for violence risk may provide a valuable addition to reach this goal. Within the Dutch prison system, the Risk Screener Violence (RS-V) has become an important new element in overall risk management. Prior research shows that RS-V scores are a sound predictor of institutional violence and aggression of incarcerated persons. Whereas previous studies predominantly analyzed retrospective file-based data, the present study includes RS-Vs rated by prison employees in real-life prison practice shortly after implementation. The RS-Vs of 956 detained individuals from 25 Dutch prisons were analyzed. Disciplinary reports were consulted to measure violent and aggressive incidents during 4 months after the screening. In addition, detention duration (length of stay in prison before the screening) was included as an additional variable. Results of the present prison practice study show good predictive values of the RS-V ratings for violent and aggressive incidents during prison stay. The predictive validity was similar for prisoner-to-prisoner assault as well as prisoner-to-staff assault. In addition, the predictive validity of the RS-V scores did not differ between individuals with a longer detention duration versus individuals with a shorter detention duration. This multisite prison practice study is an important step in the further validation of the RS-V and shows that the RS-V is a valuable tool in determining who is more likely to show institutional violence. Nonetheless, it remains important to continually monitor the implementation and correct application of the RS-V in prison practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Living up to expectations? A simulation study evaluating methods used to detect sudden gains and sudden losses.
Sudden gains and sudden losses are abrupt, large changes in symptom severity between two consecutive psychotherapy sessions. Sudden gains (i.e., large improvements in symptom severity) seem to be associated with better treatment outcomes and have thus received considerable attention in clinical psychology over the last 2 decades. However, simulation studies indicate that the most common approach used to detect sudden gains is prone to misclassifications, implying that sudden gain research might be hindered by false positive and false negative findings. Although other sudden gain detection approaches exist, their performance has not yet been investigated and compared to the conventional method. To close this gap, we conducted a simulation study comparing the performance of the conventional approach and four alternative sudden gain detection approaches depending on the type of symptom trajectory, the number of measurements, the reliability of the measurement scores, and the amount of fluctuation around the trajectories. We found that all five detection approaches performed well in the simulation condition with nearly no variability (i.e., low reliability and small fluctuations). However, in conditions with medium or high variability in the data, all detection methods performed poorly. These results suggest that future studies should investigate further potential methods to detect sudden gains and/or examine ways to improve existing methods, such as by considering measurement error. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Evaluation of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) Unlikely Virtues Scale in the detection of underreporting.
The current investigation was designed to examine the impact of underreporting response bias on the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ) and the utility of the Unlikely Virtues scale in detecting such responding. Study participants were randomly assigned to either the underreporting (n = 100) or standard instruction (n = 224) conditions. All participants first completed a series of extratest measures under standard instruction prior to the MPQ administration. The results showed that individuals in the underreporting condition scored significantly higher on MPQ scales that reflect positive emotionality and self-control and lower on scales that indicate negative emotionality compared to those in the standard instruction. Moreover, the psychometric validity of MPQ scale scores against extratest measures was substantially attenuated in the underreporting condition compared to the standard instruction condition. The Unlikely Virtues scale differentiated between the conditions at a large effect size magnitude (Hedges’ g = 1.21) and showed promising classification accuracy though lower cut scores than those reported in the MPQ manual performed substantially better with respect to sensitivity. Future research needs to replicate these findings in more naturalistic settings with other research designs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Psychological Assessment - Vol 36, Iss 11