The Development and Psychometric Assessment of a Scale to Measure the Severity of Examination Anxiety among Undergraduate University Students

The study reported here aimed to develop and psychometrically assess aninstrument to measure examination anxiety among undergraduate universitystudents. Based on empirical evidence and recent literature review wedeveloped a 1 2 item scale to measure the severity of examination anxiety. Theinstrument was administered to students, two weeks before they wrote theirexaminations. Experts (n=1 0) participated in a validation process of theinstrument before it was administered to students (n= 40). Internal consistencyreliability for the instrument was 0. 82 (Cronbach's alpha) and there was 92 %overall agreement between experts about the relevance of the instruments’items to measure students’ examination anxiety, providing evidence for contentvalidity. Factor analysis resulted in three cohesive and theoretically meaningfulfactors. There is evidence for content and convergent validity. The developedinstrument is a reliable, valid and empirical measure to assess the severity ofexamination anxiety. The scale will take five minutes to complete

Examining and measuring sources of stress in a sample of caregivers of children with special needs in Egypt: The Perception of Caregivers Stress Scale

This study aims to examine stress among caregivers of multiple disabled children and to develop and psychometrically assess an instrument to measure the sources of psychological stress among caregivers. The author developed a 24-item scale to measure the sources of stress among caregivers with (6–18) years old intellectually and physically disabled children. Experts (n = 12) provided a content validity of the instrument before it was administered to (n = 209) both male and female caregivers who are directly involved in the daily care of their disabled children. The experts' agreement about the relevance of the instruments' items to measure caregivers' perceptions of sources of stress related to the care of their children was 89%. Internal consistency reliability for the instrument was .86 (Cronbach's alpha). Factor analysis resulted in four cohesive and theoretically meaningful factors, and there is evidence for convergent validity. The developed instrument is a reliable, valid and empirical measure to assess the severity of stress

Pareidolia in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder

While there are many studies on pareidolia in healthy individuals and patients with schizophrenia, to our knowledge, there are no prior studies on pareidolia in patients with bipolar disorder. Accordingly, in this study, we, for the first time, measured pareidolia in patients with bipolar disorder (N = 50), and compared that to patients with schizophrenia (N = 50) and healthy controls (N = 50). We have used (a) the scene test, which consists of 10 blurred images of natural scenes that was previously found to produce illusory face responses and (b) the noise test which had 32 black and white images consisting of visual noise and 8 images depicting human faces; participants indicated whether a face was present on these images and to point to the location where they saw the face. Illusory responses were defined as answers when observers falsely identified objects that were not on the images in the scene task (maximum illusory score: 10), and the number of noise images in which they reported the presence of a face (maximum illusory score: 32). Further, we also calculated the total pareidolia score for each task (the sum number of images with illusory responses in the scene and noise tests). The responses were scored by two independent raters with an excellent congruence (kappa > 0.9). Our results show that schizophrenia patients scored higher on pareidolia measures than both healthy controls and patients with bipolar disorder. Our findings are agreement with prior findings on more impaired cognitive processes in schizophrenia than in bipolar patients

A Cross-Cultural Systematic Review of Vitamin D Deficiency in Women

Vitamin D deficiency has been reported in several cultures and regions, including the Middle East, North Europe, and Australia. In this review, we summarize and discuss existing studies on factors underlying vitamin D deficiency across different regions. In particular, we explain key roles played by lifestyle, including sun exposure, season change, diet, and clothing (concealing vs. non-concealing) as factors leading to vitamin D deficiency. We further discuss gender differences in vitamin D levels and, the impact of vitamin D supplements on cognition. The introductory section of this paper focuses on introducing vitamin D deficiency and highlighting the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Eastern countries. Here, we also provide a comparative literature analysis not only based on Eastern and Western countries but also compare the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency between males and females. Our review provides key information on potential life changes that help increase vitamin D and protect against the development of several disorders

Examining and measuring sources of stress in a sample of caregivers of children with special needs in Egypt: The Perception of Caregivers Stress Scale

This study aims to examine stress among caregivers of multiple disabled children and to develop and psychometrically assess an instrument to measure the sources of psychological stress among caregivers. The author developed a 24-item scale to measure the sources of stress among caregivers with (6–18) years old intellectually and physically disabled children. Experts (n = 12) provided a content validity of the instrument before it was administered to (n = 209) both male and female caregivers who are directly involved in the daily care of their disabled children. The experts’ agreement about the relevance of the instruments’ items to measure caregivers' perceptions of sources of stress related to the care of their children was 89%. Internal consistency reliability for the instrument was .86 (Cronbach’s alpha). Factor analysis resulted in four cohesive and theoretically meaningful factors, and there is evidence for convergent validity. The developed instrument is a reliable, valid and empirical measure to assess the severity of stress

The Development and Psychometric Assessment of a Scale to Measure the Severity of Examination Anxiety among Undergraduate University Students

The study reported here aimed to develop and psychometrically assess aninstrument to measure examination anxiety among undergraduate universitystudents. Based on empirical evidence and recent literature review wedeveloped a 1 2 item scale to measure the severity of examination anxiety. Theinstrument was administered to students, two weeks before they wrote theirexaminations. Experts (n=1 0) participated in a validation process of theinstrument before it was administered to students (n= 40). Internal consistencyreliability for the instrument was 0. 82 (Cronbach's alpha) and there was 92 %overall agreement between experts about the relevance of the instruments’items to measure students’ examination anxiety, providing evidence for contentvalidity. Factor analysis resulted in three cohesive and theoretically meaningfulfactors. There is evidence for content and convergent validity. The developedinstrument is a reliable, valid and empirical measure to assess the severity ofexamination anxiety. The scale will take five minutes to complete

Just-world beliefs are associated with influenza vaccine intake intent in the United Arab Emirates: a cross-sectional study

Abstract Although not a prime public health concern, seasonal influenza remains a challenge in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This problem is augmented by the fact that the percentage of the population intending to take the yearly seasonal influenza vaccine is relatively low. The purpose of this study is to assess if vaccine knowledge and just-world beliefs have an impact on willingness to receive the seasonal influenza vaccine. The methodology relies on a multivariable logistic regression analysis establishing predictors of vaccine intake intent and parametric tests comparing variables across gender and ethnicity. Results come out showing that vaccine knowledge is not a significant predictor of seasonal influenza vaccine intake intent. However, general belief in the just world is a significant predictor of vaccine intake intent. This has important implications for the role of religion in curbing seasonal influenza vaccine hesitancy in the UAE. Given that just-world beliefs are linked to religiosity, public health authorities need to consider relying on religious leaders to exhort the faithful to take the vaccines by framing their exhortations in the context of just-world beliefs

Additional file 1 of Moral approval of xenotransplantation in Egypt: associations with religion, attitudes towards animals and demographic factors

Supplementary material 1