Technology-Facilitated sexual violence perpetration and victimization among adolescents: a network analysis

Introduction The present study sought to analyze the relationships between diferent forms of technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) perpetration and victimization, including gender- and sexuality-based harassment, digital sexual harassment, and image-based sexual abuse (IBSA), which includes both sextortion and non-consensual pornography. Methods The sample was composed of 1682 adolescents (865 girls; Mage=13.90, SDage=1.26) who completed self-report measures from November 2019 to March 2020. We conducted network analyses to analyze the relationships among diferent forms of TFSV perpetration and victimization. Results Overall, girls had higher victimization scores, whereas boys had higher scores in the perpetration of several forms of TFSV. Gender- and sexuality-based victimization formed a cluster with digital sexual harassment victimization, while sextortion and nonconsensual pornography victimization formed a diferentiated cluster. Forms of IBSA victimization and digital sexual harassment victimization were strongly associated with their perpetration counterparts for boys, but this was not the case for girls. Conclusions The results revealed that the diferent forms of victimization and perpetration appear to be related and suggest that TFSV is a gendered form of abuse. Policy Implications Findings from the present study suggest that preventive programs in schools and communities should be holistic and address various forms of TFSVOpen Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Funding for this study was provided by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (the Spanish Government) Grant RTI2018‐101167‐B‐I0

A genetic algorithm for optimal assembly of pairwise forced-choice questionnaires

The use of multidimensional forced-choice questionnaires has been proposed as a means of improving validity in the assessment of non-cognitive attributes in high-stakes scenarios. However, the reduced precision of trait estimates in this questionnaire format is an important drawback. Accordingly, this article presents an optimization procedure for assembling pairwise forced-choice questionnaires while maximizing posterior marginal reliabilities. This procedure is performed through the adaptation of a known genetic algorithm (GA) for combinatorial problems. In a simulation study, the efficiency of the proposed procedure was compared with a quasi-brute-force (BF) search. For this purpose, five-dimensional item pools were simulated to emulate the real problem of generating a forced-choice personality questionnaire under the five-factor model. Three factors were manipulated: (1) the length of the questionnaire, (2) the relative item pool size with respect to the questionnaire’s length, and (3) the true correlations between traits. The recovery of the person parameters for each assembled questionnaire was evaluated through the squared correlation between estimated and true parameters, the root mean square error between the estimated and true parameters, the average difference between the estimated and true inter-trait correlations, and the average standard error for each trait level. The proposed GA offered more accurate trait estimates than the BF search within a reasonable computation time in every simulation condition. Such improvements were especially important when measuring correlated traits and when the relative item pool sizes were higher. A user-friendly online implementation of the algorithm was made available to the user

Cognitively diagnostic analysis using the G-DINA model in R

Cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) have increasingly been applied in education and other fields. This article provides an overview of a widely used CDM, namely, the G-DINA model, and demonstrates a hands-on example of using multiple R packages for a series of CDM analyses. This overview involves a step-by-step illustration and explanation of performing Q-matrix evaluation, CDM calibration, model fit evaluation, item diagnosticity investigation, classification reliability examination, and the result presentation and visualization. Some limitations of conducting CDM analysis in R are also discusse

Versión española de la escala de Comportamiento Ecológico para Niños (CEN)

Children’s pro-ecological behaviors are usually registered using scales based on the idea of a simple connection between attitudes and behaviors. However, this relationship seems to be more complicated. The Children’s Ecological Behavior (CEB) Scale has been proposed as an alternative. Based on the Rasch model, it considers the different efforts needed to conduct a series of behaviors. This paper presents an improved adaptation of the CEB to Spanish population. Method: We back-translated the CEB into Spanish, increased the number of behaviors and collected data from 6- to 12-year-olds, using a game format procedure. Results: The scale can detect differences in the effort needed to perform various behaviors. Children’s pro-ecological attitudes and behaviors are positively related. No relationship was found between parents’ and children’s proecological attitudes and behaviors. Conclusions: The Spanish version of the CEB scale emerges as a reliable tool to measure children’s proecological behaviorsEl comportamiento pro-ecológico infantil suele registrarse con escalas basadas en la existencia de una conexión simple entre actitud y comportamiento. Sin embargo, esta relación parece ser más compleja. La escala de Comportamiento Ecológico para Niños (CEN) ha sido propuesta como una alternativa. Basándose en el modelo del Rasch, esta considera que distintas conductas requirieren distinto grado de esfuerzo. Se presenta una adaptación mejorada de la CEN a la población española. Método: se realizó una traducción inversa de la CEN, se amplió el número de conductas registradas y se recogieron datos con niños (6-12 años), usando un procedimiento de juegos. Resultados: la escala diferencia entre comportamientos que requieren distinto grado de esfuerzo. Existe una relación positiva entre las actitudes y el comportamiento pro-ecológico de los niños. No se encontró relación entre las actitudes y comportamiento pro-ecológico de padres e hijos. Conclusiones: la versión española de la escala CEN es un instrumento fiable para registrar conductas pro-ecológicas infantilesFinancial support came from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (PSI-2013-44939

Modeling general, specific, and method variance in personality measures: Results for ZKA-PQ and NEO-PI-R

Reprinted by permission of SAGE PublicationsContemporary models of personality assume a hierarchical structure in which broader traits contain narrower traits. Individual differences in response styles also constitute a source of score variance. In this study, the bifactor model is applied to separate these sources of variance for personality subscores. The procedure is illustrated using data for two personality inventories—NEO Personality Inventory–Revised and Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality Questionnaire. The inclusion of the acquiescence method factor generally improved the fit to acceptable levels for the Zuckerman–Kuhlman–Aluja Personality Questionnaire, but not for the NEO Personality Inventory–Revised. This effect was higher in subscales where the number of direct and reverse items is not balanced. Loadings on the specific factors were usually smaller than the loadings on the general factor. In some cases, part of the variance was due to domains being different from the main one. This information is of particular interest to researchers as they can identify which subscale scores have more potential to increase predictive validit

Two-step likelihood ratio test for item-level model comparison in cognitive diagnosis models

Hogrefe OpenMind Licens: Based on and Compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License, creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ (https://doi.org/10.1027/a000001)There has been an increase of interest in psychometric models referred to as cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs). A critical concernis in selecting the most appropriate model at the item level. Several tests for model comparison have been employed, which include the likelihood ratio (LR) and the Wald (W) tests. Although the LR test is relatively more robust than the W test, the current implementation of the LR test is very time consuming, given that it requires calibrating many different models and comparing them to the general model. In this article, we introduce the two-step LR test (2LR), an approximation to the LR test based on a two-step estimation procedure under the generalized deterministic inputs, noisy, “and” gate (G-DINA) model framework, the two-step LR test (2LR). The 2LR test is shown to have similar performance as the LR test. This approximation only requires calibration of the more general model, so that this statistic may be easily applied in empirical researchThis research was supported by Grant PSI2013-44300-P (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and European Social Fund

Improving reliability estimation in cognitive diagnosis modeling

Cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) are used in educational, clinical, or personnel selection settings to classify respondents with respect to discrete attributes, identifying strengths and needs, and thus allowing to provide tailored training/treatment. As in any assessment, an accurate reliability estimation is crucial for valid score interpretations. In this sense, most CDM reliability indices are based on the posterior probabilities of the estimated attribute profiles. These posteriors are traditionally computed using point estimates for the model parameters as approximations to their populational values. If the uncertainty around these parameters is unaccounted for, the posteriors may be overly peaked, deriving into overestimated reliabilities. This article presents a multiple imputation (MI) procedure to integrate out the model parameters in the estimation of the posterior distributions, thus correcting the reliability estimation. A simulation study was conducted to compare the MI procedure with the traditional reliability estimation. Five factors were manipulated: the attribute structure, the CDM model (DINA and G-DINA), test length, sample size, and item quality. Additionally, an illustration using the Examination for the Certificate of Proficiency in English data was analyzed. The effect of sample size was studied by sampling subsets of subjects from the complete data. In both studies, the traditional reliability estimation systematically provided overestimated reliabilities, whereas the MI procedure offered more accurate results. Accordingly, practitioners in small educational or clinical settings should be aware that the reliability estimation using model parameter point estimates may be positively biased. R codes for the MI procedure are made availableOpen Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This work has been funded by the Community of Madrid through the Pluriannual Agreement with the Universidad de Universidad Autónoma de Madrid in its Programa de Estímulo a la Investigación de Jóvenes Doctores (Reference SI3/ PJI/2021-00258), and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FPI BES-2016-077814

Validity and reliability of situational judgement test scores: A new approach based on cognitive diagnosis models

© The Author(s) 2016.Conventional methods for assessing the validity and reliability of situational judgment test (SJT) scores have proven to be inadequate. For example, factor analysis techniques typically lead to nonsensical solutions, and assumptions underlying Cronbach’s alpha coefficient are violated due to the multidimensional nature of SJTs. In the current article, we describe how cognitive diagnosis models (CDMs) provide a new approach that not only overcomes these limitations but that also offers extra advantages for scoring and better understanding SJTs. The analysis of the Q-matrix specification, model fit, and model parameter estimates provide a greater wealth of information than traditional procedures do. Our proposal is illustrated using data taken from a 23-item SJT that presents situations about student-related issues. Results show that CDMs are useful tools for scoring tests, like SJTs, in which multiple knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics are required to correctly answer the items. SJT classifications were reliable and significantly related to theoretically relevant variables. We conclude that CDM might help toward the exploration of the nature of the constructs underlying SJT, one of the principal challenges in SJT research.Link_to_subscribed_fulltex

New index for the analysis of emotions in social networks (SNAI): Application in the political context [Review]

Autonomous University of Madri