Development and Preliminary Italian Validation of the Emergency Response and Psychological Adjustment Scale

Evaluating the personal adaptation response to the emergency situations is very important for the prevention of mental distress, for the activation of network and community synergies and for the planning and implementation of appropriate psycho-social interventions. So far there are no short tools for the overall assessment of cognitive, emotional and behavioral responses of psychological adaptation to the emergency in the psychometric panorama. The Emergency Response and Psychological Adjustment Scale (ERPAS) was administered to a sample of 1,088 participants, while the concurrent validity was tested through a second administration to 600 participants along with the GSE (Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale) and the BDI-II (Beck Depression Inventory-II). Confirmatory factor analysis bore out a five-factor solution (including 18 items) with good fit indices of adaptation to data, χ2/df = 1.440, RMSEA = 0.028, RMSEA 90% CI = 0.018–0.038, GFI = 0.996, AGFI = 0.959, CFI = 0.982, and NFI = 0.944. Evidence of convergent validity was provided by the significant correlations with variables such as cognitive and somatic depression, and perceived general self-efficacy. The analyses also showed a strong invariance across gender. The ERPAS tool prefigures application during the assessment in multiple emergency contexts (e.g. earthquakes, floods, pandemics, terrorist attacks, war events, major accidents, major fires). This validation study of the ERPAS has shown that this version is a reliable and valid measurement for assessing people's modes of personal response (cognitive, emotional, behavioral) in emergency contexts

Metric Goodness and Measurement Invariance of the Italian Brief Version of Interpersonal Reactivity Index: A Study With Young Adults

The Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) is a widely used multidimensional measure to assess empathy across four main dimensions: perspective taking (PT) empathic concern (EC) personal distress (PD) fantasy (F). This study aimed to replicate the Italian validation process of the shortened IRI (Interpersonal Reactivity Index) scale in order to confirm its psychometric properties with a sample of young adults. The Gender Measurement Invariance of empathy in this age group was also an objective of the work in order to increase the data on this aspect. A total of 683 Italian university students participated in a non-probabilistic sampling. The 16-item version was confirmed in its four-factor structure but with changes to some items. The model showed good fits with both the CFA and the gender Measurement Invariance. The internal consistency measures were found to be fully satisfactory. Convergent validity was tested by the correlations with the Prosocialness Scale for Adults and The Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. As hypothesized the measure proved good convergent validity with Prosocialness, i.e., the willingness to assist, help, share, care and empathy with others, and a relevant inverse association with the External Oriented Thinking, characterizing individuals with emotionally poor thinking. This research provided additional evidence for a link between alexithymia and poor empathic abilities in young adults