Screening for depression is an integral part of psychological evaluations conducted prior to bariatric surgery. The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) is the most commonly used measure of depression in these treatment evaluations. The reliability and validity of the BDI-II has not yet been evaluated within bariatric surgery-seeking samples,…

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Therapeutic Alliance Scale for Caregivers and Parents (TASCP) in a sample of 209 caregivers whose children (4-13 years of age) presented with disruptive behavior problems to a publicly funded outpatient mental health clinic in San Diego County. Information about therapeutic alliance was…

Current developments in violence risk assessment warrant consideration for use within educational settings. Using a structured professional judgment (SPJ) model, the present study investigated the predictive validity of the Structured Assessment of Violence in Youth (SAVRY) within educational settings. The predictive accuracy of the SAVRY scales…

The authors compared 3 measures of readiness to change alcohol use commonly used in clinical research and practice with adolescents: the Readiness Ruler, the SOCRATES (subscales of Recognition and Taking Steps), and a Staging Algorithm. The analysis sample consisted of 161 male and female adolescents presenting for intensive outpatient…

Reverse-scored items on assessment scales increase cognitive processing demands and may therefore lead to measurement problems for older adult respondents. In this study, the objective was to examine possible psychometric inadequacies of reverse-scored items on the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) when used to assess…

The authors describe the development and psychometric properties of a new measure called the Skills of Cognitive Therapy (SoCT) in depressed adults and their cognitive therapists. The 8-item SoCT assesses patients' understanding and use of basic cognitive therapy (CT) skills rated from the perspectives of both observers (SoCT-O; therapists in this…

Hypoglycemia is the most common adverse event associated with insulin treatment in diabetes. The consequences of hypoglycemia can be quite aversive and potentially life threatening. The physical sequelae provide ample reason for patients to fear hypoglycemia and avoid episodes. For these reasons, our purpose in this study was to develop a new…

The present study examines the predictive and incremental validity of Violence Risk Appraisal Guide scores in a sample of 328 male and 145 female jail inmates held on felony charges. Significant gender differences were observed in VRAG item and total score means, as well as in correlations between the VRAG and concurrent measures of aggression.…

Several studies have concluded that scores from Hare's (2003) Psychopathy Checklist--Revised (PCL-R) predict reoffense among sexual offenders, but most of those studies examined the predictive validity of scores from trained research staff, not clinicians in the field scoring the measure as part of actual forensic assessments. Therefore, we…

After returning from an extended combat deployment to Iraq, 348 National Guard soldiers were administered the PTSD Checklist (PCL-M), and the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) followed, on average, 3 months later by structured diagnostic interviews including the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) for the "Diagnostic and Statistical…

This study used Rasch measurement model criteria and traditional psychometric strategies to examine key psychometric properties of the Behavioral Complexity Scale (BCS), a widely used measure of externalizing disorders that focuses on attention deficit, hyperactivity, and conduct disorders. With a sample of 7,435 persons being screened for…

The Hypomanic Attitudes and Positive Predictions Inventory (HAPPI; W. Mansell, 2006) was developed to assess multiple, extreme, self-relevant appraisals of internal states. The present study aimed to validate the HAPPI in a clinical sample. Participants (N = 50) with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder (confirmed by a structured clinical interview)…

The Severe Sexual Sadism Scale (SSSS) is a screening device for the file-based assessment of forensically relevant sexual sadism. The SSSS consists of 11 dichotomous (yes/no) items that code behavioral indicators of severe sexual sadism within sexual offenses. Based on an Austrian sample of 105 sexual offenders, the present study replicated the…

The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) is a widely used inventory for the assessment of affect in psychology and other applied sciences. Despite its popularity, the structure of the PANAS is still under debate. On the one hand, there is evidence of the traditional 2-factor model with Positive Affect (PA) and Negative Affect (NA) as…

A general consensus on the Big Five model of personality attributes has been highly generative for the field of personality psychology. Many important psychological and life outcome correlates with Big Five trait dimensions have been established. But researchers must choose between multiple Big Five inventories when conducting a study and are…