Dimensionality, variance composition, and development of a brief form of the duke health profile, and its measurement invariance across five gender identity groups.

OBJECTIVE: To conduct advanced psychometric analyses on the Duke Health Profile, a popular measure of health-related quality of life. DESIGN: Online survey. Data (N = 1233, 34.3% transgender) were from community and college participants. Dimensionality was assessed for the first time using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with part of the sample, followed by single- and multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) with the balance of the sample. RESULTS: EFA resulted in a 14-item three factor structure: mental, physical and social health. CFA estimated four models (common factors, bifactor, hierarchical, unidimensional), none demonstrated adequate fit. From another EFA specifying one factor, the 6-item Duke Health Profile-Brief Form was developed based on updated guidelines for shortening composite measurement scales, which was assessed using CFA, finding good fit to the data. Measurement invariance by gender was assessed across the diverse gender spectrum, finding evidence for configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance. CONCLUSIONS: There is insufficient evidence to use the general, mental, social and physical health scores of the DUKE Health Profile. However, there is evidence supporting the use of the unidimensional DUKE-BF, which is largely invariant between cisgender men and women, transgender men and women, and transgender men and non-binary participants.

Academia During the Time of COVID-19: Examining the Voices of Untenured Female Professors in STEM.

This paper highlighted the diverse voices of 84 female-identifying professors in STEM fields who responded to a series of open-ended questions regarding work, family, and tenure experiences in the context of the current global pandemic. The current paper is part of a longitudinal study of the vocational experiences of tenure-track women in STEM that has examined the "leaky pipeline" in women's academic careers. Consensual Qualitative Research-Modified (CQR-M; ) was implemented to analyze the data. The findings suggested that participants perceived the precarious balance between work and family to have increased in difficulty in the face of COVID-19. Among untenured female faculty with children, an added layer of challenge was noted related to loss of childcare in the wake of the pandemic. The pre-existing, pervasive barriers (i.e., institutional, systemic, and psychological) were further exacerbated by familial barriers for female STEM faculty seeking tenure during COVID-19. Overall, the results indicated missed opportunities within higher education to implement supportive policies for untenured female faculty in STEM. Clinical implications, future research directions, and social advocacy interventions in the context of COVID-19 are discussed.

Child maltreatment, alexithymia, and problematic internet use in young adulthood.

The goals of this study were to (a) examine the phenomenology and developmental correlates of problematic Internet use (PIU) in a large and diverse college student sample; (b) evaluate a developmental process model of PIU in which the expected association between child maltreatment and PIU would be explained by alexithymia; and (c) explore these relations as a function of gender and race. PIU was assessed in a sample of 1,470 college students (62.9 percent female, 37.1 percent male; M(age)=19.13 years [SD=1.49]; 46.1 percent Asian, 28.2 percent Hispanic, 16.3 percent White, 5.9 percent Black, and 3.5 percent Multiracial/Other) who participated in a larger study of young adult adaptation, which included measures of child maltreatment, alexithymia, self-concept, social support, and psychopathology. Males and Asian students endorsed higher levels of PIU than females and other ethnoracial groups, respectively. PIU was related to contemporaneous maladaptation in the form of decreased self-concept, lower social support, and increased psychopathology across groups. Experiences of child maltreatment were related to increased PIU, and mediation analyses showed that this relation was partially explained by alexithymia. These relations were comparable across males and females and between Asian and non-Asian respondents. The analyses provide evidence for the significant role of child maltreatment and the cognitive-affective deficits it precipitates in understanding pathways toward PIU in young adulthood. Our findings suggest that maltreated youth are at disproportionate risk for PIU, and their capacities to regulate and process emotion are important targets for prevention and therapeutic intervention.