Dimensionality, Reliability, Invariance, and Validity of the Multidimensional Social Anxiety Response Inventory-21 (MSARI-21).

Research shows that social anxiety disorder (SAD) is prevalent in the United States, and could interfere with many aspects of a person's life. Although numerous psychological instruments have been developed to measure presence and intensity levels of social anxiety, these instruments fail to capture the range of responses individuals use to mitigate the negative affect associated with the anxiety, namely alcohol use and anger distress. Recently, the Multidimensional Social Anxiety Response Inventory-21 (MSARI-21) was developed to address this limitation and increase our understanding of the complexity of social anxiety. We expand on this work by evaluating the psychometric properties of the instrument, using a combination of exploratory structural equation and bifactor modeling, and item response techniques. Across 2 studies, data indicated the presence of a strong, 3-factor structure (i.e., anger distress, alcohol reliance, and social avoidance), strong internal consistency, and evidence of both convergent and discriminant validity. In addition, results showed that the MSARI-21 multidimensional structure was invariant across gender. We conclude that the MSARI-21 is a valid and valuable tool for assessing individuals' responses to social anxiety, and that future research should evaluate the instrument within other samples to ensure its utility across clinical and subclinical populations.

Relationships between perfectionism, self-report impulsivity measures and delay discounting.

Perfectionism and impulsivity are multidimensional constructs. While different perfectionism dimensions are exclusively measured through self-reports, different impulsivity dimensions can be measured through self-report or behaviour via preferences for different rewards. This study explored differential associations between perfectionism and impulsivity based on both dimension and measurement modality (self-report/behavioural). We then examined whether adaptive or maladaptive perfectionism would be differentially associated with impulsivity. Two-hundred and six students completed two perfectionism and three impulsivity measures (two self-report; one behavioural). Two self-report impulsivity measures were associated with specific perfectionism dimensions, whereas the behavioural measure was not associated with perfectionism. Maladaptive perfectionism was associated with decreasing impulsivity, whereas adaptive perfectionism was associated with increasing impulsivity. Perfectionism related to impulsivity differently depending on how each construct was measured.

Using Natural Language Processing to Extract and Classify Symptoms Among Patients with Thyroid Dysfunction.

In the United States, more than 12% of the population will experience thyroid dysfunction. Patient symptoms often reported with thyroid dysfunction include fatigue and weight change. However, little is understood about the relationship between these symptoms documented in the outpatient setting and ordering patterns for thyroid testing among various patient groups by age and sex. We developed a natural language processing and deep learning pipeline to identify patient-reported outcomes of weight change and fatigue among patients with a thyroid stimulating hormone test. We built upon prior works by comparing 5 open-source, Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) to determine which models could accurately identify these symptoms from clinical texts. For both fatigue (f) and weight change (wc), Bio_ClinicalBERT achieved the highest F1-score (f: 0.900; wc: 0.906) compared BERT (f: 0.899; wc: 0.890), DistilBERT (f: 0.852; wc: 0.912), Biomedical RoBERTa (f: 0.864; wc: 0.904), and PubMedBERT (f: 0.882; wc: 0.892).

Associations between impulsivity and self-care adherence in individuals diagnosed with Type 2 or prediabetes.

Diabetes is a chronic disease requiring extensive self-care. Different impulsivity constructs, including choice-based and self-report personality measures are associated with decreasing diabetes self-care adherence. However, both choice-based and self-report impulsivity have never been measured for individuals diagnosed with either Type 2 or prediabetes in the same study. The current study examined the relationship between impulsivity and diabetes self-care in 101 adults diagnosed with either Type 2 or prediabetes. Results indicated that increasing self-reported impulsiveness was significantly correlated with decreasing Type 2 diabetic self-care, whereas the choice-based measure was not associated with any self-care measure. No association between impulsivity and self-care was significant for individuals diagnosed with prediabetes. Path analyses showed that self-reported impulsiveness directly and positively predicted problems controlling blood sugar levels in individuals diagnosed with either prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes. However, self-reported impulsiveness only indirectly and negatively predicted exercise and diet adherence via diabetes management self-efficacy for individuals diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. These results show what specific impulsivity constructs and diabetes management self-efficacy may be incorporated into interventions for increasing specific self-care behaviors.

Differential relationships between discount rates and health behaviors in an ethnically diverse college sample.

Previous research has demonstrated associations between delay discount rate and engagement in several health behaviors. The delay discount rate is also inversely associated with social discount rates, a putative measure for sharing. However, there is little research that examines whether delay and social discount rates are differentially associated with health behavior engagement, and even less research examining the impact of ethnicity on these relationships. This study investigated whether delay and/or social discount rates predict three health behaviors varying in sociality: sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, alcohol consumption and exercise frequency in an ethnically diverse university sample. The results showed that neither delay nor social discount rate significantly predicted alcohol consumption and exercise frequency. However, increasing social discount rates (i.e., decreased sharing) was associated with a decreased likelihood to be tested for STIs. Ethnicity significantly contributed to two models, indicating differences in STI testing and alcohol consumption across ethnicities. Ethnic differences in these health behaviors were consistent with many previous health behavior studies, suggesting a profitable way to research cultural contingencies and test the reliability of the ethnically diverse data. These findings indicate that the social discount rate is differentially associated with health behaviors with more social aspects (i.e., health behaviors related to sex) in college students.

The Reasons for Living Inventory for Young Adults (RFL-YA-II).

Suicide remains the second leading cause of death among young adults aged 15 years and older. Given its negative impact, it is essential to conduct studies that offer a greater understanding of the reasons young adults give for not engaging in suicide-related behaviors. The Reasons for Living Inventory for Young Adults is designed to explore this idea. This novel 24-item instrument measures four protective dimensions of reasons: Peer Acceptance and Support, Family Sources of Support, Faith-Related Support, and Personal Perceived Strength. The current investigations include two validation studies designed to examine further the psychometric properties of this instrument. Participants were undergraduate students at a state university in the U.S. Southwest. The first aim of the study was to evaluate the dimensionality of the instrument. We used confirmatory and bifactor confirmatory factor analyses to address this goal. The second aim was to examine the evidence for reliability estimates and concurrent validity. Results from both studies provided adequate support for a four-factor model across methods, acceptable internal consistency reliability, and concurrent validity for the dimensions of this instrument.Public Significance Statement: Suicide remains a significant mental health concern for young adults. The present studies found empirical support for the psychometric properties of a new measure for assessing four dimensions of the target construct: Peer-Acceptance and Social Support, Family Sources of Support, Faith-Related Support, and Personal Perceived Strength.

Evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional Revenge Attitudes Inventory-21.

Despite a few hypothesized associations between revenge and suicide in the suicide literature, the potential of revenge as a multidimensional construct related to suicide has remained unexplored. Using data from undergraduate samples across 2 studies, we examined support for the psychometric properties and nomological network of scores on the Multidimensional Revenge Attitudes Inventory-21 (MRAI-21), a new self-report instrument composed of 3 dimensions: craving for revenge, revenge rumination, and suicide-related revenge. Results from Study 1 (N = 510), suggested that a 3-factor oblique solution obtained through contemporary factor analytic methods provided the best fit for the sample data. Estimates of internal consistency reliability for the MRAI-21 scale scores were above .90. In Study 2 (N = 380), we examined internal consistency reliability estimates for 6 concurrent self-report measures and conducted convergent validity analyses using latent variable modeling with scores on the MRAI-21 and concurrent measures. Results showed that scores on all instruments had adequate estimates of reliability and revealed a unique network of correlates for each of the MRAI-21 scale scores. Findings suggest that revenge can be measured as a multidimensional construct within the context of suicide; future directions and clinical implications are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

A Bidimensional Examination of Machismo in Relation to Risky Sexual Cognitions and Behavior among Latino College Men.

Objective: College students and Latina/o individuals are disproportionately affected by adverse consequences related to risky sex, highlighting the importance of examining sociocultural factors related to risky sexual variables among Latina/o college students. We explored the link between machismo (a bidimensional form of masculinity often ascribed to Latino men) and risky sexual outcomes among Latino college men. Methods: Latino college men responded to an online study assessing two dimensions of machismo, and risky sexual cognitions (eg, risky sexual intentions) and behavior (eg, condom use). Results: Among our findings, a hypermasculine dimension of machismo predicted greater intentions to engage in risky sex, and more positive condom use attitudes. A dimension of machismo characterized by respect and chivalry predicted more frequent condom use. Conclusions: These findings indicate the relation between machismo and risky sex among Latino college men is complex, underscoring the need for sociocultural considerations in culturally tailored collegiate sexual-risk prevention programs.

Smoking expectancies and health perceptions: An analysis of Hispanic subgroups.

Research suggests different patterns of cigarette smoking behaviors across Hispanic subgroups. However, research examining differences in known cognitive correlates of smoking behavior (e.g., beliefs about smoking and perceived consequences of smoking) is lacking. The purpose of this study was two-fold. First, given the dearth of research examining cigarette smoking across Hispanic subgroups, we sought to replicate previous findings related to disparities in smoking behavior across four subgroups (i.e., Mexican American, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and Dominican American). Second, we sought to extend previous work by examining Hispanic subgroup differences across a range of smoking-related cognitive factors (i.e., positive and negative beliefs, perceived health risks, and perceived social consequences). This study used data from 1021 Hispanic individuals from four universities in the U.S. (i.e., Texas, California, New York, Florida) in a project funded by the American Legacy Foundation. Results indicated that Cuban Americans reported more current smoking than any other subgroup and the most positive beliefs about smoking, although Puerto Ricans endorsed the fewest negative beliefs about smoking out of all the groups. There were also differences across subgroups on some perceived health risks of smoking (e.g., Cubans were most likely to believe that smoking was a risk factor for diabetes) and perceived social consequences of smoking (e.g., Mexican Americans were less likely to perceive negative social consequences from not smoking). This study underscores the need to account for heterogeneity within the Hispanic population in tobacco research to more effectively inform future research and prevention practices.