ABSTRACT
Drinking in elementary school, despite its low base rate, has been shown to predict alcohol use in middle school (Wilson, Battistich, Syme, & Boyce, 2002), which in turn predicts alcohol abuse or dependence in young adults (Guo, Collins, Hill, & Hawkins, 2000). The authors report 1 of the 1st examinations of the relationship between personality and psychosocial learning risk factors and drinking behavior among elementary school students. Fifth-grade students completed measures of disinhibition, positive and negative alcohol expectancies, and drinking. MIMIC modeling, tests of mediation, and tests of moderation were completed to test these relations. It was found that disinhibition and positive alcohol expectancies were each related to drinking in 5th graders. Disinhibition moderated the relation between positive alcohol expectancies and drinking in some cases. Mediation was not supported.
Subject(s)
Alcohol Drinking/psychology , Learning , Substance-Related Disorders/psychology , Temperament , Alcohol Drinking/epidemiology , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Risk Factors , Students , United StatesABSTRACT
Although frequent exposure to very thin female models is likely the norm for American women, exposure to attractive, average-weight models is likely unusual and may therefore be influential. The authors hypothesized that women at risk for eating disorders who are exposed to attractive, average-weight models would endorse fewer expectancies for reinforcement from thinness than would other women. The hypothesis was confirmed: High-risk women exposed to average-weight model images were less likely to endorse thinness/restricting expectancies than those who were exposed to thin models or to control images. Media exposure to realistic female images appears to lessen the relationship between at-risk status and subsequent endorsement of thinness/restricting expectancies and may therefore disrupt the risk process.
Subject(s)
Body Image , Feeding and Eating Disorders/prevention & control , Health Education , Mass Media , Social Values , Adult , Body Mass Index , Feeding and Eating Disorders/psychology , Female , Humans , Risk Factors , Students/psychology , Thinness/ethnology , Thinness/psychology , White PeopleABSTRACT
The authors articulate 5 basic principles for enhancing incremental validity, both among elements within a test and between tests, during test construction: (a) careful, precise articulation of each element or facet within the content domain; (b) reliable measurement of each facet through use of multiple, alternate-form items; (c) examination of incremental validity at the facet level rather than the broad construct level; (d) use of items that represent single facets rather than combinations of facets; and (e) empirical examination of whether there is a broad construct or a combination of separate constructs. Using these principles, the authors offer specific suggestions for modifications in 3 classic test construction approaches; (a) criterion keying, (b) inductive test construction, and (c) deductive test construction. Implementation of these suggestions is likely to provide theoretical clarification and improved prediction.