Measurement Invariance of the Scale of Positive and Negative Experience Across 13 Countries.

The Scale of Positive and Negative Experience (SPANE) is widely used to measure emotional experiences, but not much is known about its cross-cultural utility. The present study evaluated the measurement invariance of the SPANE across adult samples (N = 12,635; age range = 18-85 years; 58.2% female) from 13 countries (China, Colombia, Germany, Greece, India, Italy, Japan, Poland, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, Turkey, and the United States). Configural and partial scalar invariance of the SPANE were supported. Three items capturing specific negative emotions (sad, afraid, and angry) were found to be culturally noninvariant. Our findings suggest that the SPANE's positive emotion terms and general negative emotion terms (e.g., negative and unpleasant) might be more suitable for cross-cultural studies on emotions and well-being, whereas caution is needed when comparing countries using the SPANE's specific negative emotion items.

Relationship of social problem-solving ability with interpersonal relationships: a prospective study among Japanese women and men.

The present study of a Japanese sample used a prospective approach to examine the relationship between self-rated social problem-solving ability and quality of interpersonal relationships. The Japanese versions of the Problem-Solving self-efficacy scale, problem-solving skills scale, and the interpersonal relationship inventory short form were administered to 139 female and 148 male Japanese college students, who participated in two sessions separated by 6 wk. (time 1 and time 2). Partial correlations controlling for scores on the interpersonal relationship scales at Time 1 indicated that self-ratings of social problem-solving ability were correlated with aspects of interpersonal relationships assessed at time 2, and this relationship was stronger for men (five of six correlations were significant) than for women (two of six correlations were significant).

Relations of social problem solving with interpersonal competence in Japanese students.

To clarify the relations of the dimensions of social problem solving with those of interpersonal competence in a sample of 234 Japanese college students, Japanese versions of the Social Problem-solving Inventory-Revised and the Social Skill Scale were administered. Pearson correlations between the two sets of variables were low, but higher within each set of subscales. Cronbach's alpha was low for four subscales assessing interpersonal competence.

Development of a short form of the Japanese version of the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory.

The Interpersonal Relationship Inventory (Tilden, Nelson, & May, 1990a) is a 39-item self-report measure to assess three aspects (support, reciprocity, and conflict) of perceived social relationships. In this research, short forms of the Japanese version (Sumi, 2003) of the inventory were developed on the basis of data from two sources. For the item selection, data from 340 Japanese college students (148 women, 192 men; M age = 21.6 yr., SD = 1.6) who completed the original full form of the inventory were used to create three internally consistent short forms. The reliability and construct validity of the short forms were examined upon administering them to among 513 college students (226 women, 287 men; M age =19.9 yr., SD = 1.4). All the subscales of the short forms had acceptable internal consistency (alphas = .70-.90) and test-retest reliability (rs = .72-.81). Confirmatory factor analysis of each short form supported the fact that each form had a three-factor structure. Scores on the subscales shared acceptable overlapping variance with the corresponding subscale scores of the original full form, and these scores were weakly but significantly correlated with the scores for satisfaction with social support, loneliness, and perceived stress. All the short forms had acceptable reliability and construct validity.

Further evidence for construct validity of the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory: Japanese version.

The Japanese versions of the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, and the Self-esteem Scale were administered to 153 Japanese college students. Weak to modest significant correlations between scores on the inventory and measure of life satisfaction and self-esteem provided further incremental support for construct validity of the inventory.

Factor structure of work commitment for Japanese employees.

The factor structure of the Japanese translation of five work commitment measures, i.e., the Work Involvement Questionnaire, the Career Commitment Scale, the Job Involvement Questionnaire, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and the Work Group Attachment Scale, was examined in 496 Japanese employees. Exploratory factor analysis clearly identified five factors which reflected commitment toward the job, organization, work group, career, and work itself. The items composing each factor were consistent with the items included in each of the five measures used.

Correlations between optimism and social relationships.

This study examined the relationships between self-report scores of 275 Japanese college students on the Japanese version of the revised Life Orientation Test and the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory. Ratings for optimism were positively correlated with those for social support and reciprocity (rs= .39 and .29, respectively) and negatively correlated with those for interpersonal conflict (r = -.26).

The Japanese version of the revised Life Orientation Test: reliability and construct validity.

The Japanese translation of the revised Life Orientation Test was completed by 223 Japanese college students. Factor analysis yielded two factors, namely, Optimism and Pessimism. These factor scales showed adequate reliability and construct validity.

Reliability and construct validity of the Japanese version of the interpersonal relationship inventory.

The present study examined the psychometric characteristics of the three network function subscales (Social Support, Conflict, and Reciprocity) in the Japanese version of the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory. Data from Japanese college students (250 women and 218 men) were analyzed to estimate internal consistency (alphas = .93-.96) and test-retest reliability (rs = .69-.74). To assess construct validity, correlations between scores on the inventory and measures of social support, loneliness, and stress were performed. Results indicated that the Japanese version of the inventory was valid and reliable.