The Paradox in Positive and Negative Aspects of Emotional Functioning Among Older Adults with Early Stages of Cognitive Impairment.

Introduction: Emotional functioning in older adults is influenced by normal aging and cognitive impairment, likely heterogeneous across positive versus negative aspects of emotional functioning. Little is known about positive emotional experiences at the early stages of cognitive impairment. Methods: We assessed different aspects of emotional functioning among 448 participants aged 65+ (Normal Control (NC) = 276, Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) = 103, and mild dementia of the Alzheimer type (mild DAT) = 69) and tested moderators. Results: Compared to NC, older adults with MCI and mild DAT have maintained many positive aspects of emotional functioning, despite higher levels of negative affect, sadness, and loneliness. Among the oldest-old, the mild DAT group experienced higher fear and lower self-efficacy. Discussion: Older adults at early stages of cognitive impairment can experience positive aspects of emotional functioning, such as positive affect, purpose, and life satisfaction, all of which are important buildable psychological resources for coping.

Multidimensional nonadditivity in one-facet g-theory designs: A profile analytic approach.

We introduce a new method for estimating the degree of nonadditivity in a one-facet generalizability theory design. One-facet G-theory designs have only one observation per cell, such as persons answering items in a test, and assume that there is no interaction between facets. When there is interaction, the model becomes nonadditive, and G-theory variance estimates and reliability coefficients are likely biased. We introduce a multidimensional method for detecting interaction and nonadditivity in G-theory that has less bias and smaller error variance than methods that use the one-degree of freedom method based on Tukey's test for nonadditivity. The method we propose is more flexible and detects a greater variety of interactions than the formulation based on Tukey's test. Further, the proposed method is descriptive and illustrates the nature of the facet interaction using profile analysis, giving insight into potential interaction like rater biases, DIF, threats to test security, and other possible sources of systematic construct-irrelevant variance. We demonstrate the accuracy of our method using a simulation study and illustrate its descriptive profile features with a real data analysis of neurocognitive test scores. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Self-Regulation in Preschool: Examining Its Factor Structure and Associations With Pre-academic Skills and Social-Emotional Competence.

Self-regulation in early childhood is an important predictor of success across a variety of indicators in life, including health, well-being, and earnings. Although conceptually self-regulation has been defined as multifaceted, previous research has not investigated whether there is conceptual and empirical overlap between the factors that comprise self-regulation or if they are distinct. In this study, using a bifactor model, we tested the shared and unique variance among self-regulation constructs and prediction to pre-academic and social-emotional skills. The sample included 932 preschool children (M age = 48 months, SD = 6.55; 49% female), their parents, and their teachers in the United States. Children's self-regulation was assessed using measures of executive function, behavioral self-regulation, and emotion regulation. The bifactor model demonstrated a common overarching self-regulation factor, as well as distinct executive function and emotion regulation factors. The common overarching self-regulation factor and executive function predicted children's pre-academic (i.e., mathematics and literacy) and social-emotional skills. The emotion regulation factor predicted children's social-emotional skills. Identifying the shared and unique aspects of self-regulation may have important implications for supporting children's regulatory skills as well as their success in school.

Latent Variable Interactions With Ordered-Categorical Indicators: Comparisons of Unconstrained Product Indicator and Latent Moderated Structural Equations Approaches.

Methods to handle ordered-categorical indicators in latent variable interactions have been developed, yet they have not been widely applied. This article compares the performance of two popular latent variable interaction modeling approaches in handling ordered-categorical indicators: unconstrained product indicator (UPI) and latent moderated structural equations (LMS). We conducted a simulation study across sample sizes, indicators' distributions and category conditions. We also studied four strategies to create sets of product indicators for UPI. Results supported using a parceling strategy to create product indicators in the UPI approach or using the LMS approach when the categorical indicators are symmetrically distributed. We applied these models to study the interaction effect between third- to fifth-grade students' social skills improvement and teacher-student closeness on their state English language arts test scores.

Are we accurately evaluating depression in patients with cancer?

Depression remains poorly managed in oncology, in part because of the difficulty of reliably screening and assessing for depression in the context of medical illness. Whether somatic items really skew the ability to identify "true" depression, or represent meaningful indicators of depression, remains to be determined. This study utilized item response theory (IRT) to compare the performance of traditional depression criteria with Endicott's substitutive criteria (ESC; tearfulness or depressed appearance; social withdrawal; brooding; cannot be cheered up). The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), ESC, and Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) were administered to 558 outpatients with cancer. IRT models were utilized to evaluate global and item fit for traditional PHQ-9 items compared with a modified version replacing the 4 somatic items with ESC. The modified PHQ-9 ESC scale was the best fit using a partial credit model; model fit was improved after collapsing the middle 2 response categories and removing psychomotor agitation/retardation. This improved model showed satisfactory scale precision and internal consistency, and was free from differential item functioning for gender, age, and race. Concurrent and criterion validity were supported. Thus, as many have speculated, utilizing the ESC may result in more accurate identification of depressive symptoms in oncology. Depressed mood, anhedonia, and suicidal ideation retained their expected properties in the modified scale, indicating that the traditional underlying syndrome of depression likely remains the same, but the ESC may provide more specificity when assessing patients with cancer. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).