[Confirmatory factor analysis of the short French version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale (CES-D10) in adolescents]. / Analyse confirmatoire de la version courte de la Center for Epidemiological Studies of Depression Scale (CES-D10) chez les adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Screening depressivity among adolescents is a key public health priority. In order to measure the severity of depressive symptomatology, a four-dimensional 20 items scale called "Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression Scale" (CES-D) was developed. A shorter 10-item version was developed and validated (Andresen et al.). For this brief version, several authors supported a two-factor structure - Negative and Positive affect - but the relationship between the two reversed-worded items of the Positive affect factor could be better accounted for by correlated errors. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study is triple: firstly to test a French version of the CES-D10 among adolescents; secondly to test the relevance of a one-dimensional structure by considering error correlation for Positive affect items; finally to examine the extent to which this structural model is invariant across gender. METHOD: The sample was composed of 269 French middle school adolescents (139 girls and 130 boys, mean age: 13.8, SD=0.65). Confirmatory Factorial Analyses (CFA) using the LISREL 8.52 were conducted in order to assess the adjustment to the data of three factor models: a one-factor model, a two-factor model (Positive and Negative affect) and a one-factor model with specification of correlated errors between the two reverse-worded items. Then, multigroup analysis was conducted to test the scale invariance for girls and boys. RESULTS: Internal consistency of the CES-D10 was satisfying for the adolescent sample (α=0.75). The best fitting model is the one-factor model with correlated errors between the two items of the previous Positive affect factor (χ(2)/dl=2.50; GFI=0.939; CFI=0.894; RMSEA=0.076). This model presented a better statistical fit to the data than the one-factor model without error correlation: χ(2)(diff) (1)=22.14, p<0.001. Then, the one-factor model with correlated errors was analyzed across separate samples of girls and boys. The model explains the data somewhat better for boys than for girls. The model's overall χ(2)(68) without equality constraints from the multigroup analysis was 107.98. The χ(2)(89) statistic for the model with equality-constrained factor loadings was 121.31. The change in the overall Chi(2) is not statistically significant. This result implies that the model is, therefore, invariant across gender. The mean scores were higher for girls than boys: 9.69 versus 7.19; t(267)=4.13, p<0.001. CONCLUSIONS: To conclude, and waiting for further research using the French version of the CES-D10 for adolescents, it appears that this short scale is generally acceptable and can be a useful tool for both research and practice. The scale invariance across gender has been demonstrated but the invariance across age must be tested too.

[Effects of family or school disconnection on adolescents' health]. / Désaffiliation familiale et désaffiliation scolaire: effets sur la santé des adolescents.

This article presents research on the health of adolescents who are in situations of either family or school detachment. Fourteen health indicators were used to investigate the physical, social and psychological well-being of adolescents. In addition, two separate scales were constructed to take into account family and school disengagement. As anticipated, the results prove that detachment from either family or school has a negative impact on health and this effect is amplified in cases of double detachment--both from family and school. The results also suggest an effect of contextual resilience since the school can play a protective role in for the health of adolescents who are in a situation of family disaffiliation. This research emphasises the need to analyse the risk and protective factors within a developmental and ecological theoretical framework to allow for the consideration of the dynamics involved between the different areas of life which are significant for an individual at a given moment in his development.

Understanding the combination of memory variables: a re-examination.

This study was a direct prolongation of a study by Wellman, Collins, and Glieberman (1981), which showed that, provided a sufficiently sensitive methodology is used, it is possible to demonstrate experimentally that even 5-year-old children are capable of integrating two types of information--effort and difficulty of task--in their judgment of performance (number of items recalled). We prolonged this study by adopting Anderson's information integration methodology in order to provide evidence concerning the type of combinatorial rule describing subjects' use of both pieces of information and to refine analysis to the individual level. In terms of group results, it was possible to describe the algebraic aspects of the information integration process by an additive model in children and adolescents, and by a multiplicative model in adults. Conclusions changed considerably, however, when individual results were studied. In the 5- and 8-year-old children, the dominant rule was clearly unifactorial, involving effort. Only in the adult group was true integration seen in all subjects.

[Transfer of a memorization strategy in 10-year-old children: study of individual differences]. / Transfert d'une stratégie de mémorisation chez des enfants de 10 ans: étude des différences individuelles.

The spontaneous or induced use of an organization strategy is examined on free recall tasks with 10-year-old children classified as rather global or rather analytical at the Group Embedded Figures test. The experimental procedure include three successive and identical tests followed by two deffered tasks, one requiring a transfer of maintenance and the other a transfer of generalization. The experimental group, who attended a simple illustration of the organization strategy before the second test, applied the strategy quickly and successfully: for these subjects, one does not note differences between global or analytical subjects in the recall performance; however, the global subjects modify their study strategy of the material on the generalization task. For the control group, global or analytical subjects have a different evolution for the performance and the strategic attitude according to the procedure. The analytical subjects are different from global subjects on the generalization task.