The Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey (LEOSS): evaluation of psychometric properties.

This study establishes the reliability and validity of the Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey (LEOSS), a short early-warning stress-screening measure for law enforcement officers. The initial phase of LEOSS development employed the behavioral-analytic model to construct a 25-item instrument specifically geared toward evaluation of stress in this population. The purpose of the present study was to examine psychometric properties of the LEOSS. Results indicate this instrument has good levels of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and validity. Potential applications of the LEOSS in clinical and research contexts are discussed. The next phase of research on the LEOSS is discussed, and suggestions for directions that future research in this area might take are offered.

Discrepancies between premorbid and current IQ as a function of progressive mental deterioration.

The declining cognitive functioning typically found in patients with Alzheimer's disease presents an opportunity to study that decline. The changing magnitude of ever widening discrepancies between premorbid estimators of IQ and observed IQ increases as severity of the disease increases. Premorbid IQs estimated by these scores (the National Adult Reading Test-Revised, the reading tests of the Revised and Third Editions of the Wide Range Achievement Test, and a demographically based regression index for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised) had relatively similar discrepancies from obtained WAIS-R Full Scale IQs in samples of normal elderly (n = 30), and elderly patients diagnosed with mild (n = 30) and moderate Alzheimer's disease (n = 30) dementia. The discrepancies became larger, regardless of premorbid estimator, as disease severity progressed from none to mild to moderate across the samples.

A behavioral-analytic model for assessing stress in police officers: phase I. Development of the Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey (LEOSS).

Research and clinical reports over the past 25 years have documented the high level of stress inherent in the law enforcement profession. Further, these findings have indicated a wide range of negative physical and mental health sequelae from this stress. The present study employed a behavioral-analytic assessment approach to develop a brief, early warning screening measure of stress among law enforcement officers, the Law Enforcement Officer Stress Survey (LEOSS). This paper describes the initial phases of the LEOSS development following the behavioral-analytic method, which included situational analysis, item development, response enumeration, response evaluation, and construction of the survey. This process resulted in a final 25-item instrument specifically geared toward evaluation of stress in law enforcement officers. The next phase of research on the LEOSS, and suggestions for directions that research in this area might take, are offered.

Prediction of IQ in the Mayo Older Adult Normative sample using multiple methods.

Using the Mayo Older Adult Normative sample (Ivnik et al., 1992) as our database, we developed regression models for estimating premorbid Full Scale (FSIQs), Verbal (VIQs), and Performance (PIQs) IQs for elderly adults. Age, years of education, and sex were the only demographic variables that showed sufficient variability; therefore, they were used as predictor variables in three stepwise procedures. The Mayo Normative FSIQs, VIQs, and PIQs served as the dependent variables. Both education and sex added significantly to the accounting of variance of both FSIQ and VIQ ( p < .001), whereas education ( p < .001) and age ( p < .05) were significant predictors of PIQ. These models produced statistically significant multiple Rs of .54, .58, and .35 ( p < .0001), with standard errors of estimate of 9.02, 8.28, and 10.77 for FSIQ, VIQ, and PIQ, respectively. Estimated FSIQs generated with the present model and the model developed by Barona and colleagues (Barona, Reynolds, & Chastain, 1984) were compared. The correlation between estimated IQs was large, the mean difference between IQs was very small, the standard deviations were nearly equal, and the categorical distributions of the two were similar. Because the Barona model is likely to be familiar to most clinicians, these findings argue in favor of the continued use of the Barona model, even when assessing people older than the WAIS-R normative sample. Extensions of these models to the WAIS-III also are discussed.

Differences in young children's IQs on the Wechsler preschool and primary scale of intelligence-revised as a function of stratification variables.

The normative sample (N = 1,700) of the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised (WPPSI-R), stratified on age, gender, ethnicity, geographic region, education, and occupation of children's parents, served as the database with which to examine the associations of demographic characteristics with Verbal Intelligence Quotients (VIQs), Performance Intelligence Quotients (PIQs), and Full Scale Intelligence Quotients (FSIQs) among young children. A 3-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) andfollow-up analyses of variance (ANOVAs) found significant effects of parent education and ethnicity, but not child's gender, on IQ. A separate 2-way MANOVA andfollow-up ANOVAsfound significant interaction effects between region and ethnicity on IQ. Parent education showed the largest association with all 3 IQs, whereas gender and age showed the least. The meaning of the hierarchy of the stratification variable associations with IQ is discussed.