Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Psychological and educational measurement instruments are used to make decisions that can have an important impact on the person being assessed. It is therefore essential to ensure that tests are free from bias so that the scores they yield provide a fair interpretation. This study aimed to assess the impact that items showing differential functioning may have on test interpretations based on cut-off scores. To this end a simulation study was conductedin which we manipulated the size of the comparison groups (100, 250,500 and 1000), the magnitude of differential item functioning (DIF) (set at 0.8 for the difference between the difficulty parameters of the two groups) and the degree of test contamination (0%, 10%, 20%, 30% and 40% of items with differentialfunctioning). Overall, the simulation considered 20 conditions, 1000 replications and a 20-item test. Results indicated that the selected cut-off did have an influence, and as the degree of test contamination increased, greater differences between the groups were erroneously detected, both in terms of statistical test significance and effect size obtained. These findings highlight the importance of ensuring that measurement instruments are free from DIF so that the interpretation of scores is both accurate and fair, this being a key aspect of a test’s validity.

In recent years, online social networks asserted themselves as a very important form of communication. Accessibility, availability and anonymity are attractive features for many users. These networks could facilitate the development of social skills since they allow interaction with other internet participants.In this paper we have compared the range of social skills in young people with physical disabilities, users and non-users of online social networks, and their perception of how the social networks can enhance social skills. Finally, we analyzed the relationship between the use of online social networks and the perceptiont hat said networks help improving social abilities. A total of 134 young people with motor disabilities participated, 89 social-networks users and 45 non-users, (M = 22.25; DT= 4.33), who completed the Social Skills Scale. The results indicated more developed social skills in young users of online networks. In addition, a positive relationship between the use of online social networks, the belief that their use increase social skills and the development of these skills was identified.The results of this study can be useful as they highlight that social networks could fulfill a facilitating role of social interactions in social skills training programs.

An increase in eating disorders and their diversity has been observed over recent decades. Nevertheless, there is a lack of knowledge on the stage that precedes the onset of eating disorders, in which educative programs can prevent successfully these disorders. The present work attempts to describe the relationship between the risk of suffering an eating disorder and certain psychopathological dimensions, and to determine which of these factors contributes to putting the adolescents in a situation where they are at risk of suffering the disorder. A total of 404 students residing in Barcelona, Spain, and aged between 12 and 20 years, were studied. The students were given the Eating Attitudes Test and the Revised Symptom Checklist 90, plus a questionnaire on demographic and family details. A 25.2% risk of eating disorders was detected. This was significantly greater in girls between 12 and 15 years of age, although a high presence of eating disorders risk was detected in males compared to previous studies. It was observed that the group of adolescents at risk of eating disorders has significantly higher levels in all the psychopathological dimensions, mainly phobic anxiety, interpersonal sensitivity and somatisation.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between fatigue, depressive symptomatology, sleep quality and cortisol measurement and identify variables that explain the fatigue in women with breast cancer. Seventeen women with breast cancer were evaluated prior to chemotherapy treatment, they provided 12 samples of saliva during two consecutive days and answered the scales of fatigue (MFI), depression (BDI) and sleep quality (PSQI). The results show that sleep latency explains 41.7% of the reduction of activity and daytime dysfunction explains 48.8% of mental fatigue, which suggests an approach to intervention at this stage of the cancer process.

The optimism is presented as an important variable to study in relation to athletes’ performance and health. The aims of this study are to search: (a) the possible relationship between the optimism, coping skills, emotion and life satisfaction and (b) to determine what type of factor has greater discriminant validity predicting variable life satisfaction as an indicator of psychological adjustment. A total of 80 young performance athletes completed the LOT-R, PANAS, CSI and Test in Life Satisfaction scales. The results indicate that optimism is positively related to active coping strategies, positive affect and life satisfaction, while positive affect is the best predictor of life satisfaction. Results and some implications for future research are discussed.

The quality of the friendship bonds in childhood is an important factor in the psychosocial development of individuals. A key aspect in this respect is the development and adaptation of instruments with well-known psychometric properties. To this end, the Bukowski, Hoza and Boivin Children`s Friendship Quality Scale Version 4.1 was applied to a sample of 509 children of both gender between 10 to 12 years (mean age = 10.65) attending primary school in the city of Parana, Argentina. A confirmatory factor analysis using AMOS 16.0 program was conducted to test the six-factor original structure postulated by the authors of the questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated an adequate fit (CFI = .90 and RMSEA = .044) for the proposed model. Cronbach Alpha coefficients ranged between .63 and .83. The subscales correlated significantly between r -.206 to .864. An indicator of its validity was that the different scales significantly correlated with being victimized and victimize others: r = .219 for conflict and being victimized, r = -.215 for fellowship and being victimized, r = .336 for bullying and conflict and r = -.269 to bullying and help.

Knowing if the use of online social networks is related to some personality types has been a topic of interest in the last years. This could be the case for some personal skills related to social interaction, such as the resilience. The present work investigates if young students with disabilities, using online social networks, have some strength such as resilience more developed. The sample consists of 96 university students with different types of disabilities (physical, intellectual, visual and hearing). Participants responded to anadapted Spanish version of the resilience scale (Resilience Scale; Wagnild & Young, 1993) of Rogers, Chamberlin, Ellison & Crean (1997), designed to measure this capacity. Participants are aged between 18 and 32 years, th emean age was 22.28 (SD= 5.32). The results revealed statistically significant differences between resilient profiles with respect to the use of online social networks. High scores for resilience were found among online social networks’ regular users. This suggests that the use of online social network scould be related to resilience, hence the importance of a deeper analysis ofthis relation. It could be useful for programs aimed at increasing strengths of students with disabilities.

Previous studies have shown that there are gender differences in the entrepreneur’s psychological profile (Moriano, 2005). Adopting the perspective of the Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen, 1991) and the individualistic and collectivist values (Schwartz et al., 2001), the differential impact of gender on the entrepreneurial intention of a group of university students in northern Portugal is analyzed. The results show that there are differences: for women, self-efficacy, attitude, subjective norms and the entrepreneurial family have a significant influence on the intention to start-up, and values such as benevolence have a negative effect, while for men the entrepreneurial self-efficacy has positive and significant effects. These results may have important implications for the design of differentiated entrepreneurial educational programs.

The aim of this review was to analyze the experimental research literature suggesting a beneficial role of aerobical exercise training on brain structure and function throughout the life span in non-pathological populations, through a search of articles published from 2004 to date, in PubMed, ScienceDirectand Scopus data. Thirty articles were selected to analize. Studies show that aerobic training at each stage of life has a positive impact on various cognitive processes, executive functions, processing speed, attention and memory, and produce changes in brain structure like prefrontal and temporal cortex.

In this article we examine and review investigations that study the possible presence of depression among patients suffering from bronchial asthma.Throughout the article we provide possible explanations about the relationship between bronchial asthma and depression found in psychological literature along with their possible repercussions in the evolution, morbidity control, and treatment of the illness. Likewise, studies that have investigated depression in families of teenagers and children with bronchial asthma are reviewed. In order to do that, the investigations have been extracted from some of the most widely used databases in Psychology concerning this topic (Web of Knowledge, EBSCO,Psycodoc, Cindoc, Psycarticles and Google Scholar). Finally we offer some reflections about the data analyzed, in the sense that there is enough empirical evidence to confirm that the rates of depression among asthmatic patients and their families are significantly larger than among their asthma-free peers.