Research into the role of identity orientations (the relative importance an individual places on different personal and social attributes and characteristics when defining her or his identity) in ...adolescent mental health is extremely limited. Furthermore, the potential mechanisms that might explain the associations between identity orientations and adolescent mental health are poorly understood. This study protocol describes a one-year longitudinal study across three time points to be initiated with the purpose of investigating the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction and frustration in the relationship between identity orientations and various mental health indicators in adolescence. We aim to recruit a large sample of Serbian adolescents (N = 2,000 at Time 1), using a two-stage stratified random sampling. The data will be analyzed using the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM), and the results will be contrasted with the traditional CLPM. The goal of this study is to make a theoretical contribution to research in the fields of identity, self-determination theory, and adolescent mental health, as well as to provide insights towards the development of evidence-based recommendations for creating prevention and promotion programs aimed at improving the well-being of adolescents.
The Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs Scale (VCBS) is a widely used measure of conspiracy beliefs about vaccines, but evidence of its validity and measurement invariance, especially in youth samples, is ...still largely missing. The present study examined VCBS scores’ factor structure, measurement invariance, convergent and discriminant validity, and incremental predictive validity. A sample of 803 Serbian youths (age range 15–24; 59.2% females) was recruited for the study. A modified single-factor model of the VCBS was supported, and showed evidence of full scalar invariance across gender, age, vaccination status, and personal history of COVID-19. Evidence of the VCBS scores’ convergent and discriminant validity was obtained by examining associations with general conspiracy beliefs, vaccination attitudes, vaccination knowledge, intentions to get vaccinated against COVID-19, paranoia worries, fear of injections and blood draws, importance of God, self-rated health, and self-rated family’s financial situation. The VCBS scores predicted a unique variance in the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19, over and above vaccination attitudes and vaccination knowledge. The results suggest that the VCBS is a valid measure of vaccine conspiracy beliefs in youth.
The present study investigates the relationship between two types of positive expectancies—dispositional optimism and general self-efficacy—and four indicators of subjective well-being—life ...satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, and depression—at three time points over a 2-year period. In addition, the moderating role of positive expectancies in the relationship between negative life events and subjective well-being were examined. A total of 367 undergraduate students from Serbia (
M
age
= 21.57 years) completed measures at each time point. The results of the path analysis showed that optimism was concurrently associated with all indicators of subjective well-being, whereas self-efficacy had consistent concurrent associations only with positive affect. Positive expectancies were generally weak prospective predictors of subjective well-being, with higher levels of optimism at Time 2 (6-month follow-up) predicting higher levels of life satisfaction at Time 3 (2-year follow-up), and higher levels of self-efficacy at Time 2 predicting a higher positive affect at Time 3. Some evidence of reverse causality was also found, with a higher positive affect at Time 1 and Time 2 predicting higher levels of both optimism and self-efficacy at later time points. Positive expectancies did not moderate the relationship between negative life events and subjective well-being. Our results suggest that findings of cross-sectional studies on the relationship between positive expectancies and subjective well-being cannot be generalized to longitudinal data and that causal contribution of positive expectancies to subjective well-being might be overestimated.
The present research evaluated evidence for structural and convergent validity and measurement invariance across gender of the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire-IV (AIQ-IV), which is designed to ...measure four identity orientations: Personal, Relational, Public, and Collective. We recruited two independent samples of Serbian adolescents aged 15-19 years (n1 = 436, n2 = 452). Both exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were applied to examine the factor structure of the AIQ-IV. The ESEM model with four factors demonstrated a superior fit to the data in both samples and resulted in well-defined factors and deflated latent factor correlations compared to the CFA model. Multiple-group analysis supported the scalar invariance of the four-factor ESEM model across gender. The evidence for the convergent validity of the ESEM AIQ-IV factors was supported by meaningful correlations with various mental health indicators (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors) and basic psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) satisfaction and frustration. Our findings support the use of AIQ-IV as a multidimensional measure of identity orientations among adolescents and confirm the usefulness of applying the ESEM framework to evaluate the validity aspects of this scale.The present research evaluated evidence for structural and convergent validity and measurement invariance across gender of the Aspects of Identity Questionnaire-IV (AIQ-IV), which is designed to measure four identity orientations: Personal, Relational, Public, and Collective. We recruited two independent samples of Serbian adolescents aged 15-19 years (n1 = 436, n2 = 452). Both exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) were applied to examine the factor structure of the AIQ-IV. The ESEM model with four factors demonstrated a superior fit to the data in both samples and resulted in well-defined factors and deflated latent factor correlations compared to the CFA model. Multiple-group analysis supported the scalar invariance of the four-factor ESEM model across gender. The evidence for the convergent validity of the ESEM AIQ-IV factors was supported by meaningful correlations with various mental health indicators (life satisfaction, positive affect, negative affect, internalizing behaviors, and externalizing behaviors) and basic psychological needs (autonomy, relatedness, and competence) satisfaction and frustration. Our findings support the use of AIQ-IV as a multidimensional measure of identity orientations among adolescents and confirm the usefulness of applying the ESEM framework to evaluate the validity aspects of this scale.
The main aim of the present study was to evaluate the measurement invariance and the convergent validity of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) across clinical and nonclinical samples. A total of ...216 psychiatric patients (47.7% females; Mage = 44.56) and 235 participants from the general population (54.5% females; Mage = 43.11 years) were recruited. The measurement invariance was tested by a multi‐group confirmatory factor analysis. Full scalar invariance of the SWLS was supported. Psychiatric patients reported substantially lower life satisfaction than participants from the general population. The SWLS demonstrated good convergent validity in both samples. The present study supported the use of the SWLS as a measure of life satisfaction among psychiatric patients.
The present study examined the structure of subjective well‐being (SWB) using a person‐centered approach, and tested whether SWB profiles differed in a number of self‐reported negative life events, ...emotional distress, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies. The sample included a total of 945 undergraduate students from Serbia (78% female, Mage = 20.14 years). A 3‐step latent profile analysis with partial conditional independence revealed four profiles, which have been tentatively labeled: low SWB (a combination of low life satisfaction, low positive affect, and high negative affect), mixed SWB (moderate to high life satisfaction, moderate to low positive affect, high negative affect), moderately low SWB (low life satisfaction, moderate to low positive affect, moderate negative affect), high SWB (high life satisfaction, high positive affect, low negative affect). A comparison of SWB profiles applied to symptoms of emotional distress, along with the number of self‐reported negative life events and emotion regulation strategies, offered support to the validity of four SWB profiles. Our findings suggest that a person‐centered perspective might be a valuable tool for understanding the structure of SWB.
J. M. G. Williams (1996) predicted that exposure to potentially traumatizing events at an early age would give rise to overgeneral recall from autobiographical memory, i.e., recall of general rather ...than specific events, and that in adolescence this tendency would be uncorrelated with psychopathological symptoms, e.g., depression. This was supported by two studies where war‐exposed Bosnian adolescents produced significantly fewer specific autobiographical memories than a Norwegian control group, as did bombing‐exposed Serbian adolescents compared to nontrauma‐exposed Serbians. No significant correlations were found between autobiographical memory specificity and measures of depression, anxiety, dissociation or impact of trauma, which is consistent with Williams' idea that an overgeneral memory retrieval strategy is at first protective, and a risk factor for depression only upon reaching adulthood.
The Psychological Problem Change Expectancy Scale (PPCES) is an instrument designed to assess the client's outcome expectations of a psychological treatment. It is based on the Anxiety Change ...Expectancy Scale (ACES; Dozois & Westra, 2005). The expectancies regarding the psychological change as a treatment outcome expectation are conceptualized as a system of client's prognostic beliefs about the consequences of participation in some kind of psychological treatment, i.e. the client's expectation of improvement of his/her state as a consequence of participation in a psychological treatment. This paper was aimed at evaluating the basic metric characteristics of the ACES adaptation. The adaptationc onsisted of translating the items into Serbian language and changing the content in order to generally imply to the psychological problem which had been the reason for a person to seek a professional help. The research incorporated two separate studies. In Study 1, conducted on the sample of 171 clients beginning the psychological treatment, the internal consistency and the latent structure of the scale were investigated by exploratory factor analysis (EFA). In Study 2, conducted on the sample of 240 students participating in ananalogue study, the construct validity was additionally checked by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The results of the EFA suggested a high heterogeneity of the scale, while the CFA, due to the impossibility of confirming the original model, suggested a potential shortening of the scale from the initial twenty to eleven items, organized into the bifactor model. The items were organized in two specific factors - change optimism and change pessimism, together with the general factor - treatment outcome expectations. Concurrent validity was confirmed by adequate correlations with the measures of dispositional optimism, self-efficacy and the measures of subjective well-being. It can be concluded that the PPCES scale is a reliable and valid instrument for assessing the expectations of treatment outcomes, but it is more structurally homogeneous in the form of 11 items compared to the initial structure. Because of the specificity of the samples from both studies, future research should additionaly check the structural validity of the PPCES, especially within the clinical population and more homogeneous psychotherapy samples.
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