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The Brazilian State-Trait Anxiety Inventory has been widely used to measure state (STAI-S) and trait (STAI-T) components of anxiety. The present work developed and evaluated a short version of the STAI-S and STAI-T in a large sample of Brazilian subjects. The first study selected short-form scales. The second one employed factor analyses to investigate whether each of the two short-form scales presented a well-defined and balanced structure with both anxiety-present and anxiety-absent factors. Results indicated that the STAI-S and STAI-T could be reduced to six items (STAI-S-6 and STAI-T-6, respectively) without sacrificing their psychometric properties. The findings suggest that STAI-S-6 and STAI-T-6 may be employed in situations where time restraints make the use of full-length forms unfeasible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Anxiety sensitivity (i.e., fear of arousal-related bodily sensations, including sensations that arise from normal physiological processes, due to the personal belief that these sensations will produce harmful consequences) is an important psychological construct involved in the etiology and maintenance of different anxiety disorders. The present study evaluated the psychometric proprieties and the factor structure of the 18-item Anxiety Sensitivity Index-3 (ASI-3) among 585 Brazilian patients with primary anxiety disorder diagnosis. Results indicated good internal consistency and item-total correlation coefficients. Exploratory factor analyses suggested a hierarchical structure composed of a single higher-order factor and three lower-order factors related to physical, cognitive and social concern. ASI-3 score comparisons across the different anxiety disorder groups indicated that panic disorder patients produced significantly higher overall ASI-3 scores as well as on the physical and social subscales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Screening tools in health and education provide quick indicators that anticipate diagnostic evaluation and treatment. Faced with the socio-emotional competences of children, the Ages & Stages Questionnaires: Social-Emotional (ASQ:SE) was used in the population of children enrolled in public pre-schools in the city of Rio de Janeiro during 2011. The objective of this work was to investigate aspects of its validity and reliability. Data from 23,334 children (50.6% boys) being an average age of 5 years old (SD: 3 months) and enrolled in 625 pre-schools were analyzed. After an intensive data analysis, the Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis, the results were favorable to the multidimensional model with a social and emotional dimension: 2 (463) = 46363.495, p <0.001; RMSEA = 0.067; CFI = 0.918; TLI = 0.913. Reliability indicators were adequate. The results confirmed validity aspects of the ASQ:SE, thereby verifying its use for children aged 5 years old. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In Brazil, large‐scale governmental programmes have been implemented to evaluate the development of all children who are enrolled in public daycare centres and preschools using the Brazilian Ages and Stages Questionnaires: Social–Emotional (ASQ:SE) as a screening tool. However, in the Brazilian context, there is a lack of studies that have investigated the clinical utility of the ASQ:SE, and only a few studies have partially investigated the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of this scale. Objectives: The present study had two aims: (a) to develop reference norms for the ASQ:SE to help professionals screen child development and because the psychometric properties of the ASQ:SE have only been partially examined, (b) to confirm its factorial structure within a multidimensional item response theory framework. Methods: The sample size was 54,570 children (53% males, 1–5 years old) who were enrolled in Brazilian public daycare centres and preschools and assessed in 2011. The results allowed the development of reference norms for all age intervals by considering raw scores at the 95th percentile as "monitoring zone" and scores at the 99th percentile as "refer child for further evaluation." Samejima's graded response model was employed, and its fit was checked by the root mean squared error of approximation. Results: The results were ≤0.08, indicating sufficient fit for the two‐factor structure. The raw results were 70 and 99.75 (12 months), 75 and 100 (18 months), 70 and 100 (24 months), 85 and 120 (30 months), 90 and 130 (36 months), 95 and 135 (48 months), and 110 and 150 (60 months) for monitoring zone and to refer the child for further evaluation. Discussion Early identification is the initial stage in this early identification process, thus allowing for referral or intervention. This study may help identify children with developmental delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background In the last few decades, several tools for studying insight in bipolar disorders have been used. Olaya and colleagues developed the Insight Scale for Affective Disorders (ISAD), which consists of a scale measuring insight through hetero evaluation for patients with mood disorders. The objective of this work is to translate and adapt the original English version of the ISAD to Brazilian Portuguese (ISAD-BR) and to conduct an evaluation of its psychometric properties. Methods Adaptation procedures included translation/back-translation and consultation with a panel of experts. 95 patients with the diagnosis of Type 1 bipolar disorder were evaluated with the final version of the ISAD-BR, which was applied, simultaneously, but independently, by two examiners. Internal consistency and inter-rater reliability were explored and the latent structure of the scale was investigated with principal axis factoring and promax rotation. A second-order factor analysis was conducted to test if the scale had a hierarchical factor structure. Results The ISAD-BR showed good internal consistency and good inter-rater reliability. The analysis pointed to a four-factor solution of the ISAD-BR: awareness of symptoms associated with activity/energy; awareness of having a disorder; awareness of self-esteem and feelings of pleasure; and awareness of social functioning and relationships. The second order factor analysis indicated a hierarchical factor structure for the ISAD-BR, with the four lower-order factors loading on a single higher-order factor. Conclusions Insight into bipolar disorder is a multidimensional construct, covering different aspects of the condition and its symptomatology. Nevertheless, insight about activity/energy changes may be a crucial aspect of insight into bipolar disorder. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Background: In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, the occurrence of increased energy/activity and elation of mood or irritability became necessary symptoms for the diagnosis of an episode of mania or hypomania. Objective: To evaluate whether increases in energy/activity or mood changes represent the core feature of the manic syndrome. Methods: The symptomatology of 117 hospitalized patients with bipolar mania was evaluated using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia-Changed version (SADS-C). Based on six items of the SADS-S related to mania, a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was performed. An Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis was used to identify how much each symptom informs about the different levels of severity of the syndrome. Results: According to the CFA, the item “increased energy” was the symptom with the highest factorial loadings, which was confirmed by the IRT analysis. Thus, increased energy was the alteration most correlated with the total severity of manic symptoms. Additionally, the analysis of the Item Information Function revealed that increased energy was correlated with the larger amplitude of severity levels compared with the other symptoms of mania. Limitations: Only six manic symptoms were considered. The sample might not be representative because the patients were evaluated while presenting peak symptom severity. Conclusions: Increased energy/activity is a more important symptom for a diagnosis of mania than mood changes and represents the core feature of this syndrome. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: To present the process of transcultural adaptation of the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale to Brazilian Portuguese. Methods: For the semantic adaptation step, the scale was translated to Portuguese and then back-translated to English by two professional translators and one psychologist, without any communication between them. The scale was then applied to 20 participants from the general population for language adjustments. For the construct validation step, an exploratory factor analysis was performed, using the scree plot test, principal component analysis for factor extraction, and Varimax rotation. For convergent validity, the correlation matrix was analyzed through Pearson's coefficient. Results: The scale showed easy applicability, satisfactory internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=.87), and a high correlation with other rating scales for compulsive buying disorder, indicating that it is suitable to be used in the assessment and diagnosis of compulsive buying disorder, as it presents psychometric validity. Conclusion: The Brazilian Portuguese version of the Richmond Compulsive Buying Scale has good validity and reliability [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]