Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 2022
We put forward a validation of the first instrument to measure the big four health risk behaviour... more We put forward a validation of the first instrument to measure the big four health risk behaviours (World Health Organization, Global status report on non-communicable diseases 2014, WHO, 2014) in a single assessment, the Health Risk Behaviour Inventory (HRBI) that assesses physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking and alcohol in Italian- and English-speaking samples. Further, we investigate the instrument’s association with self-regulatory dispositions, exploring culture and gender differences in Italian and US subgroup samples. Overall, 304 English- and 939 Italian-speaking participants completed the HRBI and the self-regulatory questionnaire. We explored the factorial structure, convergent validity, invariance and association with self-regulatory dispositions using structural equation modelling.The HRBI has a robust factorial structure; it usefully converges with widely used healthy lifestyle measures, and it is invariant across the categories of age, gender and languages. Regarding self-regulatory dispositions, the promotion focus emerges as the most protective factor over physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking and alcohol, whereas the prevention focus is associated mainly with smoking and alcohol reduction. Results are consistent across genders and US subgroup-Italian samples. The HRBI is a valid instrument for assessing the big four health risk behaviours in clinic and research contexts, and among self-regulatory measures, the promotion and prevention foci have the greatest efficacy in eliciting positive health behaviours.
This substantive-methodological synergy applies mixture modeling to verify whether the elusive, y... more This substantive-methodological synergy applies mixture modeling to verify whether the elusive, yet widely endorsed, actual-ideal discrepancy (AID) model might be verified in specific subgroups. Relations between Actual and Ideal Appearance, Physical Self-Concept (PSC), and Global Self-Esteem (GSE) were assessed with Mixture Structural Equation Models in a large sample of youth (N = 1,693). The results revealed three profiles, one of which (25.7%) supported the predicted negative effect of Ideal Appearance on PSC. The relations seem to be more complex than assumed, such that the effects of Actual Appearance on PSC/GSE increase as ideal standards increase, and that the negative effects of ideal standards on PSC are only apparent when these standards are lower. These results suggest the need for a revised AID model where ideals play a weighting role in the relations between Actual Appearance, PSC, and GSE.
We examine theoretical and methodological issues associated with the roles of individual and grou... more We examine theoretical and methodological issues associated with the roles of individual and group‐normative importance in self‐esteem determination. Critical issues include multicollinearity among the physical self‐subdomains, which may have affected previous results, and the need for a multidimensional perspective on importance models. We apply state‐of‐the‐art methodologies, including exploratory structural equation modelling and the product‐of‐indicators approach to latent interactions. Positive interactions would be required to support the individually importance‐weighted average model, but none were observed in the multidimensional model estimated on the full sample. Nonetheless, some interaction effects were found in the country‐specific version of the model. Rather, we found support for the alternative group importance‐weighted average model. We conclude that domain‐specific self‐concepts are weighted differently and thus differentially affect self‐esteem, but these weights ...
Translated the Physical Self Description Questionnaire for the assessment of adolescent physical ... more Translated the Physical Self Description Questionnaire for the assessment of adolescent physical self-concept into Italian and analyzed its psychometric properties, factorial structure, reliability and gender factorial invariance. Participants were 755 13-17 yr olds. Factorial structure was examined with confirmatory procedures, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item-total correlations were used to verify reliability, and various constrained models were compared to verify gender invariance. Results show that both the 11-oblique-factor structure and a good internal consistency of the questionnaire and its subscales were confirmed. The results supported the invariance of factor loadings across gender. Structural equation modeling supported a hierarchical structure among self perception elements. It is concluded that although the factors of the Italian version are somewhat less defined than those of the Australian version, on a global level the instrument has good validity and relia...
Due teorie particolarmente rilevanti nello studio delle tendenze di approccio ed evitamento sono ... more Due teorie particolarmente rilevanti nello studio delle tendenze di approccio ed evitamento sono la Teoria della Sensibilità al Rinforzo di Gray e la Teoria dei foci regolatori di Higgins. La teoria di Gray descrive l'approccio e l'evitamento come due sensibilità biologiche che guidano gli individui a raggiungere bisogni primari. La teoria di Higgins al contrario, afferma che queste tendenze influen-zano la regolazione di sé e guidano gli individui a raggiungere bisogni secondari. Mentre per la teoria di Gray è stata sviluppata la validazione italiana della relati-va scala di misura BIS-BAS, per la teoria di Higgins manca la versione italiana dello strumento Regulatory focus questionnaire (RFQ) e lo scopo del lavoro è quello di fornire un primo contributo alla sua validazione. Dall'analisi fattoriale esplorativa (n = 83 studenti universitari, età media = 22.89, DS = 6.07) e dalla successiva analisi fattoriale confermativa (n = 360, età media = 34.91, DS = 13.41) è emersa...
. This study proposed an improved representation of the factor structure of the Gaspard et al. (2... more . This study proposed an improved representation of the factor structure of the Gaspard et al. (2015) value beliefs about math scale relying on bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (B-ESEM). Using a convenience sample of 537 Italian students (327 males; Mage = 18.2), our results supported the superiority of a B-ESEM solution including nine specific factors (intrinsic, importance of achievement, personal importance, utility for school/job, utility for life, social utility, effort required, opportunity cost, and emotional cost) and one global value factor. The results further revealed that the specific factors (with the exception of personal importance) retained meaning over and above participants’ global levels of value. Finally, our results confirmed that global value beliefs predicted career aspirations, whereas expectancies of success remained the strongest predictor of math achievement.
We examined the possible effects of six dimensions of music self-concept on determination of self... more We examined the possible effects of six dimensions of music self-concept on determination of self-esteem, through the application of models based on individual and normative-group importance. Previous studies have supported the individual model of importance in narrowly defined self-domains such as spiritual self-concept that might be unimportant for most people, but very important for some people. However, results from more recent studies of spiritual, academic, and physical self-concepts involving latent variable methodologies support the normative-group model. Here, we extended the use of latent variable methods to music self-concept using a sample of 512 junior high students (11–16 years old). Our results for music-reading skills supported the individual importance model rather than the normative-group importance model. Additional results revealed that singing, instrument playing, and the importance of instrument playing had direct rather than interactive linkages with self-este...
Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 2022
We put forward a validation of the first instrument to measure the big four health risk behaviour... more We put forward a validation of the first instrument to measure the big four health risk behaviours (World Health Organization, Global status report on non-communicable diseases 2014, WHO, 2014) in a single assessment, the Health Risk Behaviour Inventory (HRBI) that assesses physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking and alcohol in Italian- and English-speaking samples. Further, we investigate the instrument’s association with self-regulatory dispositions, exploring culture and gender differences in Italian and US subgroup samples. Overall, 304 English- and 939 Italian-speaking participants completed the HRBI and the self-regulatory questionnaire. We explored the factorial structure, convergent validity, invariance and association with self-regulatory dispositions using structural equation modelling.The HRBI has a robust factorial structure; it usefully converges with widely used healthy lifestyle measures, and it is invariant across the categories of age, gender and languages. Regarding self-regulatory dispositions, the promotion focus emerges as the most protective factor over physical inactivity, unhealthy diet, smoking and alcohol, whereas the prevention focus is associated mainly with smoking and alcohol reduction. Results are consistent across genders and US subgroup-Italian samples. The HRBI is a valid instrument for assessing the big four health risk behaviours in clinic and research contexts, and among self-regulatory measures, the promotion and prevention foci have the greatest efficacy in eliciting positive health behaviours.
This substantive-methodological synergy applies mixture modeling to verify whether the elusive, y... more This substantive-methodological synergy applies mixture modeling to verify whether the elusive, yet widely endorsed, actual-ideal discrepancy (AID) model might be verified in specific subgroups. Relations between Actual and Ideal Appearance, Physical Self-Concept (PSC), and Global Self-Esteem (GSE) were assessed with Mixture Structural Equation Models in a large sample of youth (N = 1,693). The results revealed three profiles, one of which (25.7%) supported the predicted negative effect of Ideal Appearance on PSC. The relations seem to be more complex than assumed, such that the effects of Actual Appearance on PSC/GSE increase as ideal standards increase, and that the negative effects of ideal standards on PSC are only apparent when these standards are lower. These results suggest the need for a revised AID model where ideals play a weighting role in the relations between Actual Appearance, PSC, and GSE.
We examine theoretical and methodological issues associated with the roles of individual and grou... more We examine theoretical and methodological issues associated with the roles of individual and group‐normative importance in self‐esteem determination. Critical issues include multicollinearity among the physical self‐subdomains, which may have affected previous results, and the need for a multidimensional perspective on importance models. We apply state‐of‐the‐art methodologies, including exploratory structural equation modelling and the product‐of‐indicators approach to latent interactions. Positive interactions would be required to support the individually importance‐weighted average model, but none were observed in the multidimensional model estimated on the full sample. Nonetheless, some interaction effects were found in the country‐specific version of the model. Rather, we found support for the alternative group importance‐weighted average model. We conclude that domain‐specific self‐concepts are weighted differently and thus differentially affect self‐esteem, but these weights ...
Translated the Physical Self Description Questionnaire for the assessment of adolescent physical ... more Translated the Physical Self Description Questionnaire for the assessment of adolescent physical self-concept into Italian and analyzed its psychometric properties, factorial structure, reliability and gender factorial invariance. Participants were 755 13-17 yr olds. Factorial structure was examined with confirmatory procedures, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and item-total correlations were used to verify reliability, and various constrained models were compared to verify gender invariance. Results show that both the 11-oblique-factor structure and a good internal consistency of the questionnaire and its subscales were confirmed. The results supported the invariance of factor loadings across gender. Structural equation modeling supported a hierarchical structure among self perception elements. It is concluded that although the factors of the Italian version are somewhat less defined than those of the Australian version, on a global level the instrument has good validity and relia...
Due teorie particolarmente rilevanti nello studio delle tendenze di approccio ed evitamento sono ... more Due teorie particolarmente rilevanti nello studio delle tendenze di approccio ed evitamento sono la Teoria della Sensibilità al Rinforzo di Gray e la Teoria dei foci regolatori di Higgins. La teoria di Gray descrive l'approccio e l'evitamento come due sensibilità biologiche che guidano gli individui a raggiungere bisogni primari. La teoria di Higgins al contrario, afferma che queste tendenze influen-zano la regolazione di sé e guidano gli individui a raggiungere bisogni secondari. Mentre per la teoria di Gray è stata sviluppata la validazione italiana della relati-va scala di misura BIS-BAS, per la teoria di Higgins manca la versione italiana dello strumento Regulatory focus questionnaire (RFQ) e lo scopo del lavoro è quello di fornire un primo contributo alla sua validazione. Dall'analisi fattoriale esplorativa (n = 83 studenti universitari, età media = 22.89, DS = 6.07) e dalla successiva analisi fattoriale confermativa (n = 360, età media = 34.91, DS = 13.41) è emersa...
. This study proposed an improved representation of the factor structure of the Gaspard et al. (2... more . This study proposed an improved representation of the factor structure of the Gaspard et al. (2015) value beliefs about math scale relying on bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (B-ESEM). Using a convenience sample of 537 Italian students (327 males; Mage = 18.2), our results supported the superiority of a B-ESEM solution including nine specific factors (intrinsic, importance of achievement, personal importance, utility for school/job, utility for life, social utility, effort required, opportunity cost, and emotional cost) and one global value factor. The results further revealed that the specific factors (with the exception of personal importance) retained meaning over and above participants’ global levels of value. Finally, our results confirmed that global value beliefs predicted career aspirations, whereas expectancies of success remained the strongest predictor of math achievement.
We examined the possible effects of six dimensions of music self-concept on determination of self... more We examined the possible effects of six dimensions of music self-concept on determination of self-esteem, through the application of models based on individual and normative-group importance. Previous studies have supported the individual model of importance in narrowly defined self-domains such as spiritual self-concept that might be unimportant for most people, but very important for some people. However, results from more recent studies of spiritual, academic, and physical self-concepts involving latent variable methodologies support the normative-group model. Here, we extended the use of latent variable methods to music self-concept using a sample of 512 junior high students (11–16 years old). Our results for music-reading skills supported the individual importance model rather than the normative-group importance model. Additional results revealed that singing, instrument playing, and the importance of instrument playing had direct rather than interactive linkages with self-este...
Uploads