The reliability and validity of the Adolescent Nervios Scale.
Item
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Title
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The reliability and validity of the Adolescent Nervios Scale.
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Identifier
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AAI3283165
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identifier
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3283165
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Creator
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Livanis, Andrew.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Georgiana Tryon
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Date
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2007
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Education, Educational Psychology | Psychology, Psychometrics | Hispanic American Studies
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Abstract
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Nervios refers to an idiom of distress used by most Latin Americans both in their native countries as well as in the United States. It is identified by the DSM-IV-TR as a "culture bound disorder," or a disorder that is presented by peoples in particular geographic locations and/or cultural groups. Nervios comprises symptoms resembling a panic disorder or a mood disorder and psychotic, dissociative, and somatic symptoms are sometimes also included in the list of symptoms. Most of the studies that had examined nervios used single-case ethnographic designs. Of the limited studies that have employed statistical techniques, one study conducted a factor analysis on an existing measure, and one study added a question to an existing interview schedule. There has been little attempt to develop an instrument that is reliable and valid to use in investigations of nervios, however. Furthermore, although case studies imply that nervios appears to develop during adolescence, it has not been directly investigated systematically in this age group. The goal of this study was to collect reliability and validity evidence on an instrument designed to reflect the literature's description of nervios . The Adolescent Nervios Scale (ANS) was administered to a group of Latino and non-Latino middle school students. Initial item-to-total score correlations revealed that the Latino participants viewed nervios as a unitary construct composed predominantly of internalizing, dissociative, and somatization symptoms. Although some of the case studies reported that nervios consisted of externalizing symptoms, this sample did not endorse externalizing issues as consistently as the other symptoms. Their experience of this set of symptoms was consistent over time, as well. The non-Latino participants, however, viewed this set of items as three distinct sets of symptoms whose presentation and experience were transient. These findings were supported by exploratory factor analyses as well.;Confirmatory factor analyses failed to identify factor structures within the Latino and non-Latino samples that fit the data; that is to say, these factor analyses did not reveal a clear explanation of the variance. There was some evidence to suggest that one of the primary reasons for this lack of fit is that participants' responses were positively skewed.;Finally, as hypothesized, the ANS demonstrated positive moderate to high correlations with measures of depression and anger, while moderate negative correlations were found with a measure of self-concept. ANS scores were also positively related to disciplinary referrals and negatively related to academic achievement. Despite these positive findings, the study's sample was drawn from one particular area of the country, and many of the students in the Latino sample were of Central American descent. Future research should use a more diverse Latino sample and include a clinical sample as well.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
