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[pt] O Ages e Stages Questionnaire Terceira Edição na tradução para o português-BR (ASQ3-BR) é um teste de rastreio usado para avaliar o desenvolvimento de crianças na idade pré-escolar (8 a 60 meses) em cinco áreas do desenvolvimento: Comunicação Coordenação Motora Ampla, Coordenação Motora Fina, Resolução de Problemas e Pessoal e Social, tendo sido aplicado pela Secretaria de Educação do Rio de Janeiro em 124.292 crianças de 468 creches públicas do município do Rio de Janeiro, nos anos de 2010, 2011 e 2012. Foi realizada uma análise estatística dos escores obtidos de cada criança para identificação dos dados normativos de interpretação através das médias e desvios padrão bem como os percentis de 5 porcento e 10 porcento. Esses resultados foram comparados com os valores normativos estabelecidos pelo instrumento original americano, para se confirmar suas propriedades psicométricas e identificar diferenças dos resultados obtidos. Numa segunda abordagem, os escores foram avaliados na sua consistência interna através dos coeficientes de Alfa de Cronbach e da Correlação Item-Total para identificação de possíveis discrepâncias do instrumento com o reflexo na sua fidedignidade quando aplicado em ambiente de creche. Os resultados comprovaram que embora o ASQ3-BR seja um bom instrumento tendo as mesmas propriedades psicométricas da versão original em inglês, é passível de ter sua fidedignidade aumentada quando aplicado em ambiente de creches pela adaptação de alguns itens que possam levar em consideração os procedimentos operacionais específicos dessas creches. / [en] The Ages and Stages Questionnaire Third Edition in translation to Portuguese-BR (ASQ3-BR) is a screening test used to evaluate the development of children in pre-school age (8-60 months) in five areas of development: Communication Coordination Wide motor, coordination motor Fine, Troubleshooting and Personal and Social and applied by the Secretariat of the Rio de Janeiro Education 124,292 children in 468 public kindergartens in the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the years 2010, 2011 and 2012. A statistical analysis of the scores was carry on of each child in order to identify the normative interpretation through the means and standard deviations as well as 5 percent and 10 percent percentiles. These results were compared with normative values of American original instrument, to confirm its psychometric properties and identify differences between results. In a second approach, the scores were assessed on their internal consistency using the coefficients of Cronbach s Alpha and Correlation Item-Total to identify possible instrument s discrepancies with the reflection in its reliability when applied in day care environment. The results showed that although the ASQ3-BR is a good instrument with same psychometric properties of the original English version, is likely to have increased their reliability when applied in day care environment by adapting some items that can take into account the day care specific operational procedures.

Background: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by the loss of motor neurons. Preference-based measures (PBMs) of health-related quality of life (HRQL) can be utilized for cost-effectiveness analyses of interventions in individuals with ALS. However, current measures are generic (GPBMs) and the psychometric properties of these measures have not yet been evaluated in ALS. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to evaluate the psychometric properties of GPBMs in ALS by 1) conducting a systematic review of the psychometric properties of GPBMs, and 2) assessing the content and convergent validity of GPBMs in ALS. Methods: Two studies were conducted. First, a systematic review was performed, and four databases were searched to identify studies that used and reported on the psychometric properties of GPBMs in ALS. Second, participants were recruited from three clinical sites across Canada and outcome measures were administered through an online or hardcopy survey. Areas of importance to the HRQL of individuals with ALS were identified using the Patient Generated Index (PGI), mapped against GPBMs to determine their coverage and scores were compared to determine convergent validity. Results: For the first study, the EQ-5D-3L was found to be the most commonly used GPBMs in ALS. It demonstrated convergent and known-groups validity however, significant floor effects were observed. For the second study, results indicated that the majority of GPBMs identified approximately half of the areas impacted by ALS. In addition, there were several domains not identified by GPBMs. Conclusion: This thesis highlights the importance of complete psychometric evaluation of measures in ALS. There is the need for the development of an ALS specific preference-based measures that reflects the health concerns of individuals with ALS; as GPBMs used in ALS were evaluated and deemed to be lacking in support for their usage in ALS. / Thesis / Master of Science Rehabilitation Science (MSc) / Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal disease that causes individuals to lose their strength and eventually the ability to speak, eat, move and breathe. Questionnaires can be used to understand the health-related quality of life (HRQL) of individuals with ALS however these measures do not always reflect the experiences of these individuals. The goal of this dissertation was to identify whether measures truly capture areas important to individuals with ALS. In our studies, we found that there is little proof in the accuracy of measures used. In addition, the measures do not fully capture the areas of life important to individuals with ALS. This is important to help researchers and health care professionals understand the effects of ALS on HRQL. These results will help them determine which treatments are worthwhile and the best to use in practice and provide recommendations for future research.

Yes / Objective: To examine score validity and reliability of a Child version of the 21-item Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire (CTFEQ-R21) in a sample of Canadian children and adolescents and its relationship with body mass index (BMI) z-scores and food/taste preferences. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: School-based. Subjects: 158 children, 63 boys (11.5±1.6 years) and 95 girls (11.9±1.9 years). Results: The exploratory factor analysis revealed that the CTFEQ-R21 was best represented by four factors with item 17 removed (CFFEQ-R20) representing Cognitive Restraint (CR), Cognitive Uncontrolled Eating (UE 1), External Uncontrolled Eating (UE 2), and Emotional Eating (EE) and accounted for 41.2% of the total common variance, with good scale reliability. ANOVAs revealed that younger children reported higher UE 1 scores and CR scores compared to older children, and boys who reported high UE 1 scores had significantly higher BMI Z-scores. Children with high UE 1 scores reported a greater preference for high protein and fat foods, and high-fat savoury (HFSA) and high-fat sweet (HFSW) foods. Higher preference for high protein, fat, and carbohydrate foods, and HFSA, HFSW, and low-fat savoury foods was found in children with high UE 2 scores. Conclusions: This study suggests that the CFFEQ-R20 can be used to measure eating behaviour traits and associations with BMI z-scores and food/taste preferences in Canadian children and adolescents. Future research is needed to examine the validity of the questionnaire in larger samples and in other geographical locations, as well as the inclusion of extraneous variables such as parental eating or socio-economic status.

[pt] A vigilância e o rastreio do desenvolvimento infantil são essenciais para identificar atrasos e promover intervenções precoces, garantindo o desenvolvimento saudável das crianças. A crescente disponibilidade de tecnologias m-health oferece novas possibilidades para estes processos. O estudo de doutorado intitulado Questionário de acompanhamento do bebê e da criança em desenvolvimento: validade de conteúdo e viabilidade aborda estas questões, investigando a construção teórica e a implementação prática de uma nova ferramenta de rastreio. Objetivos dos estudos: (1) Investigar as bases teóricas para a construção de instrumentos multidimensionais de vigilância, rastreio e diagnóstico do atraso do desenvolvimento infantil, verificando o modelo teórico mais prevalente e contrapondo-o ao modelo biopsicossocial; (2) Apresentar o processo de construção e as evidências preliminares de conteúdo do Questionário de acompanhamento do bebê e da criança em desenvolvimento (ABCD), visando o acompanhamento e atraso do desenvolvimento em crianças de 2 meses a 5 anos; (3) Descrever as etapas de construção e validade de conteúdo do questionário e construção e viabilidade do software; (4) Avaliar as evidências iniciais de viabilidade do questionário ABCD em formato m-health. Metodologia: (1) Foi realizada uma revisão de literatura utilizando as bases de dados Medline, Lilacs e Scielo, seguindo as recomendações do PRISMA. Foram selecionados vinte instrumentos divididos em seis modelos teóricos: maturacional, cognitivista, comportamental, neurológico, neuropsicológico e biopsicossocial; (2) A coleta de dados envolveu 19 profissionais especialista e quatro etapas: revisão bibliográfica, análise de juízes, adaptação semântica. Iniciou-se com 2906 itens com recomendação de redução para 1198 para estudos futuros; (3): Participaram 40 profissionais das áreas da educação, saúde e tecnologia. As etapas incluíram revisão bibliográfica, análise de juízes, adaptação semântica por especialistas, identificação das necessidades do usuário, design de solução, construção de protótipo e testes; (4) A coleta de dados foi realizada com 179 cuidadores de crianças entre 2 meses e 5 anos, de forma remota e presencial em 2023 e 2024. Os participantes tinham acesso à internet e smartphones; Resultados: (1) O modelo maturacional foi o mais prevalente e compatível com o modelo biopsicossocial, destacando a necessidade de inovação teórica; (2): O questionário ABCD apresentou evidências preliminares de validade de conteúdo com potencial promissor como aplicativo móvel para o acompanhamento do desenvolvimento infantil no Brasil; (3) : o questionário ABCD em formato de web-app apresentou evidências de validade de conteúdo e viabilidade, recomendando-se a integração da metodologia de design thinking no desenvolvimento de ferramentas m-health; (4) A ferramenta em formato m-health foi altamente aceita, com 82 por cento dos participantes classificando a experiência como satisfatória ou muito satisfatória. Indicadores de demanda, implementação, praticidade, adaptação, integração, expansão e eficácia limitada formam observados. Conclusão: Os estudos destacam a importância de bases teóricas e inovação na criação de instrumentos para o rastreio do desenvolvimento infantil. O web-app ABCD mostra-se uma ferramenta promissora com alta aceitação e viabilidade prática. A utilização de tecnologias m-health pode ser um caminho eficaz para aprimora o acompanhamento do desenvolvimento infantil, especialmente em países em desenvolvimento. / [en] Surveillance and screening of child development are crucial to identify delays and promote early interventions, ensuring the healthy development in children. The growing availability of m-health technologies offers new possibilities for these processes. The doctoral study titled Infant and Developing Child Monitoring Questionnaire (ABCD): content validity and feasibility addresses these issues by investigating the theoretical construction and practical implementation of a new screening tool. Objectives of the studies: (1) Investigate the theoretical foundations for the constructing multidimensional instruments for surveillance, screening and diagnosis of child development delay, verifying the most prevalent theoretical model and contrasting it with the biopsychosocial model; (2) Present the construction process and preliminary content validity of the Infant and Developing Child Monitoring Questionnaire (ABCD), aiming to monitor and screen for developmental delays in children aged 2 months to 5 years; (3) Describe the construction stages and content validity of the questionnaire and evaluate development and feasibility of the software; (4) Assess the initial feasibility evidence of the ABCD questionnaire. Methodology: (1) A literature review was conducted using the Medline, Lilacs and Scielo databases, following PRISMA recommendations. Twenty instruments were selected and categorized into six theoretical models: maturational, cognitive, behavioral, neurological, neuropsychological and biopsychosocial; (2) Data collection involved 19 specialist professionals and four stages: bibliographic review, judge analysis, semantic adaptation. The initial pool of 2906 items were reduced to 1198 for future studies; (3): Forty professionals from education, health and technology participated. Stages included literature review, item analysis by judges, semantic adaptation by specialists, user needs identification, solution design, prototype construction, and testing. (4) Data collection was conducted with 179 caregivers of children aged 2 months to 5 years old, both remotely and in-person in 2023 and 2024. Participants had access to the internet and smartphones; Results: (1) The maturational model was the most prevalent and compatible with the biopsychosocial model, underscoring the need for theoretical innovation; (2): The ABCD questionnaire demonstrated preliminary evidence of content validity with promising potential as a mobile app for monitoring child development in Brazil; (3) The ABCD scale in web-app format provided evidence of content validity and feasibility, recommending the integration of the design thinking methodology in the development of m-health tools; (4) The m-health format tool was highly accepted, with 82 percent of participants rating the experience as satisfactory or very satisfactory. Positive indicators of demand, implementation, practicality, adaptation, integration, expansion and limited effectiveness were observed. Conclusion: The studies highlight the importance of solid theoretical foundations and innovation in creating instruments for child development screening. The ABCD web-app emerges as promising tool with high acceptance and practical feasibility. Utilizing m-health technologies can be an effective approach to enhance monitoring of child development, especially in developing countries.

[pt] Introdução: Transtornos de ansiedade representam uma das mais comuns e debilitantes formas de psicopatologia na infância e adolescência. O desenvolvimento de instrumentos psicométricos voltados para a identificação de sintomas ansiosos precocemente pode se configurar em um interessante investimento na prevenção de prognósticos desfavoráveis ao longo do tempo. Objetivo: Avaliar o nível de ansiedade em crianças e adolescentes do Rio de Janeiro. Método: A escala MASC-VB foi aplicada juntamente com a escala RCMAS e o CDI em uma amostra composta por 317 sujeitos, com idades entre 8 e 16 anos, sendo 48 pacientes ambulatoriais e 269 estudantes, moradores da Rocinha e de outras localidades. Resultados: A escala mostrou características satisfatórias de consistência interna, validade discriminante, validade convergente e validade de critério. Os resultados apresentados são compatíveis com os obtidos no estudo de validação da escala no Brasil e com os estudos realizados com a versão original. Foram observados escores elevados de ansiedade em crianças e adolescentes moradores da Rocinha, compatíveis ou superiores aos encontrados na amostra de pacientes ambulatórias. Conclusão: A MASC é uma das escalas mais difundidas mundialmente para avaliar a presença de sintomas de ansiedade em crianças e adolescentes. Os dados obtidos com este estudo confirmam o bom desempenho psicométrico da escala para uso na população brasileira. Novos estudos se fazem necessários para melhor explicar os níveis elevados de ansiedade identificados na população geral, em especial na amostra extraída da Rocinha. / [en] Anxiety disorders represent one of the most common and debilitating forms of psychopathology in children and adolescents. A way to prevent from a bad prognosis is to develop assessment tools that are able to identify the anxious phenomenon as soon as possible, at any time or culture. Objective: To evaluate the anxiety levels in children and adolescents from Rio de Janeiro. Method: Using a clinical sample of 48 outpatients and a community sample of 269 children and adolescent (8-16 years old) who lived in Rocinha and other localities, the MASC-BV and other psychometric tools were completed. Results: The MASCBV exhibited strong internal reliability, demonstrated good discriminative validity, good convergent validity and good criterion validity. The results are comparable to those presented in the validation study of the MASC in Brazil and to the first studies of the scale. As expected, high levels of anxiety symptoms were found in girls. Not expected, the higher scores in MASC-VB in the sample from Rocinha. Conclusion: The MASC is one of the most world-wide used scale to measure anxiety in children and adolescents. The results indicate good psychometric properties that shows it can be a useful measure to Brazilian population. New studies are necessary to better understand the high levels of anxiety in the community sample, specially in the Rocinha group.

The recent shift to a culture of competence has permeated several areas of professional psychology, including competency identification, competency-based education training, and competency assessment. A competency framework has also been applied to various programs and specialty areas within psychology, such as clinical, counseling, clinical health, school, cultural diversity, neuro-, gero-, child, and pediatric psychology. Despite the spread of competency focus throughout psychology, few standardized measures of competency assessment have been developed. To the authors' knowledge, only four published studies on measures of competency assessment in psychology currently exist. While these measures demonstrate significant steps in progressing the assessment of confidence, three of these measures were designed for use with individual programs, two of these international (i.e., UK and Taiwan). The current study applied the seminal Competency Benchmarks, via a recently adapted benchmarks form (i.e., Practicum Evaluation form; PEF), to practicum students at the University of North Texas. In addition to traditional supervisor ratings, the present study also involved self-, peer supervisor, and peer supervisee ratings to provide 360-degree evaluations. Item-response theory (IRT) was used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the PEF and inform potential revisions of this form. Supervisor ratings of competency were found to fit the Rasch model specified, lending support to use of the benchmarks framework as assessed by this form. Self- and peer-ratings were significantly correlated with supervisor ratings, indicating that there may be some utility to 360-degree evaluations. Finally, as predicted, foundational competencies were rated as significantly higher than functional competencies, and competencies improved significantly with training. Results of the current study provide clarity about the utility of the PEF and inform our understanding of practicum-level competencies.

Recent political and social changes in South Africa have created the need for culture-fair tests for cross-cultural measurement of cognitive ability. This need has been highlighted by the professional, legal and research communities. For cognitive assessment, dynamic assessment is more equitable because it involves a test-train-retest procedure, which shows what performance levels individuals are able to attain when relevant training is provided. Following Binet’s thinking, dynamic assessment aims to identify those individuals who are likely to benefit from additional training. The theoretical basis for learning potential assessment is Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development. This thesis describes the development, standardisation and evaluation of the Learning Potential Computerised Adaptive Test (LPCAT), for measuring learning potential in the culturally diverse South African population by means of nonverbal figural items. In accordance with Vygotsky’s view, learning potential is defined as a combination of present performance and the extent to which performance is increased after relevant training. This definition allows for comparison of individuals at different levels of initial performance and with different measures of improvement. Computerised adaptive testing based on item response theory, as used in the LPCAT, is uniquely suitable for increasing both measurement accuracy and testing efficiency of dynamic testing, two aspects that have been identified as problematic. The LPCAT pretest and the post-test are two separate adaptive tests, hence eliminating the role of memory in post-test performance. Several multicultural groups were used for item analysis and test validation. The results support the LPCAT as a culture-fair measure of learning potential in the nonverbal general reasoning domain. For examinees with a wide range of ability levels, LPCAT scores correlate strongly with academic performance. For African examinees, poor proficiency in English (the language of teaching) hampers academic performance. The LPCAT ensures the equitable measurement of learning potential, independent of language proficiency and prior scholastic learning and can be used to help select candidates for further training or developmental opportunities. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)

Recent political and social changes in South Africa have created the need for culture-fair tests for cross-cultural measurement of cognitive ability. This need has been highlighted by the professional, legal and research communities. For cognitive assessment, dynamic assessment is more equitable because it involves a test-train-retest procedure, which shows what performance levels individuals are able to attain when relevant training is provided. Following Binet’s thinking, dynamic assessment aims to identify those individuals who are likely to benefit from additional training. The theoretical basis for learning potential assessment is Vygotsky’s concept of the zone of proximal development. This thesis describes the development, standardisation and evaluation of the Learning Potential Computerised Adaptive Test (LPCAT), for measuring learning potential in the culturally diverse South African population by means of nonverbal figural items. In accordance with Vygotsky’s view, learning potential is defined as a combination of present performance and the extent to which performance is increased after relevant training. This definition allows for comparison of individuals at different levels of initial performance and with different measures of improvement. Computerised adaptive testing based on item response theory, as used in the LPCAT, is uniquely suitable for increasing both measurement accuracy and testing efficiency of dynamic testing, two aspects that have been identified as problematic. The LPCAT pretest and the post-test are two separate adaptive tests, hence eliminating the role of memory in post-test performance. Several multicultural groups were used for item analysis and test validation. The results support the LPCAT as a culture-fair measure of learning potential in the nonverbal general reasoning domain. For examinees with a wide range of ability levels, LPCAT scores correlate strongly with academic performance. For African examinees, poor proficiency in English (the language of teaching) hampers academic performance. The LPCAT ensures the equitable measurement of learning potential, independent of language proficiency and prior scholastic learning and can be used to help select candidates for further training or developmental opportunities. / Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Psychology)