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The present paper reports on the results of the Spanish adaptation and preliminary validation of the Coping Style Questionnaire (CSQ - Roger, Jarvis & Najarian,1993), conducted with a sample of Venezuelan university students. The original 60 items scale measures four dimensions of coping styles: Rational, Emotional, Avoidance and Detached coping; however, Roger (1995) proposed a shorter version of 41 items, where the emotional and detached coping merged in one bipolar dimension with both factors on either side of the scale. This abbreviated scale, together with other personality questionnaires, was administered to a sample of 292 university students from three different universities in Caracas. Results replicated the original four factor structure for this coping questionnaire, with acceptable internal consistency. The concurrent validity study supports the theoretical structure for each dimension. This Spanish version of the CSQ can be taken as a reliable scale for the measurement of coping styles in different contexts

The psychometric properties of two short forms of the 1978 version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-IA) were examined in three samples (psychopathological patients, general population, and university students). One short form (BDI-IA-SCA) is based on the cognitive-affective subscale of the BDI-IA; the other short form (BDI-IA-SF) is based on the BDI-SF. Reliability alpha coefficients for both short forms were similar and exceeded the standard of 0.70. Factor analyses suggested that both instruments measure a general dimension of depression composed of two highly related factors: a cognitive factor and a somatic one for the BDI-IA-SF, and a cognitive factor and an affective-motivational one for the BDI-IA-SCA. With two exceptions, all the symptomatic criteria proposed by the DSM-IV for major depressive and dysthymic disorders are accounted for the BDI-IA-SF; the BDI-IA-SCA is focused on affective-cognitive symptoms, and does not cover four somatic symptoms. Both instruments showed adequate indices of diagnostic accuracy, but there was no single cut-off score that allowed for a differential diagnosis between patients with or without depressive disorders. Both short forms can serve as reliable and valid substitutes for the BDI-IA when speed of administration is important.

The goal of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Implicit Models of Illness Questionnaire (Turk et al., 1986), the Cuestionario de Creencias sobre la Enfermedad (CCSE; van der Hofstadt y Rodríguez-Marín, 1997) for five physical and mental diseases: depression, schizophrenia, cancer, hypertension, and influenza. 348 individuals (62.6% women) with different experience with these diseases (having/not having suffered from the disease, having/not having lived with someone with such diagnosis) answered the CCSE for those illnesses. Psychometric properties of the scale were found to be appropriate. The obtained dimensions (factors) are: identity, personal control, symptoms, consequences, and cure/time-line. The scale and subscales reliability is appropriate. The scale shows suitable construct validity, since similar results have been obtained for the diseases included. Our results are consonant with those informed by Turk et al. (1986), differing with those obtained by van der Hofstadt y Rodríguez-Marín (1997). Nevertheless, some items could be revised or eliminated in order to improve the properties of the scale. Since health professionals find it so valuable both the knowledge of personal beliefs of patients and the lay illness representation of healthy people, in order to adequate their promotion and prevention strategies and clinical (treatment/rehabilitation) interventions, the results of this study show that this scale may help them for this purpose, in the case of both physical and mental diseases.

Factor analyses of Behavioral Assessment System for Children (BASC) parents’ and teachers’ questionnaires have supported the multidimensional theory of human behavior. The goal of this study was to analyze the dimensional structure of the BASC parents and teachers Spanish version questionnaires. In order to do this, a randomized sample of 1176 children aged 6 to 11 years old, from the schools of Manizales City (Colombia), was selected. BASC parents and teachers questionnaires were administered to the participants. The results show that BASC parents had two dimensions: clinical and adaptive, KMO = 0.87, which explained 64% of the variance. BASC teachers had two clinical dimensions: externalizing (factor 1) and internalizing (factor 3), and he adaptive dimension was the factor 2 (75.2% of the variance). KMO was 0.90.

This research seeks to create a viable behavioral intervention package by designing, implementing and evaluating a treatment program for three children (ages 5, 7 and 13) with Asperger’s syndrome. These children’s parents were trained in the implementation of the treatment plan. Training procedures used with the parents included in-vivo modeling, shaping and positive practice. Parents were trained in the implementation of four behavioral procedures to modify disruptive behavior in their children. These procedures included the use of the Premack principle, verbal praise, manual guidance and time out of reinforcement. As a means to achieve generalization, training was conducted in each participant’s home. After training, all parents were able to successfully implement the program with their children, achieving significant reductions in oppositional behavior, inappropriate verbal behavior, and motor mannerisms. Parents were also able to achieve significant increments in their children’s social skills and autonomy.

The main purpose of this research was the study of stress levels in university people who follow training programs in companies (N=589) through the different levels in those variables associated with transition to the labor market. Work experience programs are for most university students a critical transition event, since the end of educational process to the beginning of adulthood/active life, where stress could be tied with the level of success and forecast/prognosis of unemployment. Data show that, generally, work experience programs could be protecting against stress for people who follow them.

The main object of this study is to investigate whether emotional alteration, and specifically stress, is associated with activity reduction and the impact on the lives of people with chronic pain. We worked with a sample of 92 subjects with chronic pain. All of them were patients at the Pain Unity of the University Hospital “San Cecilio” of Granada, Spain. Our results confirm the significant differences among subjects with high and low levels of stress in the degree of pain interference with activity and daily functioning. No differences were found in function of age in the studied variables, although men with chronic pain showed greater levels of stress than women. From the studied dimensions, the activity reduction in function of the interference that chronic pain causes in life, and emotional affectation, among others, predicted more stress. A possible relationship model among the studied variables is discussed, as well as practical implications.

Several cognitive impairments related with conduct disorder (CD) severity have been reported. The present study attempted to determine the differences between groups of adolescent offenders (AO) with mild and severe CD and adolescent non-offenders (ANO) without CD. The sample was composed of 228 participants aged 12 to 16 years old, grouped in 117 AOs belonging to an education institution for young offenders (23 were classified as mild CD and 94 as severe CD) according to DSM-IV-TR symptoms) and 111 ANOs from regular education institutions. All participants live in the metropolitan area of Medellín city and belong to low socioeconomic strata. Statistical significant differences were found on verbal behavior tasks, when ANO and AO groups were compared. When the two groups of AOs were compared, the AO with severe CD exhibited significant lesser capacity of immediate verbal information recall and slower speed for color naming (p < 0.05). In our conclusions, findings that report significant lower verbal skills were confirmed, and very specific cognitive deficiencies in memory and verbal/visual speed processing were found in the AOs with severe CD group, which will oblige to design more rigorous experimental studies.