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Assessing The Ordinality Of Response Bias With Item Response Models: A Case Study Using The Phq-9, Venessa N. Singhroy May 2018

Assessing The Ordinality Of Response Bias With Item Response Models: A Case Study Using The Phq-9, Venessa N. Singhroy

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Improper scale usage in psychological and clinical assessment is an important problem. If respondents do not use the scales in a consistent manner, the reliability of a composite is likely to be attenuated. This is particularly problematic when particular items are singled out for special treatment or when subscales are of interest, not just a total score. This study used both non-parametric and parametric item response theory (IRT) methods to gain further insight into the validity of the PHQ-9, a dual purpose instrument that assesses the severity of depressive symptoms using nine Likert-scale items and allows the investigator to establish …


Substance Abuse And Mental Illness Among Youth In The United States, Emmanuel Xavier Okoro Jan 2018

Substance Abuse And Mental Illness Among Youth In The United States, Emmanuel Xavier Okoro

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the trends showing a reduction in the use and abuse of drugs among American adolescents, the prevalence rates remain high. There is also comorbidity of mental illnesses among the adolescents using drugs. The aim of this study was to determine the presence and nature of the association between the use and abuse of marijuana and alcohol and mental illnesses among the American adolescent population. The noted comorbidities and the hypothesized association between the substance abuse and mental illnesses were explained using the expectancy theory. Using a quantitative research methodology, secondary data from the National Survey on Drug Use and …


Factors That Influence Whether Mexican Americans With Depression Seek Treatment, Irene Rodriguez Jan 2018

Factors That Influence Whether Mexican Americans With Depression Seek Treatment, Irene Rodriguez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mexican Americans, the largest Hispanic subgroup in the United States, tend to underuse mental health services. Grounded in Andersen's behavioral model of health services use, the purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine the likelihood of birth country, education, income, and insurance predicting which respondents would report seeking mental health services to treat depression. The Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to diagnose depression in 203 Mexican Americans whose data was archived from the primary study. This archived data was analyzed within this study. The results of the 2 x 2 chi-square tests of independence indicated a significant association …