Jesus M. Alvarado

Complutense University of Madrid | UCM · Department of Psychobiology & Behavioral Sciences Methods

Suicide is a global public health problem. The goal of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the measurement of suicide severity based on the Columbia suicide severity rating scale. We worked with a sample of 516 Argentinean adults, aged 18 to 75. The fit of a measurement model that differentiates between the various degrees of...

This study compares the performance of three dimensionality reduction techniques: Principal Component Analysis (PCA), t-Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) and Uniform Manifold Approximation and Projection (UMAP), when applied with a hierarchical cluster analysis for pattern recognition. We used this methodology in 240 synthetic datasets, each si...

To reduce Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-related mortality and morbidity, widely available oral COVID-19 treatments are urgently needed. Certain antidepressants, such as fluvoxamine or fluoxetine, may be beneficial against COVID-19. We included 388,945 adult inpatients who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 at 36 AP–HP (Assistance Publique–Hôpitau...

The objective of this study is to evaluate the factorial structure of the Spanish version of the Individual Work Performance Questionnaire (Version 1.0) and to estimate the impact that acquiescence has on it as response bias. Exactly 500 workers from organizations from different industries, primarily located in Ecuador, participated in this study....

Within the scope of the Theory of Demands and Labor Resources, the Healthy & Resilient Organizations (HERO)Model, and the Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) Theory, this research contrasts a mediation model in which evidence on the factors that affect work performance is integrated, thus establishing the direct and indirect relationships between LMX qual...

Within the scope of the Theory of Demands and Labor Resources, the Healthy & Resilient Organizations (HERO) Model, and the Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) Theory, this research contrasts a mediation model in which evidence on the factors that affect work performance is integrated, thus establishing the direct and indirect relationships between LMX qua...

Objective It is unclear whether retirement age can modify the association of working conditions with health and mortality in retirees who are no longer exposed to these conditions. Methods The present study investigated this issue in a cohort of 13,378 French workers in whom self-rated health and mortality were measured over 15 years after statuto...

The application of metacognitive strategies is considered a basic skill of the student at any educational level. In the present study, we evaluate the reduced version of the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI-R) in Spanish, a self-report instrument designed to measure the metacognitive awareness of students and their per...

The objective of this study was to determine the influence of alexithymia on the ability to identify emotions through visual and auditory stimuli. We assessed Alexithymia using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). As visual stimuli, we employed the images of faces from the Ekman 60 Faces Test, while the auditory stimuli consisted of fragments of...

Aims To examine the association between benzodiazepine receptor agonist (BZRA) use and mortality in patients hospitalised for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Methods A multicentre observational study was performed at Greater Paris University hospitals. The sample involved 14 381 patients hospitalised for COVID-19. A total of 686 (4.8%) inpati...

The bifactor model is commonly used to assess the degree to which a measure can be considered essentially unidimensional (in the presence of some degree of multidimension- ality). In this work, we have changed the focus of attention, evaluating the degree to which group factors can be treated as subscales (in presence of a certain degree of common...

A sample suffers range restriction (RR) when its variance is reduced comparing with its population variance and, in turn, it fails representing such population. If the RR occurs over the latent factor, not directly over the observed variable, the researcher deals with an indirect RR, common when using convenience samples. This work explores how thi...

The acid sphingomyelinase (ASM)/ceramide system may provide a useful framework for better understanding SARS-CoV-2 infection and the repurposing of psychotropic medications functionally inhibiting the acid sphingomyelinase/ceramide system (named FIASMA psychotropic medications) against COVID-19. We examined the potential usefulness of FIASMA psycho...

In this paper, we evaluate the factorial validity of the Spanish short version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES–9) and assess its predictive validity with respect to self-assessed work performance. A total of 229 employees from educational institutions in Ecuador participated. Using a model comparison analysis, the unidimensional model ex...

The aim was to analyze the psychometric properties of the EDI-3 test to evaluate eating disorders in young Chilean population. Method: The sample consisted of 1091 Chilean adolescents and young people (476 men and 615 women) between 15 and 28 years old, from the Metropolitan Region, and four regions from the coast and south-central zone of the coun...

Background Prior research suggests that psychiatric disorders could be linked to increased mortality among patients with COVID-19. However, whether all or specific psychiatric disorders are intrinsic risk factors of death in COVID-19, or whether these associations reflect the greater prevalence of medical risk factors in people with psychiatric dis...

La incorporación en los centros educativos de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) supone una gran oportunidad para la formación de los docentes, así como para el desarrollo de competencias por parte del alumnado. En la presente investigación se utiliza un Sistema Inteligente de Asistencia Pedagógica (SIAP) diseñado para formar...

A sample suffers range restriction (RR) when its variance is reduced comparing to its population variance and, in turn, it fails representing such population. If the RR occurs over the latent factor, not directly over the observed variable, the researcher deals with an indirect RR, common when using convenience samples. This work explores how this...

There is broad consensus on the need to foster oral skills in middle school due to their inherent importance and because they serve as a tool for learning and acquiring other competences. In order to facilitate the assessment of communicative competence, we hereby propose a model which establishes five key dimensions for effective oral communicatio...

El objetivo del trabajo es Ilustrar y comparar el proceso de validación del Big Five con dos modelos: (1) Análisis Factorial: toma las correlaciones y extrae factores e interpreta éstos como causantes de las respuestas en los ítems. (2) Redes Psicométricas: toma las correlaciones parciales, las regulariza y crea una red de conexiones entre ítems, d...

Introducción. La actitud, la motivación y los intereses lectores son tres aspectos fundamentales de la lectura como entretenimiento. ACTIM-LEC es un instrumento diseñado para la medida de estos componentes, que incluye otros factores relevantes para asentar el hábito lector como son la actitud hacia el estudio y los intereses lectores. El objetivo...

Objective Data are scarce regarding the clinical factors associated with utilization of long-term care facilities among older adults with schizophrenia. In this multicenter study, we sought to examine potential clinical differences between older adults with schizophrenia who are living in a long-term care facility and their community-dwelling count...

There are several effects that the pandemic nature of COVID-19 and the consequent forced confinement have had on the general population and especially on women. It has become necessary to reconcile work obligations with the care of children, dependents, and household work. These tasks are traditionally related to the gender stereotypes assigned to...

The increasing value of character strengths in the prediction of well-being and psychopathology, after the effects of functional social support and sociodemographic variables are accounted for, is examined. Participants were 1494 Spanish-speaking students between the ages of 18 and 68 (43.3% men and 56.7% women) who completed measures of character...

The construct validity in relation to the dimensionality or factor structure of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) has long been debated in psychometrics. Irrelevant variance due to item wording (method effects) can distort the factor structure, and recent studies have examined the method factor's role in the factor structure of the BHS. However, th...

(1) Background: Recent studies have shown that the internal structure of TMMS-24 can be conceptualized as a bifactor. However, these studies, based exclusively on the evaluation of the fit of the model, fail to show the existence of a general factor of strong emotional intelligence and have neglected the evaluation of the specific factors of attent...

Introducción. La presente investigación analiza el problema del abandono de los estudios universitarios, centrándose en el primer año de la titulación de Trabajo Social con el objetivo de elaborar un modelo explicativo que permita intervenir en las variables que pronostican el abandono temprano y en consecuencia aumentar las tasas de graduación. Se...

In the context of multidimensional structures, with the presence of a common factor and multiple specific or group factors, estimates of reliability require specific estimators. The use of classical procedures such as the alpha coefficient or omega total that ignore structural complexity are not appropriate, since they can lead to strongly biased e...

Several medications commonly used for a number of medical conditions share a property of functional inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), or FIASMA. Preclinical and clinical evidence suggest that the (ASM)/ceramide system may be central to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We examined the potential usefulness of FIASMA use among patients hospitalized for...

The construct validity in relation to the dimensionality or factor structure of the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) has long been debated in psychometrics. Irrelevant variance due to item wording (method effects) can distort the factor structure, and recent studies have examined the method factor’s role in the factor structure of the BHS. However, th...

Several medications commonly used for a number of medical conditions share a property of functional inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase (ASM), or FIASMA. Preclinical and clinical evidence suggest that the (ASM)/ceramide system may be central to SARS-CoV-2 infection. We examined the potential usefulness of FIASMA use among patients hospitalized for...

Objective: To examine the association between benzodiazepine receptor agonist (BZRA) use and mortality in patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Methods: We conducted an observational multicenter retrospective cohort study at AP-HP Greater Paris University hospitals. The sample involved 14,381 adult patients hospitalized for COVID-19. 686 (4.8%) inpat...

Prior preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that the acid sphingomyelinase (ASM)/ceramide system may provide a useful framework for better understanding SARSCoV-2 infection and the repurposing of psychotropic medications with functional inhibition of acid sphingomyelinase, called FIASMA psychotropic medications, against COVID-19. We examined t...

Aim: To examine the association between dexamethasone use and mortality among patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Methods: We examined the association between dexamethasone use and mortality at AP-HP Greater Paris University hospitals. Study baseline was defined as the date of hospital admission. The primary endpoint was time to death. We compar...

Objectives Data are scarce regarding the potential clinical differences between non‐late onset schizophrenia (NLOS, i.e., disorder occurring before 40 years of age), late‐onset schizophrenia (LOS, occurring between ages 40 and 60 years) and very‐late‐onset schizophrenia‐like psychosis (VLOSLP, occurring after 60 years of age). Furthermore, previous...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether the inability to feel pleasure towards music — or musical anhedonia — is part of the psychological construct of anhedonia (DSM-5) or whether they are both independent constructs, as suggested by the field of cognitive neuroscience. To assess this objective, six unpublished musical compositions were...

There is a series of conventions governing how Confirmatory Factor Analysis gets applied, from minimum sample size to the number of items representing each factor, to estimation of factor loadings so they may be interpreted. In their implementation, these rules sometimes lead to unjustified decisions, because they sideline important questions about...

The main objective of this research was to help clarify the relationship between ability emotional intelligence (AEI) and bullying in children. Bullying is a maladaptive behaviour that generates severe adverse consequences in the school environment and is a matter of growing concern in the educational community. To investigate the relationship betw...

Women suffer different forms of violence, both explicit and covert, due to gender asymmetry. This study analyzes the relationship between the internalization of norms assigned to the female gender understood as a form of covert social violence and the presence of anxiety and depression. 286 women were evaluated with the Inventory of Concealed Socia...

Objective To examine the association between dexamethasone use and mortality among hospitalized patients for COVID-19. Design Multicenter observational retrospective cohort study. Setting Greater Paris University hospitals, France. Participants 12,217 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 between 24 January and 20 May 2020, including 171 patients (1...

The strength named “social intelligence” in the Values in Action (VIA) Classification of Character Strengths and Virtues represents emotional, personal, and social intelligences, which are considered “hot intelligences”. This work contributed to the study of the mechanisms of influence of social intelligence on mental health. A multiple mediation m...

Range restriction (RR) is a problem that applied researchers face when using convenience samples. Due to a lower sample variability with respect to the population, the RR affects the correlation matrix. To our knowledge, no previous literature have addressed which is the best procedure to detect this problem in test-data. Thus, we explored the stat...

Dado que existen diferencias en la literatura científica respecto a la lectura a través de dispositivos digitales, el presente trabajo tiene la finalidad de evaluar la comprensión lectora en función del manejo de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC), y la posibilidad de predecir el desempeño lector. Se evaluaron tres soportes:...

Dado que existen diferencias en la literatura científica respecto a la lectura a través de dispositivos digitales, el presente trabajo tiene la finalidad de evaluar la comprensión lectora en función del manejo de las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC), y la posibilidad de predecir el desempeño lector. Se evaluaron tres soportes:...

The study of diagnostic associations entails a large number of methodological problems regarding the application of machine learning algorithms, collinearity and wide variability being some of the most prominent ones. To overcome these, we propose and tested the usage of uniform manifold approximation and projection (UMAP), a very recent, popular d...

This study extends the previous research on the structure of the Conformity to Feminine Norms Inventory (CFNI-84) by applying the bifactor model. The CFNI was administered to a large sample of Spanish women. The Confirmatory Factorial Analysis (CFA) study in Spain supported the results obtained in the USA. A brief measure of the instrument (the CFN...

En este documento se indican las principales prácticas incorrectas al realizar un Análisis Factorial (ver tabla 1). 1. Realizar un análisis de componentes principales (ACP) en lugar de un Análisis Factorial Exploratorio cuando se asume un modelo reflectivo 2. Realizar un Análisis Factorial Exploratorio (AFE) y CON LOS MISMOS DATOS poner a prueba...

En Psicología es frecuente encontrar situaciones en las que se necesita realizar algún tipo de clasificación de personas en subgrupos o clases. Existen técnicas de análisis multivariado como el Análisis Clúster Jerárquico (HCA) que se utilizan habitualmente para este fin. Actualmente, existe un interés creciente por la técnica de Análisis de Clases...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01882.].

The aim of the present study was to validate a new procedure, called EMOCINE test, to measure the perception and understanding branches of emotional intelligence (EI) in 1,448 children, aged between 8 and 13 years, from elementary schools. This new tool consists of watching 15 cartoon film clips and interpreting them according to children’s own emo...

La calidad de la medida es un asunto que va más allá de las aplicaciones individuales de un test a un grupo representativo. En los meta-análisis de Generalización de la Fiabilidad (RG) se estudia cómo la estimación combinada de la fiabilidad se ve afectada por diversos moderadores. Esta heterogeneidad de la fiabilidad puede afectar a otros meta-aná...

Los Modelos de Diagnóstico Cognitivo (CDM) son modelos confirmatorios de variable latente discreta especialmente indicados para la evaluación de constructos multidimensionales como la comprensión lectora. En el presente trabajo se muestran los pasos para diseñar una evaluación basada en los CDM. En el estudio participaron 434 estudiantes de edades...

Se presenta un instrumento de evaluación de las actitudes e intereses lectores destinado a estudiantes de los primeros cursos de Primaria, que se deriva de la escala elaborada por Meirisuo-Storm y Soininen (2012). La actitud y la motivación pueden ser dos de las principales razones por las que la mayoría de los lectores leen: no obstante, a menudo...

Writing is a tool for constructing and modifying knowledge. However, it is not easy to evaluate spontaneous writing tasks. In the present study, we selected and analysed a series of quality indicators to assess spontaneous or productive writing, examining the level of difficulty of the indicators and the relationship between the application of meta...

Reliable test scores are essential to interpret the results obtained in statistical analyses correctly. In this study, we used the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths (VIA-IS) as an example of a widely applied assessment instrument in order to analyze its metric quality in what is known as Reliability Generalization. In addition, we conduct...

The need to determine the correct dimensionality of theoretical constructs and generate valid measurement instruments when underlying items are categorical has generated a significant volume of research in the social sciences. This article presents two studies contrasting different categorical exploratory techniques. The first study compares Mokken...

Testing measurement invariance is a prerequisite to compare tests scores of subjects belonging to different subsamples or groups. However, in practice, testing invariance is usually ignored, even in its weak level of metric invariance (MI). MI requires that all the evaluated groups from a given sample have the same factorial structure and equal fac...

El objetivo de este trabajo ha sido validar una escala (CUTIC) que mide la frecuencia y el ámbito de uso de las TIC con conexión a Internet, así como la utilidad que tienen y la emoción que genera su uso o no uso entre jóvenes universitarios. La muestra estuvo formada por 178 estudiantes (87.6% mujeres) que cursaban 1º grado de Trabajo Social en la...

Varios estudios han sugerido que la regulación de las bandas theta y beta contribuye a mejorar algunos de los síntomas del Trastorno por Déficit de Atención con Hiperactividad (TDAH). No obstante, aún está pendiente responder algunas preguntas en relación con las variables atencionales que responden mejor al tratamiento mediante la técnica de Neuro...

This article presents a procedure designed to evaluate adolescents’ sensitivity in social interactions, an essential component of emotional intelligence, by viewing film clips. The instrument was tested on a sample of 1,536 students in the first and second cycles of secondary education. The construct validity of the measure and its relationship wit...

Introducción. Los enfoques cognitivos actuales destacan la importancia de la metacognición. Se trata de “aprender a aprender” facilitando la toma de conciencia de cuáles son los propios procesos de aprendizaje, de cómo funcionan y cómo optimizar su funcionamiento y el control de los procesos de lectura, entre otros. La adquisición de estas habilida...

This research seek to show evidence connected to the differences found in public and private schools in the results of standardized tests used in Chile in the area of reading comprehension. These tests, established as a measuring system of quality in education, have provided different results for public schools – where mainly vulnerable students at...

p>Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and Down Syndrome (DS) read better than expected for their mental age. We have measured three basic reading skills (word recognition, phonological awareness, and reading comprehension), and two standard intellectual and verbal measures: the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities and Peabody Picture Vocabulary Tests. The...

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is one of the most used questionnaires to assess well-being. Although the scores of this scale show good precision indicators, the empirical evidence is contradictory regarding the potential presence of the measurement invariance of the scores associated with sex. In addition, some studies found that there ar...

The accuracy of character strengths measures is an essential issue in Positive Psychology, being the VIA-IS one of the questionnaires widely applied in both research and applied fields. This work analyzes character strengths metric quality. A quality measurement requires high levels of scores' reliability obtained in different samples in which the...