Jesus M. Alvarado

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

La evaluación de estrategias metacognitivas y la motivación son de gran interés para los procesos de enseñanza universitaria. No obstante, la mayor parte de la investigación se ha centrado en niños, niñas y adolescentes. El objetivo de este artículo es explorar las relaciones que hay en estudiantes universitarios/as entre estrategias cognitivas, es...

En el presente estudio se adaptó al español la Escala Multidimensional de Ética (MES-30) y se evaluó su estructura factorial. Participaron 594 empleados en organizaciones (públicas, privadas, con o sin fines de lucro) de distintos sectores económicos, con edades entre 22 y 71 años, predominantemente residentes en Ecuador. Los resultados del Análisi...

Sisu is a Finnish term for the inner fortitude that enables us to see beyond and transcend the preconceived limitations of our ordinary strength. In his healthy manifestation, sisu is the harmonious blending of power (sisu) and love. However, too much sisu can manifest as well and can lead us to harm ourselves and others. The objective of this stud...

Research on analogical reasoning has facilitated the understanding of response processes such as pattern identification and creative problem solving, emerging as an intelligence predictor. While analogical tests traditionally combine various composition rules for item generation, current statistical models like the Logistic Latent Trait Model (LLTM...

The adoption of open science practices (OSPs) is crucial for promoting transparency and robustness in research. We conducted a systematic review to assess the frequency and trends of OSPs in psychometric studies focusing on measures of suicidal thoughts and behavior. We analyzed publications from two international databases, examining the use of OS...

This study investigates the relationship between body image, eating disorders, psychological characteristics, and mood and anxiety symptoms in Chilean youth, with nutritional status, particularly overweight and obesity. With a sample of 1001 participants from five regions of Chile, aged 15 to 23 years. The Eating Disorder Inventory 3 (EDI-3), the M...

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is considered a fundamental variable for a person’s adequate psychosocial adjustment. In education, its importance transcends the level of interpersonal relationships, and has been proposed as a variable that somehow influences academic performance, although there is controversy about whether its effect is direct or, rat...

Introduction: Reading Comprehension skills are fundamental to the academic performance of university students. These abilities are not innate; therefore, systematic training is required before entering university. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the reading comprehension skills of Chilean University Students. Method: A sample of 5...

Prior evidence indicates the potential central role of the acid sphingomyelinase (ASM)/ceramide system in the infection of cells with SARS-CoV-2. We conducted a multicenter retrospective observational study including 72,105 adult patients with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who were admitted to 36 AP-HP (Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de P...

Introduction Studies in adult psychiatric patients consistently call attention to premature mortality and its association with metabolic syndrome. However, the utility of the metabolic syndrome construct is controversial in older adults in the general population, since literature shows that some components, such as obesity, can be protective agains...

Introduction 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. Objectives The main objective was two-fold: (i) to test the hypothesis that the prevalence of anti...

Background: The adoption of open science practices (OSPs) is crucial for promoting transparency and robustness in research. We conducted a systematic review to assess the frequency and trends of OSPs in psychometric studies focusing on measures of suicidal thoughts and behavior. Methods: We analyzed publications from two international databases, ex...

Introducción: Numerosos estudios ratifican la importancia del desarrollo de las habilidades emocionales en las primeras etapas de la vida, así como la necesidad de disponer de instrumentos fiables y válidos para su medida. EmocioCine es una nueva prueba para la medida de la Inteligencia Emocional consistente en el visionado de 15 breves escenas de...

Objective: To examine the association between psychiatric and non-psychiatric comorbidity and 28-day mortality among patients with psychiatric disorders and COVID-19. Methods: We performed a multicenter observational retrospective cohort study of adult patients with psychiatric disorders hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 at 36 Grea...

Digital tools can guide and support teachers in professional development programmes. The aim of this study was four-fold: (1) to explore changes introduced in classroom methodology by secondary school teachers during their participation in a professional development programme, using the digital tool EVALOE-DSS, based on conversational methodology;...

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...

The aim of this study is to analyze the factorial structure of the Multidimensional Body–Self Relations Questionnaire—Appearance Scales (MBSRQ-AS) to determine the adjustment of the study structure proposed in the Spanish short version in a young, non-clinical Chilean population and to evaluate the possible influence of sex, age, and BMI on body im...

The traditional approach to criterion validity is based on the use of correlations and linear regression models used on a single sample. Advances in supervised machine learning algorithms have enabled the development of automated tools (AutoML) that save time and computational cost when exploring the predictive capacity of test estimates on criteri...

The study of sleep and dreams is one of the classic topics of clinical psychology, and one of the variables of interest is the frequency with which they are recall. The MADRE questionnaire is an instrument widely used for this purpose and has been translated into several languages. The present study aims to evaluate the structural validity of a Spa...

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...

Objectives: No study has explored the association of individual components of metabolic syndrome with mortality in older patients with psychiatric disorders. In this report, we examined whether metabolic syndrome or any of its components predicted mortality in a cohort of older adults with psychiatric disorders. Methods: We used data from a mult...

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...

The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI)-3 test to evaluate eating disorders in young Chilean population. Methods: The sample consisted of 1,091 Chilean adolescents and young people (i.e., 476 men and 615 women) between 15 and 28 years old, from the metropolitan region, and four regions...

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...

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...

Aims 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 compared...

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...

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...