Juan Carlos Suárez Falcón

• PhD
• National University of Distance Education

In this study, the associations between positivity and positive affect were examined at five time points between January 2020 and September 2021, a period of turmoil associated with the COVID‐19 pandemic. Data were collected from 1401 students (73.45% women) attending an online university in Spain, commencing at the outbreak of the pandemic and the...

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the associated confinement, imposed a novel personal and social context for university students; nevertheless, few studies have addressed the effects of this on distance university students. Indeed, defining the needs of these students under such unique circumstances will allow them to receive the support necessary to eff...

The Work-Related Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (WAAQ) is a self-report instrument that measures psychological flexibility at work. Although this scale has been validated in some languages, its psychometric properties in Colombia are unknown, making it challenging to assess work-related psychological flexibility in this country. The present st...

The impact of positivity and self-efficacy beliefs in managing anger, fear, and sadness on positive and negative affect was examined at three time points over 9 months. Data from 1,401 students (73.4% women) attending an online University in Spain were collected before the beginning and during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of...

Introduction Loneliness is a distressful feeling that can affect mental and physical health, particularly among older adults. Cortisol, the primary hormone of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal axis (HPA-axis), may act as a biological transducer through which loneliness affects health. While most previous studies have evaluated the association betw...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00356.].

Introduction: This study analysed the psychometric properties of the Reward Probability Index (RPI) in an online Colombian sample with 1129 participants. Method: To conduct a cross-validation study, the sample was randomly divided into two subsamples. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted with the first subsample yielding a two-factor struc...

Postformal thought is the highest state of thinking in adults, extending beyond formal operations. Sinnott’s Complex Postformal Thought Questionnaire (PFTQ) is one of the most widely used measures of this construct and thus, the main aim of this study was to translate a Spanish version of the PFTQ and to validate it using a sample of 1093 subjects...

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Valuing Questionnaire (VQ) in Colombian clinical and nonclinical samples. Method: The VQ was administered to a total sample of 1820 participants, which included undergraduates (N = 762), general population (N = 724), and a clinical sample (N = 334). The questionnaire...

Background. The Valuing Questionnaire (VQ) is considered as one of the most psychometrically robust instruments to measure valued living according to the acceptance and commitment therapy model. It consists of 10 items that are responded to on a 7-point Likert-type scale and has two factors: Progression and Obstruction. The Spanish version of the V...

Objective: This study aimed to generate updated normative data for commonly used tests in neuropsychological assessment applied to older monolingual Spanish-speaking adults: Verbal fluency tests, the Trail Making Test (TMT), and the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test (ROCF). Method: To obtain normative data, 382 cognitively healthy 60- to 90-yea...

The aim of this study was to establish normative data for the Spanish version of the California Verbal Learning Test, the Test de Aprendizaje Verbal España-Complutense (TAVEC). Through different subtests, the TAVEC allows verbal learning and episodic memory to be evaluated, an assessment that was carried out on a sample of 382 cognitive healthy Spa...

La psicooncología pediátrica dispone de modelos de salud, estándares de atención e instrumentos específicos para guiar y mejorar la atención que reciben las familias de niños y adolescentes con cáncer. Este trabajo presenta los estándares de atención psicosocial que cuentan con evidencia científica, el Modelo de Salud Preventiva Psicosocial Pediátr...

The Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS) is a widely used scale that measures burnout in the general professions. Debate persists regarding the factor structure of the MBI-GS, and there is scarce empirical evidence about the reliability, validity, and measurement invariance of the MBI-GS in Spanish-speaking samples. Moreover, the psy...

This study provides a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials that analyzed the efficacy of psychological interventions for parents of children with cancer. The search was conducted in the databases PsycInfo, Medline, PsycArticles, and PsycTests. Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Two independent researchers ext...

Rule-governed behaviour is a central concept to explain complex human behaviour from a functional-analytic standpoint. Recently, a self-report measure of a functional type of rule-following called generalised pliance has been developed – the Generalised Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ). The GPQ has two versions with 18 and 9 items, respectively. This st...

Recent research has found that repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is an important transdiagnostic process both in adult and child psychopathology. This finding has led some authors to design content-independent measures of RNT that can be administered across disorders. One of these instruments is the Perseverative Thinking Questionnaire (PTQ) and i...

Background. The ATQ is a widely used instrument consisting of 30 items that assess the frequency of negative automatic thoughts. However, the extensive length of the ATQ could compromise its measurement efficiency in survey research. Consequently, an 8-item shortened version of the ATQ has been developed. This study aims to analyze the validity of...

The concept of rule-governed behavior (RGB) has been used in the behavior-analytic literature as a way to analyze complex human behavior, including thinking and problem-solving. Relational frame theory suggests the existence of two main functional types of RGB termed pliance and tracking. In this paper, we describe the development of the Generalize...

Self-report measures of generalized patterns of rule-following are being developed in the last years including the Generalized Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ) and the Generalized Tracking Questionnaire (GTQ). Specifically, the GTQ is a 11-item self-report developed for adults that has shown excellent psychometric properties, a one-factor structure, and...

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a core feature of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depression. Recently, some studies have shown promising results with brief protocols of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) focused on RNT in the treatment of emotional disorders in adults. The current study analyzes the effect of an individual, 3-ses...

This parallel randomized controlled trial aimed to evaluate the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) focused on disrupting repetitive negative thinking (RNT) versus a waitlist control (WLC) in the treatment of depression and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Forty-eight participants with a main diagnosis of depression and/or GAD were...

Young adults suffering from generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) show high levels of worry about different domains, with couple relationships being the most frequent one. Excessive worry in this domain might lead to couple dysfunction, which is associated with lower outcomes of cognitive behavioral therapy. The current study analyzes the effect of an...

The Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) is a widely used, 5-item, 7-point Likert-type scale that measures life satisfaction. The current study aims to explore the validity of the SWLS in Colombia and its factorial equivalence with Spanish samples. The SWLS was administered to a total of 1,587 Colombian participants, including a sample of undergradu...

Empirical research on functional classes of rule-governed behavior has been scarce, which might be due to the absence of valid behavioral or self-report measures. We describe the development and initial examination of the Generalized Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ) through three studies with a total of 2127 participants. In Study 1, a pool of 77 items...

The Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire – Youth (AFQ-Y) is a widely used measure of psychological inflexibility in children and adolescents. It is a 17-item questionnaire which also has an 8-item version (AFQ-Y-8). The AFQ-Y has been adapted into some languages, including Spanish. Overall, the AFQ-Y seems to be a sound measure although there is some...

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) focused on clinical practice might play a relevant role in the emotional difficulties clinical psychology trainees may experience during their training. However, the empirical evidence in this regard is very limited. To begin to address this topic, the current study aimed to adapt and preliminarily test the psycho...

Empirical research on pliance, a functional class of rule-governed behavior, has been scarce in children. This study aims to develop a children version of the Generalized Pliance Questionnaire (GPQ), a self-report developed for adults that has shown excellent psychometric properties, a one-factor structure, and criterion validity. In so doing, we a...

Objective To analyze associations among child dependence, perceived parental acceptance, and children's psychological adjustment. Background Extreme levels of both perceived parental acceptance and rejection are postulated to be associated with dependence in such a way that may lead to psychological maladjustment. However, this influence has not b...

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in the form of worry and rumination has been identified as a particularly counterproductive experiential avoidance strategy implicated in the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders. The current study analyzes the effect of an individual, 2-session, RNT-focused, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) protoco...

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in the form of worry and rumination has been identified as a particularly counterproductive experiential avoidance strategy implicated in the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders. The current study analyzes the effect of an individual, 2-session, RNT-focused, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) protoco...

The Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) is the gold standard measure of the unspecific worry that characterizes generalized anxiety disorder. This study aims to explore the validity of the PSWQ in Colombia and its measurement invariance across gender and clinical and nonclinical participants. An abbreviated, 11-item version of the PSWQ by Sandín,...

The Ruminative Response Scale (RRS) is the most used measure of rumination in response to depressive mood. The RRS consists of 22 items that are responded on a 4-point Likert-type scale. A 10-item version of the RRS (RRS-SF) has been developed by removing the items that overlap with items of depression measures. The RRS-SF contains two subscales (B...

The General Health Questionnaire – 12 (GHQ-12) is a widely used screening self-report for emotional disorders among adults. However, there is little evidence concerning the validity of the GHQ-12 in Colombia and its factorial invariance between nonclinical and clinical samples. Accordingly, the current study aims to explore the GHQ-12 validity in C...

The Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) is a widely used, 30-item, 5-point Likert-type scale that measures the frequency of negative automatic thoughts as experienced by individuals suffering from depression. However, there is some controversy about the factor structure of the ATQ, and its application can be too time-consuming for survey researc...

The Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) is one of the most widely used self-reports for the measurement of emotional symptoms. However, some controversy remains concerning its factor structure. Additionally, more data of the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the DASS-21 are needed. The aim of this study was to explore t...

Recent research is advancing in the analysis of the defusion and self-based exercises used in acceptance and com mitment therapy (ACT) through relational frame theory (RFT) terms. This study aimed to analyze the effect of two RFT-defined defusion protocols in promoting psychological flexibility by altering the discriminative functions of avoidance...

The Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) is a recently published measure of cognitive fusion – a key construct in the model of psychopathology of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). This study presents the psychometric properties and factor structure data of a Spanish translation of the CFQ in Colombia. Three samples with a total of 1,763 part...

Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) in the form of worry and rumination has been robustly identified as a transdiagnostic process implicated in the onset and maintenance of emotional disorders. Recent research suggests that both forms of RNT are particularly counterproductive experiential avoidance strategies because individuals usually engage in th...

The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire – II (AAQ-II) is a widely used measure of experiential avoidance and psychological inflexibility, two key constructs of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). The main aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties and factor structure of the Spanish version of the AAQ-II in Colombia. A second...

The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) is a classic, 40-item measure of dysfunctional schema – a key construct of the cognitive model of depression. However, some controversy exists regarding the factorial structure of the DAS. Accordingly, a revised version of the DAS (hereafter, the DAS-R) has been recently proposed using confirmatory factor anal...

The Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale is one of the most popular instruments to measure mindfulness, and this construct is conceived as unidimensional, emphasizing attention/awareness as its essential aspect. This study aimed to analyze the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the MAAS in a Colombian sample of...

The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) is a 40-item measure of dysfunctional schemas, a key construct of the cognitive model of depression. Most research has relied on the total score because of the mixed results of previous exploratory factor analyses conducted on the DAS. Accordingly, a revised, 17-item version of the DAS (hereafter, the DAS-R) h...

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo evaluar las propiedades psicométricas y dimensionalidad de la versión española para niños y adolescentes del Father Involvement Scale (FIS) en el marco de la IPARTheory. Para ello, se utilizó una muestra de 514 participantes (46.9 % varones) de edades comprendidas entre 9 y 16 años. Además del cuestionario so...

El objetivo del presente estudio es examinar las propiedades psicométricas de la versión española para niños del Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ; Rohner y Khaleque, 2005), así como analizar su dimensionalidad. Para ello, 469 sujetos procedentes de distintas escuelas públicas de diferentes ciudades españolas, con edades comprendidas entre...

Background: Cognitive fusion is suggested to play an important role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders according to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. This study presents the psychometric data of the Spanish version of a cognitive fusion measure in the context of anxiety: the Believability of Anxious Feelings and Thoughts Questio...

Orofacial pain, headaches, and neck pain are very common pain conditions in the general population and might be associated in their pathophysiology, although this is not yet clarified. The development and validation of a prediction inventory is important to minimize risks. Most recent questionnaires have not focused on pain, but pain is the common...

Two types of global testing procedures for item fit to the Rasch model were evaluated using simulation studies. The first type incorporates three tests based on first-order statistics: van den Wollenberg's Q(1) test, Glas's R(1) test, and Andersen's LR test. The second type incorporates three tests based on second-order statistics: van den Wollenbe...

In this article, the Type I error rate and the power of a number of existing and new tests of fit to the 3-parameter logistic model (3PLM) are investigated. The first test is a generalization of a test for the evaluation of the fit to the 2-parameter logistic model (2PLM) based on the Lagrange multiplier (LM) test or the equivalent efficient score...

En: Revista de Investigación Educativa Barcelona 2003, v. 21 n. 1 ; p. 135-155 La presentación de los resultados de rendimiento educativo de las evaluaciones globales de los sistemas educativos ha venido realizándose de modo fundamental mediante dos sistemas: la presentación de resultados en términos de las puntuaciones directas o los porcentajes q...

The purpose of this paper was examine empirically: (1) the relationships between the item and person statistics from Item Response Theory (IRT) and Classical Test Theory (CTT) and, (2) the invariance of parameters in both measurement frameworks. In order to achieve these objectives, a simulation study was carry out where 30 samples with 500 subject...

En este trabajo se analiza empíricamente las relaciones entre las estimaciones de los parámetros de los ítems de la Teoría de la Respuesta al Item (TRI) y de la Teoría Clásica de los Tests (TCT). Asimismo, se analiza el grado de invarianza que presentan los parámetros de ambos marcos teóricos. Para ello se llevó a cabo un estudio de simulación Mont...

En: Revista de Educación (Madrid) Madrid 1999, n. 319, mayo-agosto ; p. 253-272 Este trabajo de investigación se enmarca dentro de la nueva metodología de construcción y análisis de las pruebas de rendimiento educativo denominada Teoría de la Respuesta al ítem (TRI). Esta reciente aproximación supera claramente, en el plano teórico, a la Teoría Clá...

En: Revista de educación (Madrid) Madrid 2000, n. 322, mayo-agosto ; p. 325-340 El presente trabajo de investigación describe la aplicación de un procedimiento para la construcción de puntuaciones de los alumnos, basado en la Teoría de la Respuesta al ítem (TRI), para la prueba de rendimiento en lengua inglesa del Estudio Internacional sobre la Ens...