The measurement of competency in nursing is critical to ensure safe and effective care of patients. This study had two purposes. First, the psychometric characteristics of the Nursing Performance Profile (NPP), an instrument used to measure nursing competency, were evaluated using generalizability theory and a sample of 18 nurses in the Measuring Competency with Simulation (MCWS) Phase I dataset. The relative magnitudes of various error sources and their interactions were estimated in a generalizability study involving a fully crossed, three-facet random design with nurse participants as the object of measurement and scenarios, raters, and items as the three facets. A design corresponding to that of the MCWS Phase I data--involving three scenarios, three raters, and 41 items--showed nurse participants contributed the greatest proportion to total variance (50.00%), followed, in decreasing magnitude, by: rater (19.40%), the two-way participant x scenario interaction (12.93%), and the two-way participant x rater interaction (8.62%). The generalizability (G) coefficient was .65 and the dependability coefficient was .50. In decision study designs minimizing number of scenarios, the desired generalizability coefficients of .70 and .80 were reached at three scenarios with five raters, and five scenarios with nine raters, respectively. In designs minimizing number of raters, G coefficients of .72 and .80 were reached at three raters and five scenarios and four raters and nine scenarios, respectively. A dependability coefficient of .71 was attained with six scenarios and nine raters or seven raters and nine scenarios. Achieving high reliability with designs involving fewer raters may be possible with enhanced rater training to decrease variance components for rater main and interaction effects. The second part of this study involved the design and implementation of a validation process for evidence-based human patient simulation scenarios in assessment of nursing competency. A team of experts validated the new scenario using a modified Delphi technique, involving three rounds of iterative feedback and revisions. In tandem, the psychometric study of the NPP and the development of a validation process for human patient simulation scenarios both advance and encourage best practices for studying the validity of simulation-based assessments.

This simulation study compared the utility of various discrepancy measures within a posterior predictive model checking (PPMC) framework for detecting different types of data-model misfit in multidimensional Bayesian network (BN) models. The investigated conditions were motivated by an applied research program utilizing an operational complex performance assessment within a digital-simulation educational context grounded in theories of cognition and learning. BN models were manipulated along two factors: latent variable dependency structure and number of latent classes. Distributions of posterior predicted p-values (PPP-values) served as the primary outcome measure and were summarized in graphical presentations, by median values across replications, and by proportions of replications in which the PPP-values were extreme. An effect size measure for PPMC was introduced as a supplemental numerical summary to the PPP-value. Consistent with previous PPMC research, all investigated fit functions tended to perform conservatively, but Standardized Generalized Dimensionality Discrepancy Measure (SGDDM), Yen's Q3, and Hierarchy Consistency Index (HCI) only mildly so. Adequate power to detect at least some types of misfit was demonstrated by SGDDM, Q3, HCI, Item Consistency Index (ICI), and to a lesser extent Deviance, while proportion correct (PC), a chi-square-type item-fit measure, Ranked Probability Score (RPS), and Good's Logarithmic Scale (GLS) were powerless across all investigated factors. Bivariate SGDDM and Q3 were found to provide powerful and detailed feedback for all investigated types of misfit.

Broaden and build theory (BBT; Fredrickson, 1998; 2001) postulates that positive emotions expand the scope of one's attention and thought-action repertoires (Fredrickson & Branigan, 2005). Within the boundaries of BBT, the undoing hypothesis (Fredrickson, 1998, Fredrickson & Levenson, 1998) argues that positive emotions themselves do not bring forth specific action tendencies or urges; therefore, they do not consequently require an increase in cardiovascular activity to carry out the urge. On the other hand, positive emotions have evolved to subdue the cardiovascular response previously initiated by negative emotions. This dissertation proposes that the real power of positive emotions might be to undo not the effects of negative emotions themselves, however, but simply reduce the arousal itself. This dissertation used minor physiological arousal (e.g., a step-stool task) to simulate the cardiovascular effects of the stress manipulations used in previous tests of the undoing hypothesis by Fredrickson and colleagues. This dissertation asks if positive emotions undo the cardiovascular reactivity of an emotionally neutral stimulus. Positive emotions were induced through one film clip (i.e., a happy film clip) and was compared to a neutral film clip (no emotion elicited). An experimental design measured the effects of arousal induction and film clip on participants' cardiovascular activity. Results indicated that positive emotions had the same effect as no emotions on participants' cardiovascular activity. Implications for theory and research are provided, as well as an assessment of the study's strengths and limitations. Finally, several directions for future research are offered.

Two models of motivation are prevalent in the literature on sport and exercise participation (Deci & Ryan, 1991; Vallerand, 1997, 2000). Both models are grounded in self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and consider the relationship between intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation in explaining behavior choice and outcomes. Both models articulate the relationship between need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, relatedness; Deci & Ryan, 1985, 2000; Ryan & Deci, 2000) and various cognitive, affective, and behavioral outcomes as a function of self-determined motivation. Despite these comprehensive models, inconsistencies remain between the theories and their practical applications. The purpose of my study was to examine alternative theoretical models of intrinsic, extrinsic, and amotivation using the Sport Motivation Scale-6 (SMS-6; Mallett et al., 2007) to more thoroughly study the structure of motivation and the practical utility of using such a scale to measure motivation among runners. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to evaluate eight alternative models. After finding unsatisfactory fit of these models, exploratory factor analysis was conducted post hoc to further examine the measurement structure of motivation. A three-factor structure of general motivation, external accolades, and isolation/solitude explained motivation best, although high cross-loadings of items suggest the structure of this construct still lacks clarity. Future directions to modify item content and re-examine structure as well as limitations of this study are discussed.

National assessment data indicate that the large majority of students in America perform below expected proficiency levels in the area of writing. Given the importance of writing skills, this is a significant problem. Curriculum-based measurement, when used for progress monitoring and intervention planning, has been shown to lead to improved academic achievement. However, researchers have not yet been able to establish the validity of curriculum-based measures of writing (CBM-W). This study examined the structural validity of CBM-W using exploratory factor analysis. The participants for this study were 253 third, 154 seventh, and 154 tenth grade students. Each participant completed a 3-minute writing sample in response to a narrative prompt. The writing samples were scored for fifteen different CBM-W indices. Separate analyses were conducted for each grade level to examine differences in the CBM-W construct across grade levels. Due to extreme multicollinearity, principal components analysis rather than common factor analysis was used to examine the structure of writing as measured by CBM-W indices. The overall structure of CBM-W indices was found to remain stable across grade levels. In all cases a three-component solution was supported, with the components being labeled production, accuracy, and sentence complexity. Limitations of the study and implications for progress monitoring with CBM-W are discussed, including the recommendation for a combination of variables that may provide more reliable and valid measurement of the writing construct.

The five-factor model of personality is a conceptual model for describing personality, and represents five traits which are theorized to interact with each other to form personality. The Big Five Questionnaire-Children (BFQ-C) was developed by Barbaranelli, Caprara, Rabasca and Pastorelli (2003) specifically to measure the five factor model in children. The original version was in Italian, but it has subsequently been translated and used in Dutch, German, and Spanish samples. Given that the BFQ-C has support in Europe, obtained in four different languages it seems promising as an assessment of personality for English speaking children and adolescents. The BFQ-C was translated into English utilizing translation and back translation in order to maintain a high conceptual equivalency. The current study utilizes principal components analysis in order to examine the structure of the English language translation of the BFQ-C in a sample of American adolescents. Results indicate that in contrast to the Italian study, findings from this study suggest a six component solution as the most effective interpretation of the data.

ABSTRACT This study investigated the possibility of item parameter drift (IPD) in a calculus placement examination administered to approximately 3,000 students at a large university in the United States. A single form of the exam was administered continuously for a period of two years, possibly allowing later examinees to have prior knowledge of specific items on the exam. An analysis of IPD was conducted to explore evidence of possible item exposure. Two assumptions concerning items exposure were made: 1) item recall and item exposure are positively correlated, and 2) item exposure results in the items becoming easier over time. Special consideration was given to two contextual item characteristics: 1) item location within the test, specifically items at the beginning and end of the exam, and 2) the use of an associated diagram. The hypotheses stated that these item characteristics would make the items easier to recall and, therefore, more likely to be exposed, resulting in item drift. BILOG-MG 3 was used to calibrate the items and assess for IPD. No evidence was found to support the hypotheses that the items located at the beginning of the test or with an associated diagram drifted as a result of item exposure. Three items among the last ten on the exam drifted significantly and became easier, consistent with item exposure. However, in this study, the possible effects of item exposure could not be separated from the effects of other potential factors such as speededness, curriculum changes, better test preparation on the part of subsequent examinees, or guessing.

Institutions of higher education often tout that they are developing students to become lifelong learners. Evaluative efforts in this area have been presumably hindered by the lack of a uniform conceptualization of lifelong learning. Lifelong learning has been defined from institutional, economic, socio-cultural, and pedagogical perspectives, among others. This study presents the existing operational definitions and theories of lifelong learning in the context of higher education and synthesizes them to propose a unified model of college students' orientation toward lifelong learning. The model theorizes that orientation toward lifelong learning is a latent construct which manifests as students' likelihood to engage in four types of learning activities: formal work-related activities, informal work-related activities, formal personal interest activities, and informal personal interest activities. The Postsecondary Orientation toward Lifelong Learning scale (POLL) was developed and the validity of the resulting score interpretations was examined. The instrument was used to compare potential differences in orientation toward lifelong learning between freshmen and seniors. Exploratory factor analyses of the responses of 138 undergraduate college students in the pilot study data provided tentative support for the factor structure within each type of learning activity. Guttman's <λ>λ2 estimates of the learning activity subscales ranged from .78 to .85. Follow-up confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modeling did not corroborate support for the hypothesized four-factor model using the main student sample data of 405 undergraduate students. Several alternative reflective factor structures were explored. A two-factor model representing factors for Instructing/Presenting and Reading learning activities produced marginal model-data fit and warrants further investigation. The summed POLL total scores had a relatively strong positive correlation with global interest in learning (.58), moderate positive correlations with civic engagement and participation (.38) and life satisfaction (.29), and a small positive correlation with social desirability (.15). The results of the main study do not provide support for the malleability of postsecondary students' orientation toward lifelong learning, as measured by the summed POLL scores. The difference between freshmen and seniors' average total POLL scores was not statistically significant and was negligible in size.

This study investigated the internal factor structure of the English language development Assessment (ELDA) using confirmatory factor analysis. ELDA is an English language proficiency test developed by a consortium of multiple states and is used to identify and reclassify English language learners in kindergarten to grade 12. Scores on item parcels based on the standards tested from the four domains of reading, writing, listening, and speaking were used for the analyses. Five different factor models were tested: a single factor model, a correlated two-factor model, a correlated four-factor model, a second-order factor model and a bifactor model. The results indicate that the four-factor model, second-order model, and bifactor model fit the data well. The four-factor model hypothesized constructs for reading, writing, listening and speaking. The second-order model hypothesized a second-order English language proficiency factor as well as the four lower-order factors of reading, writing, listening and speaking. The bifactor model hypothesized a general English language proficiency factor as well as the four domain specific factors of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. The Chi-square difference tests indicated that the bifactor model best explains the factor structure of the ELDA. The results from this study are consistent with the findings in the literature about the multifactorial nature of language but differ from the conclusion about the factor structures reported in previous studies. The overall proficiency levels on the ELDA gives more weight to the reading and writing sections of the test than the speaking and listening sections. This study has implications on the rules used for determining proficiency levels and recommends the use of conjunctive scoring where all constructs are weighted equally contrary to current practice.

Chronic illness can affect multiple domains of functioning, yet scientific understanding of the effects across the lifespan and under multiple contexts is still developing. For instance, research consistently indicates the early years of a child's life are pivotal for early intervening to positively affect physical, cognitive, and socio-emotional development; unfortunately, the impact of chronic illnesses, and thus appropriate interventions, during this time are not well-established. Academic achievement is one area in which children with chronic illness are negatively affected and research suggests that the effects of illness can be exacerbated by certain social determinants of health and demographic characteristics; however, no recent studies have examined these relationships for children at school entry. The current study utilized the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to examine variations in early academic readiness in reading and mathematics by diabetes status, race, and social determinants, specifically mother's education and access to early childhood education, among children born in 2001. Results of the current study indicated that children with diabetes scored lower on reading and mathematics relative to their non-diabetic peers. Significant interactions were evident for diabetes status by mother's education, race/ethnicity, and by early childhood education. Children in homes whose mothers had the lowest level of education did not score as high as children in homes with mothers who had higher levels of education. Among children without diabetes, those identified as Asian, Pacific Islander, or Native Hawaiian outperformed White, Black, Hispanic, American Indian, and multi-race groups on measures of reading and mathematics, whereas among children with diabetes, those identified as multiracial scored highest. Regardless of diabetes status, children who attended preschool outperformed those who did not, yet children without diabetes who had not attended preschool outperformed diabetic children who did receive such services. Findings support the need for targeted early intervention as preschool alone did not mitigate the effects of diabetes on academic performance.