latent class analysis

Introduction Research on the practicum has focused on student teachers, mentors and partnerships between universities and schools, while the pupils in whose classrooms student teachers are placed have rarely been asked about this experience. This study examined how pupils in Ecuadorian host schools perceive the presence, support and influence of student teachers, and to what extent these perceptions can be trusted as evidence. Methods Two age-differentiated questionnaires, with pictographic scales from early childhood education to third grade and verbal scales from fourth grade onward, were administered through a mobile application by the student teachers or by members of the research team hired for data collection (project staff). The dataset comprised 2,453 valid evaluations from 1,140 pupils in 123 classrooms of 38 schools. Analyses included descriptive statistics for the first evaluation of each pupil, agreement between consecutive weekly evaluations, generalized estimating equations that accounted for the nesting of evaluations within pupils, classrooms and schools, a within-pupil comparison of evaluations collected by student teachers and by project staff, and latent class analysis. Results Between 91.5% and 98.5% of pupils gave favorable ratings on seven of eight items, while 69.6% of older pupils always felt comfortable asking student teachers for help. Ratings collected by project staff were lower than those collected by student teachers, especially for comfort in asking for help and perceived influence on learning. Responses of the youngest pupils concentrated in the highest category and did not discriminate reliably between individual pupils, whereas older pupils showed fair to moderate stability on most items and formed highly enthusiastic and moderately favorable profiles. Discussion Pupils perceive student teachers favorably, although part of this favorability reflects social desirability and the developmental limits of young respondents. Pupil voice can inform practicum evaluation when questionnaires are administered by someone other than the student teacher being evaluated and are interpreted according to the age of the pupils.

Background The International Trauma Questionnaire (ITQ) is a widely used self-report measure of PTSD and Complex PTSD (CPTSD). ‘Clinical checks’ – brief follow up questions verifying respondent comprehension of the symptom item – have recently been developed for the ITQ to reduce false-positive diagnostic cases. This study tested whether the ITQ with clinical checks generates psychometrically sound scores and adds clinically relevant information to standard symptom assessment. Methods Data ( N = 5,070) were collected using quota-based sampling procedures from adults living in five European countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and Slovakia). Results Overall, 82.2% of respondents were trauma-exposed, and 19.2% met diagnostic requirements for PTSD (7.2%) or CPTSD (12.0%) on the standard ITQ. With clinical checks, these fell to 9.8% overall, 3.9% for PTSD, and 5.9% for CPTSD. The ITQ with clinical checks produced scores with excellent factorial validity, internal reliability, and latent classes corresponding to PTSD and CPTSD. Associations with clinically relevant variables including suicidality and anxiety-depression symptoms were stronger with than without the clinical checks. Females, those with more extensive trauma histories, and higher concurrent anxiety-depression symptoms were more likely to retain than lose their diagnostic status when the clinical checks were used. Conclusions The ITQ with clinical checks generated scores with excellent psychometric properties, captured additional clinically relevant information, and yielded more plausible prevalence estimates compared to the standard ITQ scores. The potential value and limitations of using clinical checks in self-report questionnaires are discussed.

زمینه: پرسشنامه بین‌المللی تروما (ITQ) یک ابزار خودگزارشی پرکاربرد برای سنجش PTSD و CPTSD است. «بررسی‌های بالینی» – سؤالات پیگیری کوتاهی که درک پاسخ‌دهنده از ماده علامتی را تأیید می‌کنند – اخیراً برای ITQ توسعه یافته‌اند تا موارد مثبت کاذب تشخیصی را کاهش دهند. این مطالعه بررسی کرد که آیا ITQ همراه با بررسی‌های بالینی، نمرات روان‌سنجی معتبر تولید می‌کند و اطلاعات بالینی مرتبط بیشتری نسبت به ارزیابی استاندارد علائم ارائه می‌دهد یا خیر. روش‌ها: داده‌ها (N = 5,070) با استفاده از روش نمونه‌گیری سهمیه‌ای از بزرگسالان ساکن پنج کشور اروپایی (جمهوری چک، لهستان، مجارستان، رومانی و اسلواکی) جمع‌آوری شد. یافته‌ها: به طور کلی، ۸۲.۲٪ از پاسخ‌دهندگان در معرض تروما قرار گرفته بودند و ۱۹.۲٪ معیارهای تشخیصی PTSD (۷.۲٪) یا CPTSD (۱۲.۰٪) را بر اساس ITQ استاندارد داشتند. با استفاده از بررسی‌های بالینی، این ارقام به ۹.۸٪ در کل، ۳.۹٪ برای PTSD و ۵.۹٪ برای CPTSD کاهش یافت. ITQ همراه با بررسی‌های بالینی، نمراتی با روایی عاملی عالی، پایایی درونی مطلوب و طبقات نهفته منطبق با PTSD و CPTSD تولید کرد. ارتباط با متغیرهای بالینی مرتبط از جمله افکار خودکشی و علائم اضطراب-افسردگی در صورت استفاده از بررسی‌های بالینی قوی‌تر بود. زنان، افرادی با سابقه تروما گسترده‌تر و علائم اضطراب-افسردگی همزمان بالاتر، احتمال بیشتری داشت که با استفاده از بررسی‌های بالینی وضعیت تشخیصی خود را حفظ کنند تا آن را از دست بدهند. نتیجه‌گیری: ITQ همراه با بررسی‌های بالینی، نمراتی با ویژگی‌های روان‌سنجی عالی تولید کرد، اطلاعات بالینی مرتبط بیشتری را ثبت نمود و برآوردهای شیوع معقول‌تری نسبت به نمرات استاندارد ITQ ارائه داد. ارزش بالقوه و محدودیت‌های استفاده از بررسی‌های بالینی در پرسشنامه‌های خودگزارشی مورد بحث قرار گرفته است.