People may hold different understandings of race that might affect how they respond to the culture of groups deemed to be racially distinct. The present research tests how this process is moderated by the minority individual's lay theory of race. An essentialist lay theory of race (i.e., that race reflects deep-seated, inalterable essence and is indicative of traits and ability) would orient racial minorities to rigidly adhere to their ethnic culture, whereas a social constructionist lay theory of race (i.e., that race is socially constructed, malleable, and arbitrary) would orient racial minorities to identify and cognitively assimilate toward the majority culture. To test these predictions, the authors conducted 4 studies with Asian American participants. The first 2 studies examine the effect of one's lay theory of race on perceived racial differences and identification with American culture. The last 2 studies tested the moderating effect of lay theory of race on identification and assimilation toward the majority American culture after this culture had been primed. The results generally supported the prediction that the social constructionist theory was associated with more perceived similarity between Asians and Americans and more consistent identification and assimilation toward American culture, compared with the essentialist theory.

This study evaluated the dimensionality, invariance, and reliability of the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale–21 (DASS-21) within and across Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States ( N = 2,580) in college student samples. We used confirmatory factor analyses to compare the fit of four different factor structures of the DASS-21: a unidimensional model, a three-correlated-factors model, a higher order model, and a bifactor model. The bifactor model, with three specific factors (depression, anxiety, and stress) and one general factor (general distress), presented the best fit within each country. We also calculated ancillary bifactor indices of model-based dimensionality of the DASS-21 and model-based reliability to further examine the validity of the composite total and subscale scores and the use of unidimensional modeling. Results suggested the DASS-21 can be used as a unidimensional scale. Finally, measurement invariance of the best fitting model was tested across countries indicating configural invariance. The traditional three-correlated-factors model presented scalar invariance across Canada, Hong Kong, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. Overall, these analyses indicate that the DASS-21 would best be used as a general score of distress rather than three separate factors of depression, anxiety, and stress, in the countries studied.

This study assesses how social desirability affects responses in clinical self-report inventories. Six hundred items gathered from four normal personality questionnaires were adapted to devise a pre-experimental personality questionnaire (pre-EMHQ). Results obtained from administering Ko's Mental Health Questionnaire (KMHQ) and the pre-EMHQ to separate samples were the proportion of individuals answering "true" to each item (i.e., P(t)) and the social desirability scale value (i.e., SDSV) of each item. The Experimental Mental Health Questionnaire (EMHQ) was established from the pre-EMHQ by closely matching the P(t)s and the SDSVs of the two questionnaires. Administering the KMHQ and the EMHQ concurrently to another sample provided results for factor analysis and other statistical analyses. The SDSVs and the P(t)s for each of the KMHQ items certainly displayed a linearly increasing relation. The two sets of corresponding subscales also correlated significantly. By applying the polynomial regression analysis, the tendency to score might be expressed as a quadratic function of SDSVs. Two iterative principal-factor analyses of the two sets of subscales each resulted in two factors, and Factor 1 is similar in both the KMHQ and the EMHQ. In brief, social desirability plays a critical role in affecting responses in a clinical self-report inventory. The factors involved and suggestions proposed will be of value for further research.

Researchers have found that the stigma associated with seeking therapy--particularly self-stigma--can inhibit the use of psychological services. Yet, most of the research on self-stigma has been conducted in the United States. This is a considerable limitation, as the role of self-stigma in the help-seeking process may vary across cultural groups. However, to examine cross-cultural variations, researchers must first develop culturally valid scales. Therefore, this study examined scale validity and reliability of the widely used Self-Stigma of Seeking Help scale (SSOSH; Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006) across samples from 6 different countries (England, Greece, Israel, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States). Specifically, we used a confirmatory factor analysis framework to conduct measurement invariance analysis and latent mean comparisons of the SSOSH across the 6 sampled countries. Overall, the results suggested that the SSOSH has a similar univariate structure across countries and is sufficiently invariant across countries to be used to explore cultural differences in the way that self-stigma relates to help-seeking behavior.

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