This investigation compared the validities of three widely used self-report depression measures: the Beck Depression Inventory, the MMPI Depression scale, and the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. Each inventory was administered to 101 inpatient psychiatric ward patients and to 99 chemical dependency ward patients. The three scales were correlated with clinicians' global ratings of depression, with scores on five Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980)-based, factor-analytic depression scales, and with an overall depression score based on the DSM-III criteria. In general, the Zung produced better validity coefficients than the Beck, which in turn yielded higher correlations with our criteria than did the MMPI Depression scale.

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While storytime programs for preschool children are offered in nearly all public libraries in the United States, little is known about why adults choose to bring children to participate. This survey study gathered information from 346 parents and caregivers who attended storytime programs at 35 public libraries in three states. Parents and caregivers indicated child enjoyment of hearing stories and participating in activities and the opportunity for children to interact as the primary reasons for attending; however, differences in motivation to attend were noted by community density, relationship to the child, educational level of the adult, and length of attendance. In addition to identifying those aspects of storytimes that resonate most for children and building upon them, librarians should integrate cooperative activities that facilitate interaction. Further, librarians should take stock of their own contexts and modify programs to best address the needs of their specific community.

We compared the convergent validities of four commonly used post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) measures in 80 help-seeking Vietnam veterans by contrasting their intercorrelations. When scored as continuous severity or frequency measures, the Mississippi Scale for Combat-related PTSD's and the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Interview's (PTSD-I's) concordances with other measures were similar to one anothers' and generally larger than those of either the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DIS) PTSD module or the MMPI PTSD scale. However, when used only to identify stress disorder's presence or absence, the four techniques' concordances were nearly identical. This suggested that the four measures have similar convergent validities when used simply to identify PTSD, but that the PTSD-I and Mississippi scale offer better convergent validity than the MMPI or DIS instruments when used as severity measures.

This article reports on the findings from a nationwide survey designed to investigate the perceptions of public library directors with regard to storytime programs. The results indicate that public library directors identify a number of reasons why storytime is important; prime among those are for encouraging children’s enjoyment of books, promoting children’s early literacy skills, and attracting patrons who might otherwise not participate in library services. The findings suggest that public library directors do not fully recognize how storytime programs might contribute to school readiness. Further, differences in library inputs to support storytime point to disparities based on library size. The implications for practice, education, and research are discussed.