Verifying Validity of the Household Dietary Diversity Score: An Application of Rasch Modeling

BACKGROUND

The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) was developed to measure household food access, one of the levels of food security. Previous research has shown dietary diversity is related to food security. However, the validity of the HDDS in the form developed by the Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) project-12 food groups, 24-hour recall-and most frequently used by development organizations and nongovernmental organizations has never been verified.

OBJECTIVE

To verify the construct validity of the HDDS.

METHODS

A Rasch model was used to test the extent to which the HDDS meets the criteria required for interval scale measurement, using data from 1015 households in Colombia and Ecuador.

RESULTS

Different dietary patterns between Colombia and Ecuador and 2 cultural groups within Ecuador required data to be split into 3 subgroups. For each subgroup, the food groups meeting the criteria and their difficulty ranking were different. Refined indices, containing only those food groups meeting the criteria, contained 7 items in Colombia, 10 for Kichwa households in Ecuador, and 9 for migrant households.

CONCLUSION

The indicator in its current form does not meet all criteria. Even when analyzing culturally homogenous subgroups within a small region, the components of the indicator do not form a reliable way of measuring household-level food access.

Goal Instability in Relation to Career Thoughts, Decision State, and Performance in a Career Course

Goal instability and its relation to career thoughts, decision state, and performance in an undergraduate career course in a large university were investigated in this study. Participants completed six instruments measuring the nature of goals, career thinking, occupational decision making, satisfaction with career choice, tension associated with career decisions, and a performance contract of course activities to be completed for a grade. Bivariate correlations and multiple regression analyses indicated that the degree of goal instability was directly related to negative career thoughts, dissatisfaction with career choice, career tension, and inversely related to classroom performance. Results of the analyses suggested that goal instability may serve as an initial global screening measure of readiness for career exploration in a classroom environment. The use of supplementary readiness measures is discussed.

Pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder

We review the literature on pathological narcissism and narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) and describe a significant criterion problem related to four inconsistencies in phenotypic descriptions and taxonomic models across clinical theory, research, and practice; psychiatric diagnosis; and social/personality psychology. This impedes scientific synthesis, weakens narcissism's nomological net, and contributes to a discrepancy between low prevalence rates of NPD and higher rates of practitioner-diagnosed pathological narcissism, along with an enormous clinical literature on narcissistic disturbances. Criterion issues must be resolved, including clarification of the nature of normal and pathological narcissism, incorporation of the two broad phenotypic themes of narcissistic grandiosity and narcissistic vulnerability into revised diagnostic criteria and assessment instruments, elimination of references to overt and covert narcissism that reify these modes of expression as distinct narcissistic types, and determination of the appropriate structure for pathological narcissism. Implications for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the science of personality disorders are presented.