TY - JOUR
T1 - Measuring self-efficacy, executive function, and temporal discounting in Kenya
AU - Esopo, Kristina
AU - Mellow, Daniel
AU - Thomas, Catherine
AU - Uckat, Hannah
AU - Abraham, Justin
AU - Jain, Prachi
AU - Jang, Chaning
AU - Otis, Nicholas
AU - Riis-Vestergaard, Michala
AU - Starcev, Amanda
AU - Orkin, Kate
AU - Haushofer, Johannes
N1 - Funding Information:
Fieldwork and Princeton and Busara research assistance was supported by grant NIH UH2 NR016378 from the National Institutes of Health to JH, which is part of the NIH Science of Behavior Change program. For more information on this study's role in the Science of Behavior Change program, please visit our Open Science Framework page: https://osf.io/twbu8/ . Oxford research assistance was supported by an anonymous donor under grant LER00130 , to KO. We are grateful to the staff of the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics for excellent research assistance and data collection. We are also grateful to our NIH Project Scientist, Dr. Rosalind King, for her scientific oversight. Contributions: KO and JH directed the study; KE, DM, PJ, JA, CJ, and MRV designed tasks and data collection instruments; KE, PJ, CJ, and DM collected data; KE, HU, CT, and KO developed protocols for and conducted cognitive interviews; HU, CT, DM, GN, JA, KO, and JH developed analysis methods and wrote code; DM and JH ran analysis; KE, DM, KO, and JH wrote the paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/2
Y1 - 2018/2
N2 - Developing countries have low adherence to medical regimens like water chlorination or antenatal and postnatal care, contributing to high infant and child mortality rates. We hypothesize that high levels of stress affect adherence through temporal discounting, self-efficacy, and executive control. Measurement of these constructs in developing countries requires adaptation of existing measures. In the current study, we adapt psychological scales and behavioral tasks, measuring each of these three constructs, for use among adults in Kenya. We translated and back-translated each measure to Kiswahili and conducted cognitive interviewing to establish cultural acceptability, refined existing behavioral tasks, and developed new ones. Then, in a laboratory session lasting 3 h, participants (N=511) completed the adapted psychological inventories and behavioral tasks. We report the psychometric properties of these measures. We find relatively low reliability and poor correlational evidence between psychological scales and behavioral tasks measuring the same construct, highlighting the challenges of adapting measures across cultures, and suggesting that assays within the same domain may tap distinct underlying processes.
AB - Developing countries have low adherence to medical regimens like water chlorination or antenatal and postnatal care, contributing to high infant and child mortality rates. We hypothesize that high levels of stress affect adherence through temporal discounting, self-efficacy, and executive control. Measurement of these constructs in developing countries requires adaptation of existing measures. In the current study, we adapt psychological scales and behavioral tasks, measuring each of these three constructs, for use among adults in Kenya. We translated and back-translated each measure to Kiswahili and conducted cognitive interviewing to establish cultural acceptability, refined existing behavioral tasks, and developed new ones. Then, in a laboratory session lasting 3 h, participants (N=511) completed the adapted psychological inventories and behavioral tasks. We report the psychometric properties of these measures. We find relatively low reliability and poor correlational evidence between psychological scales and behavioral tasks measuring the same construct, highlighting the challenges of adapting measures across cultures, and suggesting that assays within the same domain may tap distinct underlying processes.
KW - Executive function
KW - Measurement
KW - Psychometrics
KW - Self-efficacy
KW - Temporal discounting
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U2 - 10.1016/j.brat.2017.10.002
DO - 10.1016/j.brat.2017.10.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 29249452
AN - SCOPUS:85039058326
SN - 0005-7967
VL - 101
SP - 30
EP - 45
JO - Behavioral Assessment
JF - Behavioral Assessment
ER -