Thesis Format
Integrated Article
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
Program
Psychology
Supervisor
Hayden, Elizabeth P.
Abstract
The beliefs we hold about ourselves emerge early in life and play a prominent role in theories of cognitive vulnerability to depression. However, understanding how associations between self-beliefs and adjustment evolve over time requires valid and developmentally sensitive measurement tools for assessing self-beliefs in youths. The Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET), a behavioural task assessing biases in processing self-referent information, is one of the most widely used experimental paradigms for evaluating self-views in the context of cognitive vulnerability to depression. However, few studies of its psychometric properties have been conducted. In the absence of this critical measurement work, the validity of the SRET for assessing self-views across early development remains unclear. As the first in-depth psychometric analysis of the SRET, my dissertation addresses these measurement concerns with the goal of advancing the literature on self-views and their associations with depression in youth. Specifically, I examined the factor structure and item functioning of SRET items (Study 1), the measurement invariance of SRET endorsement scores between boys and girls and across development (Study 2), and the predictive validity of SRET processing scores for depressive symptoms, as well as reciprocal associations between depressive symptoms and self-schemas (Study 3). Results from my first study support the two-factor structure of the SRET, with items loading onto positive and negative factors. In addition, I identify standardized and developmentally sensitive SRET items for assessing positive and negative youth self-concepts. Findings from my second study indicate that SRET endorsement scores show moderate to high stability during late childhood and adolescence, as well as measurement invariance over time and across sex. Lastly, findings from my third study support the predictive validity of positive and negative SRET processing scores for depressive symptoms across late childhood to mid-adolescence, but also highlight the role of depressive symptoms on negative self-schemas. Taken as a whole, my dissertation provides conditional support for the validity and utility of SRET endorsement and processing scores for studying self-views and their associations with depressive symptoms in youth. I discuss implications for the developmental dynamics of youth self-views and their associations with depressive symptoms across late childhood and adolescence.
Summary for Lay Audience
The beliefs we hold about ourselves emerge early in childhood and play a role in determining whether and when people develop depression. Specifically, research shows that having fewer positive and more negative self-beliefs makes people more likely to develop depression. Studying differences between people in their self-beliefs prior to and during adolescence, a life stage where many people first experience depression, is important for understanding how these differences predispose certain people to depression. To conduct this research, we need measures that accurately assess youths’ self-beliefs. The Self-Referent Encoding Task (SRET) is a widely used experimental task that can measure youths’ self-beliefs at both the conscious and subconscious levels. However, despite widespread use of the SRET in existing research, few studies have evaluated its accuracy in measuring youths’ positive and negative self-beliefs. Without this knowledge, we cannot be certain that findings about links between self-beliefs and depression reflect reality, or whether they reflect errors in how we measure self-beliefs. My dissertation addresses this issue by examining important statistical properties of the SRET. My findings indicate that the SRET assesses both positive and negative dimensions of youths’ self-beliefs (Study 1), can be used to look at age and sex differences in self-beliefs (Study 2), and predicts depression from late childhood to mid-adolescence (Study 3). Taken together, my findings support the accuracy and usefulness of the SRET as a measure of youths’ self-beliefs under certain conditions. This gives future researchers using the SRET to study vulnerability to depression greater confidence that their findings reflect true phenomena rather than errors in measurement.
Recommended Citation
Gabel, Lindsay, "Establishing the Construct Validity of a Developmentally Sensitive Self-Referent Encoding Task" (2024). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 10253.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/10253
Creative Commons License
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