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The Psychometric Properties of English and Spanish Versions of the Life Orientation Test-Revised in Hispanic Americans

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Abstract

The Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) is a widely used measure of optimism and pessimism, with three positively worded and three negatively worded content items. This study examined the structural validity and invariance, internal consistency reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the English and Spanish versions of the LOT-R among Hispanic Americans. A community sample of Hispanic Americans (N = 422) completed self-report measures, including the LOT-R, Patient Health Questionnaire-9, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7, in their preferred language of English or Spanish. Based on the literature, four structural models were tested: one-factor, oblique two-factor, orthogonal two-factor method effects with positive specific factor, and orthogonal two-factor method effects with negative specific factor. Baseline support for both of the English and Spanish versions was not achieved for any model; in all models, the negatively worded items in Spanish had non-significant factor loadings. Therefore, the positively worded three-item optimism subscale of the LOT-R was examined separately and fit the data, with factor loadings equivalent across language-preference groups. Coefficient alphas for the optimism subscale were consistent across both language-preference groups (αs = .61 [English] and .66 [Spanish]). In contrast, the six-item total score and three-item pessimism subscale demonstrated extremely low or inconsistent alphas. Convergent and divergent validity were established for the optimism subscale in both languages. In sum, the optimism subscale of the LOT-R demonstrated minimally acceptable to good psychometric properties across English and Spanish language-preference groups. However, neither the total score nor the pessimism subscale showed adequate psychometric properties for Spanish-speaking Hispanic Americans, likely due to translation and cultural adaptation issues, and thus are not supported for use with this population.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant R25CA130869, with additional support from NCI P30 CA023100; NCI R25CA132699; and California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) 13AB-3501 and 14BB-2601. Tonya M. Pan and Sharon H. Baik were supported by the UC San Diego San Diego Fellowship. Sarah D. Mills was supported by the UC San Diego Cota Robles Fellowship.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SDSU/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, 6363 Alvarado Court Suite 103, San Diego, CA, 92120-4913, USA

    Tonya M. Pan, Sarah D. Mills, Rina S. Fox, Sharon H. Baik, Scott C. Roesch, Georgia Robins Sadler & Vanessa L. Malcarne

  2. UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, 3855 Health Sciences Drive, La Jolla, CA, 92093-0850, USA

    Tonya M. Pan, Sarah D. Mills, Rina S. Fox, Sharon H. Baik, Scott C. Roesch, Georgia Robins Sadler & Vanessa L. Malcarne

  3. University of Missouri-Kansas City, 5030 Cherry St., Suite 214, Kansas City, MO, 64110, USA

    Kadie M. Harry

  4. San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA

    Scott C. Roesch & Vanessa L. Malcarne

  5. UC San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, CA, USA

    Georgia Robins Sadler

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  1. Tonya M. Pan
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  8. Vanessa L. Malcarne
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vanessa L. Malcarne.

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Funding

This study was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant R25CA130869, with additional support from NCI P30 CA023100; NCI R25CA132699; and California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) 13AB-3501 and 14BB-2601. Support was also received from the UC San Diego San Diego Fellowship and the UC San Diego Cota Robles Fellowship.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Experiment Participants

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Conflict of Interest

Tonya M. Pan was supported by the UC San Diego San Diego Fellowship. Sarah D. Mills was supported by the UC San Diego Cota Robles Fellowship. Rina S. Fox declares that she has no conflict of interest. Sharon H. Baik was supported by the UC San Diego San Diego Fellowship. Kadie M. Harry declares that she has no conflict of interest. Scott C. Roesch declares that he has no conflict of interest. Georgia Robins Sadler and Vanessa L. Malcarne have received the following grants: National Cancer Institute (NCI) grant R25CA130869, with additional support from NCI P30 CA023100; NCI R25CA132699; and California Breast Cancer Research Program (CBCRP) 13AB-3501 and 14BB-2601.

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Pan, T.M., Mills, S.D., Fox, R.S. et al. The Psychometric Properties of English and Spanish Versions of the Life Orientation Test-Revised in Hispanic Americans. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 39, 657–668 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10862-017-9606-x

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