Studies we developed and validated a new scale of anomie–labeled the

Studies we developed and validated a new scale of anomie–labeled the Perception of Anomie Scale (PAS)–which operationalizes anomie as a perception of the state of society encompassing two dimensions: the perceived breakdown of leadership and the perceived breakdown of social fabric. In our measure of anomie, participants were asked to think about their country and consider their agreement with a range of statements describing the perceptions of most individuals in their society (for a similar approach, see [27]). Three series of studies were conducted to develop PAS and examine its psychometric properties. Specifically, an initial pool of items was identified using Nutlin (3a) side effects exploratory factor analysis (Study 1a) after which we confirmed the factor structure of PAS (Study 1b) and examined its convergent and discriminant validity (Studies 2a-2c). Studies 3a and 3b examined PAS in 28 countries. In both of Studies 3a and 3b, in addition to the analysis of individuals’ responses to PAS, we used multilevel modelling which aggregates the individuals’ ratings at the country level, thereby capturing perceived anomie at the group level. In Study 3a, we assessed whether anomie RP54476 price scores vary predictably by country and determined whether anomie, as measured by PAS, is associated with indicators of a nation’s economic and social condition, standard of living, and level of corruption. Finally, in Study 3b, we focused on the predictive validity of PAS and examined whether anomie predicts well-being and national identification.Scale Construction and Psychometric Analysis: Studies 1a-1bThe aim of Studies 1a and 1b was to select scale items that best captured anomie in terms of its two dimensions, breakdown of social fabric and breakdown of leadership. To achieve this, we conducted exploratory factor analysis (Study 1a) and confirmatory factor analysis (Study 1b) using two separate samples.PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158370 July 6,4 /Measuring AnomieItem generation procedureBased on our theoretical framework, we generated items intended to capture two aspects of a perceived breakdown in social fabric (perceptions of moral decline and lack of trust) and two aspects of perceived breakdown in leadership (lack of legitimacy and effectiveness). Item generation was in part guided by our conceptual model and in part based on items adapted from previous scales. In some cases we modified items to update the wording. For instance, in an attempt to modernize and minimize items’ length and syntactic complexity, Srole’s [14] item “there’s little use writing to public officials because they aren’t really interested in the problems of the average man”, was changed to “politicians don’t care about the problems of the average person”. Out of the 32 items, 16 items were adapted from previous scales [14, 20, 23, 24, 27, 32, 75?9], and a further 16 items were generated by the authors. Item order was randomized to cancel out any sequence effect (7 items for moral decline, 7 items for lack of trust, 11 items for lack of effectiveness of leadership, and 7 items for lack of legitimacy of leadership). We asked participants to indicate to what extent most others within their society would agree or disagree with each of the statements on a seven-point Likert-type format from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Items were keyed both negatively (13 items) and positively (19 items) to minimize response bias. We reverse-scored negatively keyed phrases to create a total score.Studies we developed and validated a new scale of anomie–labeled the Perception of Anomie Scale (PAS)–which operationalizes anomie as a perception of the state of society encompassing two dimensions: the perceived breakdown of leadership and the perceived breakdown of social fabric. In our measure of anomie, participants were asked to think about their country and consider their agreement with a range of statements describing the perceptions of most individuals in their society (for a similar approach, see [27]). Three series of studies were conducted to develop PAS and examine its psychometric properties. Specifically, an initial pool of items was identified using exploratory factor analysis (Study 1a) after which we confirmed the factor structure of PAS (Study 1b) and examined its convergent and discriminant validity (Studies 2a-2c). Studies 3a and 3b examined PAS in 28 countries. In both of Studies 3a and 3b, in addition to the analysis of individuals’ responses to PAS, we used multilevel modelling which aggregates the individuals’ ratings at the country level, thereby capturing perceived anomie at the group level. In Study 3a, we assessed whether anomie scores vary predictably by country and determined whether anomie, as measured by PAS, is associated with indicators of a nation’s economic and social condition, standard of living, and level of corruption. Finally, in Study 3b, we focused on the predictive validity of PAS and examined whether anomie predicts well-being and national identification.Scale Construction and Psychometric Analysis: Studies 1a-1bThe aim of Studies 1a and 1b was to select scale items that best captured anomie in terms of its two dimensions, breakdown of social fabric and breakdown of leadership. To achieve this, we conducted exploratory factor analysis (Study 1a) and confirmatory factor analysis (Study 1b) using two separate samples.PLOS ONE | DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0158370 July 6,4 /Measuring AnomieItem generation procedureBased on our theoretical framework, we generated items intended to capture two aspects of a perceived breakdown in social fabric (perceptions of moral decline and lack of trust) and two aspects of perceived breakdown in leadership (lack of legitimacy and effectiveness). Item generation was in part guided by our conceptual model and in part based on items adapted from previous scales. In some cases we modified items to update the wording. For instance, in an attempt to modernize and minimize items’ length and syntactic complexity, Srole’s [14] item “there’s little use writing to public officials because they aren’t really interested in the problems of the average man”, was changed to “politicians don’t care about the problems of the average person”. Out of the 32 items, 16 items were adapted from previous scales [14, 20, 23, 24, 27, 32, 75?9], and a further 16 items were generated by the authors. Item order was randomized to cancel out any sequence effect (7 items for moral decline, 7 items for lack of trust, 11 items for lack of effectiveness of leadership, and 7 items for lack of legitimacy of leadership). We asked participants to indicate to what extent most others within their society would agree or disagree with each of the statements on a seven-point Likert-type format from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Items were keyed both negatively (13 items) and positively (19 items) to minimize response bias. We reverse-scored negatively keyed phrases to create a total score.