RESEARCH ARTICLE
Development and Validation of the Questionnaire for Adaptive Hyperactivity and Goal Achievement (AHGA)
Goce Kalcev1, *, Giulia Cossu2, Antonio Preti3, Maria Teresa Littera4, Stèphanie Frau4, Diego Primavera5, Rosanna Zaccheddu2, Veronica Matza6, Marta Ermellino6, Elisa Pintus2, Mauro G. Carta2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 19
E-location ID: e174501792303281
Publisher ID: e174501792303281
DOI: 10.2174/17450179-v19-e230419-2022-50
Article History:
Received Date: 11/10/2022Revision Received Date: 01/03/2023
Acceptance Date: 16/03/2023
Electronic publication date: 12/05/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Objective:
This paper illustrates the preliminary psychometric properties of the Questionnaire for Adaptive Hyperactivity and Goal Achievement (AHGA), aimed at measuring adaptive characteristics of hyperactivity and goal pursuit in older adults.
Methods:
The 12-item scale was administered to a sample of 120 subjects (older adults) between February 2022 and June 2022. The reliability of AHGA was measured using Cronbach’s alpha, and factor structure was established using parallel analysis (PA) and principal component analysis (PCA). Convergent validity was tested against the Biological Rhythms Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (BRIAN).
Results:
All included subjects have an average age of 74.1±5.1 years. AHGA reliability was good (Cronbach’s alpha: 0.713 [95%CI: 0.630 to 0.783]). Factor analysis suggested two main components: goal achievement and hyperactivity, which explained 41% of the variance in the data. The results support the convergent validity of the scale: AHGA measures adaptive characteristics of hyperactivity and goal pursuit, in contrast to BRIAN, which measures pathological characteristics.
Conclusion:
The reported findings represent an innovative approach to hyperthymic features by embracing a broader spectrum concept that conceptualizes the potential transition between pathological and adaptive aspects as a continuum.
