The cognitive adaptability and resiliency employment screener (CARES): tool development and testing

Wilfredo Manuel R Torralba 3rd; Marlyn Thomas Savio; Xieyining Huang; Priyanka Manchanda; Miriah Steiger; Timir Bharucha; María Martín López; Keanan J Joyner; Rachel Lutz Guevara

doi:10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1254147

The cognitive adaptability and resiliency employment screener (CARES): tool development and testing

Front Psychiatry. 2023 Sep 29:14:1254147. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1254147. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Wilfredo Manuel R Torralba 3rd¹, Marlyn Thomas Savio¹, Xieyining Huang¹, Priyanka Manchanda¹, Miriah Steiger¹, Timir Bharucha¹, María Martín López², Keanan J Joyner², Rachel Lutz Guevara¹

Affiliations

¹ TaskUs Inc., New Braunfels, TX, United States.
² Department of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States.

Abstract

Introduction: To decrease psychological risk for content moderators, the study initiated the first steps of developing a robust employment screening tool, namely, the Cognitive Adaptability and Resiliency Employment Screener.

Method: The study consisted of three phases with 4,839 total participants.

Results: In Phase 1, a set of 76 items were developed and tested via exploratory factor analysis, yielding three factors (i.e., Psychological Perseverance & Agility, Rumination & Emotional Lingering, and Expressiveness & Sociability) and also reducing the scale to 68 items. In Phase 2 through confirmatory factor analysis, the three-factor structure showed good fit (CFI = 0.92, RMSEA = 0.05) and demonstrated sufficient overall reliability. In Phase 3, the convergent validity and divergent validity of the tool were established relative to constructs such as resilience, cognitive control and flexibility, emotion regulation, and optimism.

Discussion: Altogether, the findings revealed that the scale demonstrated good psychometric properties that, pending future studies, may serve as a promising employment screener for content moderators.

Keywords: content moderator; factor analysis; psychometrics; recruitment; resilience.