Assessment of predictive validity of the Cognitive Adaptability and Resiliency Employment Screener (CARES) among content moderators

Introduction: Content moderators safeguard the internet from harmful content, and in the process, encounter the risk of traumatic exposure and negative wellbeing outcomes. Protecting their psychological health begins at the recruitment phase. The Cognitive Adaptability and Resiliency Employment Screener (CARES) is one such psychometric instrument that screens for traits and qualities which will aid success in content moderation. Previous research had established the reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of CARES among content moderators in the Philippines. This study investigated the predictive validity of CARES in respect of critical psychological outcomes-secondary traumatic stress, burnout, compassion satisfaction, perceived stress, and resilience. Method: A sample of 336 content moderators in the Philippines who completed CARES during the hiring stage were given wellness surveys (at 6-month intervals) to assess for psychological outcomes across time. Results: Findings based on linear mixed effect models showed that CARES was able to significantly predict different wellness measures with effect sizes ranging between -0.33 and 0.38. Furthermore, the interaction between CARES dimensions and time across most models was not significant, indicating that the predictive capability of CARES did not significantly vary across time. Discussion: The results indicated that CARES has sound predictive validity for psychological health outcomes relevant to content moderators.