Multilevel Analysis
... Given this nested data structure, we employed a three-level meta-analytical approach (Van Den Noortgate et al., 2013) to analyze the data. This approach can address dependence problems by accounting for sampling variance, within-study variance, and between-study variance (Assink & Wibbelink, 2016;Hox, 2002;Van Den Noortgate et al., 2013). It allows researchers to maximize the utilization of all available data, including those that exhibit dependence, and increase statistical power Data analyses were conducted in R Studio with the Metafor package (Viechtbauer, 2010). ...
... In cases of significant heterogeneity, moderator analyses were performed. To control for multicollinearity, multiple-moderator models were evaluated by including all proposed moderators simultaneously (Assink & Wibbelink, 2016;Hox, 2002). For any significant main effects, further pairwise comparisons were performed for detailed interpretations. ...
This study involved a three‐level meta‐analysis on the correlations between metalinguistic awareness (i.e., orthographic, phonological, and morphological awareness) and Chinese word reading. Based on 16,823 individuals from 81 studies, the results revealed moderate associations between all three metalinguistic skills and Chinese word reading. Additionally, location, grade, and measurement type moderated these relationships. Orthographic awareness showed stronger associations with Chinese word reading in preschool than in other grades, among participants from Taiwan than those from mainland China, and when measurement involved semantic radical function awareness than when it involved form and phonetic radical function awareness. Additionally, syllable‐level phonological awareness showed stronger correlations than other levels only in preschool, and the associations declined after low primary. Subsyllable awareness showed the strongest association in low primary. Furthermore, word reading measurement moderated its association with phonological and morphological awareness. Phonological awareness correlated more with word reading accuracy than fluency, and morphological awareness correlated more with multicharacter than single‐character word reading accuracy.
... Nezlek (2012), we included random intercepts and random slopes in each model and trimmed the error term if the model failed to converge due to a lack of variation in the random effects. Following Sterba (2019, 2021) we calculated effect sizes using the r2mlm function (Shaw et al., 2023), which provides a measure that is akin to a correlation when the square root is computed (the square root of the proportion of variance reduction, Hox, 2002;Kreft & de Leeuw, 1998;Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). We report R b f2 (the square root of the proportion of between-cluster variance explained by between-person predictors via fixed slopes) for between-person models and R w f1v (the square root of the proportion of within-cluster variance explained by within-person predictors via fixed slopes and random slope variation/covariation) for within-person models. ...
... Per Nezlek (2012), we included random intercepts and random slopes in each model and trimmed the error term if the model failed to converge due to lack of variation in the random effects. Following Rights and Sterba (2019; 2021) we calculated effect sizes using the r2mlm function (Shaw et al., 2023), which provides a measure that is akin to a correlation when the square root is computed (the square root of the proportion of variance reduction, Hox, 2002;Kreft & de Leeuw, 1998;Raudenbush & Bryk, 2002). We report Rb f2 (the square root of the proportion of between-cluster variance explained by between-person predictors via fixed slopes) for between-person models and Rw f1v (the square root of the proportion of within-cluster variance explained by within-person predictors via fixed slopes and random slope variation/covariation) for within-person models. ...
Kiper, G., Newman, D. & Oyserman, D. in press Difficulty-as-improvement in Daily Live: Believing That Difficulties are Character-building Supports Well-being, Effortful Engagement, and Experiencing Successes. Self & Identity
Abstract: People vary in how much they endorse “difficulty-as-improvement,” believing that suffering unbidden life difficulties can sanctify, strengthen, build character, or elevate their spirit. Across four two-week diary studies (N=382), endorsing “difficulty-as-as-improvement” is associated with positive self-beliefs and carries over to preferences for more effortful means of attaining possible self-goals. On average, people reported experiencing difficulty on 88.16% of the days they filled in a diary. Within-person daily variability in difficulty-as-improvement scores was associated with daily action, outcomes, and self-judgments, controlling for the positivity-negativity of daily events in multilevel analyses. Endorsing difficulty-as-improvement supports meaning (difficulties happen for a reason) and worth (you are good enough); lagged analyses suggest small-sized effects of yesterday’s difficulty-as-improvement on today’s self-esteem and sense of life as meaningful.
... A linear mixed model was used to analyze the main effects of different factors on the resistive force and wheels' characteristics, as well as their interaction effects. These models are designed to analyze variables from different levels without making a priori assumptions on their respective importance and using a statistical model that properly includes the various dependencies [45]. It included the load; the floor covering (steel, PVC.Fl.1, PVC.Fl.2, PVC.Fl.3 and Rub.Fl); the wheel's tread (solid rubber, elastic-tire, thermoplastic rubber, synthetic rubber, injected polyurethane, casted polyurethane and polyamide); the wheel bearing (S.B., C.B.B. and P.B.B.) and the wheel's diameter (80, 100, 160 and 200 mm) as explanatory variables. ...
Test methods that use pushing forces to evaluate the maximal load capacities of carts in design standards require a flat, smooth and horizontal steel plate and thus do not take into account the real conditions of work. Resistive forces of a single wheel of a cart in a uniform rectilinear motion were measured using a unique test bench with five loads. Forty-four wheels were tested (varying diameters, treads and bearings) with one steel plate and four resilient floor coverings. Based on a linear mixed model, all the following results were significant (p < 0.05). Resistive forces were increased linearly with the load and depended on the characteristics of both the wheel and floor. These forces decreased as the diameter increased. They were important for wheels with sleeve bearings but decreased for cone ball bearings and precision ball bearings. Resistive forces depended on the material of the tread and were higher for solid rubber treads. In contrast, the hardness of the tread had little effect. Resistive forces strongly depended on the hardness of the base foam of resilient floor coverings: the softer the base foam, the higher the resistive forces. Test methods in design standards should be reviewed, using corrective forces based on these present results, to prevent musculoskeletal disorders.
... It is observed that the skewness and kurtosis values are mostly less than ±1.5 [86], except for items IE5, IE6, and EE1 of the kurtosis column, which showed a slight non-compliance with normality multivariate data. The maximum likelihood method was used, because it has the advantage of producing estimates that are asymptotically efficient and consistent, and with large samples, the estimate is robust to a slight violation of the multivariate method assumption of nonnormality [87]. ...
Research on employee experience is a topic that has been growing in recent decades. This study analyzes the validity and reliability of an employee experience scale in Peruvian teachers. The study had an instrumental design. The sample was comprised of 760 Peruvian teachers between 20 and 71 years old (M = 40.91; SD = 10.05), where men (36.1%) and women (63.9%) participated, recruited through non-probabilistic sampling. A validity and reliability analysis of the employee experience scale confirmed the three original factors (sensory experience, intellectual experience, and emotional experience). The KMO test reaches a high level (0.950 > 0.70), and the Bartlett test reaches a highly significant level (Sig. = 0.000). The scale also showed good internal consistency (α = 0.948 to 0.980; CR = 0.950 to 0.981; AVE = 0.864 to 0.878). Similarly, for the confirmatory factor analysis, a measurement adjustment was performed, obtaining excellent and acceptable fit indices for Model 2 for three factors (CMIN/DF = 4.764; CFI = 0.984; SRMR = 0.024; RMSEA = 0.070). This study provides a useful tool to measure the employee experience in a friendly way, using simple language to be applied to the Peruvian context. This study is considered an important contribution to organizational behavior and human talent management in educational circles.
... From the current perspective, the used dataset is ten years old. However, more recent survey data is not available for the index construction, because, on the one hand, many countries would be required, at least 30 in order to be able to make predictions on the macro level [17], and, on the other hand, the questions about self-rated health and confidence in the health care system are necessary to build an index with a subjective level. Among the freely available data, the choice was therefore unfortunately limited. ...
Comparing health care systems is important for several reasons. E.g. lower-resource health care systems can learn from higher-resource ones, and country-specific progress can be made. Previous rankings of health care systems have been based on objective factors such as the number of available hospital beds or health care spending. An index is considered here that includes a subjective level that is intended to represent access to the health care system. Therefore, this study investigates the divergence between subjective and objective indices related to health care expenditure, with a focus on the influence of involuntary and voluntary payments. Utilizing the Rational Choice Theory as a framework, it explores how individual preferences and perceived benefits affect these indices. The analysis reveals that social insurance contributions, which are mandatory and beyond individual control, are evaluated differently in subjective indices compared to objective indices. This discrepancy is less pronounced for voluntary expenditures, where individuals have decision-making power. The findings highlight significant variations in the correlations between macroeconomic health care indicators and the indices, emphasizing the critical role of autonomy in financial decisions related to health care.
Background
The high prevalence of mental health issues (MHI) among employees poses significant societal challenges. However, little is known about factors that influence their ability to remain employed, maintain productivity, and thrive at work.
Objective
This study examines differences in occupational health outcomes (burnout, work engagement, and work ability) between employees with and without MHI and the applicability of the Job Demands-Resources model (including job demands, job resources as psychosocial working conditions and sense of coherence (SOC) as a personal resource) among employees with MHI, while particularly controlling for disease-specific factors.
Methods
Pooled data from two measurement waves were analyzed, including employees with current MHI (N = 92) and those without MHI (N = 877) from German-speaking countries. Mixed-effects models examined relationships between sociodemographic, disease-specific factors, psychosocial working conditions, SOC, and occupational health outcomes.
Results
Employees with MHI showed lower occupational health levels (higher burnout, reduced work ability) than those without. Among employees with MHI, SOC and job resources were significantly associated with all occupational health outcomes, while job demands primarily predicted burnout. Sickness absence correlated negatively with both burnout and work ability. The association between SOC and work ability was stronger for employees with MHI than for those without.
Conclusions
Job resources and SOC play a role for occupational health in employees with MHI. Targeted interventions to strengthen these resources should be prioritized.
Researchers conducting meta-analytical structural equation modeling (MASEM) with individual participant data can choose from several methods, including cluster-robust estimation, two-level SEM, multivariate meta-analysis of path coefficients, and One-Stage MASEM (OSMASEM). While two-level SEM and OSMASEM model within- and between-study effects separately, cluster-robust estimation combines them, estimating an overall path coefficient. Despite its popularity, cluster-robust estimation often yields results that differ from other methods. Simulations using factor models and real-world comparisons using path models show that it may not accurately reflect within-study estimates and can produce biased standard errors. This study compares IPD MASEM methods using simulated data, varying intraclass correlations, parameter equality across levels, number of studies, and missing data. Results reveal that cluster-robust estimation frequently misrepresents within-study estimates, produces biased standard errors, and tends to incorrectly reject model fit, highlighting the need for careful method selection in IPD MASEM applications.
Research consistently highlights that psychological control may damage the healthy development of adolescents. The present study attempts to enhance this knowledge within a synthesis of family systems theory and behavioral genetics perspective through a sibling design and multilevel analysis. Accordingly, we modeled the predictive role of psychological control on siblings’ problem behaviors. In the model, we also simultaneously explored the associations between adolescent characteristics (e.g., gender and birth order), family characteristics (e.g., parents’ psychological well-being, household chaos, and family income), and family-wide and child-specific (differential) aspects of psychological control with siblings’ problem behaviors. The sample consisted of 303 families in Turkey, and we recruited a total of 1,121 participants, subsuming mothers (Mage = 41.26 years, SD = 4.19), fathers (Mage = 45.01, SD = 4.59), older siblings (Mage = 16.19, SD = 1.60), and younger siblings (Mage = 12.54, SD = 1.71). Multilevel modeling analysis yielded that adolescents’ externalizing problems were significantly predicted by differential psychological control, family-wide psychological control, and household chaos in the mother model; differential psychological control and household chaos in the father model. Moreover, we discovered that what significantly predicted adolescents’ internalizing problems was common in the mother and father models: the adolescent’s gender and family income. Overall, our findings underscore the overreaching significance of investigating the developmental consequences of psychological control (a) with other family system characteristics, (b) for both parents, and (c) by separating family-wide and child-specific parenting. We believe that our findings would contribute to a family-based understanding of the outcomes of psychological control.
Issue salience – the attention a party devotes to an issue – in electoral manifestos remains understudied at the local level. This paper studies three potential determinants of issue salience: contextual responsiveness (parties emphasize topics important to voters), party‐issue associations (parties emphasize the same issues across time and settings), and parties' expertise (parties emphasize complex issues only if they have sufficient expertise). This paper uses a dictionary approach to measure the salience of social services in the over 6,600 available electoral manifestos for Dutch municipal elections between 2014 and 2022. To operationalize voters' priorities, party‐issue associations and parties' expertise, these data have been linked with data on demographic ‘indicators of need’, party affiliation, the salience of social services in national party manifestos, and individual politicians. Mixed effects models show that contextual responsiveness and party‐issue associations affect the salience of social services in electoral manifestos, while parties' expertise plays no role.
This investigation seeks to uncover both internal and external influences that contribute to fostering pro‐environmental behavior, particularly in the realm of mitigating air pollution. This study also seeks to examine the relationship between environmental knowledge and individual attitudes toward the reduction of air pollution. This study employed multilevel binary logistic regression to achieve its objectives and address the multilevel characteristics of the data. The study utilized two types of data: the nationwide household survey for level one and the regional aggregate data for level two. The findings indicate that environmental knowledge influences the reduction of motor vehicle usage. Furthermore, public knowledge regarding air pollution and its origins, along with the quantity of motor vehicles at the provincial level, markedly affects motor vehicle usage at the 10% significance level. Individuals' propensity to decrease motor vehicle usage significantly correlates with various strategies to mitigate air pollution, such as using bicycles and public transportation. Consequently, the government can formulate policies about environmental education that consider both internal and external factors for individuals with the aim of promoting pro‐environmental behavior (PEB) and mitigating air pollution in Indonesia.
Measuring the growth of migratory fish across habitats is difficult because field observations only provide a snapshot into their life; yet, understanding which habitats provide better growth opportunities is crucial for their conservation. We experimentally enclosed individually tagged juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in habitats with known differences in growth potentials to evaluate four different models (Dahl–Lea, Fraser–Lee, Biological Intercept, and Modified Fry) used to back-calculate size-at-age from otoliths. We found that otolith-derived fish size reconstructions were most accurate using the Biological Intercept or Modified Fry model, though bias remains for slow growing fish. This tool was then used in a case study to reconstruct the mosaic of inter- and intra-habitat growth opportunities available to fishes, providing a useful framework for assessing and monitoring fish responses to habitat restoration and a changing environment.
Background This study examines the influence of political preferences on historians’ assessments of the publishability of contemporary history abstracts by investigating whether historians favor abstracts that align with their political orientation. Methods In an online experiment, 75 historians evaluated 17 fictitious contemporary history abstracts from 17 pairs, each presented with either a progressive or conservative stance. The participants made initial intuitive assessments regarding the publishability of each abstract and later provided more considered responses, also rating their Feeling of Rightness (FOR) regarding their initial judgments. Results The results revealed a significant interaction effect between an abstract’s political stance and historians’ political orientation, consistent with the observation that right-wing historians prefer conservative abstracts, left-wing historians prefer progressive abstracts, and moderate historians show no preference for either. Overall, participants preferred progressive abstracts, largely reflecting a majority of left-leaning historians in our sample. Moreover, after reconsidering their responses and providing FOR ratings, participants’ initial decisions did not significantly change. Conclusions Our study suggests that political preferences influence research evaluations and are not diminished by more deliberate processing, as demonstrated through the case study of historians.
This article examines support for environmental policies and provides new evidence on the role of social class and the rural–urban divide. We analyze how occupational structure, either through the economic costs individuals may incur when such policies are implemented or through value preferences shaped by the workplace, influence support for these policies. Drawing on data from Round 8 of the European Social Survey (ESS8) and 2 alternative class-structure classifications, our findings reveal 3 key insights. First, on the vertical dimension, we find that costlier measures face stronger resistance from lower socioeconomic groups. Second, on the horizontal dimension, sociocultural professionals emerge as the social class most supportive of environmental policies, while manual workers are the most reluctant to accept them. Finally, our results indicate that the interaction between social structure and the territorial dimension is weak. Overall, this study enhances our understanding of the social cleavages that may influence the ecological transition.
Experimenting is essential in teaching physics. Its importance is reflected in the large proportion of the teaching time devoted to experimenting. Many teachers and students assume that experimenting promotes acquiring content knowledge. In a longitudinal experimental study, seventh-and eighth-grade students (n = 1507) were examined about their content knowledge in geometrical optics acquired through different practices of experimenting in the classroom. The study distinguished between demonstrations conducted by the teacher and practical work done by the students with different levels of guidance. Multilevel analyses showed no differences in students' acquired content knowledge with regard to the applied practice of experimenting. It was also found that teachers' constructivist beliefs had a small negative impact, while transmissive beliefs had a small positive impact on students' content knowledge. No interaction between teachers' beliefs and the different practices of experimenting was found. Although the results dampen hopes for greater knowledge acquisition through practical work, they confirm earlier results by the authors and strengthen findings from teaching-learning research. This emphasises the significance of classroom process quality, rather than the distinction between demonstrations and practical work on the level of structural elements within a lesson. Educational implications for teaching derived from these findings are discussed.
Background
The transition from primary to secondary school presents a challenging developmental milestone which often marks a decline in academic performance. Social–emotional skills are recognized as fundamental to academic success but longitudinal research is needed to determine the extent of their association over this transition period.
Aim
This study sought to determine the association between self‐reported social–emotional competencies of students in their final year of primary school (Year 6; age ~11 years) and reading and numeracy performance in their first year of secondary school (Year 7; age ~12 years).
Sample
The study used a large Australian sample ( n = 23,865), drawn from the New South Wales Child Development Study population cohort.
Methods
The Middle Childhood Survey–Social–Emotional Learning assessment, administered during Year 6, comprises the five competencies defined by the Collaborative for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL): Self‐Awareness, Self‐Management, Social Awareness, Relationship Skills and Responsible Decision‐Making. These data were linked with students' Year 7 reading and numeracy scores from the standardized National Assessment Program–Literacy and Numeracy measure. Associations were examined in multi‐level structural equation models which accounted for prior (Year 5) academic achievement and sociodemographic covariates. Multi‐group analyses explored invariance across girls and boys.
Results
Self‐Awareness and Self‐Management demonstrated significant and meaningful positive relationships with reading and numeracy performance. Associations with reading were invariant by sex but boys demonstrated significantly stronger associations than girls on numeracy.
Conclusion
Findings suggest that bolstering primary school students' intrapersonal social–emotional competencies may safeguard their academic achievement over the transition into secondary school.
Background
Much is known about the positive effects of teachers' self‐efficacy on instruction and student outcomes, but the processes underlying these relations are unknown.
Aims
We aimed to examine the effects of teacher self‐efficacy for student engagement (TSESE) before a lesson on teachers' nonverbal immediacy (NVI) and their enthusiastic teaching. Furthermore, we examined how NVI and enthusiastic teaching affected students' interest after the lesson, controlling for prior interest.
Sample
We used data from the German TALIS video study in the context of the international TALIS study. The study included 50 teachers (46% women) and their 1140 students (53% girls; age M = 15 years).
Methods
We developed a computational model to assess teachers' NVI on classroom video data. Using a multimodal longitudinal approach, we tested sequential processes with multilevel path models.
Results
TSESE before the lesson (Time 1) was positively and significantly related to teachers' NVI during the lesson (Time 2). Teachers' NVI (Time 2) was positively related to class‐level enthusiastic teaching behaviours, reported after the lesson (Time 3). Student‐reported enthusiastic teaching behaviours (Time 3) were significantly and positively associated with students' interest (Time 3) when controlling for students' prior interest (Time 1). Students' interest after the lesson (Time 3) was significantly and positively related to students' interest 6 weeks later (Time 4).
Conclusions
Nonverbal behaviours of the teacher are central to classroom instruction by promoting students' perceptions of the teachers' enthusiastic teaching behaviours.
Recent research suggests that leaders can influence employee creativity by shaping their followers' regulatory focus (promotion or prevention). We propose that this work has overlooked the nature of the regulatory goals (maximal or minimal) that leaders set for their followers. We performed two studies to test this: a vignette‐based experiment with 297 participants and a time‐lagged, multisource field survey involving 335 leader‐employee pairs across various Dutch organizations. Across the two studies, findings reveal that leaders who set maximal goals—emphasizing gains, advancement, and aspirations—significantly enhance their followers' creativity by boosting their promotion focus and intrinsic motivation for creativity. However, leaders who set minimal goals—emphasizing loss avoidance, security, and duty fulfillment—tend to suppress creativity among their followers due to an increased prevention focus and a propensity to conform to the leader's directives. Our novel concept of leader regulatory goal setting demonstrates incremental predictive validity beyond the effects of conventional transformational and transactional leadership styles. Our findings enrich the comprehension of the motivational interplay in leader‐follower exchanges and their creative consequences. Furthermore, this research offers valuable strategies for crafting leadership interventions that effectively stimulate employee creativity.
This study reports on the description of children’s distinct trajectories of intrusive grief, baseline predictors of grief trajectories, and the association of grief trajectories with mental health, substantive abuse and disordered grief six and fifteen years following baseline assessment. The study uses data on 244 parentally-bereaved children ages 8–16 at baseline. Four distinct trajectories were identified using Growth Mixture Modeling over four waves of assessment across 6 years. The trajectories were labeled high chronic grief, moderate chronic grief, grief recovery (starts high but decreases over 6 years of assessment) and grief resilience (chronic low grief). Baseline factors associated with chronic high or moderate chronic levels of grief included depression, traumatic cause of death (homicide or suicide), active inhibition of emotional expression, active coping, child age and gender. At the six-year assessment, trajectories were associated with internalizing mental health problems, higher level of traumatic grief, and aversive views of the self. At the fifteen-year assessment, trajectories were associated with intrusive grief. The results are interpreted in terms of consistency with prior evidence of children’s long-term grief, theoretical processes that may account for chronic grief and implications for the development of preventive and treatment interventions.
Background
In standard Sequence Analysis, similar trajectories are clustered together to create a typology of trajectories, which is then often used to evaluate the association between sequence patterns and covariates inside regression models. The sampling uncertainty, which affects both the derivation of the typology and the associated regressions, is typically ignored in this analysis, an oversight that may lead to wrong statistical conclusions. We propose utilising sampling variation to derive new estimates that further inform on the association of interest.
Methods
We introduce a novel procedure to assess the robustness of regression results obtained from the standard analysis. Bootstrap samples are drawn from the data, and for each bootstrap, a new typology replicating the original one is constructed, followed by the estimation of the corresponding regression models. The bootstrap estimates are then combined using a multilevel modelling framework that mimics a meta-analysis. The fitted values from this multilevel model allow to account for the sampling uncertainty in the inferential analysis. We illustrate the methodology by applying it to the study of healthcare utilisation trajectories in a Swiss cohort of diabetic patients.
Results
The procedure provides robust estimates for an association of interest, along with 95% prediction intervals, representing the range of expected values if the clustering and associated regressions were performed on a new sample from the same underlying distribution. It also identifies central and borderline trajectories within each cluster. Regarding the illustrative application, while there was evidence of an association between regular lipid testing and subsequent healthcare utilisation patterns in the original analysis, this is not supported in the robustness assessment.
Conclusions
Investigating the relationship between trajectory patterns and covariates is of interest in many situations. However, it is a challenging task with potential pitfalls. Our Robustness Assessment of Regression using Cluster Analysis Typologies (RARCAT) may assist in ensuring the robustness of such association studies. The method is applicable wherever clustering is combined with regression analysis, so its relevance goes beyond State Sequence Analysis.
Purpose
This study investigated the relationship between teacher autonomy support, students’ basic psychological needs satisfaction, and involvement in physical education (PE) with gender specific analyses. Additionally, the study examined the validity of a Norwegian version of the Basic Psychological Needs in PE (BPN-PE) scale.
Method
Survey data from the Norwegian 2017/2018 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study.
Results
A structural equation model showed that perceived autonomy support from teacher predicted students’ basic needs satisfaction of competence, autonomy and relatedness. Furthermore, satisfaction of competence predicted weekly PE participation and physical activity during PE among boys. The analyses revealed mean level differences with boys scoring higher than girls on all the investigated variables. The findings also supported the validity and reliability of the BPN-PE scale across genders.
Discussion/conclusion
The study adds knowledge to the understanding of the relationship between autonomy support from teachers, students basic need satisfaction and students’ involvement in PE.
Policy learning is a key mechanism of policy change through which policy actors revise their beliefs and preferences over time as a result of social interactions and new information. The individual psychology of policy actors is crucial to understanding how institutional settings and social practices influence policy learning. This article looks at the effects of self-esteem—i.e., how policy actors value themselves—and egocentrism—i.e., their tendency to confuse their subjective perceptions with objective reality and to disqualify the perceptions of others.Based on regression analyses of a 2012 survey of 255 Belgian policy actors who had been involved in the European liberalization process of the rail and electricity sectors, the findings suggest that policy actors who score higher on self-esteem or egocentrism feel that they “know better”: they align their policy preferences to new policy information less than policy actors who score lower. Only egocentrism directly leads to a negative adjustment of policy actors’ preferences towards liberalization policies over time. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. They shed light on policy actors’ modes of reasoning and are thus an important step in the research agenda on “learning governance”.
Motivation science is a field that delves into the very core of what drives us—why we do what we do. It's a field that bridges several disciplines, including psychology, neuroscience, economics, and even sociology. Researchers in this field are fascinated by the question of what makes people tick. In particular, they focus on understanding what motivates us and how we deal with challenges. Researchers investigate in depth the desires, needs, and goals that propel humans into action, and what processes they go through to translate those motivations into behaviors. They are also looking at how people persevere and overcome obstacles to achieving their goals.
Background
Ageing populations and the ability to cure an increasing number of ailments put pressure on the health care sector. Meanwhile, care institutions retreat from rural areas and some governments emphasizes the need for citizens to find informal care primarily in their own social network. In The Netherlands, citizens increasingly respond by coming together to organize (in)formal care among themselves in ‘care collectives’. However, little is known about the conditions that need to be met for such collective action to develop, and explanations that go beyond an individualist perspective are particularly lacking. In this study, we aim to fill this gap, and specifically argue for the potential role of social cohesion to facilitate collective action among citizens through fostering a social identity, and through the prevalence of social relations that facilitate reciprocity and mutual trust among citizens. We further test whether these relations vary between municipalities, and whether they depend on the necessity for care services.
Methods
We obtain data on the location of care collectives from an extensive Dutch inventory and match it to register data from Statistics Netherlands from 2020. We create measures for neighborhood attachment and contact using the ‘ecometric approach’. We test our hypotheses with multilevel logistic regression models and multilevel event history analysis for a subset of the data that can be analyzed longitudinally.
Results
We find evidence for a positive association between neighborhood attachment and the emergence of a care collective, which is stronger if the necessity for care is higher. We do not find a relation between neighborhood contact and care collectives, nor do we find evidence that these relations vary between municipalities. We cannot replicate our positive associations in the longitudinal model, and thus remain reserved about their causal interpretation.
Conclusions
There is considerable variability in the extent to which neighborhoods organize care services collectively. Partly, this may be attributable to differences in the prevalence of neighborhood identity, which would imply that an increasing reliance on citizen collectives may increase inequality in access to healthcare. Further research should emphasize combining community-level information with data on individual participation in care collectives to delve deeper into the dynamics of invitation, representation and embeddedness than current data allows.
Background
Alcohol and cannabis are commonly used together by young adults. With frequent pairings, use of one substance may become a conditioned cue for use of a second, commonly co‐used substance. Although this has been examined for alcohol and cannabis in laboratory conditions and with remote monitoring, no research has examined whether pharmacologically induced cross‐substance craving occurs in naturalistic conditions.
Methods
In a sample of 63 frequent cannabis‐using young adults (54% female) who completed 2 weeks of ecological momentary assessment, we tested whether alcohol use was associated with stronger in‐the‐moment cannabis craving. We also examined whether sex moderated this association and whether cannabis craving was stronger at higher levels of alcohol consumption.
Results
Although alcohol use and cannabis craving were not significantly associated at the momentary level, there was evidence that this relation significantly differed by sex. Among female participants, there was a negative association between alcohol use since the last prompt and momentary cannabis craving (b = −0.33, SE = 0.14, p = 0.02), while the association among male participants was positive (b = 0.32, SE = 0.13, p = 0.01). Similarly, alcohol quantity was negatively associated with cannabis craving at the momentary level for female participants (b = −0.10, SE = 0.04, p = 0.009) but was not significantly associated for male participants (b = 0.05, SE = 0.04, p = 0.18).
Conclusions
Alcohol may enhance cannabis craving among male individuals but reduce desire for cannabis among female individuals. This may point to differing functions of co‐use by sex, highlighting a need for research to elucidate the mechanisms underlying this increasingly common pattern of substance use.
Background
This study aimed to examine the social gradient in self-reported alcohol-related harm (ARH) among young alcohol consumers by including a largely overlooked group of adolescents. We also explored the extent to which such a gradient could be attributed to differential exposure or differential vulnerability to risk factors.
Method
Cross-sectional survey of upper-secondary students (n = 2996) in Sweden. Negative binomial regressions estimated the relationship between academic orientation (higher education preparatory; HEP, vocational; VP and introductory; IP) and ARH. To assess the contribution of explanatory factors, we estimated models that included risk factors such as heavy episodic drinking (HED).
Results
A graded association was observed between academic orientation and ARH, with more ARH among students in IP (IRR = 1.79) and VP (IRR = 1.43) than in HEP. Adjustments for risk factors attenuated the estimates by approximately half, but there was still 14% more ARH in VP and 50% more in IP than in HEP. The additive interaction test indicated a positive and significant interaction for students in VP who engaged in HED, versus students in HEP, who did not.
Conclusion
The findings suggest a negative gradient in the association between academic orientation and ARH, where the students in IP experienced the highest levels of ARH. While differential exposure and vulnerability to HED account for a significant proportion of the excess risk among VP students, HED seems to be less important relative to other risk factors among IP students. More research is needed to identify the mechanisms underlying the elevated levels of ARH among the most disadvantaged group—students enrolled in IP.
Objective
This study aims to explore a streamlined risk-adjusted cesarean section rate (RCSR) model and to compare its practical application effects with the traditional RCSR models.
Methods
Utilizing obstetric electronic health record (EHR) data from provincial multicenter hospitals, this study establishes a streamlined RCSR model alongside the traditional RCSR model and evaluates the efficacy of both models. Subsequently, the RCSRs of 56 hospitals within the province are calculated and ranked using both models. The consistency of these rankings is then quantified using Kendall's tau coefficient of concordance.
Result
Comparison of model effectiveness evaluation of the traditional RCSR model versus the streamlined RCSR model is as follows: AUC (0.840 vs 0.839), accuracy (0.875 vs 0.872), sensitivity (0.690 vs 0.685), specificity (0.898 vs 0.892), positive predictive value (0.908 vs 0.903), negative predictive value (0.664 vs 0.660), and Brier score (0.069 vs 0.067). In the test of the consistency of hospital rankings based on two models, Kendall's tau coefficients were observed to be 0.979 (year 2017), 0.978 (year 2018), and 0.978 (year 2019) over a span of 3 years, with an aggregate coefficient of 0.974.
Conclusion
In the realm of model performance evaluation as well as the pragmatic application within hospital settings, the streamlined model exhibits a substantial congruence with the traditional model. Therefore, the streamlined model can effectively serve as a viable surrogate for the traditional model, potentially establishing itself as a refined paradigm for the appraisal of quality in obstetric healthcare services.
This article introduces and examines a hierarchical model of influences that identifies the variables affecting the watchdog role of journalists at three levels: the societal (press freedom and democracy), the organizational (media ownership), and the individual (editorial autonomy and perceived influences) on a global scale. Using data from 27,567 journalists in 6403 media organizations across 67 countries, the model's validity is confirmed. The findings reveal that variations in journalists’ perception of their role are more pronounced at the societal level compared to the organizational and individual levels. Furthermore, journalists tend to assume a watchdog role more prominently within public media as opposed to private or state-run outlets. Surprisingly, press freedom and democracy have a weak and insignificant impact on watchdog journalism, challenging established norms in the literature, a result that we critically discussed.
This study investigates whether divorcees feel less worse-off when divorce is more prevalent around them. The 2013 Life Satisfaction Survey in Türkiye, which has approximately 196,000 observations and province-level representative data, is utilized. We used three province-level indicators about the prevalence of divorce to measure the impact of the social context on divorcees’ well-being. First, we replicate the previous findings that divorce is associated with lower happiness. Secondly, regardless of the measure used, living in a divorce-prevalent setting slightly mitigates the happiness disadvantage of divorcees. Thirdly, perceived social pressure plays a role in the lower happiness of divorcees regardless of the provincial divorce prevalence measures. Overall, the results show that the substantial psychological costs of divorce remain even after addressing the social dimensions of divorce with different measures.
This study examines the relationship between flexicurity policies and work–life balance, addressing the research question ‘How do higher flexicurity efforts in a country relate to employee perceptions of work–life balance?’ The European Commission adopted flexicurity in 2007 and proposed employment quality as an expected outcome. Work–life balance, a dimension monitored as part of employment quality, has so far been assumed as an implicit outcome of flexicurity, but no empirical research is dedicated to the topic per se. In this article the authors construct a composite indicator to proxy for national flexicurity efforts following the European Commission’s guidelines. For work–life balance and other individual characteristics, the authors employ data on about 74,000 EU27 employees from the three latest waves of the European Working Conditions Survey. First, findings show that the between-country differences in work–life balance were narrower in 2015 compared to 2005. Second, the multilevel analysis suggests that the higher a country scores as regards its flexicurity policies, the likelier its citizens are to report having a work–life balance.
This study investigates the relation between exposure to neighborhood violence and student performance, focusing on the spatial effects of crime. Using São Paulo city (Brazil) as case study, we applied multilevel and simultaneous equations models combined with a spatial approach. If the effects of crime can be felt across the city, reducing this type of violence should concern public policies in all districts. Application of the combined methods considered 5th and 9th graders from the public school network. Violence was negatively related to student proficiency. Overall, the spatial behavior of crime should be considered when analyzing the relation between violence and education. Crime prevention should be considered in designing education policies since it can benefit both students in violent areas and those in their surroundings.
Recent research has increasingly discussed the importance of temporal comparisons (comparisons with previous achievements) for the formation of students’ academic self-concepts, in addition to social comparisons (comparisons with others’ achievements) and dimensional comparisons (comparisons with achievements in other subjects). However, empirical findings on temporal comparison effects are inconsistent. In this paper, we contribute to this debate by arguing that temporal comparison effects were overestimated in previous studies testing the 2I/E model—a model that has often been used to investigate the joint effects of social, dimensional, and temporal comparisons in recent years—due to an inappropriate specification of social and dimensional comparison effects. Moreover, we examine the potential impact of comparison periods on the strength of temporal comparison effects. Specifically, we developed an extension of the 2I/E model in which we calculated students’ achievement levels (used to specify social and dimensional comparison effects) by weighting rather than averaging students’ grades from earlier school years. Subsequently, we tested this 2I/E model extension, together with two alternative models, in a sample of 1,006 tenth-graders from Germany by examining social, dimensional, and temporal comparison effects, relating to periods from 0.5 to 2.0 years, on students’ math and German self-concepts. Overall, we found evidence for our assumption that temporal comparisons were overestimated in previous 2I/E model studies. Nevertheless, we still found significant temporal comparison effects in our 2I/E model extension. The periods for which the temporal comparison effects became significant differed between math and German.
Seabirds are among the most threatened avian taxa. Effective seabird conservation requires an understanding of both seabird distributions and habitat usage. Species distribution models can help identify important areas for protection and manage threats to seabird populations. However, populations of the same species may differ in their response to the environment, reducing the transferability of such models. In addition, individual-level responses to habitat may vary both within and between animal populations. Atlantic Puffins (Fratercula arctica) are classed as vulnerable to global extinction and a UK red-listed bird of concern. Consequently, a greater understanding of their at-sea habitat usage is a conservation priority. We used GPS tracking data from four UK Puffin colonies to construct species distribution models and examine colony- and individual-level variation in habitat usage in response to a suite of environmental covariates (chlorophyll-a concentration, sea surface temperature (SST), water depth, seabed slope, current velocity, and SST front gradient). The most consistent colony-level response was a negative association between habitat usage and chlorophyll-a concentration (observed at 3 out of 4 colonies). Responses to other environmental covariates were less consistent across colonies. Among individual variation in foraging range per trip was low, but we observed individual variation in habitat usage in response to almost all environmental covariates examined. Within each colony, we also identified distinct clusters of space-use across different groups of individuals. Different Puffin colonies and individuals are not ecologically equivalent. Therefore, perturbations to the marine environment are likely to have disproportionate effects on certain colonies and/or individuals. Incorporating colony- and individual-level variation will thus be essential for marine conservation efforts.
We carried out a comparison of the neuromuscular and clinical effects produced by electrostimulation therapies, as an adjuvant to the use of occlusal splints (removable muscle relaxation apparatus) in patients with temporomandibular disorders In this simple randomized clinical trial, 91 patients were randomly divided into three groups. Group A (GA) received transcutaneous electrostimulation therapy and an occlusal splint, Group B (GB) received percutaneous electrostimulation therapy and an occlusal splint, and Group C (GC) received an occlusal splint. The neuromuscular activity, as well as the signs and symptoms of each patient, were evaluated every week throughout the treatment (T0 = baseline; T1 = 7 days; T2 = 14 days; T3 = 21 days; T4 = 28 days; and T5 = 35 days). Pain was measured with a visual analog scale, and neuromuscular electrical activity was determined by the root mean square of the masseter muscles through the use of a UNAM-CINVESTAV 1.2 electromyograph. Comparisons were made using ANOVA for repeated measures (p-value = 0.05). The comparison between the groups determined that muscle fatigue (p-value = 0.001), joint pain (p-value = 0.009), and muscle pain (p-value = 0.003) decreased to a greater extent, and in the short term for the group treated with transcutaneous electrostimulation therapy as an adjuvant to the use of the occlusal splint. The comparison between the groups determined that muscle fatigue (p-value = 0.001), joint pain (p-value = 0.009), and muscle pain (p-value = 0.003) decreased to a greater extent and in a shorter term in the GA (calculation therapy, transcutaneous electrostimulation) and GB (occlusal splint). Transcutaneous electrostimulation is a feasible and faster alternative that was accepted by most of the patients for treating temporomandibular disorders.
Researchers may have at their disposal the raw data of the studies they wish to meta-analyze. The goal of this study is to identify, illustrate, and compare a range of possible analysis options for researchers to whom raw data are available, wanting to fit a structural equation model (SEM) to these data. This study illustrates techniques that directly analyze the raw data, such as multilevel and multigroup SEM, and techniques based on summary statistics, such as correlation-based meta-analytical structural equation modeling (MASEM), discussing differences in procedures, capabilities, and outcomes. This is done by analyzing a previously published collection of datasets using open source software. A path model reflecting the theory of planned behavior is fitted to these datasets using different techniques involving SEM. Apart from differences in handling of missing data, the ability to include study-level moderators, and conceptualization of heterogeneity, results show differences in parameter estimates and standard errors across methods. Further research is needed to properly formulate guidelines for applied researchers looking to conduct individual participant data MASEM.
Understanding patterns of children’s living arrangements (physical custody) in separated families and the factors related to joint physical custody are crucial as custody patterns have significant implications for the well-being of children and parents. In this study we use the 2021 European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions Survey (EU-SILC) to provide new evidence of children’s post-separation living arrangements in Europe. Our sample (n = 7,461) is restricted to children of separated or divorced parents residing in their mother’s household and having another parent residing outside of the household. We analyze both the individual-level socioeconomic, family-and child-related characteristics, and country-level variables to explain variation in children’s joint physical custody arrangements. We find that joint physical custody is higher among boys and children in the age groups 6–10 and 11–15. We also find that children with more socioeconomically advantaged mothers (higher education, employed, higher income, homeowners) are more likely to have joint physical custody. Importantly, controlling for individual-level characteristics, both the legal and the gender equality context shape the prevalence of joint physical custody, suggesting that country-level policies and norms may be important.
Measurement feedback systems (MFS) providing insight in treatment progress can improve mental healthcare outcomes. However, there is no uniform measurement feedback system that could be used to measure treatment progress for personality disorders (PD). This study compared two types of measures: a generic measure for symptom severity (Brief Symptom Index, BSI) and a specific measure for personality functioning (Severity Indices of Personality Problems, SIPP) at different points in time in order to provide insight in the most suitable measuring moment for a MFS for PD. This study is conducted in a sample of 996 Dutch PD patients (mean age 33.51 (SD 10.42), 73.1% female). Symptom severity and personality functioning were assessed before and multiple times during treatment, using a timespan of 24 months. Outcomes were examined over time using multilevel modeling. Symptom severity (generic measure) and personality functioning (specific measure) improved equally after 24 months. However, during these 24 months, different patterns of change were observed for symptom severity compared to severity of personality problems. In general, symptom severity decreased most during the 1st months of treatment, whereas personality functioning improved only after 6 months of treatment. A generic instrument of symptom severity is able to measure early changes in symptom distress but may not be able to measure longer term changes in personality functioning. The authors discuss policy implications for benchmarking using specific measures in the treatment of personality disorders.
This study investigates the student‐ and school‐level predictors of reading performance across five top‐performing countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021. Utilising a multilevel analysis, the research examines the influence of cognitive development, socio‐cultural contexts and educational environments on reading achievement. The results reveal significant variances both between and within schools, highlighting the critical role of educational policies and practices in shaping student outcomes. Finland, known for its equity‐focused education system, demonstrates low between‐school variance, while Russia shows high between‐school variance owing to socio‐economic disparities. Key student‐level predictors include gender, digital self‐efficacy and a sense of school belonging, varying in significance across countries. At the school level, factors such as the number of computers, principal experience and academic emphasis significantly influence reading scores. The full model, incorporating both student‐ and school‐level predictors, explains a substantial portion of the variance in reading scores, especially in Hong Kong and Russia. These findings underscore the importance of a comprehensive approach to educational research, considering both individual and institutional factors. Policy implications suggest targeted interventions for countries with high between‐school variances and support for inclusive learning environments where within‐school variances are significant. Future research should explore the impact of non‐cognitive factors and emerging educational practices on reading performance to develop more effective educational strategies globally.
Background and Hypothesis
Schizotypy is a useful and unifying construct for examining the etiology, development, and expression of schizophrenia-spectrum psychopathology. The positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy dimensions are associated with distinct patterns of schizophrenia-spectrum symptoms and impairment. Furthermore, they are differentiated by mean levels of psychotic-like, suspicious, negative, and disorganized schizotypic experiences in daily life, and by temporal dynamics of affect. The schizotypy dimensions were thus hypothesized to be differentiated by the temporal dynamics of schizotypic experiences in daily life.
Study Design
The present study employed experience sampling methodology in a large nonclinically ascertained sample (n = 693) to examine the associations of multidimensional schizotypy with psychotic-like, suspicious, negative, and disorganized schizotypic experiences in daily life, as well as with their temporal dynamics (variability, reactivity, inertia, and instability).
Study Results
We replicated the mean-level associations between multidimensional schizotypy and schizotypic experiences in daily life. Furthermore, positive, negative, and disorganized schizotypy demonstrated hypothesized, differential patterns of temporal dynamics of schizotypic experiences. Disorganized schizotypy demonstrated the most robust associations, including intensity, variability, and inertia of disorganized schizotypic experiences. Disorganized schizotypy also moderated reactivity of psychotic-like and disorganized schizotypic experiences following previously reported stress. Positive schizotypy was associated with intensity and variability of psychotic-like experiences. Negative schizotypy was associated with intensity and variability of negative schizotypic experiences.
Conclusions
The findings indicate that schizotypy dimensions can be differentiated by both mean levels and temporal patterns of psychotic-like, suspicious, negative, and disorganized schizotypic experiences in daily life, with disorganized schizotypy uniquely characterized by stress reactivity.
There is an emerging literature focusing on the impact of technological change on work quality. Our study contributes to this literature by examining 1) workers' expectations regarding the effect of technological change on perceived job insecurity, as well as physical and psychological job demands, and 2) how these expectations are shaped by the degree of labor organization within countries. The article uses cross-national data for 25 OECD countries. We find that labor organization decreases perceived levels of job insecurity related to technological change, but also lowers workers’ expectations of technology improving the quality of their work. These findings may indicate that in environments where technological change is less strongly moderated by organized labor, workers put greater emphasis on technology as a driver of (short term) work changes. Alternatively, these findings may signal a lack of ‘worker power’ of organized labor to enforce technologies that improve the quality of employment.
Background: Spelling acquisition requires the assimilation of the regularities of the writing system, but these regularities may differ between the native and a foreign language. English spelling acquisition is a challenge for Spanish-speaking children due
to differences in the orthographic systems. The aim of this study was to examine to what extent Spanish-speaking children use sub-lexical and lexical information when spelling in English as a foreign language (EFL), and whether this varies across grades.
Methods: To achieve this, we administered a spelling-to-dictation task of monosyllabic words to children 9 to 11 years old. Spelling accuracy, written latencies, and writing durations were analysed as a function of phonology-to-orthography consistency, lexical frequency, word length, and the semantic knowledge that the children have of the words.
Results: Results showed differences between grades, with word length only influencing younger children. Lexical frequency, consistency, and semantic knowledge facilitated performance in older children. The cumulative exposure to English may lead to
an improvement in spelling due to vocabulary growth and increased sensitivity to new spelling patterns and regularities. Such development occurs despite differences between the orthographies of the native and foreign language and even in the absence of explicit instruction in EFL spelling.
Conclusions: Semantic information about words helps spelling retrieval during writing in EFL. Spanish-speaking children develop sensitivity to English orthography and spelling patterns, evident in the older group of children.
Smartphones play an important role in people’s daily lives—young people in particular are strongly attracted to cell phones and use smartphones for many hours a day. Recent research findings also point to potential problems from excessive mobile device use—digital dependence can lead to compulsive and addictive behavior. Problematic smartphone use has become established as a modern psychological term. Nevertheless, it is apparent that research on problematic smartphone use is still scarce. To address this desideratum, a reliable and valid instrument to measure problematic smartphone use (among adolescents) is essential. This paper presents operationalizations for measuring problematic smartphone use and presents a measurement model. The developed screening instrument also aims to address the question of how dimensions of problematic smartphone use affect students’ cognitive classroom avoidance, which has not yet come into research focus. As part of an adolescent study in Switzerland, 1333 lower secondary school students with an average age of 13.7 years were surveyed, with one in three adolescents providing information on smartphone use and two-thirds of adolescents providing information on cognitive class avoidance. A five-dimensional screening instrument was operationalized to measure problematic smartphone use, with dimensions of (I) narrowing of thinking and behavior, (II) tolerance development, (III) continuation despite negative consequences, (IV) loss of control, (V) withdrawal symptoms. The psychometric data show a 5-factorial structure as postulated theoretically. Multiple regressions show that three dimensions of problematic smartphone use are significant predictors of students’ cognitive class avoidance. Regression models separated by gender show that different dimensions are predictive with different explanations of variance.
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