Moderate Absence Research Articles

Early Warning for Whom? Regression Discontinuity Evidence From the Effect of Early Warning System on Student Absence

Many schools across the United States use the Early Warning System (EWS) to identify chronically absent students on time and intervene. The prediction power of the EWS is well examined but more evidence is needed about their effectiveness at reducing student absence. This study examines the effect of EWS on student absence in a large urban school district using a multiple-cutoff regression discontinuity design. Findings indicate that EWS reduces chronic absence among socioeconomically advantaged students. However, it has no significant effect on chronic absence among socioeconomically disadvantaged students. Furthermore, EWS has no significant effect on moderate absence. These results suggest that schools should consider social and institutional barriers to improving attendance, especially among socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

Personal and Interpersonal Factors Moderate the Relation Between Human-Made Trauma and Hypertension: A Path Analysis Approach.

Although the link between trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and hypertension is established, its underlying mechanisms remain underexplored. This study tested a theoretical model exploring the moderating influence of psychological (emotion regulation) and interpersonal (social support) factors on the mediation between trauma and hypertension, through PTSD. We measured these variables through self-reported questionnaire on 212 patients, recruited from internal medicine in a general hospital of Bukavu, a region affected by more than 25 years of armed conflicts. We first evaluated the PTSD mediation in the absence of moderators, before testing each moderator using moderated path analysis. Results showed that PTSD partially mediates the relationship between human-made trauma and hypertension, whereas social support and maladaptive emotion regulation moderate the relationship between human-made trauma and PTSD. The relationship between human-made trauma, PTSD, and hypertension might be modulated by psychological and interpersonal factors, which paves the way for new interventions targeting emotion regulation and social support to reduce PTSD and hypertension in populations exposed to human-made violence.

Associations between social factors and school belonging among newcomer and non-newcomer youth in Sweden.

Feeling a sense of belonging at school is associated with important positive outcomes for youth and requires youth to engage in positive social relationships. Yet there is a limited understanding of the social factors most associated with youths' school belonging and limited evidence about whether correlates of school belonging vary for marginalized groups like newcomers compared to majority groups. Sweden provides an important context for investigation of these issues because, over the past two decades, the country has experienced an influx of asylum seekers and educational reforms that have altered the composition and functioning of Swedish secondary schools. This study addresses these gaps by (1) investigating which of eight social factors are associated with school belonging among diverse Swedish youth, and (2) examining whether newcomer status moderates the relationship between social factors and school belonging. Hierarchical regression and moderation analyses were used to analyze data from 14 to 19 year-old (n = 233) newcomers and non-newcomers in Sweden. An exploratory factor analysis revealed that the school belonging measure contained two factors: positive perceptions and negative perceptions (reverse coded). For both, stronger school belonging was associated with lower perceived ethnic discrimination. Positive perceptions of school belonging were also associated with more prosocial behaviours and lower emotional problems. Negative perceptions of school belonging were associated with more peer problems. Notably, quantity and quality of peer relationships were not associated with school belonging. There was no consistent evidence of newcomer status moderating the relationship between social factors and school belonging. These results highlight factors associated with school belonging which are modifiable and amenable to intervention or impact by policy-ethnic discrimination, prosocial behaviour, and emotional and peer problems. The absence of moderation by newcomer status suggests that school belonging interventions or related policies are likely to affect newcomer and non-newcomer students similarly.

How environmental reputation and ethical behavior impact the relationship between environmental regulatory enforcement and environmental performance

AbstractThe paper investigates the nature of the relationship between environmental regulation enforcement (ERE) and environmental performance of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing upon the institutional theory and a sample of 229 SMEs, the results indicate an inverted U‐shaped relationship between ERE and environmental performance. In addition, we theorized and found that environmental reputation moderates the U‐shaped relationship between ERE and environmental performance, such that the relationship is positive when environmental reputation is high. Moreover, the results show that organizational ethical behavior (OEB) conditions the U‐shaped relationship, such that the relationship is positive when OEB is high. In the absence of moderators, returns to environmental performance from increasing environmental regulation were observed to reach harmful levels. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

"GO BACK IN YOUR FETUS CAVE": HOW PREDATORY INFLUENCERS MANIPULATE AUDIENCES THROUGH PLATFORM RETREATS

In the summer of 2020, dozens of high-profile influencers in videogaming entertainment were accused of sexual harassment and predatory behavior. Among these, popular gaming YouTuber Craig Thompson (username 'Mini Ladd') confessed on Twitter to grooming minors but resumed uploading content to his YouTube channel one month later, resulting in public outcry. Thompson’s return to YouTube provides a case study in how predatory influencers can manipulate affordances across platforms, especially on YouTube, to insulate themselves from accountability and maintain their platform. Using scraped data from Twitter (34k tweets) and YouTube (62k comments and video network data), this article uses a mixed-methods social network analysis (Burgess and Matamoros-Fernández 2016) to map the public effort to deplatform Mini Ladd. This case study raises questions about cross-platform insulation and audience manipulation, by demonstrating how a predatory influencer 1) censored keywords in his comments to obfuscate criticism 2) gamed YouTube’s video algorithms to avoid references to his scandal and 3) redirected harassment onto his own fanbase. Ultimately, I argue that predatory influencers manipulate YouTube’s platform affordances to insulate themselves from accountability in the absence of moderation.

Group differences in health literacy are ameliorated in ehealth literacy

ABSTRACT Background Heath literacy and eHealth literacy are skills that enable individuals to seek, understand and use information in ways which promote and maintain health. The present study examined group differences (ethnicity, immigration) in both literacies and whether there exists an association between the literacies and potential outcomes/gains in health behaviors, health care utilization, perceived health and perceived outcomes of Internet search. Methods Participants included 819 Israeli men and women who responded to a nationally representative random-digital-dial (RDD) telephone survey. Respondents were veteran Jews, immigrants from the Former Soviet Union, and Palestinian Citizens of Israel. Results Significant differences between the groups were found in health literacy, especially in higher ordered skills, so that the immigrant group was the lowest, after accounting for demographic variables. No significant group differences were found in eHealth literacy. Health literacy was found to be significantly associated with healthcare utilization, perceived health and perceived outcomes of Internet search while eHealth literacy was associated with perceived health and perceived outcomes of Internet search. No interaction was found between group and literacies in the prediction of the outcomes. Conclusions Immigration hampers health literacy but differences are ameliorated in eHealth literacy. Finding on association between literacies and outcomes replicated previous ones and the absence of moderation by group attests to the robustness of the models on health literacies.

Effects of Media Health Literacy School-Based Interventions on Adolescents’ Body Image Concerns, Eating Concerns, and Thin-Internalization Attitudes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

ABSTRACT This systematic and meta-analytic review investigated the effects of media health literacy (MHL) interventions in school settings on adolescents’ body image. Twenty one intervention-control comparisons reported in 16 studies were identified. The following attributes were extracted from each study for a systematic review: Study time-period and country location, sample composition, school atmosphere, unit of random assignment, theoretical perspective, intervention-control comparison, co-interventions, number of overall and MHL sessions, length of MHL sessions, and outcomes measured. The meta-analysis of effect sizes for three outcomes of interest related to body image showed consistent changes in the desired negative direction as expected: body image concerns (g = −0.25, k = 19); eating concerns (g = −0.18, k = 19); thin-internalization attitudes (g = −0.40, k = 12); and combined (g = −0.25, k = 21). Homogeneity analysis for the combined effect size and moderator analyses for gender composition of intervention group, number of overall intervention sessions, number of MHL specific intervention sessions within the overall intervention, and time length of MHL intervention session all showed absence of moderators. However, all study samples except one were of European origin and so caution should be exercised when generalizing to other cultures that may have different standards of female ideal body type.

Household overcrowding and psychological distress among Nunavik Inuit adolescents: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACTAbout half of Nunavik Inuit live in overcrowded households compared to very few Canadians from the general population. Living in overcrowded households is associated with greater risks of suffering from mental health problems for Canadian adolescents. The present work aims at studying prospectively the hypothesised relationship between household overcrowding at childhood and psychological distress during adolescence among Nunavik Inuit, as well as the hypothesised relationship between these phenomena when they are both measure at adolescence. Recruited as part of the Nunavik Child Development Study, 220 participants were met at 11 years old in average and then when they were 18 years old in average. Household overcrowding was assessed using the people per room ratio. Psychological distress symptoms were operationalised at adolescence using depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. The results did not show that childhood household crowding had a long-term effect on psychological distress. An absence of moderation by sex of the association was also found in the present study. Despite those results, household crowding could be a risk factor only when in interaction with other elements related with poverty or housing or could be experienced as a difficulty for adolescents on other aspects than depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts.

Antichità Romane de Piranesi: la construcción sublimada

Si desde el punto de vista del debate ilustrado sobre el lenguaje de la arquitectura, la serie Carceri de Piranesi representa la pionera intuición de que la respuesta podría estar en el entendimiento de la construcción como lenguaje alternativo al clasicismo, en Anti- chità Romane se con rma esa revolucionaria idea y se vincula a la búsqueda de los orígenes de la arquitectura en el doble sentido, histórico y hermenéutico. Los levantamientos pseudo arqueológicos que recoge pretenden demostrar los orígenes romanos de la arquitectura, pero también que su concepción se rige por los mismos principios de racionalidad y esencialidad que en ese momento se proponen para la refundación ilustrada de la arquitectura.

Mediators and moderators of chronic pain outcomes in an online self-management program.

Little is known about the moderators and mediators of change in online pain interventions based on cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT). We hypothesized that the effects of painACTION.com, an online pain self-management program, on pain-related outcomes would be mediated by changes in depression, anxiety, and stress, as well as the use of coping strategies. We also examined potential moderators of change. First, the efficacy of painACTION.com and moderators of the intervention effects were evaluated using a pooled sample from previous back, neuropathic, and arthritis pain studies. Next, we explored whether the intervention effect on the primary outcomes, pain severity, and patient global impression of change (PGIC), was mediated by coping strategies or emotional functioning. Compared with controls, experimental participants evidenced significant improvement in pain, emotional functioning, and coping strategies from baseline to follow-up. There were no clear moderators of intervention effects. Changes in emotional factors, particularly stress levels, mediated the relationship between the intervention and outcome (pain severity) over time. This study supports the effectiveness of online interventions when CBT and self-management targets pain levels, emotional factors, and wellness-focused coping. The importance of stress as a mediator of pain severity is discussed. The absence of moderators may indicate that the intervention is effective for a wide variety of patients with chronic pain.

Moderating effect of the environment in the relationship between mobility and school participation in children and adolescents with cerebral palsy.

BACKGROUND: The literature demonstrates that the social participation of children with disabilities is influenced by both their functional skills repertoire and environmental factors. However, it is not yet known whether the effect of functional limitations on social participation is minimized or enhanced by the environmental facilitators and barriers. This study aimed to test this hypothesis. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the moderating effect of environmental factors in the relationship between mobility and school participation of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP). METHOD: Participants were 102 elementary school children and adolescents with CP, aged 6 to 17 years, classified as levels I, II, and III according to the Gross Motor Classification System, along with their parents or caregivers and teachers. School participation and parents' perceptions of barriers were evaluated using the School Function Assessment and the Craig Hospital Inventory of Environmental Factors (CHIEF), respectively. RESULTS: The regression model failed to reveal a moderating effect of environmental factors in the relationship between mobility and school participation. While mobility was a strong predictor of participation, environmental factors demonstrated a weak predictive effect on the latter. The CHIEF subscale school/work showed the factors which were greatest barrier to children's participation, while the subscale attitude/support had the least impact. CONCLUSION: The absence of moderation on the tested relationship suggests that, when investigated under the negative perspective of environmental barriers, the contextual factors do not modify the relationship between mobility and school participation. Factors specific to the school environment might add to the present study's results regarding the effect of school participation in this population.

Moderated path analysis of the relationships between masculinity and men’s attitudes toward seeking psychological help.

This study tested a theoretical model of one mediator and 4 moderators of the relationships between 2 masculinity variables (Traditional Masculinity Ideology and Gender Role Conflict) and Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Services (Attitudes). Self-stigma was the hypothesized mediator, and the hypothesized moderators were (a) Depression, (b) General Self-efficacy, (c) Precontemplation, and (d) Barriers to Help-seeking. A sample of 654 men responded to an online survey of 9 questionnaires. After evaluating mediation in the absence of moderation, moderated path analyses were conducted for each moderator. The relationship between Traditional Masculinity Ideology and Attitudes was partially mediated by Self-stigma, whereas that between Gender Role Conflict and Attitudes was completely mediated. No indirect or direct paths involving Gender Role Conflict were moderated by any moderators. Both Depression and Barriers to Help-seeking demonstrated mediated moderation by moderating both Stage 1 (the path from Traditional Masculinity Ideology to Self-stigma) of the mediated relationships and the direct effects between Traditional Masculinity Ideology and Attitudes. Precontemplation moderated the direct effect between Traditional Masculinity Ideology and Attitudes. The findings suggest that the relationships between masculinity variables and men's negative help-seeking attitudes may be better understood through their relationships with other variables that serve as mediators and moderators. Findings from the present study may offer some direction in the design of interventions to remediate men's negative help-seeking attitudes.