Socio-emotional Factors Research Articles

Repitencia escolar: análisis y reflexiones en un establecimiento educacional en la comuna de Valparaíso, Chile

The School repetition is a multidimensional phenomenon and one of the three critical knots that education presents for the fulfillment of its universalization. With the purpose of identifying associated risk factors in an educational establishment in the commune of Valparaiso, a mixed investigation is carried out where primary and secondary sources of information are analyzed and described by means of frequency analysis, correlations, contingency tables and linear regression on a data base of 866 students, besides content analysis of semistructured interviews to six teachers. The results establish that the risk of repetition is due to socio-demographic, academic and socio-emotional factors, from which it is concluded that it is necessary to work on three components: family support, academic accompaniment and promotion of school coexistence.

Effect of socio-emotional factors on the subjective wellbeing of medical students in Saudi Arabia

Effect of socio-emotional factors on the subjective wellbeing of medical students in Saudi Arabia

Aging and Decision Making: Socio-Emotional and Contextual Factors

Maintaining sound decision-making skills in later life is a key concern in the face of population aging. The four presentations in this symposium highlight the importance of considering socio-emotional and contextual factors when investigating adult age differences in decision making. Together, they show that features of decision contexts such as the way information is presented, along with social relationships and emotional responses, have distinct implications for understanding age effects in decision-related processing and outcomes. Drawing from fuzzy trace theory, Nolte, Löckenhoff and Reyna showed that gist-based (“good,” “extremely poor”) versus verbatim information (exact numbers) was differentially appealing to younger and older adults, with older adults seeking more gist information than verbatim information. Young and Mikels investigated older and younger adults’ integral emotional responses to a behavioral risk-taking task. Younger adults experienced more anger and less contentment than older adults. These emotions differentially predicted risk taking in the two groups. Seaman, Christensen, Senn, Cooper, and Cassidy found age differences in learning about the trustworthiness of social partners. Older adults showed less learning relative to younger adults and invested less with trustworthy partners and more with untrustworthy partners. Smith, Strough, Parker and Bruine de Bruin found that older age, perceiving better decision-making ability than age peers, and perceiving declines in ability over time, were associated with lesser preferences for making decisions with others. In her discussion, Charles will integrate these findings with existing research on aging and decision making and offers directions for future research.

Process and Outcomes: the Influence of Gains in Knowledge and Socioemotional Skills on Caregivers’ Well-being

To assess the validity of intervention programs, we need to understand how they work and for whom. We evaluated a program for caregivers, ComTato, using a quasi-experimental design (pretest, posttest), to determine (a) which specific program-related gains are associated with improvements in well-being and (b) whether participants’ initial repertoire influences program benefits. All 37 participants (average age of 52.7 years) cared for a family member with Alzheimer’s disease. Participants completed instruments to evaluate their caregiving repertoire and their socioemotional well-being (use of constructive coping strategies, perceptions of burden, and quality of the caregiver-care recipient relationship). Caregivers learned about dementia, stress management, principles of social skills, the use of specific social skills, and principles of cognitive stimulation. We observed that (a) the greater the increase in knowledge and skills, the greater the increase in caregivers’ use of constructive coping strategies (r = .30, p = .037), with use of social skills being the component with the strongest association (r = .36, p = .014); (b) the greater the improvements in knowledge about social skills, the larger the reductions in conflicts with the care recipient (rho = − .28, p = .048); and (c) seven correlations indicated that the lower the caregivers’ initial repertoire, the greater their socioemotional health gains. Thus, increases in caregivers’ knowledge and socioemotional skills seem to contribute to improvements in their socioemotional well-being, and the lower their pre-existing repertoire, the more they benefitted from the program. In future studies, researchers should investigate how other socioemotional factors influence program benefits.

Pain in Children and Adolescents With Sickle Cell Disease: Multidimensional Assessment.

Patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) suffer from recurrent painful vaso-occlusive episodes with a significant impact on their quality of life. The aim of this study was to perform a multidimensional assessment of pain in Portuguese children and adolescents with SCD. Subjects were children and adolescents and their parents recruited from the outpatient pediatric hematology clinic in a Portuguese Hospital. Pain frequency and a broader multidimensional evaluation was performed using the Pediatric Pain Questionnaire (PedsQL) (that includes Visual Analog Scales, color indicators, qualitative descriptors of pain [open question] and body diagram) and a structured questionnaire (PQ2), that included a term list of the Adolescent Pediatric Pain Tool, among other questions. Included 60 children and adolescents (36 boys and 24 girls) with a mean age of 11±4.0 years (range, 5 to 18). The majority of children (83.1%) reported no present pain and 57.6% reported pain last month, with several degrees of pain intensity. Abdomen, thorax, and limbs were the most frequent localizations. Red was the color most chosen to describe "severe pain," whereas blue and green were more used to describe "no pain." The number of pain descriptors is different using an open-ended question (2.1±1.5) than a given list of terms (15.3±8.1). The most frequent terms used in the open question were "strong/very strong," "hurts a lot," "makes cry," and "horrible." Parents used similar pain descriptors. "Makes cry," "horrible," "tiring," "unbearable," and "uncomfortable" were the most frequent terms chosen in the PQ2. Pain interfered variably with daily activities for most of the patients. Pain experienced in SCD has a broad range of intensity levels, localization, and frequency. There are a number of pain descriptors and socio-emotional factors related to the pain experience. A comprehensive multidimensional assessment that includes both child's and parents' perspective seem to be the most adequate strategy to assess pain.

Effect of Frequency of Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults: Serial Mediation of Depression and Quality of Sleep.

Background: Sleep quality and depression are two reciprocal causation socioemotional factors and their roles in the relationship between physical exercise and cognition are still unclear. Methods: A face-to-face survey of 3230 older adults aged 60+ was conducted in Xiamen, China, in 2016. Frequency of exercise (FOE) referred to the number of days of exercise per week. Quality of sleep (QOS) was categorized into five levels: very poor/poor/fair/good/excellent. The 15-item Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were used to measure depression (DEP) and cognitive function (CF), respectively. Serial multiple mediator models were used. All mediation analyses were analyzed using the SPSS PROCESS macro. Results: 2469 respondents had valid data with mean scores for GDS-15 and MoCA being 1.87 and 21.61, respectively. The direct path from FOE to CF was significant (c’= 0.20, p < 0.001). A higher FOE was associated with better QOS (B = 0.04, p < 0.01), which in turn was associated with fewer symptoms of DEP (B = −0.40, p < 0.001), and further contributed to better CF (B = −0.24, p < 0.001). Similarly, a higher FOE was associated with lower GDS-15 scores (B = −0.17, p < 0.001) which then resulted in higher MoCA scores (B = −0.24, p < 0.001). However, QOS alone did not alter the relationship between FOE and CF. Conclusions: FOE is a protective factor of CF in older adults. Moreover, CF is influenced by QOS through DEP, without which the working path may disappear.

Chair Agency, Chair Preparation, and Academic Supports in Educational Leadership Doctoral Programs in the United States

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory qualitative case study was to understand dissertation chair agency, chair preparation, and academic supports provided by experienced Educational Leadership Ed.D. dissertation chairs in the United States. Background: Previous research has identified attrition rates of 50-60 percent in education doctoral programs. This research helps identify the faculty profiles and academic supports provided by Educational Leadership faculty who have served on successful dissertation committees. Understanding these findings may help to improve retention and completion in other doctoral programs. Methodology: This was an exploratory qualitative case study. Ten doctoral faculty who have successfully chaired 419 Ed.D. Educational Leadership dissertations at accredited U.S. colleges and universities were interviewed. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. Contribution: The findings from this study contribute to the body of knowledge on doctoral retention and dissertation completion by providing information on promising practices from the perspective of dissertation chairs. Findings: While successful dissertation chairs exhibited expertise as researchers, seven of the ten participants reported that they had limited training for chairing dissertations. Academic supports included coursework that was organized coherently with a focus on opportunities for substantive feedback, writing support and research methodology. Recommendations for Practitioners: Dissertation chairs should utilize their agency to ensure that the program has the proper resources to support doctoral education. This includes adequate writing support for graduate students, courses taught by faculty who are engaged in research and understand the requirements for completing a dissertation, and protecting faculty time so that they are able to provide students substantive feedback within coursework and at the dissertation phase. Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers should continue to explore the causes of attrition in doctoral programs and identify specific actions that can be taken to improve program completion rates. Impact on Society: Increasingly U.S. institutions of higher learning are being called to validate their success and improve retention rates. Understanding the faculty profiles and academic supports utilized by successful doctoral faculty has the potential to improve retention and thereby increase completion rates and consequentially alleviate the stressors that ABD students experience. Future Research: Future research could focus on expanding the findings of this study by exploring the perspectives of faculty based on institution type and examining how socio-emotional factors such as student-student and faculty-student relationships are intentionally established in programs with high graduation rates.

Prácticas profesionales y Trabajo Social. Una revisión de la literatura en educación superior

The objective of this review of the literature was to analyze the scientific production on professional internships in social work from 2014 to 2018. The bibliographic search was conducted in Web of Science, the main collection database, obtaining a sample of 34 articles. The analysis of the documents focused on the year of publication, country in which the research was carried out, methodology used, type of participants and exhaustive analysis of the topics investigated. The results obtained show greater scientific production during 2017, being the countries of the United States and China which are at the forefront in the central issue that is the subject of this review. Furthermore, there is a predominance of studies with a qualitative methodological approach and where the main technique of data collection is the interview. As for the participants, it mostly corresponds to undergraduate students. Finally, this article was focused on four topics: learning, experiences, evaluation and cognitive and socio-emotional factors linked to professional internships in social work, being the latter two the ones found with the highest recurrence in high-impact indexed journals.

Predicting Adolescent Adjustment and Well-Being: The Interplay between Socio-Emotional and Personal Factors.

Social and emotional factors such as emotional competence and self-esteem are protective factors that promote adolescent mental health and well-being. In this paper, we will examine the combined contribution of these socio-emotional factors in addition to personal factors, in the prediction of psychological adjustment and subjective well-being in adolescence. The study included 840 adolescents aged between 12 and 16 years old (M = 13.37, SD = 1.16, 51.4% girls). We measured personal variables (sex, age, number of siblings), socio-emotional variables (emotional competence and self-esteem), psychological adjustment (emotional and behavioural problems) and subjective well-being (life satisfaction and affect balance). Besides descriptive analysis and Pearson bivariate correlations, two different methodologies were performed, including hierarchical regression models and a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). The results show that emotional competence is a protective factor for optimal adjustment and well-being, and suggest that self-esteem reinforces this relation. Different patterns were observed for female and male adolescents of different ages and with different family backgrounds. The practical implications of our findings for intervention programs have been discussed.

PROFESSIONAL QUALITY OF LIFE, LONELINESS, AND EMPATHY IN PROFESSIONAL CAREGIVERS

Retaining professional caregivers is an ongoing challenge for home care agencies. Thus, understanding emotional factors associated with caregiver burnout is critical. While professional caregivers are at risk for burnout and loneliness, less is known about how these factors relate to empathy and professional quality of life. Professional caregivers (n=31) currently employed at two U.S. non-skilled home care agencies participated by completing several questionnaires. Surveys included: UCLA Loneliness Scale (loneliness), Interpersonal Reactivity Index (empathy), and the Professional Quality of Life Scale (compassion satisfaction, compassion fatigue, and burnout). Participants were adults (M=56.8, SD=11.5, Range=24-75 years; 90.3% female) who had obtained an Associates degree (education years: M=14.2, SD=1.7). Overall, participants reported average to high levels of loneliness (M=37.5, SD=9.8), and emotional (M=23.2, SD=3.7) and cognitive (M=20.3, SD=4.6) empathy. Caregivers generally reported positive feelings about their work (compassion satisfaction: M=42.8, SD=5.0) and low levels of burnout (M=17.1, SD=4.2). In contrast, they reported relatively high levels of compassion fatigue (M=17.7, SD=4.0). Burnout was positively associated with compassion fatigue (r=.7, p<.001), and loneliness (r=.5, p=.004), whereas a negative association was found between burnout and cognitive empathy (r=-.5, p=.008). Using a linear regression, the associations between compassion fatigue, loneliness, and cognitive empathy were examined in relation to burnout. This model was statistically significant (r2=.72; F change (3,21)=17.8, p<.001), but only compassion fatigue (p=.002) and cognitive empathy (p=.002) were significant predictors of burnout. This study highlights the importance of the contributing role of socioemotional factors to burnout experienced in a professional caregiving setting.

Loneliness in healthy young adults predicts inflammatory responsiveness to a mild immune challenge in vivo

The established link between loneliness and poor health outcomes may stem from aberrant inflammatory regulation. The present study tested whether loneliness predicted the inflammatory response to a standardised in vivo immune challenge. Using a within-subjects double blind placebo-controlled design, 40 healthy men (mean age = 25, SD = 5) received a Salmonella Typhi vaccination (0.025 mg; Typhim Vi, Sanofi Pasteur, UK) and placebo (saline) on two separate occasions. Loneliness was assessed using the R-UCLA loneliness scale. Regression analyses showed that those that reported feeling more lonely exhibited an elevated interleukin-6 response (β = 0.564, 95% confidence interval [0.003, 0.042], p < .05). This association withstood adjustment for potentially confounding variables, including age, sleep quality, socio-emotional factors, and health factors. The present findings are in line with evidence that loneliness may shift immune system responsivity, suggesting a potential biobehavioural pathway linking loneliness to impaired health.

Perfiles de familias con factores de riesgo y problemas comportamentales en niños con déficit de atención con hiperactividad

Introducción. La literatura evidencia que las familias de niños con déficit de atención e hiperactividad (TDAH) experimentan factores de riesgo relacionados con niveles elevados de estrés, menor apoyo social, o menor capacidad de afrontamiento. Estos factores familiares contextuales pueden verse agravados por la presencia de problemas comportamentales y sociales en niños con TDAH. Objetivos. El presente estudio se planteó los siguientes objetivos: 1) Identificar perfiles de familias de niños con TDAH en edad escolar de acuerdo con indicadores contextuales y variables socioemocionales como el nivel de estrés, las estrategias de afrontamiento y el apoyo social. 2) Evaluar las diferencias entre los grupos establecidos en diferentes dominios de dificultades comportamentales y emocionales. Método. Participaron en este estudio 35 niños, entre 7 y 11 años, que habían recibido un diagnóstico clínico de TDAH. Se determinó un índice de riesgo familiar a partir de la información que aportaron las familias sobre el nivel educativo de los padres, la situación laboral, la existencia de psicopatología parental y la tipología familiar. Además, se evaluó el nivel de estrés parental, el apoyo social, las habilidades de afrontamiento y los problemas comportamentales y emocionales del niño. Resultados. Los análisis cluster jerárquicos realizados determinaron la existencia de dos grupos de familias; una con “riesgo severo” y otra con “riesgo moderado-bajo”. El perfil severo se asoció con mayores problemas sociales en los niños. Concretamente se apreció mayor hiperactividad y más problemas con los iguales. Conclusiones. Los factores contextuales y socioemocionales de las familias deberían tenerse en cuenta en el abordaje de los problemas comportamentales que presentan los niños con TDAH.

Le risque de décrochage scolaire chez des collégiens libanais : le rôle spécifique du sentiment d’efficacité, de l’anxiété et du soutien parental et enseignant ?

Dropping out of school is a break that permanently interrupts a pupil's schooling. Mainly psychological factors may contribute to this situation. The study focuses on the role played by some socio-emotional factors in the risk of dropping out of school in Lebanon. A quantitative research has been conducted on 504 teenagers attending middle school in 7th grade about their dropping out risks. Causal track analyses show that school learning experiences, social support provided by family and teachers, as well as some individual characteristics – (school anxiety, feelings of effectiveness related to school domain, expectations versus in school, school project) interact to increase or decrease the risk of dropping out.

Learning How to Learn is More Than Learning

This paper addresses the importance of independent learning and how to educate people to a world where innovation is becoming more central and related to digital technologies. The five socio-emotional factors, associated with the metacognitive skills, which directly interfere in the learning processes, are described. In particular, the Learning Analytics is emphasized as the methodology that enables educators to make decisions by taking into account systematic and elaborate analyses of learners’ data and the educational contexts in which learning develops. The set of characteristics referring to the educational demands associated with the so-called “shallow works” are presented, as well as the main characteristics associated to the “deep works”. As a main conclusion, in this panorama in which innovation is strategic to meet the new educational requirements, learning how to learn is demonstrated to become more important than “just” learning.

Closing the Gender Gap in Fragile X Syndrome: Review on Females with FXS and Preliminary Research Findings.

Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is a genetic condition known to increase the risk of cognitive impairment and socio-emotional challenges in affected males and females. To date, the vast majority of research on FXS has predominantly targeted males, who usually exhibit greater cognitive impairment compared to females. Due to their typically milder phenotype, females may have more potential to attain a higher level of independence and quality of life than their male counterparts. However, the constellation of cognitive, behavioral, and, particularly, socio-emotional challenges present in many females with FXS often preclude them from achieving their full potential. It is, therefore, critical that more research specifically focuses on females with FXS to elucidate the role of genetic, environmental, and socio-emotional factors on outcome in this often-overlooked population.

The Role of Career Aspiration, Self-Esteem, Body Esteem, and Gender in Predicting Sense of Well-being Among Emerging Adults

During emerging adulthood, one’s sense of well-being undergoes many rapid changes. Although emerging adults often present considerable energy, creativity, and hopefulness, both in higher education classrooms and workplaces, they often experience a decrease in well-being due to experience confusion, stress encounters, and difficulties in transitioning to adulthood. The authors examined four noteworthy key socioemotional factors that may be linked to emerging adults' sense of well-being: career aspiration, self-esteem, body esteem, and gender. Three hundred 20- to 29-year-old university students participated in the study. Results showed that well-being was correlated positively with self-esteem and body esteem, and body esteem was correlated negatively with gender (men scored higher). Regression analyses revealed that for both men and women, self-esteem and body esteem predicted well-being. Nevertheless, when the gender was analyzed separately, career aspiration predicted well-being only for men, whereas body esteem predicted well-being only for women. The study findings illuminates the importance of generating preventive measures in childhood and adolescence, through reinforcing skills such as resilience and self-esteem with the aim of passing through emerging adulthood with as little harm as possible to the sense of well-being.

Adult Children's Perceptions of Maternal Favoritism During Caregiving: Comparisons Between Turkey and the United States.

This study explores cross-cultural variations in adult children's perceptions of maternal favoritism during caregiving in Turkey and the United States. Qualitative analysis of interview data from two siblings in each of 14 Turkish and 14 American families revealed differences in adult children's perceptions of and explanations for maternal favoritism. Most Turkish children perceived that their mothers favored sons because of higher filial expectations from sons. Conversely, most American children perceived that their mothers favored daughters and explained mothers' preferences as based on socioemotional factors. Furthermore, perceptions of maternal favoritism had detrimental consequences for sibling relationships in both contexts but differently. Turkish daughters reported conflicts over their favored brothers' lack of cooperation. American daughters perceived themselves as favored and felt obligated to undertake most of the caregiving burden which fueled sibling conflict. Taken together, this study highlights the importance of cultural context for understanding the within-family differences in sibling relationships during caregiving.

Affective states in computer-supported collaborative learning: Studying the past to drive the future

CSCL investigates ways of promoting students' collaboration through technology. Although affective states and socio-emotional factors have an important effect on learning, few studies have classified and analyzed the results obtained by the scientific community to show their real impacts on in CSCL settings. The lack of a comprehensive overview and understanding of previous findings hampers the survey on research gaps, challenges and trends. This work addresses a systematic mapping of the literature for the summarization of results and discussion on research directions for the use of affective states and socio-emotional factors to support the development of intelligent CSCL environments. Six digital libraries were queried and 58 studies were deeply analyzed and categorized. Over 90% of the studies considered emotion and personality traits in the CSCL environment; most studies used personality recognition by questionnaires rather than automatic sources of inference; most technological approaches employed instruments to collect, analyze and/or represent emotions; and most papers that reported empirical experiments focused on “emotional awareness” and “interaction among students in a CSCL environment”. We have identified three main challenges to be addressed by the community in the next decade for an adequate incorporation of affective states in CSCL environments: emotional awareness, orchestration of students' interaction and group formation.

Why Employees Leave Russian Companies? Analyzing Online Job Reviews Using Text Mining

In this study we analyze topics and sentiments of online job reviews for 989 organizations operating across 12 different knowledge-intensive industries in Russia. Using text mining techniques, such as topic modeling and sentiment analysis, we identify factors of job satisfaction and examine how they differ for former and current employees of Russian organization. The analysis reveals that (1) working arrangements and schedule, (2) working conditions, (3) job content, (4) salary/wage, (5) career development, (6) psychological climate and interpersonal relations with co-workers are the six key topics discussed by employees online in relation to job satisfaction, with the latter — psychological climate and interpersonal relations — being the most widely discussed topic, especially for current employees. Overall, our study suggests that in their decision to leave the company, employees are more likely to tolerate economic factors of job satisfaction (such as salary, career development and working arrangements) rather than socioemotional factors (such as poor relationships with their co-workers and content of work).

Holistic School Quality Measurement and the Future of Accountability: Pilot-Test Results

School accountability systems in the United States have been criticized on a number of fronts, mainly on grounds of completeness and fairness. This study examines an alternative school quality framework—one that seemingly responds to several core critiques of present accountability systems. Examining results from a pilot study in a diverse urban district, we find that this alternative system captures domains of school quality that are not reflected in the current state system, specifically those measuring opportunity to learn and socioemotional factors. Furthermore, we find a less deterministic relationship between school quality and poverty under the alternative system. We explore the policy implications of these findings vis-à-vis the future of accountability.