Amount Of Unique Variance Research Articles

Burnout, work engagement and life satisfaction among Spanish teachers: The unique contribution of core self-evaluations

The aim of this study was to examine burnout and engagement dimensions as predictors of life satisfaction in a sample of 531 Spanish teachers. We also aimed to examine the additional contribution of core self-evaluations on life satisfaction, above and beyond socio-demographic variables and burnout and engagement dimensions. Results of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that core self-evaluations explained a substantial and unique amount of variance in life satisfaction beyond and above that accounted for age, one burnout dimension (i.e., personal accomplishment) and one engagement dimension (i.e., dedication). Additional analysis found that personal accomplishment and dedication mediated the link between core self-evaluations and life satisfaction. Some practical implications of the current findings for educational context are discussed.

Examining the Factor Structure and Incremental Validity of the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale – Short Form in a Community Sample

The Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale – Short Form (BDEFS-SF; Barkley, 2011) was developed to assess deficits in five facets of executive functioning. Theoretical assumptions surrounding the BDEFS-SF presume that executive dysfunction is an overarching construct that consists of five domain-specific factors (i.e., a hierarchical model; Barkley, 2011). Prior research has supported a correlated five-factor model, but the tenability of hierarchical or bifactor models of the BDEFS-SF have not yet been tested. In the present study (N = 1,120 community adults), confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare four theoretically relevant models of the BDEFS-SF (i.e., one-factor, correlated five-factor, hierarchical, and bifactor models). The bifactor model provided the best fit to the data. However, the general factor accounted for the overwhelming majority of variance in BDEFS-SF scores and none of the domain-specific factors exhibited adequate construct replicability or factor determinancy. Further, the general factor accounted for the overhelming majority of variance in criterion variables (i.e., executive attention and health anxiety); the Organization and Emotion factors accounted for a small amount of unique variance in executive attention and the Emotion factor accounted for a small amount of unique variance in health anxiety. Taken together, study findings suggest that the BDEFS-SF has a strong general factor and independent use of the domain-specific factors is contraindicated.

The relation of self-compassion to functioning among adults with chronic pain.

Previous research has shown that self-compassion is associated with improved functioning and health outcomes among multiple chronic illnesses. However, the role of self-compassion in chronic pain-related functioning is understudied. The present study sought to understand the association between self-compassion and important measures of functioning within a sample of patients with chronic pain. Treatment-seeking individuals (N=343 with chronic pain) that were mostly White (97.9%) and female (71%) completed a battery of assessments that included the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS), as well as measures of pain-related fear, depression, disability, pain acceptance, success in valued activity and use of pain coping strategies. Cross-sectional multiple regression analyses that controlled for age, sex, pain intensity and pain duration, revealed that self-compassion accounted for a significant and unique amount of variance in all measures of functioning (r2 range: 0.07-0.32, all p<0.001). Beta weights indicated that higher self-compassion was associated with lower pain-related fear, depression and disability, as well as greater pain acceptance, success in valued activities and utilization of pain coping strategies. These findings suggest that self-compassion may be a relevant adaptive process in those with chronic pain. Targeted interventions to improve self-compassion in those with chronic pain may be useful. Self-compassion is associated with better functioning across multiple general and pain-specific outcomes, with the strongest associations among measures related to psychological functioning and valued living. These findings indicate that self-compassion may be an adaptive process that could minimize the negative impact of chronic pain on important areas of life.

Individual differences in statistical learning predict children's reading ability in a semi-transparent orthography

Learning to read is a milestone in a child's life, and reading ability is a strong predictor of academic outcomes. Some studies have revealed that individual differences in the capacity for implicit statistical learning are linked with children's reading skills in English, which has a deep orthography, but we do not know whether the same relation is found in semi-transparent orthographies such as Norwegian. Additionally, the relative contribution of statistical learning alongside other cognitive measures known to be related to reading has not been examined. This study of sixty-five Norwegian school children (M = 10.3 years) found that performance on an independent statistical learning task predicted a small, but unique amount of variance in reading ability in Norwegian, even when a number of other reading-related cognitive skills were taken into account. This suggests that children's implicit learning of statistical regularities is associated with proficiency with written language in a semi-transparent orthography such as Norwegian.

Associations between language and literacy skills and sight word learning for native and nonnative English-speaking kindergarteners

This study, which was drawn from a larger published work, examined language proficiency and literacy skills predictive of learning content and function words via the commonly used practice of flashcard word reading, which tests word knowledge in isolation. The current study also investigated differences in word learning performance between students of different language backgrounds (native and nonnative English speakers), and between students at the same grade level but in different alphabetic phases of word reading development. Kindergarten students (n = 81) practiced learning to read content and function words on flashcards. Analyses examined the extent to which students’ baseline English language skills, phonemic awareness, spelling knowledge, and/or word reading predicted performance on the word learning task. Results of linear regressions demonstrated that language skills accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in reading function words in isolation, but this was not the case for reading content words in isolation. Further, results indicated that baseline alphabetic phase, and not language background, moderated the relationship between language skills and word learning, such that language skills predicted function word learning only for full alphabetic readers and not partial alphabetic readers. Results are discussed in terms of implications for the teaching of function words as dependent on children’s relative phase of literacy development rather than their language backgrounds.

A further step towards unpacking the variance in trait and ability emotional intelligence: The specific contribution of attachment quality

There have been theoretical speculations and empirical indications that individual differences in emotional intelligence (EI) are associated with quality of attachment, yet many issues regarding this relationship have remained unsettled or even unexplored. Spelling out and attempting to fill some of these gaps, the present study examined the specific contribution of attachment quality in explaining variance in both ability EI and trait EI, with traditionally conceived intelligence and the basic personality traits controlled for. Participants were 251 employed adults (116 males; age range 21–62, M = 40.3, SD = 8.14), who completed a test of ability EI; a questionnaire assessing trait EI; a battery of standard intelligence tests; a Five-Factor inventory of personality; and two self-report measures of attachment quality. Attachment security was found to be related to higher EI, associations being small-to-moderate for ability EI, and moderate-to-large for trait EI. In hierarchical regression analyses, attachment predicted a significant amount of unique variance in both ability and trait EI, beyond intelligence and personality. Moreover, attachment Anxiety surfaced as the best single (understandably, negative) predictor of both EIs, their only other mutual predictors being the g-factor and Conscientiousness. Altogether, these results yield a fuller picture of what constitutes individual differences in objectively assessed and self-perceived emotional abilities, revealing that a substantial portion of them may be understood with reference to attachment security. The present study thus warrants more extensive, longitudinal research into the developmental interplay between attachment and the two EIs.

Investigating the roles of loneliness and clinician- and self-rated depressive symptoms in predicting the subjective quality of life among people with psychosis

PurposeTo examine the roles of loneliness and clinician- and self-rated depressive symptoms as predictors of the subjective quality of life (QoL) in psychosis.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was conducted on a sample of 207 patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders. They were assessed with self-reported measures of QoL, loneliness and depression and with clinician-rated measures of depression and overall psychopathology. Multiple indicators multiple causes (MIMIC) modeling was used to analyze the data.ResultsBoth loneliness and depression turned out to be independent predictors of impaired QoL. However, once loneliness was accounted for, the effect of depression on QoL was markedly reduced and the effect of loneliness proved to be visibly larger. Self-rated depression was found to be more strongly associated with QoL than clinician-rated depression. Each type of depression measure explained a unique amount of variance in QoL. Depression moderated the relationship between loneliness and QoL in such a way that the negative effect of loneliness on QoL weakened with the increasing intensity of depressive symptoms.ConclusionsTherapeutic programs aiming to enhance the QoL of people with psychotic disorders should incorporate interventions targeting both loneliness and depression and need to be tailored to the clinical status of patients. The emphasis on alleviating loneliness should be placed first of all in the case of those with low levels of depression, among whom the negative impact of loneliness on QoL is especially strong. Researchers should be aware that the method chosen for assessing depressive symptoms in models predicting QoL in psychosis matters.

한국어 능동적·수동적 어휘습득에 관한 구조방정식 모형

The purpose of the current study was to explore the explanatory components impacting on Korean vocabulary proficiency and their cause-and-effect relationship to Korean vocabulary learning strategy. Twenty-five undergraduate students, eighty-six graduate students, and six language trainees were tested in three kind of the materials: (1) a questionnaire on Korean vocabulary learning strategy, (2) Korean vocabulary task and (3) Korean word recognition test. Results found that word recognition explained a significant amount of unique variance for Korean vocabulary proficiency. The present study verified another finding that the effect of word recognition on Korean vocabulary proficiency was the direct component as well as cognitive/social vocabulary learning strategies were the indirect variables based on the structural equation modeling(SEM). These findings lend support to incidental vocabulary learning hypothesis, which means that learners acquire vocabulary proficiency through various reading experiences. (Chonnam National University)

Do Mother’s Metacognitions, Beliefs, and Behaviors Predict Child Anxiety-Related Metacognitions?

Recent research suggests that adults and children with anxiety disorders have a particular set of metacognitive beliefs and strategies. Knowing whether parents’ metacognitions, beliefs and behaviors are associated with their children’s metacognitions is important for understanding how anxiety-related metacognitions and clinical anxiety develop. We hypothesized that there are positive relationships between mother and corresponding child anxiety-related metacognitions even after controlling for maternal depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. We also hypothesized that maternal beliefs about child anxiety and maternal controlling behavior would be positively related to child metacognitions and would account for any associations between mother and child metacognitions. The study employed a cross-sectional design in a community sample of 7–12 year old children and their mothers. Mothers and children completed questionnaires to assess anxiety-related metacognitions and an interaction task to assess mothers’ overinvolvement. Mothers also completed questionnaires regarding their beliefs about child anxiety and controlling rearing behavior. We examined correlations between variables before investigating which maternal variables made unique contributions to the variation in children’s metacognitions in a series of multiple regressions and mediation analyses. Mothers’ positive worry beliefs and cognitive confidence contributed a modest amount of unique variance in the corresponding beliefs in children. Mothers’ and children’s metacognitions were positively associated. The unique contributions of mothers’ anxiety-related metacognitions on children’s anxiety-related metacognitions found in our study indicate that a metacognitive-parental intervention for preventing and treating child anxiety is worth investigation. Our findings place anxious metacognitions in a developmental context.

Associations among parent–child relationships and cognitive and language outcomes in a clinical sample of preschool children

Objective: To examine associations among parent–child relationship characteristics and child cognitive and language outcomes. Methods: Preschool children (n = 72) with early neurological insult completed assessments of cognitive and language functioning and participated in a parent–child semi-structured interaction. Results: Quality of the parent–child relationship accounted for a significant amount of unique variance (12%) in predicting children’s overall cognitive and language functioning. Impact of neurological insult was a significant predictor. Conclusions: Caregiver–child interactions that are harmonious and reciprocal as evidenced by affective and/or verbal exchanges support children’s cognitive and language development. Observations of interactions can guide providers in facilitating child- and family-centered interventions.

Impact of religious attendance on psychosocial outcomes for individuals with traumatic brain injury: A NIDILRR funded TBI Model Systems study

Objectives: To (1) identify demographic characteristics of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) who attend religious services, (2) understand the relationship between attending religious services and psychosocial outcomes and (3) examine the independent contribution of religious service attendance to psychosocial outcomes while controlling for demographic characteristics, functional status and geographic location at 1, 5 and 10-years post injury.Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional cohort study using secondary data analysis of the TBI Model Systems (TBIMS) National Database (NDB).Participants: TBIMS NDB participants who completed 1, 5 or 10-year follow-up interview with data on religious attendance. A total of 5573 interviews were analysed.Outcome measures: Satisfaction with Life scale (SWLS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and Participation Assessment with Recombined Tools-Objective Social sub-scale.Results: Approximately half of the sample was attending religious services at each time point. Attendance was a significant protective factor for each outcome across all three-time periods. After controlling for demographic characteristics, functional status and geographic makeup, religious attendance contributed a small but significant amount of unique variance in all models except for GAD-7 at years 1 and 10.Discussion: This study highlights the benefits of religious attendance on psychosocial outcomes post-TBI. Implications for rehabilitation are discussed.

Abstract P042: Association Between Family History of Cardiovascular Disease and Childhood Obesity

Introduction: Children with family history of cardiovascular disease (F-CVD) have a higher predisposition to develop CVD risk factors during childhood due to shared genes and/or environmental factors. The purpose of this study was to examine if there is an association between F-CVD and childhood obesity. Methods: The study used longitudinally linked data from two cross-sectional datasets (the West Virginia (WV) Birth Score Project and the Coronary Artery Risk Detection in Appalachian Communities Project in fifth grade) in WV children (N=22,136). The outcome variable was BMI percentile adjusted for age and gender in fifth grade children. Exposure was defined as F-CVD (having family history of one of the six variables: heart disease, coronary heart disease, heart attack, open heart surgery, angioplasty, and death from heart disease). Additional covariates included socio-demographic variables, perinatal risk factors, and child’s current CVD risk factors. An independent sample t-test was used to determine significant difference in the BMI percentile of children with and without F-CVD. Multiple regression analysis was used to assess the adjusted relationships after controlling for covariates. The change in R-square was calculated to determine the unique amount of variance shared between F-CVD and BMI percentile. Results: Nearly one third (33.3%) of the children had F-CVD. The mean difference of BMI percentile of children with F-CVD vs. no F-CVD was 1.25 (95% CI: 0.46 - 2.04). The change in BMI percentile was 0.97 (95% CI: 0.01 - 1.94) or 0.02 standardized units for children having F-CVD compared to no F-CVD after adjusting for covariates. The predictors accounted for 25.8% of the variance in BMI percentile, and F-CVD uniquely accounted for 0.02% of the variance. Conclusion: Our results show a significant but small positive association between F-CVD and childhood obesity in fifth grade WV children. Examination of this association is an important step in identifying the role of F-CVD and childhood obesity in the state of WV.

The Association of Intelligence, Visual-Motor Functioning, and Personality Characteristics With Adaptive Behavior in Individuals With Williams Syndrome.

Williams syndrome (WS) is associated with deficits in adaptive behavior and an uneven adaptive profile. This study investigated the association of intelligence, visual-motor functioning, and personality characteristics with the adaptive behavior in individuals with WS. One hundred individuals with WS and 25 individuals with developmental disabilities of other etiologies were included in this study. This study found that IQ and visual-motor functioning significantly predicted adaptive behavior in individuals of WS. Visual-motor functioning especially predicted the most amount of unique variance in overall adaptive behavior and contributed to the variance above and beyond that of IQ. Present study highlights the need for interventions that address visual-motor and motor functioning in individuals with WS.

Adequate proverb interpretation is associated with performance on the Independent Living Scales

The purpose of this study was to examine proverb interpretation performance and functional independence in older adults. From the limited literature on proverb interpretation in aging and its conceptualization as an executive function, it was hypothesized that proverb interpretation would be related to functional independence similar to other executive functions. Tests of proverb interpretation, additional executive functions, and functional ability were administered to nondemented older adults. Results showed that proverb interpretation accounted for a significant amount of unique variance of functional ability scores. This supports including a measure of proverb interpretation to the assessment of older adults.

Developing a Measure of Appraisal: A Psychometric Analysis of the Parental Appraisal of Cleft Questionnaire

To develop a questionnaire measure of appraisals for parents of children with a cleft (the Parental Appraisal of Cleft Questionnaire) and to investigate the ability of the Parental Appraisal of Cleft Questionnaire to predict variance in parental well-being. Design, Participants, Setting: The study used a cross-sectional postal and online questionnaire design with a retest component involving parents of children with a cleft lip and/or palate. Data are presented for 179 parents, predominantly women (74.9%), aged 22 to 58 years. Participants completed the appraisal measure under development; other measures of psychological well-being, social support, and socially desirable responding; and demographic information. Overall, the Parental Appraisal of Cleft Questionnaire was found to have a coherent factor structure, good internal reliability, and good test-retest reliability. The Parental Appraisal of Cleft Questionnaire was also found to predict a significant amount of unique variance in well-being over and above the variance predicted by demographic, social support, and social desirability variables. Parental appraisals, measured by the Parental Appraisal of Cleft Questionnaire, were found to predict unique variance in well-being. These findings are discussed in relation to adjustment to cleft lip and/or palate for parents. Directions for future research are outlined and the implications for clinical practice and services are discussed.

Life satisfaction among highly achieving students in Hong Kong: do gratitude and the ‘good-enough mindset’ add to the contribution of perfectionism in prediction?

This study investigated whether gratitude and the ‘good-enough mindset’ added to the contribution of perfectionism in predicting life satisfaction in 245 Chinese highly achieving students in Hong Kong. Participants completed self-report questionnaires that included scales on life satisfaction, positive and negative perfectionism (perfectionistic striving and perfectionistic concerns), gratitude and the good-enough mindset. Measures of gratitude and the good-enough mindset explained a substantial amount of unique variance in the prediction of life satisfaction in addition to the contribution of age and measures on positive and negative perfectionism. Implications of the findings for integrating gratitude and the good-enough mindset in the development of effective positive interventions to cope with negative perfectionism in youth and adolescents are discussed.

Exercise Behavior and Social Physique Anxiety among Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to investigate the link between exercise behavior and social physique anxiety (SPA) among adolescents, and also to understand the SPA-exercise behavior relationship for controlling the demographic, psychological and behavioral variables. The participants were recruited from 18 high schools in Taiwan. Eight classes in each school were selected by convenience. A total number of 4,230 adolescents aged from 12 to 19 (2,223 boys and 2,007 girls) were participated, and completed the measurement of demographic variables (age, gender, social economic status [SES], weight and height), exercise behavior, weight loss, smoking, drinking behaviors, and psychological variables (SPA scale, self-esteem scale, contour drawing rating scale, and teasing experience). A three-step forced entry multiple regression analysis was performed to determine how much of the variance in SPA was explained by exercise behavior and other variables. Examination of the regression coefficient showed that exercise behavior was a significant and negative factor of SPA, accounting for 2.4% of the variance in SPA. Demographic variables were entered for the next step, adding a further 14.7% of the variance. Exercise behavior was significantly related to SPA. When behavioral and psychological variables were added to the model, the variance increased to 20.1%. The final model revealed that except SES, all other variables were significant factors, explaining 37.2% of the variance in SPA. The exercise behavior-SPA relationship remained statistically significant even after multivariate adjustment. This study further explored the exercise behavior-SPA relationship with a broad range of variables. This study concludes that exercise behavior accounts for a significant amount of unique variance in the presence of demographic, psychological and behavioral variables.

The role of emotional inexpressivity and experiential avoidance in the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity and aggressive behavior among men exposed to interpersonal violence*

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been found to be associated with aggressive behavior. Recent evidence suggests that the ways in which individuals respond to their emotions may account for this relationship. In particular, to the extent that aggressive behaviors serve an emotion regulatory function, responding to emotions with avoidance (i.e., experiential avoidance) or the active suppression of emotional expression may heighten emotion dysregulation, increasing the risk for aggressive behavior as individuals attempt to regulate that dysregulated state. This study examined whether these two ways of responding to emotions account for the relationship between PTSD symptom severity and self-reported engagement in aggressive behavior among a diverse sample of 113 men with past exposure to interpersonal violence. Experiential avoidance and emotional inexpressivity each accounted for a significant amount of unique variance in aggressive behavior, above and beyond PTSD symptom severity and trait anger. Clinical and research implications of findings are discussed.

General auditory processing, Chinese tone processing, English phonemic processing and English reading skill: a comparison between Chinese-English and Korean-English bilingual children

In the present study, we investigated the relationship between general auditory processing, Chinese tone processing, English phonemic processing and English reading skill in a group of Chinese-English bilingual children with a tonal L1 and Korean-English counterparts with a non-tonal L1. We found that general auditory processing contributed to variance in English word reading skill for Chinese children after controlling for Chinese tone and English phoneme deletion skill. English phonemic processing, on the other hand, explained a significant amount of unique variance in English reading for Korean children after controlling for general auditory and Chinese tone skill. These findings suggest that Chinese children relied more on general auditory processing in reading English, whereas Korean children relied more on phonemic skill in reading English. These findings are discussed in terms of the impact of cross-language differences in bilingual reading acquisition.

Illness perception and its relationship to readiness to change in the eating disorders: A preliminary investigation

This study investigated the psychometric properties of a modified version of the Illness Perception Questionnaire - Revised (IPQ-R) in individuals with eating disorders. The relationship between illness representations and stage of change was then explored. Design and method. A cross-sectional design was employed and participants were asked to complete a set of questionnaires. A subset of participants completed the IPQ-R again after 2 weeks in order to assess test-retest reliability. The relationship between illness representations and stage of change was explored using hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Sixty-nine participants with a clinical eating disorder took part in the study. With the exception of the causal subscales, the modified version of the IPQ-R had good internal validity and good test-retest reliability. Consequences, treatment control and personal control as well as cyclical timeline perceptions accounted for a significant and unique amount of variance in readiness to change stage scores. Findings suggest that this modified version of the IPQ-R provides a reliable means of exploring illness representations in individuals with eating disorders. Given the significant relationships between illness representations and stage of change, it may be helpful to consider these aspects of illness representations when carrying out therapeutic work with this clinical population. Further research might usefully investigate the relationship between illness perceptions and clinical outcome, as well as examine what factors are important in the shift between stages of change in a longitudinal design.