What predicts adjustment among law students? A longitudinal panel study

Although at the time of this article's publication, many anecdotes and cross-sectional studies had reported that law students experience significant distress during their 1st year, few researchers had controlled for prelaw school status (e.g., M. Garrison, B. Tomko, & I. Yip, 1996; L. Guinier, M. Fine, J. Balin, A. Bartow, & D. L. Stachel, 1994), and only a single group of researchers had explored a psychosocial factor that predicted these changes. The present authors tested 3 sets of potential predictors of adjustment: sources of stress, coping strategies, and relationship factors. The present data replicated declines in students' psychological health, physical health, and attitudes toward law over the 1st year of school. That result supports the generalizability and currency of previous studies. In contrast to other researchers, the present authors found few gender differences. Less relationship happiness, less emotional support, and use of less active coping tactics at the beginning of the year predicted poorer outcomes at the end of the year. Strain from academic pressures, lack of personal time, and social isolation were correlated with poorer outcomes.     

CAI: Goals and perspectives: Computer users’ group panel discussion

This report of the users’ group meeting contains a condensed version of a panel discussion of general issues involving computer-assisted instruction (CAI) systems. The discussants were asked to comment on the goals of the CAI efforts and the past accomplishments and future of computer systems in education.     

Which came first? Bulimia and emotional symptoms: A cross-lagged panel analysis

PurposeResearchers have found growing evidence for the comorbidity link between bulimia and emotional symptoms among Chinese female youth. However, the prospective effect of one on the other is still unclear. Therefore, a cross-lagged model was used to examine the possible underlying mechanism between bulimia and two typical emotional problems (i.e., anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms), respectively, in the present study.MethodsA total of 471 female college students participated in the three waves of the present study. Self-reported questionnaires were delivered to assess their bulimia, anxiety symptoms, and depressive symptoms.ResultsAfter controlling for earlier levels of symptoms, our finding indicated that anxiety symptoms triggered more bulimia symptoms from Time 1 to Time 2. In turn, the reciprocal cycles occurred between anxiety symptoms and bulimia symptoms from Time 2 to Time 3. More interestingly, a similar pattern was found between depressive symptoms and bulimia.ConclusionsThe persistence and reciprocal cycle between bulimia and emotional symptoms are worthy of attention. Specifically, female youth with higher levels of emotional symptoms appear to be more profound at high risk for eating-related problems afterward. Further eating-related intervention programs may also need to take the level of female youth's emotional symptoms into consideration.     

Does a panel discussion on analytic technique have any effect on an audience of analysts?

This is a report of a followup study to determine whether attending a panel discussion group on post-termination patient-analyst contact influenced the analytic audience's attitude on that subject. A questionnaire about post-termination contact was given to 21 analysts who did not attend the discussion group and to 45 analysts before they attended. The same questionnaire was given again to both groups six months later. Responses by the 21 analysts who had not been present remained essentially unchanged. Responses of the 45 analysts, after attending the discussion group, when compared to responses of an earlier group of 300 analysts, showed an increase in the proportion of analysts who said, in reference to psychoanalytic psychotherapy patients, either that they hoped to hear from the patient or that they would like the patient to return to see them at some specified period after treatment termination. Attendance at the discussion seems responsible for a significant effect on the analytic audience's attitude on post-termination patient-analyst contact.     

Can job crafting reduce job boredom and increase work engagement? A three-year cross-lagged panel study

Building upon the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, this longitudinal study examined whether job crafting behaviors (i.e. increasing structural and social job resources and increasing challenges) predict less job boredom and more work engagement. We also tested the reverse causation effects of job boredom and work engagement on job crafting and the dynamics between the three job crafting behaviors over time. We employed a two-wave, three-year panel design and included 1630 highly educated Finnish employees from a broad spectrum of occupations in various organizations. Our results indicated that seeking challenges in particular negatively predicted job boredom and positively predicted work engagement. Seeking challenges fueled other job crafting behaviors, which, in their turn, predicted seeking more challenges over time, thus supporting the accumulation of resources. Job boredom negatively predicted increasing structural resources, whereas work engagement positively predicted increasing both structural and social resources. These findings suggest that seeking challenges at work enhances employee work engagement, prevents job boredom, and generates other job crafting behaviors. Conversely, job boredom seems to impede job crafting.     

Psychomotor abilities via touch‐panel testing: Measurement innovations,construct, and criterion validity

Assessment of psychomotor abilities for prediction of human performance is briefly reviewed. Reasons for the abandonment of psychomotor testing for selection applications are described. We review innovations in touch‐sensitive computer monitors as a methodology for relatively low‐cost, highly flexible test development, validation, and application of standard psychomotor tests. The development and evaluation of 5 psychomotor test types are described including discrete response tests (choice‐simple reaction time [RT], serial RT, and tapping) and continuous‐response tests (maze tracing and mirror tracing). Two empirical studies of the new psychomotor tests are presented, with a broad array of perceptual speed and cognitive abilities providing evidence for construct validity. In addition, some of the psychomotor tests are validated against a real‐time simulation criterion (the Kanfer‐Ackerman Air Traffic Controller Task©). We argue that these new innovations provide a means toward revisiting psychomotor testing to augment employee selection batteries.     

Supervisors’ relational transparency moderates effects among employees’ illegitimate tasks and job dissatisfaction: a four-wave panel study

Despite repeated calls for the inclusion of leadership in research on illegitimate tasks, little is known about what supervisors can actually do to mitigate negative effects of illegitimate tasks. We propose transparent leadership behavior as an effective means that buffers detrimental effects of illegitimate tasks. We further propose reciprocal effects between illegitimate tasks and job dissatisfaction. Based on a short panel study with four surveys across four consecutive weeks, data of 347 employees were analyzed using multiple group structural equation models. For the two facets of illegitimate tasks, results were more consistent for unnecessary than for unreasonable tasks. We found main and moderating effects in both the normal causal and the reversed causal direction for unnecessary tasks, with more consistent main effects in the reversed direction and stronger moderating effects in the normal direction: Job dissatisfaction rather led to unnecessary tasks than vice versa; while high transparency particularly buffered the effects of unnecessary tasks on job dissatisfaction. Thus, by means of transparent leadership behavior, supervisors are able to effectively intervene in the vicious circle between illegitimate tasks and employees’ job dissatisfaction and thereby benefit working conditions for leaders and followers alike.     

Intellectual property protection,technological innovation and enterprise value—An empirical study on panel data of 80 advanced manufacturing SMEs

Study the role of intellectual property protection in advanced manufacturing SMEs. Is it to protect the growth of advanced manufacturing SMEs, or to inhibit the growth of SMEs in advanced manufacturing? the paper brings the medium variable – technological innovation to explore acting paths of intellectual property protection in enterprises’ value improvement. Through analysis of panel data of 80 SMEs of advanced manufacture collected during the period from 2013 to 2015, Research results show that as for SMEs of advanced manufacture, the inverted-U relationship still exists in the influences brought by intellectual property protection to enterprise values. Meanwhile, U-shaped relations exist between intellectual property protection and technological innovation. Increase of technological innovation investment can promote increase of enterprise values.     

The relationship between habitual physical activity status and executive function in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease: a longitudinal,cross-lagged panel analysis

To determine whether habitual physical activity status specifically influences executive function change in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) over 1 year. In this longitudinal cohort study, 45 participants with AD were recruited and provided follow-up data approximately 1 year later. Executive function measures (map search task, digit symbol substitution task, controlled oral word association task, verbal fluency task) and habitual physical activity measures (Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) and handgrip strength) were taken at baseline and follow-up. Individual composites were subsequently created. Additional demographic, lifestyle, and neuropsychiatric measures were also taken. In a structural equation model (χ²(26) = 9.84, p = .998, comparative fit index = 1.00, root mean square error of approximation = .00), a significant association was found between habitual physical activity and executive function change (β = .27, p = .04). In a cross-lagged panel analysis, a significant path was found between the PASE score and executive change (β = .22, p = .01). As higher habitual physical activity levels were associated with reduced executive function change, the promotion of low-intensity habitual physical activities in individuals with a diagnosis of AD may be warranted. Further research is needed, however, to explore the impact of habitual physical activity on the trajectory of change across cognitive domains, and how this relates to the progression of the underlying pathology associated with this disease.     

How to launch a national Internet-based panel study quickly: lessons from studying how American are coping with the tragedy of September 11, 2001?

This article reports on the planning, development, and implementation of a large national Internet-based panel study of how Americans are coping with the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The study was designed to determine predictors and correlates of risk and resilience, both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. In order to acquire timely and meaningful data, we developed/adapted an extensive set of measures, obtained human subjects approval, and posted a research Web site just 17 days after the attacks. This article describes the major hurdles we confronted and the guidelines we recommend regarding these topics, including the methodological trade-offs inherent in Internet-based research, information technology requirements and tribulations, human subjects issues, selection of measures and securing permission for their use, and the challenges of participant recruitment. We also discuss issues that we did not anticipate, including the survey intervention. We focus not on findings, but on the concrete procedural, administrative, technical, and scientific challenges we encountered and the solutions we devised under considerable time and resource pressures.