Implementation and evaluation of a first-year university induction support programme for business students in Spain

This paper reports new evidence on students’ evaluation of a first-year induction experience programme and examines the relationship between gender and perceptions. The programme was provided to 610 business studies students at the University of Granada (Spain). The programme includes individual and group sessions providing psychosocial and instrumental support. Gender differences were investigated using nonparametric techniques. Structural equation models were used to test relationships between variables of overall satisfaction with the programme and its activities and the moderating effects of gender. The results obtained show that gender significantly influences enrolment and satisfaction with the programme and with the individual sessions. Satisfaction with group and individual activities is directly related to overall satisfaction with the programme. Gender has a moderating effect on the relation of overall satisfaction with individual sessions.     

A threat to Canadian national security: a lesbian soldier’s story

Before 1992, lesbians and gay soldiers were purged and discharged from the Canadian military for “reasons of homosexuality.” Those caught or suspected of homosexuality were subject to lengthy, humiliating, and degrading interrogations. This short story sheds light on this painful past. It is based on findings of a nationally funded pan-Canadian longitudinal study examining how Canadian military policies and practices influenced the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender soldiers and their partners. In total, 126 people were interviewed. While in the military, countless soldiers were investigated, numerous interrogated, many lost their careers, some committed suicide and others survived. Personal details have been changed to ensure the anonymity of the people, but it is their voices that tell this story. An official state apology was delivered November 28, 2017. Due to an impending class action court case, an agreement for compensation was also reached. Compensation and memorials will be forthcoming to those who were affected by the LGBTQI2+ purge campaign. To this day, no evidence exits that these soldiers were “ever” a threat to national security.     

Relationships between identity domains and life satisfaction in minority and majority youth in Albania,Bulgaria, Czech Republic,Kosovo, and Romania

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine relationships between identity domains (educational and relational identity) and life satisfaction in a cross-national perspective, by targeting minority (Roma) and majority youth in Albania, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kosovo, and Romania. Based on the three-factor identity formation model, we investigated the interplay between three identity processes (i.e., commitment, in-depth exploration, and reconsideration of commitment) and life satisfaction. Participants were 1860 adolescents aged 12–19 years from Albania (n = 350), Bulgaria (n = 398), the Czech Republic (n = 293), Kosovo (n = 542), and Romania (n = 277). They completed self-reports of the Utrecht-Management of Identity Commitments Scale (U-MICS) and the Life Satisfaction Scale (SWLS). We adopted a structural equation modelling approach to test (a) measurement invariance of identity and life satisfaction models across groups and (b) associations between identity domains (educational and relational) and life satisfaction. Findings indicated measurement invariance for identity and life satisfaction measures across cultural groups. In the total sample, life satisfaction was consistently associated with high commitment, high in-depth exploration, and low reconsideration of commitment in the educational identity domain. Sample-specific associations highlighted important cultural differences. Implications of these findings for identity and well-being in minority and mainstream youth across the countries under investigation are discussed.     

Parent–Child Conflict Profiles in Chinese American Immigrant Families: Links to Sociocultural Factors and School‐Age Children's Psychological Adjustment

Research suggests that parent–child conflict is a salient family process in Asian immigrant families and often a stressful experience for Asian American youth due to value discrepancies between Asian and Western cultures. The present study examined ratings of parent–child conflict across conflict topics from parents' and children's perspectives in a sample of Chinese American immigrant families with school‐age children (N = 239; age = 7.5–11 years). Latent profile analyses identified three parent‐rated conflict profiles and four child‐rated conflict profiles. Parent and child conflict profiles were unrelated to each other and differentially related to family sociocultural factors and children's psychological adjustment. Parents' moderate conflict profile scored highest on parent‐rated child behavior problems and had the highest household density and lower parent Chinese orientation. Children's moderate‐specific and high conflict profiles scored higher on child‐reported behavior problems than the low conflict profile. These results highlight the need to assess family conflict from both parents' and children's perspectives and target parent–child conflict communication as a pathway to prevent or reduce behavioral problems in Chinese American children of immigrant families.     

A semiparametric approach for item response function estimation to detect item misfit

When scaling data using item response theory, valid statements based on the measurement model are only permissible if the model fits the data. Most item fit statistics used to assess the fit between observed item responses and the item responses predicted by the measurement model show significant weaknesses, such as the dependence of fit statistics on sample size and number of items. In order to assess the size of misfit and to thus use the fit statistic as an effect size, dependencies on properties of the data set are undesirable. The present study describes a new approach and empirically tests it for consistency. We developed an estimator of the distance between the predicted item response functions (IRFs) and the true IRFs by semiparametric adaptation of IRFs. For the semiparametric adaptation, the approach of extended basis functions due to Ramsay and Silverman (2005) is used. The IRF is defined as the sum of a linear term and a more flexible term constructed via basis function expansions. The group lasso method is applied as a regularization of the flexible term, and determines whether all parameters of the basis functions are fixed at zero or freely estimated. Thus, the method serves as a selection criterion for items that should be adjusted semiparametrically. The distance between the predicted and semiparametrically adjusted IRF of misfitting items can then be determined by describing the fitting items by the parametric form of the IRF and the misfitting items by the semiparametric approach. In a simulation study, we demonstrated that the proposed method delivers satisfactory results in large samples (i.e., N ≥ 1,000).     

Development of the Spanish short version of Negative Attitudes Toward Masturbation Inventory

Background/Objective: Masturbation has historically been a sexual behaviour associated with negative connotations, as a consequence of traditional orthodox positions, despite its positive impact on health. The instruments developed to measure the attitude towards masturbation are scarce, and none of them have been validated in the Spanish adult population. This study aims to propose a short version of the Negative Attitudes Toward Masturbation Inventory (NATMI) and examine their psychometric properties (reliability and evidence of validity) in the Spanish adult population. Method: A total of 4,116 heterosexual adults aged 18-83 years (M = 40.58; SD = 12.24; 54.64% women) participated in the study. In addition to the NATMI, they answered other scales to assess sexual attitudes, sexual desire, propensity to become sexually excited/inhibited and sexual functioning. Results: Analysis of the construct validity of the NATMI resulted in a reduced version of ten items grouped into a single factor explaining 66% of the variance (ordinal alpha = .95). The evidence of validity is clear, as subjects with negative and positive attitude towards masturbation differed in religiousness, frequency of masturbation, erotophilia, positive attitude towards sexual fantasies, sexual inhibition and sexual functioning. Conclusions: The Spanish short version of NATMI provides reliable and valid measures in the Spanish adult population.     

Social Competence and Child-to-Parent Violence: Analyzing the Role of the Emotional Intelligence,Social Attitudes,and Personal Values

This study examined some variables of the so-called social competence, such as the emotional intelligence, social attitudes, and personal values in adolescents who had committed a parent-abuse offense, analyzing whether there were some differences with respect to non-offender adolescents. The sample included 60 participants. From them, 30 were adolescents who had been charged with committing a parent-abuse offense and 30 were non-offender adolescents. Results revealed that parent-abuse offenders showed lower levels of emotional intelligence, more antisocial and less prosocial attitudes than non-offender adolescents, as well as higher scores in hedonism and power values.     

A longitudinal study of temperament in infancy: stability and convergence of measures

This study analyzed the stability of individual differences in temperament and the convergence between two kinds of measures used to assess temperament: maternal report (IBQ and TBAQ), and laboratory measures. Sixty children were assessed at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months of age and their mothers' reports were collected at the same time. Mothers' perceptions of their children's temperament showed high stability across the range of children's ages. In laboratory, however, moderate stability was found only for the period between 9 and 12 months. Convergence between laboratory and maternal report measures was found at 6 and 12 months. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Negation Theory as a Cause of Delusion: The Case of the Unabomber

The case of the Unabomber is examined as a test of the authors' theory of negation, which is based on four steps: (1) negation, (2) persecutory ideation, (3) attachment to a transcendental source, and (4) evangelism/martyrdom. The Unabomber sent bombs that killed three persons and injured others, and became a cause celebre in the 1990s when he threatened to blow up an airliner in flight if his 36,000 word manifesto was not published in a leading periodical. Eventually captured and tried, he refused an insanity defense but accepted a sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. The authors' theory is a phenomenological model which encourages an intensive analysis of observations of behavior, with the goal of abstracting dimensions that serve to integrate the observations, codify them, and bind them into a unitary system.     

paraprofessionals: partners for employment counselors?

The Projectgroep Evaluatie Welzijn 0–18 jarige allochtonen (Research Group on the Evaluation of the Social Welfare Program for 0–18‐Year‐Olds of Ethnic Minority Backgrounds), a research group affiliated with the Verwey‐Jonker Institute, has studied the use of paraprofessionals in the Netherlands. This article is based on results from that research project. In the Netherlands, paraprofessionals are increasingly used to reach out to target groups, particularly ethnic minorities, and are themselves usually members of the target group. Employment counselors often need to provide guidance for people belonging to ethnic minorities. The authors recommend that employment counselors use paraprofessionals as partners in this process.