Asymptotic comparison of missing data procedures for estimating factor loadings

Large sample properties of four methods of handling multivariate missing data are compared. The criterion for comparison is how well the loadings from a single factor model can be estimated. It is shown that efficiencies of the methods depend on the pattern or arrangement of missing data, and an evaluation study is used to generate predictive efficiency equations to guide one's choice of an estimating procedure. A simple regression-type estimator is introduced which shows high efficiency relative to the maximum likelihood method over a large range of patterns and covariance matrices.     

Proximal Impact of Two First-Grade Preventive Interventions on the Early Risk Behaviors for Later Substance Abuse, Depression, and Antisocial Behavior

We assessed the immediate effects of two universal, first-grade preventive interventions on the proximal targets of poor achievement, concentration problems, aggression, and shy behaviors, known early risk behaviors for later substance use/abuse, affective disorder, and conduct disorder. The classroom-centered (CC) intervention was designed to reduce these early risk behaviors by enhancing teachers' behavior management and instructional skills, whereas the family-school partnership (FSP) intervention was aimed at improving parent-teacher communication and parental teaching and child behavior management strategies. Over the course of first and second grades, the CC intervention yielded the greatest degree of impact on its proximal targets, whereas the FSP's impact was somewhat less. The effects were influenced by gender and by preintervention levels of risk. Analyses of implementation measures demonstrated that greater fidelity to the intervention protocols was associated with greater impact on behavior ratings and on achievement scores, thus providing some evidence of specificity in the effect of the interventions.     

Comparison of mediational selected strategies and sequential designs for preventive trials: Comments on a proposal by pillow et al.

Summary Mediational selection designs can increase the chance of finding an intervention to be statistically better than a control when compared to interventions applied to a selected subpopulation such as all children of divorce. Selection based on poor mediational variable scores creates a high expectation that many subjects will benefit because it matches a population to a given intervention strategy. It does not permit examination of the impact on other subjects nor the possibility of interventions that may be tuned to the specific needs of different subpopulations. A sequence of trials each built on the results of previous ones has the potential for extending the results obtained from a mediational selection design.     

Developmental epidemiologically based preventive trials: Baseline modeling of early target behaviors and depressive symptoms

Describes a conceptual framework for identifying and targeting developmental antecedents in early childhood that have been shown in previous work to predict delinquency and violent behavior, heavy drug use, depression, and other psychiatric symptoms and possibly disorders in late adolescence and into adulthood. Criteria are described that guided choices of targets for two epidemiologically based, randomized preventive trials carried out in 19 elementary schools in the eastern half of Baltimore, involving more than 2,400 first-grade children over the course of first and second grades. Baseline models derived from the first of two cohorts show the evolving patterns of concurrence among the target antecedents. The central role of concentration problems emerged. From Fall to Spring in first grade, concentration problems led to shy and aggressive behavior and poor achievement in both genders and to depressive symptoms among girls. There was evidence for reciprocal relationships in girls. For example, depressive symptoms led to poor achievement in both girls and boys, whereas poor achievement led to depressive symptoms in girls but not boys, at least over the first-grade year. These results provide important epidemiological data relevant to the developmental paths leading to the problem outcomes and suggest preventive trials.     

Separating multiple processes in implicit social cognition: the quad model of implicit task performance

The authors argue that implicit measures of social cognition do not reflect only automatic processes but rather the joint contributions of multiple, qualitatively different processes. The quadruple process model proposed and tested in the present article quantitatively disentangles the influences of 4 distinct processes on implicit task performance: the likelihood that automatic bias is activated by a stimulus; that a correct response can be determined; that automatic bias is overcome; and that, in the absence of other information, a guessing bias drives responses. The stochastic and construct validity of the model is confirmed in 5 studies. The model is shown to provide a more nuanced and detailed understanding of the interplay of multiple processes in implicit task performance, including implicit measures of attitudes, prejudice, and stereotyping.     

Beyond the Big Five: Leader Goal Orientation as a Predictor of Leadership Effectiveness

This study examined proximal traits as mediators of the relationships between distal traits and leadership effectiveness. Specifically, we examined goal orientation, leadership self-efficacy, and motivation to lead (MTL) as antecedents of leadership effectiveness, after controlling for the Big Five personality traits. We tested our hypotheses with a sample of 100 leaders of four-person teams performing a manufacturing task in a laboratory setting. Consistent with expectation, leadership self-efficacy partially mediated the relationships between learning goal orientation and Affective-Identity MTL as well as Social-Normative MTL, after controlling for the Big Five. Noncalculative MTL related significantly to averaged team member ratings of leadership effectiveness, after controlling for both the leader's and the team member's personality. These results help aid in our understanding of why leader traits relate to leadership effectiveness.     

Positive and Negative Affectivity and Facet Satisfaction: A Meta-analysis

Although several studies have investigated the dispositional approach to global job satisfaction, less direct attention has been given to the relationship between dispositions and facet satisfaction. The current meta-analysis examined the relationships of trait positive affectivity (PA) and trait negative affectivity (NA) with satisfaction toward the following five job facets: work itself, supervision, co-workers, pay and promotion. In general, results suggested the presence of a dispositional component to facet satisfaction. Moderator analyses examined whether the strength of these relationships depended on the particular scales used to assess dispositions.