Some things you should know about structural equation modeling but never thought to ask

Iacobucci (2009, 2010) covers a number of important issues in the use of structural equation modeling and in so doing provides researchers with many useful insights and sensible suggestions. This commentary focuses on three issues where our views differ somewhat from those expressed in the target articles: SEM and causal inferences, sample size, and model fit. In addressing each of these issues, our perspectives do not so much contradict the views expressed by Iacobucci as they reflect a somewhat different conceptual emphasis.     

The Departure Status of Youth from Residential Group Care: Implications for Aftercare

Youth departing from out-of-home care settings face numerous challenges as they adapt to new settings or return to placements that have been unsuccessful in the past. Although several thousand youth face this transition annually, little is known about their specific needs and risks at departure. To better identify needs and risks, we evaluated the discharge data of 640 youth served in a residential group care setting by addressing the following questions: (a) to what settings do youth depart following a stay in residential group care, (b) what are the demographic, family, educational, behavioral, and departure characteristics of youth at departure, and (c) do these characteristics differ for youth departing to different levels of restrictiveness? Results indicate significant differences on youth characteristics based on levels of restrictiveness at departure placement. As one might expect, youth departing to more restrictive placements presented a broad host of challenges across domains, while those departing to less restrictive settings demonstrated fewer needs and departed with greater educational and behavioral gains. Results provide support for the development and planning of targeted aftercare programs designed to promote the short and long term functioning of youth served in out-of-home care.     

Risk Profiles of Children Entering Residential Care: A Cluster Analysis

Children in residential care are a heterogeneous population, presenting various combinations of risks. Existing studies on these children suggest high variability across multiple domains (e.g., academics, behavior). Given this heterogeneity, it is important to begin to identify the combinations and patterns of multiple risks, or risk profiles, these children present. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the academic and behavioral risk profiles of children entering residential care. Cluster analysis procedures using academic and behavior variables revealed three distinct profiles of children: Group 1: Average Janes, characterized by average academic skills, no behavior problems, and some demographic risks; Group 2: Academic Risks, characterized by low academics and increased rule-breaking behavior; and finally Group 3: Behavioral Risks, characterized by average academics and elevated behaviors. These preliminary finding are discussed along with limitations, directions for future research, and implications.     

Anthony C. Thiselton,Interpreting God and the Postmodern Self: On Meaning,Manipulation and Promise

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Differences in Mathematical Performance,Creativity Potential,and Need for Cognitive Closure between Chinese and Australian Students

Research has shown that Chinese students outperform students from several Western countries on mathematics performance while some evidence has suggested that Western students perform more strongly on tests of creativity. One potential mechanism for these differences may be a higher need for cognitive closure among Chinese students. The current research compared performance on tests of mathematics and creativity among 50 students of Chinese background and 49 Australian students of Anglo‐Saxon background. As predicted, Chinese students performed better on mathematics while Australian students performed better on the measure of creativity. Australian students also had a lower score on one subscale of the need for cognitive closure, preference for predictability. Across the sample, preference for predictability showed small but significant negative correlations with several measures of creativity and positive correlations with several measures of mathematics. These findings were interpreted with respect to characteristic educational practices in both nations.     

Guns,Impulsive Angry Behavior,and Mental Disorders: Results from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R)

Analyses from the National Comorbidity Study Replication provide the first nationally representative estimates of the co-occurrence of impulsive angry behavior and possessing or carrying a gun among adults with and without certain mental disorders and demographic characteristics. The study found that a large number of individuals in the United States self-report patterns of impulsive angry behavior and also possess firearms at home (8.9%) or carry guns outside the home (1.5%). These data document associations of numerous common mental disorders and combinations of angry behavior with gun access. Because only a small proportion of persons with this risky combination have ever been involuntarily hospitalized for a mental health problem, most will not be subject to existing mental health-related legal restrictions on firearms resulting from a history of involuntary commitment. Excluding a large proportion of the general population from gun possession is also not likely to be feasible. Behavioral risk-based approaches to firearms restriction, such as expanding the definition of gun-prohibited persons to include those with violent misdemeanor convictions and multiple DUI convictions, could be a more effective public health policy to prevent gun violence in the population. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of Presession Pairing on the Challenging Behavior and Academic Responding of Children with Autism

Presession pairing is an antecedent‐based procedure in which an instructor engages with preferred items with a child for a few minutes before an instructional session. Although this procedure has been described in manualized treatment guidelines for working with children with autism, there are currently no direct investigations of whether this manipulation has a beneficial impact on target responding or the child's social interactions. Functional analyses with three children with autism showed escape or attention and escape as reinforcers for their challenging behavior. Preference assessments identified highly and moderately preferred stimuli. In the context of a multiple baseline across participants design, the participants exhibited fewer challenging behaviors when instructional sessions were preceded by presession pairing than when they were not. Academic responding showed modest increases. Subsequently, in the presence of presession pairing with a novel task, the participants emitted no challenging behavior and similar or higher levels of accurate academic responding. One participant was available for a maintenance session without presession pairing 5 months later and showed near‐zero levels of challenging behavior and comparable levels of accurate academic responding. The implications of the findings and future directions are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The mnemonic effect of speech gestures: Pantomimic and non-pantomimic gestures compared

Abstract

A video-taped model presented subjects with sets of sentences to be free-recalled. under three presentation conditions: (1) accompanied by pantomimic gestures; (2) accompanied by non-pantomimic gestures; and (3) no gestures present. When the sentences formed a narrative, the gestures did not affect recall. When the sentences were unconnected, recall was higher for the gestured than for tbe non-gestured sentences. The pantomimic and non-pantomimic gestures showed about the same mnemonic effect. The subjects were given a second test, either recall-cued by the gestures, or else free recall of the gestured Sentences only. The pantomimic conditions were superior to the non-pantomimic conditions in both these tests. Possible explanations for the mnemonic effects of the gestures are discussed.