The mediation effects of achievement motivation and locus of control between academic stress and life satisfaction in undergraduate students

This study investigated the mediation effect of locus of control and achievement motivation between academic stress and life satisfaction. A total of 307 undergraduate students recruited from a Hispanic Serving Institution in South Texas participated in the study. In the frame of the study, two mediation models were tested by utilising PROCESS Procedure for SPSS (Hayes, 2013. Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: A regression-based approach. New York, NY: Guilford Press). The results indicated that bivariate correlations among study variables ranged from ?.24 to .32. The overall composite indicated that academic stress contributed to 6% of the variance in life satisfaction (p?b?=??.06), while the mediating effect of locus of control contributed to 10% of the variance in Life Satisfaction (p?b?=??.4).     

Secret Agent Society: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Transdiagnostic Youth Social Skills Group Treatment

Group programs are key for targeting social skills (SS) for children with developmental disorders and/or mental illness. Despite promising evidence regarding efficacy of group treatments, there are several limitations to current research regarding generalizability and effectiveness across diagnoses. This randomized control trial assessed whether the Secret Agent Society (SAS) group program was superior to treatment as usual (TAU) in improving social-emotional functioning for children with Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and/or anxiety. Eighty-nine youth (8–12) with ADHD, ASD, and/or an anxiety disorder receiving treatment at hospital-based outpatient clinics were randomized to receive SAS (n?=?47) or TAU (n?=?42) over a three-month period, at which point TAU participants were offered the SAS intervention. Parent report showed significant improvement in Emotion Regulation (ER) and Social Skills (SS) for youth in SAS vs. TAU (Fs?≥?6.79, ps?≤?01). Gains for the SAS condition were maintained at 6-months. Intent-to-treat analysis of teacher report indicated youth in SAS had positive gains in SS (F?=?0.41, p?=?0.475) and ER (F?=?0.99, p?=?0.322), though not significantly better than youth in TAU. Clinically reliable improvement rates were significantly higher for SAS participants than TAU for parent and teacher reported SS and ER. Improvements were significant for youth with single and comorbid diagnoses. Results suggest that SAS was superior to TAU in improving SS and ER for youth aged 8–12 with ADHD, ASD, and/or anxiety. Gains maintained in the medium-term. Trial registration number NCT02574273, registered 10/12/2015.

     

Using Liberation Psychology and Dialectical Humanism to Understand Latinx Adolescents’ Life Satisfaction and Depressive Symptoms

The authors conducted a study to examine how the presence of meaning in life, search for meaning in life, hope, family importance, and enculturation influenced Latinx adolescent students’ depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Two regression models revealed there was a statistically significant relationship between predictor variables, life satisfaction, and depression. The article concludes with a discussion regarding the importance of these findings and recommendations for practice and research. Los autores llevaron a cabo un estudio para examinar cómo la presencia de sentido en la vida, la búsqueda de sentido en la vida, la esperanza, la importancia de la familia y la enculturación influyeron en los síntomas depresivos y satisfacción vital de estudiantes adolescentes Latinx. Dos modelos de regresión revelaron que existe una relación estadísticamente significativa entre las variables de predicción, la satisfacción vital y la depresión. Este artículo concluye con una discusión en torno a la importancia de estos hallazgos, así como recomendaciones para la práctica y la investigación.