Neuropsychological test norms controlled for physical health: Does it matter?

The objective of the present study was to investigate the effects of physical health on neuropsychological test norms. Medical and neuropsychological data from 118 healthy volunteer controls, aged 26–91 years, were collected during five recruitment occasions. The examinations included a clinical investigation, brain neuroimaging, and a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Test‐specific statistical regression‐weights for age, education and gender were calculated to establish preliminary test norms. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that control in addition for physical health moved best performance from age 60 to 65 for abstraction; replaced a plateau above age 70 for verbal fluency, with a continued rise in performance; eliminated significant negative influences of age on auditory learning, spatial reasoning and complex copying; reduced them on wordlist recall, psychomotor speed, visual scanning and mental shifting; and slightly reduced negative influences of low education on most verbal tests, several memory tests, and psychomotor speed, indicating rises in normative scores of up to 0.8 SD at age 80 and 0.4 SD at age 60. No differences were found at age 40. Although the sample size is not adequate to be used for normative data, the findings indicate that norms uncontrolled for health overestimate the negative influence of advanced age and low education, implying a risk of drawing false diagnostic conclusions.     

BIG DATA: NEW SCIENCE,NEW CHALLENGES,NEW DIALOGICAL OPPORTUNITIES

The advent of extremely large data sets, known as “big data,” has been heralded as the instantiation of a new science, requiring a new kind of practitioner: the “data scientist.” This article explores the concept of big data, drawing attention to a number of new issues—not least ethical concerns, and questions surrounding interpretation—which big data sets present. It is observed that the skills required for data scientists are in some respects closer to those traditionally associated with the arts and humanities than to those associated with the natural sciences; and it is urged that big data presents new opportunities for dialogue, especially concerning hermeneutical issues, for theologians and data scientists.     

Exploring Daily Religious/Spiritual Activities Among Older Couples: Religious/Spiritual Influence Moderating the Effects of Health Symptoms on Marital Interactions

Using data from 191 later-life couples across 14 days, patterns of husband and wife religious/spiritual activities were explored, as well as how those activities predicted daily marital processes and how they moderated the links between daily physical symptoms and marital interactions. Husband and wife reports of religious/spiritual influence were linked with their own positive and negative marital interactions (“actor” effects). However, only husband religious/spiritual influence was linked with wife marital interactions (“partner” effects). Religious/spiritual influence moderated the link between symptoms and marital interactions for wives. Findings suggest a buffering effect of religious/spiritual activities on daily symptoms for older married wives.     

Job crafting and its relationships with person–job fit and meaningfulness: A three-wave study

Although scholars imply that job crafting contributes to person–job fit and meaningful work, to date, no study examined the relationships between these variables. The present three-wave weekbook study was designed to gain more knowledge about the influence of job crafting on person–job fit and meaningfulness. We collected data among a heterogeneous group of employees (N = 114) during three consecutive weeks (N = 430 occasions). At the end of their working week, employees reported their job crafting behaviors, their person–job fit (demands–abilities fit and needs–supplies fit), and the meaningfulness of their work that week. Results indicated that individuals who crafted their job by increasing their job resources (e.g., support, autonomy) and challenging job demands (e.g., participate in new projects), and by decreasing their hindering job demands (e.g., less emotional job demands) reported higher levels of person–job fit the next week. In turn, demands–abilities fit related to more meaningfulness in the final week. No support was found for alternative causal models. These findings suggest that by crafting their job demands and job resources, individuals can proactively optimize their person–job fit and as a consequence experience their work as meaningful.     

Dyadic Cross-Sectional Associations Between Negative Mood,Marital Idealization,and Relationship Quality

This study aimed to evaluate (a) dyadic associations between relationship quality (RQ) and both depressive and anxious mood (DM and AM), (b) reciprocity hypotheses of negative mood within dyadic interactions, and (c) mediational role of marital idealization between negative mood and relationship quality. Actor-partner interdependence models (APIMs) were performed using data from a sample of 198 dyads. Our results showed that (a) these two facets of negative mood did not have the same weight on RQ and that they had a gender-specific effects pattern, and (b) there was no support for the mood transmission hypothesis. Men's DM displayed direct and indirect (via marital idealization) actor as well as partner effects on RQ, whereas women's DM displayed only a direct actor effect on RQ. There were no significant direct actor effects of AM on RQ, meaning that this link is fully mediated by marital idealization. However, only women's AM showed such indirect effects on RQ.     

Specifying Ability Growth Models Using a Multidimensional Item Response Model for Repeated Measures Categorical Ordinal Item Response Data

When categorical ordinal item response data are collected over multiple timepoints from a repeated measures design, an item response theory (IRT) modeling approach whose unit of analysis is an item response is suitable. This study proposes a few longitudinal IRT models and illustrates how a popular compensatory multidimensional IRT model can be utilized to formulate such longitudinal IRT models, which permits an investigation of ability growth at both individual and population levels. The equivalence of an existing multidimensional IRT model and those longitudinal IRT models is also elaborated so that one can make use of an existing multidimensional IRT model to implement the longitudinal IRT models.     

Beliefs about intimate partner violence: A survey of the Swedish general public

Public interventions are considered to be an important means of preventing intimate partner violence (IPV). What people believe about the nature of IPV is likely to determine their propensity to intervene, but little is known at present about IPV beliefs among the general public. In a survey of 650 Swedish citizens, beliefs about the prevalence and causes of IPV, and viable means of intervention were assessed. Respondents estimated, on average, that IPV occurs in almost one quarter of all intimate relationships in Sweden, and that IPV is particularly prevalent in low‐income groups, among non‐European immigrants, in suburban areas, and in couples under the age of 50 years. Physical violence was believed to be the most frequent form of abuse in male offender–female victim cases, whereas psychological violence was considered most frequent in other combinations of offender and victim gender. Female respondents estimated a higher prevalence of IPV, attributed less blame to IPV victims, and suggested more means of intervention, than did male respondents. The findings are discussed in relation to empirical prevalence estimates, and implications are proposed.     

Compositional insights on the association between physical activity and sedentary behavior on momentary mood in daily life

ObjectiveGiven the increasing number of mental disorders, a growing body of studies now focuses on the relationship between physical activity (PA), sedentary behavior (SB), and mental health. However, momentary mechanisms and interrelatedness between PA, SB, and mood in daily life are highly understudied.MethodsTo investigate whether the composition of light physical activity (LPA), moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), and SB influences mood, we conducted an Ambulatory Assessment study in the everyday life of 103 university students over five days. We measured PA and SB via accelerometers and assessed mood up to six times each day on smartphone diaries. We combined compositional data analyses (CoDA) with multilevel modeling to analyze within-person effects of the behavioral composition on mood.ResultsHigher ratio of the SB to LPA and MVPA composition within the 60 min prior to a diary rating negatively influenced valence (p = 0.006) and energetic arousal (p < 0.001). Furthermore, a higher ratio of LPA to SB and MVPA positively influenced energetic arousal (p < 0.001) and a higher ratio of MVPA to SB and LPA positively influenced valence (p = 0.004) and energetic arousal (p = 0.022). Simulation analyses revealed that replacing 20 min of SB with PA can influence mood rating up to 3.39 units [range from 0–100].ConclusionsFindings suggest that minutely replacements of SB with PA may lead to mood enhancements. Given the high prevalence of mental disorders, more studies are warranted to deepen the understanding of momentary compositional mechanisms between SB, PA, and mood. Applying CoDA to intensive longitudinal data can serve as a starting point to identify the optimal composition of SB, LPA, and MVPA for mood enhancements in everyday life.     

国内中介效应的方法学研究

中介效应可以分析自变量对因变量的影响过程和作用机制, 已成为分析多个变量之间关系的一种重要统计方法。最近20年, 中介效应成了研究方法的一个热点。从中介效应的检验方法、效应量、类别变量的中介效应检验、纵向数据的中介效应检验和模型拓展(包括多重中介、多层中介、有调节的中介和有中介的调节模型)五个方面系统总结了国内中介效应的方法学研究的发展历程。最后对中介效应的国外方法学研究进展和中介效应的未来研究方向做了讨论和拓展。