Willingness to communicate (WTC) in a second language (L2) is crucial to the development of communicative speaking skills. This study is a cross-sectional investigation of the role in models of second language (L2) willingness to communicate of three personality variables hitherto underresearched in the L2 field: extroversion, ego permeability (one's capacity to tolerate ambiguity), and perceived distance from one's core persona. A sample of 252 Japanese university students responded to a set of instruments used to measure individual difference variables and personality variables; the instruments were drawn from the fields of L2 acquisition and psychology as well as a 5-item instrument designed to measure perceived distance in a series of participatory L2 speaking activities. Confirmatory factor analysis, Rasch analysis, and structural equation modeling were utilized to validate the respective instruments. The International Posture instrument was best represented by a two-factor configuration consisting of Intergroup Approach-Avoidance Tendency and Intercultural Friendship Orientation, while the L2 Communicative Confidence was altered to consist of three factors (L2 Anxiety, Perceived L2 Communicative Competence, and Extroversion). The hypothesized additions of Ego Permeability and Perceived Distance failed to improve the measurement models, and the original Ego Permeability variable functioned poorly in this context. The MacIntyre and Charos (1996) model had marginal fit to the data even after undergoing considerable respecification. The models of Yashima (2002) and Yashima, Zenuk-Nishide, and Shimizu (2004) were found to have good fit as originally conceptualized, but the addition of Extroversion and paths from International Posture and L2 Communicative Anxiety improved the fit of both models. Collectively, the results indicate that extroversion plays an important role in models of L2 WTC and that the basic models of Yashima and colleagues are robust. These findings provide crucial insights into the process of L2 WTC, an important factor in the students' acquisition of communicative competence. / CITE/Language Arts

The purposes of this study were to validate the writing section of the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires used in this study and the second purpose was to determine the effects of ten affective orientations (i.e., Desire to Write English, Attitude Toward Learning to Write English, Motivational Intensity, Instrumental Orientation for Writing in English, L2 Writing Anxiety, L2 Writing Self-Confidence, Willingness to Communicate in L2 Writing, Self-Esteem, Cognitive Competence, and General Self-Worth), on the participants’ responses to the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires. This purpose is valuable because little is known about the relationship between Can-Do Questionnaire and affective variables investigated in this study. The final purpose of this study was to develop Can-Do Questionnaires as an internal measure for a university writing class. The participants of this study were 204 university students studying in two private universities in Tokyo, Japan. The first instrument was the writing section of the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaire; this questionnaire served as the outside measure in this study. The second, six out of nine essays written by the students were assessed as a measure of their writing ability in English. The Affective Orientation Questionnaire was administered to measure ten Affective Orientations. The questionnaire and essay data were analyzed using the Rasch rating scale. All of the participants completed the Background Questionnaire and Affective Orientation Questionnaire in April 2010 and 2011 and completed the writing section of the Eiken Can-do Questionnaire in April, July, and December 2010 and 2011. six writing assignments were produced by 179 out of the 204 participants wrote during the 2010 and 2011 academic year, and the relationships among the variables were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results indicated that the use of the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires as the proficiency level measure was appropriate for this group of university students. The Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires were predictors of Motivation and L2 Self-Confidence. Motivation was a predictor of WTC in L2 Writing. Therefore, it should be noted that the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires had an indirect effect with WTC in L2 Writing. The result implies that through having Eiken Can-Do questionnaires and Classroom Can-do Questionnaires to achieve their future goals, their English classes and their future learning objectives were connected.　 It is necessary to provide students with adequate practice and guidance in using the Eiken Can-Do Questionnaires in order to promote a deeper understanding of their purposes and uses. / Teaching & Learning

No description available.

Social determinants of health are associated with a variety of negative health outcomes, including COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. However, most research evaluating this relationship have been case studies, retrospective cohort studies, and case series studies and/or have used use analytic techniques, such as linear regression, that can struggle to adequately model the social determinants' complex nature. This study used United States county-level social determinants of health data and March 2020-December 2020 COVID-19 morbidity and mortality data. Structural equation modeling was used to develop a latent measurement model for the social determinants of health. Substantial cross-loadings among the social determinants of health precluded the estimation of the originally proposed measurement model. However, a more parsimonious model was estimated, with adequate factor loadings and model fit statistics. A multi-level, two-part structural equation model further validated the relationship between social determinants of health and COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. The model's predictive performance was moderate to strong, which validates and extends previous research using structural equation modeling to evaluate the relationship between social determinants of health and COVID-19 morbidity. The study adds to the theoretical and empirical foundation supporting the use of structural equation modeling to study the social determinants of health.

The purpose of this study was to assess the measures of the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), an existing classroom environment measurement instrument, to provide up-to-date norms and validation evidence for a U.S. secondary school population. This instrument’s measures were established as a means of examining students’ perceptions of their learning environment in science classrooms, and subsequently providing indicators of performance. Pedagogical changes have taken place in the science classroom fostered by the National Science Standards. This study included an examination of the SLEI measures using Mesick’s validity framework including an in-depth analysis of the instrument’s content, substance, structure, generalizability and external validity. Rasch measurement theory was employed to investigate specific components of the instrument including item fit, rating scale function, dimensionality and individual performance information. Three hundred and fifty five high school science students completed the SLEI. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the dimensional structure of the measures of the instrument. Analyses revealed that a multi-dimensional model encompassing five distinct factors and excluding negatively worded items best characterized the SLEI measures. Multidimensional measures created by scaling the data to the Multidimensional Random Coefficients Multinomial Logit (Rasch) Model exhibited suitable rating scale structure, item quality, and reliability of separation. Analyses by academic grouping revealed that students in high achieving courses had a more favorable perception of all aspects of their learning environments when compared to students in the regular courses. In addition, student perceptions of the lab were influenced by the extent of students’ experience learning science. To determine whether differences observed by grade level could be attributable to biology learning experience versus experience in school, additional analyses were completed. The analysis revealed that differences in perception were consistent across academic achievement groups as well as experience level by first year and beyond (course level) rather than by grade level. This validation study has provided additional and up-to-date evidence concerning the validity of SLEI measures. Coupled with the existing research revealing positive correlations between student perceptions of their learning environments and their academic achievement, the outcomes reported here provide a foundation for future assessment of the relationship between classroom environment and student achievement. / Ph. D.

Yes / The study presents the Italian adaptation of the Personal and General Belief in a Just World (P-BJW and G-BJW) Scales. Dalbert and colleagues developed these scales to capture the belief in a just world for oneself and a just world in general. After the translation and back-translation, the P-BJW and G-BJW scales were administered first to a pilot sample of 213 university students and then to a national sample of 2683 Italian people. Results showed that it was necessary to make some revisions to the predicted two correlated factor structure. These changes entailed correlating the error terms for some manifest variables and removing the first item of the P-BJW factor. The final structure of the P-BJW and G-BJW scales presented satisfactory indexes of model fit as well as high reliability and moderate validity values. Additionally, this structure proved to fit the data better than an alternative one-factor or a bi-factor model with two orthogonal-specific factors. As predicted, well-being strongly predicted scores on the BJW, but age and gender did not. Multigroup comparisons among Northern, Central, and Southern Italy respondents indicated that Italian people interpret scale items equivalently, regardless of their geographical location. Introducing the P-BJW and G-BJW scales to the Italian justice scholarship is very useful to unpack the reasons why Italy reports lower levels of social justice than other European countries and also to investigate the link between justice, well-being, and other socio-psychological variables. / Open access funding provided by Università di Foggia within the CRUI-CARE Agreement.

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has long been associated with significant behavioral, interpersonal, and affective problems. However, its core components and overall construct continue to be a point of heated debate amongst researchers, despite a robust pool of literature supporting its status as a distinct diagnosis from other personality pathologies. Recently, a subset of scholars have suggested that personality disorders are, in fact, extreme manifestations of normative personality traits and can be adequately identified and modeled utilizing extant measures of general personality. Using a large offender sample, the current study investigated the relationships between psychopathic traits and various domains and facets of general personality, as conceptualized by the Five Factor Model (FFM). The structures of the PCL-R and NEO-FFI-3 were analyzed by comparing a range of structural equation models. The correlations between these measures' domains and facets were also compared to those of extant findings. Furthermore, as previous research has suggested the existence of psychopathic subtypes within this construct, the current study also utilized a person-centered approach to investigate whether these subtypes could be identified within this study's sample and, if so, whether they displayed different profiles on the FFM domains and facets. Results supported arguments that these constructs are related but different from each other, challenging exertions that psychopathy and other personality pathologies can be successfully subsumed within the FFM structure.

This dissertation examined the differences in group mean scores of traditional and pilot groups on the students' motivational beliefs and their intention to pursue majors and careers in engineering. The difference between the two groups was in terms of instruction techniques used. The instructional techniques used for the traditional group was that of traditional engineering design (TED), while the technique used for the pilot group had more features of an active learning approach. Further, it tested the tenability of the domain identification model. The domain identification model was used to understand students' decision-making processes in committing to engineering majors and engineering careers. The data for this study was collected via online survey from first-year engineering students enrolled in an introductory engineering course at a research-intensive university located in southeastern US. The sample sizes of the traditional group and pilot group at the beginning of the semester were 875 and 188, respectively. The sample sizes of the traditional group and pilot group at the end of the semester were 812 and 242, respectively. The mean differences between the two groups were computed using t-tests via SPSS version 22.0. The causality hypothesized among variables in the domain identification model were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques. The measurement and structural models were estimated using LISREL version 9.1. This study followed the two-step SEM approach that Anderson and Gerbing (1988) suggested. A measurement model with an acceptable fit to the data was obtained followed by an estimation and evaluation of structural models. All the independent sample t-tests were not statistically significant indicating that the mean scores of students in the two groups did not differ significantly on any of the motivational and intention variables. The hypothesized measurement and structural models provided a good fit to the data. A few post-hoc revisions were made to the models. This study brought empirical evidence that the domain identification model can be used to understand students' major-and career-decision making processes. Engineering identification was a better predictor of major intention and career intention compared to engineering program utility, engineering program belonging, and engineering program expectancy. / Ph. D.

This dissertation illuminates patterns across disparate university data sets to identify the insights that may be gained through the analysis of large amounts of disconnected student data on first-year engineering (FYE) students and to understand how FYE instructors use data to inform their teaching practices. Grounded by the Academic Plan Model, which highlights student characteristics as an important consideration in curriculum development, the study brings together seemingly distinct pieces of information related to students' learning, engagement with class resources, and motivation so that faculty may better understand the characteristics and activities of students enrolled in their classes. In the dissertation's first manuscript, I analyzed learning management system (LMS) timestamp log-files from 876 students enrolled in the FYE course during Fall 2013. Following a series of quantitative analyses, I discovered that students who use the LMS more frequently are more likely to have higher grades within the course. This finding suggests that LMS usage might be a way to understand how students interact with course materials outside of traditional class time. Additionally, I found differential relationships between LMS usage and course performance across different instructors as well as a relationship between timing of LMS use and students' course performance. For the second manuscript, I connected three distinct data sets: FYE student's LMS data, student record data, and FYE program survey data that captured students' motivation and identity as engineers at two time points. Structural equation modeling results indicate that SAT Math was the largest predictor of success in the FYE course, and that students' beginning of semester engineering expectancy was the only significant survey construct to predict final course grade. Finally, for the third manuscript I conducted interviews with eight FYE instructors on how they use student data to inform their teaching practices. Ten themes emerged which describe the limited explicit use of formal data, but many instructors use data on an informal basis to understand their students. Findings also point to specific, existing data that the university already collects that could be provided to instructors on an aggregate, class-level basis to help them better understand their students. / Ph. D.

Approximately 63% of all incarcerated individuals in the U.S. identify as a parent (Glaze and Maruschak, 2010), with as many as 7% of children experiencing parental incarceration at some point in their lives (Murphey and Cooper, 2015). Historically, much of the parental incarceration literature has relied on between-groups comparison research, highlighting risks and determinants of pathology for youth with an incarcerated parent. However, significantly less research has attempted to understand resilience processes in the context of parental incarceration from a within-group resilience perspective. The overall goal of this dissertation research was to empirically test the theoretical Family Inequality Framework (Arditti, 2018) and better understand how family resilience processes influence the relationship between material hardship and child outcomes within the context of parental incarceration. Structural equation modeling was used to perform a mediational cross-sectional analysis. Results of these analyses suggest that parental mental health processes play an important role in mitigating adverse outcomes for families by mediating the effects of material hardship on youth academic adjustment in the context of parental incarceration. Theoretical, clinical, and policy implications, as well as future research directions are discussed. / Doctor of Philosophy / Approximately 63% of all incarcerated individuals in the U.S. identify as a parent (Glaze and Maruschak, 2010), with as many as 7% of children experiencing parental incarceration at some point in their lives (Murphey and Cooper, 2015). Historically, much of the existing research on parental incarceration is problem focused, painting these families in a negative light. In contrast, there is very little research highlighting the unique strengths and resiliences of families impacted by parental incarceration. The goal of this dissertation research was to better understand how family resilience processes, such as social support, parenting practices, and parental mental health, might reduce the negative impact of parental incarceration. Results suggest that parental mental health processes play an important role for overall family wellness during parental incarceration. In particular, the more a parent says they are doing well from a mental health perspective the better their kids appear to be doing in school. In this way, parental mental health wellness appears to provide a buffering effect against the common risks parental incarceration can introduce into a family. Theoretical, clinical, and policy implications, as well as future research directions are discussed.