Little is known about the mechanisms by which extracurricular participation in high school influences educational attainment in young adulthood. Also limited is an understanding of the different types of extracurricular participation and how various activities may manifest within the relationship. The purpose of this study was to examine the link between high school extracurricular participation and educational attainment, with social capital, parental expectations, and academic achievement presented as mediators. Additionally, the present study will explore socioeconomic differences in the proposed relationships. The sample consisted of 5,239 ninth through twelfth graders from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Structural equation modeling (SEM) and multiple-group SEM were used to test pathways. Extracurricular participation was categorized into sports participation, non-sport participation, mixed participation (including both sport and non-sport), and no participation. Social capital, a latent factor, was measured by the latent variables of family and school capital. Various indicators of family closeness and inclusion of school culture from survey items operationalize social capital. Parental expectations, another latent factor, was measured by one survey indicator using the question of how disappointed would your resident father and mother be if you did not graduate from college. Academic achievement was measured by grade point average and calculated by the average of self-reported grades in four subjects: English, math, social studies, and science. Educational level attained used seven levels ranging from less than 8th grade to beyond a Bachelor degree. Gender, race, and parent education were also included as covariates. Social capital, parental expectations, and high school academic achievement were all shown to be mediators between high school extracurricular participation and educational attainment. However, social capital's impact on educational attainment was indirect through GPA rather than direct. Sport showed better capacity to strengthen social capital than non-sport. However, non-sport participants achieved higher high school GPA than sport participants. On average, students involved in both sport and non-sport activities had more positive effects on all model variables than students involved in sports only. Results for socioeconomic comparison showed some evidence for the benefit of sport participation directly on educational level for low-income students. Practically speaking, the conclusion of the study is that students need to participate in a combination of activities that include both sport and non-sport to improve their chances of educational attainment.

Although previous research has established a correlation between childhood sexual abuse and internalized shame in adult survivors, very little research has been done to examine how disclosure affects that correlation. An adult female sample of survivors of childhood sexual abuse (N=467) were surveyed to determine a possible moderating effect of disclosure on internalized shame. It was predicted that 1) severity of abuse would be a significant predictor of internalized shame; 2) disclosure would be a significant predictor of internalized shame; and 3) disclosure would moderate the relationship between severity of abuse and internalized shame. Through structural equation modeling using AMOS, results indicated a statistically significant positive relationship between severity and internalized shame as well as a statistically significant negative relationship between disclosure and internalized shame. However, when examining the possible moderating effect of disclosure on the relationship between severity and internalized shame, disclosure was found to have had no effect. Possible explanations for these results are given, and future research is discussed. Implications for clinical practice are included.

School districts face unique challenges as they implement social and emotional learning (SEL) initiatives, particularly when choosing or developing a high-quality scale to measure non-academic competencies. Like collaborations with the CORE school districts described by West, Buckley, et al. (2018) and the Washoe County School District described by Davidson et al. (2018), Alpine School District (ASD) partnered with Brigham Young University (BYU) to develop a scale (80 items) that reflected their Vision for Learning framework. In this pilot study, I describe the collaborative and iterative process used to develop a shortened version of the ASD Social and Emotional Well-Being Scale Beta Form A (23 items), which was administered to 461 secondary level students in the Spring of 2021. I implemented a relatively novel approach of comparing the results from exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) with target rotation with the results obtained from the more traditional confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) as a part of the iterative process. The scores of the resulting shortened version achieved acceptable fit (CFI = .97, TLI = .96, SRMR = .03, RMSEA = .06), high factor loadings (M = .80, SD = .09), high reliability indices by sub-scale (M = .94, SD = .03), and measurement invariance across gender and school level. I discuss insights that resulted from this novel approach in the development process, and make recommendations for its use, specifically in the field of SEL measurement. I end by encouraging the collaborative efforts between practitioners and researchers as a way of increasing capacities within districts, facilitating larger scale research, and ensuring the usefulness of findings.

The aim of this study is to test if the impersonal trust sub-constructs serve aspredictors of quality in LMX-relations. By performing structural equation modelingwith empirical data, a model was developed that optimally predicts quality in LMXrelations. A cross-sectional survey was designed in order to gather data fromemployees in Kalmar municipality (N=574) and was analyzed by Analysis ofMoment Structures (AMOS). The result suggests that the sub-construct of HRMpractices predicts quality in LMX-relations while simultaneously being regressed bythe sub-construct management of business and people and organizing theoperational activities. Additionally, the result indicates that the sub-constructmanagement of business and people correlate with other sub-constructssustainability, fair play and communication. This study indicates the importance ofHRM-practices, managerial capability and the organizing the operational activitiesin order to predict quality in LMX-relations by increasing the impersonal trust.

<div> <div> <div> <div> <div> <p>This study follows a resource-recovery-adaptation approach, where nurses’ personal and external resources, a potential recovery mechanism, and a positive outcome are operationalized from an existing dataset obtained from a multi-state sample of registered nurses in the United States. Data was collected in two Press Ganey surveys, the Employee Survey and the Resilience Survey, in 2018. The surveys were administered in over one thousand healthcare organizations, including acute care hospitals, medical practice groups, outpatient surgery centers, children's hospitals, home health organizations as well as other ancillary services (Press Ganey Associates, 2018). The surveys contained items measuring nurses’ perceptions of their organizations (i.e., community commitment, diversity and inclusion, employee care, compensation, and service and quality), their direct work environments (i.e., leadership, teamwork, staffing level, and job resources), and their work (i.e., job stress, job satisfaction, commitment to the nursing profession, and work-life balance), as well as nurses’ demographic characteristics (i.e., age, sex, race, tenure, shift, and full-time/part-time status).</p></div></div></div> </div> </div>

Imagination and creative self-efficacy are important components of the creative process and outcomes but are rarely investigated together. To explore the relationship between personality factors, imaginative thinking, and creative self-efficacy, survey responses were gathered from university students in a southwestern region in the United States (n = 1,731). Personality was measured using the International Personality Item Pool (IPIP), imagination was measured using the Imaginative Capability Scale (ICS), and creative self-efficacy was measured using items based on reliability in previous studies. Participants were asked to complete the three surveys along with demographic information through an online format. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted first to confirm measurements used. After fit indices confirmed measurement models used, subsequent analyses were conducted using structural equation modeling (SEM). The model of best fit supported creative self-efficacy as a strong predictor of all three factors of imagination. Additionally, the model indicated a strong relationship between conscientiousness and conceiving imagination as well as other notable relationships with personality factors.

The aim of this study is to contribute to the standardization of the new diagnostic tools assessing the motor manifestations of laterality in adults and children aged 8 to 10 years, both in terms of determining the theoretical concept and the selection of appropriate items, and the verification of structural hypotheses concerning the design of acceptable models, including the diagnostic quality of individual parts of the test battery. Moreover in this study we try to suggest new approach in assessing of motor laterality manifestation by means of relationship between cerebellar dominance and hand performance. The first part of this thesis deals with the concept of laterality, its manifestations and meaning in non-living systems and living organisms. As a human characteristic, laterality is manifested in a variety of functional and structural asymmetries. This part also discusses ways of diagnosing motor manifestations of laterality and the issue of cerebellar dominance, including its reflection in the form of asymmetry of the extinction physiological syndrome of upper limbs. The second part focuses on the process of the standardization study, the statistical method of structural equation modelling, and the actual design of test battery construction. The last part of this thesis presents the results...

Recent estimates suggest that a large percentage of the population experiences some type of traumatic event over the course of the lifetime, but a relatively small proportion of individuals develop severe, long-lasting problems (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder; PTSD). One major goal for trauma researchers is to understand what factors contribute to these differential outcomes, and much of this research has examined correlates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity. An important next step in this line of research is the development of conceptual frameworks to foster a deeper understanding of the relationships among these diverse predictors of PTSD and their predictive power in relation to each other. A framework proposed by Rubin, Boals, and Hoyle centers on the influence of narrative centrality (construal of a traumatic experience as central to one's identity and to the life story) and negative affectivity (the tendency to experience negative emotion and to interpret situations and experiences in a negative light), suggesting many variables may correlate with PTSD symptoms via shared variance with these two factors. With a sample of 477 participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk, this dissertation project extended the work of Rubin and colleagues by a) utilizing structural equation modeling techniques to simultaneously examine relationships among variables, b) investigating the utility of the model with a carefully-selected list of PTSD correlates, c) extending the model by including PTSD symptom severity, and d) exploring both direct and indirect effects to assess the roles of narrative centrality and negative affectivity as they relate to known PTSD correlates and PTSD symptom severity. PTSD correlates included social support quality and quantity, peritraumatic dissociation, negative posttraumatic cognitions, perceived injustice, and negative religious coping. Hypotheses were partially supported, and there was some evidence that the model may be effective in distinguishing between variables more and less germane to the individual's construal of a traumatic experience.

This study explores the previously less researched impact of corporate reputation on employees, more specifically on employee engagement. Employee engagement and corporate reputation are concepts that have been receiving attention in both business and academia alike, especially in view of the economic turmoil of the past decade as both constructs have been shown to affect profits. The study was designed in a way to measure the impact of employees’ perceptions of corporate reputation on their engagement with the corporation, while controlling for the state of their psychological contract with the organisation. An online survey of 509 employees from a large South African bank provided the data to which a Structural Equation Model (SEM) emanating from the theoretical background was fitted. The results of the model unequivocally confirmed that corporate reputation perceptions are an important predictor of employee engagement. It was also found that psychological contract breach influences both perceptions of reputation by employees and employee engagement directly. The implication is that corporate reputation can have a strong influence on tangible results through employee engagement. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

In this study, data from the survey Vetenskap- och Folkbildningsundersökningen 2021 on belief in conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, superstition and racist ideas was analyzed using a multiple causes, multiple indicators structural equation model. It was found that viewing stances on the selected survey questions as a manifestation of these 4 belief systems (belief in conspiracy theories, belief in alternative medicine, superstition, and racism) is supported by the data, and that the belief systems are statistically significantly correlated. Among other results, it was also found that, when controlling for background variables such as size of place of residence, gender, education level and age, persons with a university education believe in conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, superstition and racist ideas to a lesser extent than persons with lower formal education, while sympathizers of the Sweden Democrats hold these beliefs to a greater extent than sympathizers of other parties.