What Predicts Older Adults’ Adjustment to Aging in Later Life? The Impact of Sense of Coherence,Subjective Well-Being,and Sociodemographic,Lifestyle, and Health-Related Factors

The aim of this study was to build a structural model to explore the predictors of adjustment to aging (AtA) in a community-dwelling older population. A community-dwelling sample of 1,270 older adults aged between 75 and 102 years answered a questionnaire to determine sociodemographic (sex, age, professional and marital status, education, household, adult children, family's annual income, living setting, and self-reported spirituality), lifestyle, and health-related characteristics (perceived health, recent disease, medication, and leisure). Several instruments were used to assert psychological variables, namely AtA, sense of coherence, and subjective well-being. Structural equation modeling was used to explore a structural model of the self-reported AtA, encompassing all variables. Significant predictors are self-reported spirituality (β = .816, p < .001); perceived health (β = .455, p < .001); leisure (β = .322, p < .001); professional status (β = .283, p < .001); income (β = .230, p = .035); household (β = –.208, p = .007); sense of coherence (β = ?.202, p = .004); and adult children (β = .164, p = .011). The variables explain, respectively, 60.6% of the variability of AtA. Self-reported spirituality is the strongest predictor of AtA. Other predictors are perceived health, leisure, professional status, income, household, sense of coherence, and adult children. This study emphasizes the need for deepening the variables that influence older adults’ AtA—in particular, perceived health and further lifestyle-related characteristics—as being relevant for promoting aging well in later life, within a salutogenic context for health care.     

Test Anxiety Interventions for Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review of Treatment Studies from 2000–2010

High‐stakes tests have played an increasingly important role in how student achievement and school effectiveness are measured. Test anxiety has risen with the use of tests in educational decision making. Students with high test anxiety perform poorly on tests when compared to students with low test anxiety. School psychologists can play an important role as experts both in tests and measurement and mental health in providing consultation and treatment for students with test anxiety. This article describes the results of a systematic literature review of the last 10 years of test‐anxiety interventions. Results indicate that there are few studies that have examined test‐anxiety interventions with elementary and secondary school students. However, techniques including biofeedback, behavior therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, priming competency, and mixed approaches have demonstrated promising results. Suggestions are made for school psychologists for the delivery of evidenced‐based test anxiety interventions.     

Early Care and Education Matters: A Conceptual Model for Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Integrating the Key Constructs of Knowledge,Reflection, and Practice

There has been a great deal of discourse in the field of early care and education concerning the experiences, skills, competencies, and education level needed by early childhood teachers to ensure that quality teaching and learning take place in the early years. The purpose of this article is to describe an early childhood teacher preparation program developed by a Child and Family Development Department at a large, urban, state-funded university in the hopes that we can further the discourse on how the field can ensure quality teaching and learning in both ECE and university classrooms. We propose a conceptual model that is built around three key constructs: knowledge, reflection, and practice and describe our approach to preparing early childhood educators. Using qualitative data from student reflections and course syllabi and quantitative data on the experiences and perceptions of graduating seniors, we hope to present promising practices in early childhood teacher education and provide support for our contention that the quality of early childhood teacher education matters.     

The effects of frequency of encouragement on performance during maximal exercise testing

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of frequency of verbal encouragement during maximal exercise testing. Twenty-eight participants (12 males, 16 females) aged 20.9 - 1.5 years (mean - s ) performed a maximal exercise test ( V O 2max ) on a treadmill without any verbal encouragement. The participants were matched according to their pre-test V O 2max and placed into either a control group or one of three experimental groups. They performed a second exercise test (post-test) 1 week later. During the second test, the control group received no verbal encouragement; the 20 s (20E), 60 s (60E) and 180 s (180E) encouragement groups received verbal encouragement every 20, 60 and 180 s, respectively, beginning with stage 3 of the exercise test. Relative V O 2max , exercise time, blood lactate concentration, respiratory exchange ratio (RER) and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE) were not significantly different from the first test to the second test for the control group without verbal encouragement and the 180E group that received infrequent encouragement. Post-test values were significantly higher than pre-test values for the 20E and 60E groups. The post-test values of the 20E group were significantly higher than their pre-test values for relative V O 2max ( P ? 0.001), exercise time ( P ? 0.0001), blood lactate concentr . ation ( P ? 0.05), RER ( P ? 0.01) and RPE ( P ? 0.0001); this was also the case for the 60E group for relative V O 2max ( P ? 0.01), blood lactate concentration ( P ? 0.05), RER ( P ? 0.05) and RPE ( P ? 0.05). The results suggest that frequent verbal encouragement (every 20 s and 60 s in the present study) leads to significantly greater maximum effort in a treadmill test than when no encouragement is given or when the encouragement is infrequent (i.e. every 180 s).     

The Cognitive-Affective-Social Theory of Learning in digital Environments (CASTLE)

Educational Psychology Review - For a long time, research on individuals learning in digital environments was primarily based on cognitive-oriented theories. This paper aims at providing evidence...     

Evaluating the Power of Latent Growth Curve Models to Detect Individual Differences in Change

We evaluated the statistical power of single-indicator latent growth curve models to detect individual differences in change (variances of latent slopes) as a function of sample size, number of longitudinal measurement occasions, and growth curve reliability. We recommend the 2 degree-of-freedom generalized test assessing loss of fit when both slope-related random effects, the slope variance and intercept-slope covariance, are fixed to 0. Statistical power to detect individual differences in change is low to moderate unless the residual error variance is low, sample size is large, and there are more than four measurement occasions. The generalized test has greater power than a specific test isolating the hypothesis of zero slope variance, except when the true slope variance is close to 0, and has uniformly superior power to a Wald test based on the estimated slope variance.     

An investigation of the influence of emotional factors on learning in physics instruction

In a study of learning processes in 24 eighth grade physics classrooms in Germany, data were collected in respect to cognitive variables (prior knowledge, learning outcomes, use of learning strategies), cognitive-emotional variables (self-concept, interest), as well as emotional variables (anxiety, boredom, sense of well-being). Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Interest and emotional factors are further differentiated into situation-related and habitual (most likely biographically determined) components. In constructing the teaching unit (basic electricity) a learning oriented knowledge acquisition phase was followed by a more achievement oriented practice phase. Analysis shows that positive emotions are more important in the acquisition phase than in the practice phase. Anxieties play an ambiguous role in the practice phase. Additionally, the results provide indications that joy about learning in particular, and also interest are frequently linked to successful learning processes, and not merely to the nature of the subject matter.     

Editorial research and the publication process in biomedicine and health: Report from the Esteve Foundation Discussion Group,December 2012

Despite the fact that there are more than twenty thousand biomedical journals in the world, research into the work of editors and publication process in biomedical and health care journals is rare. In December 2012, the Esteve Foundation, a non-profit scientific institution that fosters progress in pharmacotherapy by means of scientific communication and discussion organized a discussion group of 7 editors and/or experts in peer review biomedical publishing. They presented findings of past editorial research, discussed the lack of competitive funding schemes and specialized journals for dissemination of editorial research, and reported on the great diversity of misconduct and conflict of interest policies, as well as adherence to reporting guidelines. Furthermore, they reported on the reluctance of editors to investigate allegations of misconduct or increase the level of data sharing in health research. In the end, they concluded that if editors are to remain gatekeepers of scientific knowledge they should reaffirm their focus on the integrity of the scientific record and completeness of the data they publish. Additionally, more research should be undertaken to understand why many journals are not adhering to editorial standards, and what obstacles editors face when engaging in editorial research.