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Background: In last few years, the use of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has become dominant in structural validation of psychological tests. However, the requirement of latent variables only loading on specific target items introduces some constraints on the solutions found, namely a factor solution that links some items only in one specific dimension. The most recent use of exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), which allows items to be predominantly related to a factor, with non-zero loadings on other factors, has been identified as the one that best respects the proper functioning of the assessed psychological attributes. Method: In this study we compared the two approaches to structural validity using the answers of a sample of 2,478 first-year higher education students to a multidimensional questionnaire of academic expectations. Results: The results show clear gains in information collected when combining CFA and ESEM. Conclusions: In conclusion, some implications are highlighted for research and practice of psychological assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Adjustment to university is a major life transition that not all emerging adults manage successfully. The Student University Adjustment Questionnaire is the instrument most commonly used to evaluate this multidimensional construct. Research in Spain on the predisposing factors for successful adjustment to university in emerging adults is scarce relative to the large number of studies carried out in North America. The objective of the present study was to analyze the association between students' gender, family background, pre-university achievement and adjustment to university. Method: Participants were 300 Spanish first-year students (198 women and 102 men) of mean age 18.02 years. Results: Pre-university achievement was the only significant predictor of academic, social and institutional adjustment. Gender directly affected personal-emotional adjustment and indirectly affected academic adjustment mediated by entry grade. Conclusions: Students' entry characteristics predict adjustment to university in the first year. These findings have important theoretical and practical implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The goal of the present study is to analyze the influence of training in initiation to learning reading. Participants in the study were 144 preschool children from four public schools of Galicia, from a rural area of the Region of Paradanta. Out of the total sample, 72 were assigned to the experimental groups and 72 to the control groups. The design was pretest-posttest with randomized participants. Reading skills were measured with the Visual Recognition and Grapheme-Phoneme Conversion Test (TECOL).The data was analyzed with repeated measures analysis of variance. Training significantly increased the reading skill scores of the experimental groups, compared to the control groups. The program has shown a triple interaction between Measure Training × Level School. This means that there was significant variation in mean scores of reading skills as a result of training and according to the different school levels. It is concluded that the basic reading skill to develop in early childhood education is the identification and naming of letters.

This article presents a model of interaction of personal and contextual variables in the prediction of academic performance and psychosocial development of Portuguese college students. The sample consists of 560 first-year college students of the University of Minho. The path analysis results suggest that initial expectations of the students' involvement in academic life constituted an effective predictor of their involvement during their first year; as well as the social climate of the classroom influenced their involvement, well-being and levels of satisfaction obtained. However, these relationships were not strong enough to influence the criterion variables integrated in the model (academic performance and psychosocial development). Academic performance was predicted by the high school grades and college entrance examination scores, and the level of psychosocial development was determined by the level of development showed at the time they entered college. Though more research is needed, these results point to the importance of students' pre-college characteristics when we are considering the quality of their college adjustment process.