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Public neoantigens (NeoAgs) represent an elite class of shared cancer-specific epitopes derived from recurrently mutated driver genes. Here we describe a high-throughput platform combining single-cell transcriptomic and T cell receptor (TCR) sequencing to establish whether mutant PIK3CA, among the most frequently genomically altered driver oncogenes, generates an immunogenic public NeoAg. Using this strategy, we developed a panel of TCRs that recognize an endogenously processed neopeptide encompassing a common PIK3CA hotspot mutation restricted by the prevalent human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-A*03:01 allele. Mechanistically, immunogenicity to this public NeoAg arises from enhanced neopeptide/HLA complex stability caused by a preferred HLA anchor substitution. Structural studies indicated that the HLA-bound neopeptide presents a comparatively ‘featureless’ surface dominated by the peptide’s backbone. To bind this epitope with high specificity and affinity, we discovered that a lead TCR clinical candidate engages the neopeptide through an extended interface facilitated by an unusually long CDR3β loop. In patients with diverse malignancies, we observed NeoAg clonal conservation and spontaneous immunogenicity to the neoepitope. Finally, adoptive transfer of TCR-engineered T cells led to tumor regression in vivo in mice bearing PIK3CA-mutant tumors but not wild-type PIK3CA tumors. Together, these findings establish the immunogenicity and therapeutic potential of a mutant PIK3CA-derived public NeoAg.

This study examined differential item functioning (DIF) in the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) between Chinese and White adolescents (aged 13 to 17 years) living in Canada. A series of ordinal logistic regressions were used to test for uniform and non-uniform DIF on items in the CES-D. The DIF analyses identified non-uniform DIF for Item 7 (“I felt that everything I did was an effort”). Controlling for gender and strength of ethnic identity in the DIF analyses did not alter the DIF results. The results of this study suggest that CES-D Item 7 does not appear to discriminate at higher levels of depression in Chinese adolescents. The results of this study hold notable implications for the use of the CES-D given that Chinese adolescents demonstrated a systematic difference in expression/experience of depression.

Efforts to cure HIV have focused on reactivating latent proviruses to enable elimination by CD8+ cytotoxic T-cells. Clinical studies of latency reversing agents (LRA) in antiretroviral therapy (ART)-treated individuals have shown increases in HIV transcription, but without reductions in virologic measures, or evidence that HIV-specific CD8+ T-cells were productively engaged. Here, we show that the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine BNT162b2 activates the RIG-I/TLR – TNF – NFκb axis, resulting in transcription of HIV proviruses with minimal perturbations of T-cell activation and host transcription. T-cells specific for the early gene-product HIV-Nef uniquely increased in frequency and acquired effector function (granzyme-B) in ART-treated individuals following SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination. These parameters of CD8+ T-cell induction correlated with significant decreases in cell-associated HIV mRNA, suggesting killing or suppression of cells transcribing HIV. Thus, we report the observation of an intervention-induced reduction in a measure of HIV persistence, accompanied by precise immune correlates, in ART-suppressed individuals. However, we did not observe significant depletions of intact proviruses, underscoring challenges to achieving (or measuring) HIV reservoir reductions. Overall, our results support prioritizing the measurement of granzyme-B-producing Nef-specific responses in latency reversal studies and add impetus to developing HIV-targeted mRNA therapeutic vaccines that leverage built-in LRA activity.

Endothelial cells adopt tissue-specific characteristics to instruct organ development and regeneration1,2. This adaptability is lost in cultured adult endothelial cells, which do not vascularize tissues in an organotypic manner. Here, we show that transient reactivation of the embryonic-restricted ETS variant transcription factor 2 (ETV2)3 in mature human endothelial cells cultured in a serum-free three-dimensional matrix composed of a mixture of laminin, entactin and type-IV collagen (LEC matrix) ‘resets’ these endothelial cells to adaptable, vasculogenic cells, which form perfusable and plastic vascular plexi. Through chromatin remodelling, ETV2 induces tubulogenic pathways, including the activation of RAP1, which promotes the formation of durable lumens4,5. In three-dimensional matrices—which do not have the constraints of bioprinted scaffolds—the ‘reset’ vascular endothelial cells (R-VECs) self-assemble into stable, multilayered and branching vascular networks within scalable microfluidic chambers, which are capable of transporting human blood. In vivo, R-VECs implanted subcutaneously in mice self-organize into durable pericyte-coated vessels that functionally anastomose to the host circulation and exhibit long-lasting patterning, with no evidence of malformations or angiomas. R-VECs directly interact with cells within three-dimensional co-cultured organoids, removing the need for the restrictive synthetic semipermeable membranes that are required for organ-on-chip systems, therefore providing a physiological platform for vascularization, which we call ‘Organ-On-VascularNet’. R-VECs enable perfusion of glucose-responsive insulin-secreting human pancreatic islets, vascularize decellularized rat intestines and arborize healthy or cancerous human colon organoids. Using single-cell RNA sequencing and epigenetic profiling, we demonstrate that R-VECs establish an adaptive vascular niche that differentially adjusts and conforms to organoids and tumoroids in a tissue-specific manner. Our Organ-On-VascularNet model will permit metabolic, immunological and physiochemical studies and screens to decipher the crosstalk between organotypic endothelial cells and parenchymal cells for identification of determinants of endothelial cell heterogeneity, and could lead to advances in therapeutic organ repair and tumour targeting., The transient reactivation of ETV2 in adult human endothelial cells reprograms these cells to become adaptable vasculogenic endothelia that in three-dimensional matrices self-assemble into vascular networks that can transport blood and physiologically arborize organoids and decellularized tissues.

Tumour-specific CD8 T cell dysfunction is a differentiation state that is distinct from the functional effector or memory T cell states1–6. Here we identify the nuclear factor TOX as a crucial regulator of the differentiation of tumour-specific T (TST) cells. We show that TOX is highly expressed in dysfunctional TST cells from tumours and in exhausted T cells during chronic viral infection. Expression of TOX is driven by chronic T cell receptor stimulation and NFAT activation. Ectopic expression of TOX in effector T cells in vitro induced a transcriptional program associated with T cell exhaustion. Conversely, deletion of Tox in TST cells in tumours abrogated the exhaustion program: Tox-deleted TST cells did not upregulate genes for inhibitory receptors (such as Pdcd1, Entpd1, Havcr2, Cd244 and Tigit), the chromatin of which remained largely inaccessible, and retained high expression of transcription factors such as TCF-1. Despite their normal, ‘non-exhausted’ immunophenotype, Tox-deleted TST cells remained dysfunctional, which suggests that the regulation of expression of inhibitory receptors is uncoupled from the loss of effector function. Notably, although Tox-deleted CD8 T cells differentiated normally to effector and memory states in response to acute infection, Tox-deleted TST cells failed to persist in tumours. We hypothesize that the TOX-induced exhaustion program serves to prevent the overstimulation of T cells and activation-induced cell death in settings of chronic antigen stimulation such as cancer.

Erythropoiesis involves complex interrelated molecular signals influencing cell survival, differentiation, and enucleation. Diseases associated with ineffective erythropoiesis, such as β-thalassemias, exhibit erythroid expansion and defective enucleation. Clear mechanistic determinants of what make erythropoiesis effective are lacking. We previously demonstrated that exogenous transferrin ameliorates ineffective erythropoiesis in β-thalassemic mice. In the current work, we utilize transferrin treatment to elucidate a molecular signature of ineffective erythropoiesis in β-thalassemia. We hypothesize that compensatory mechanisms are required in β-thalassemic erythropoiesis to prevent apoptosis and enhance enucleation. We identify pleckstrin-2—a STAT5-dependent lipid binding protein downstream of erythropoietin—as an important regulatory node. We demonstrate that partial loss of pleckstrin-2 leads to worsening ineffective erythropoiesis and pleckstrin-2 knockout leads to embryonic lethality in β-thalassemic mice. In addition, the membrane-associated active form of pleckstrin-2 occurs at an earlier stage during β-thalassemic erythropoiesis. Furthermore, membrane-associated activated pleckstrin-2 decreases cofilin mitochondrial localization in β-thalassemic erythroblasts and pleckstrin-2 knockdown in vitro induces cofilin-mediated apoptosis in β-thalassemic erythroblasts. Lastly, pleckstrin-2 enhances enucleation by interacting with and activating RacGTPases in β-thalassemic erythroblasts. This data elucidates the important compensatory role of pleckstrin-2 in β-thalassemia and provides support for the development of targeted therapeutics in diseases of ineffective erythropoiesis., Maria Feola et al., elucidate the compensatory role of pleckstrin-2 in ineffective erythropoiesis in β-thalassemic mice by reducing cofilin-mediated apoptosis and enhancing enucleation by activating RacGTPases. These findings could support future therapeutic interventions.

Single case design research on family centered positive behavior support (PBS) over the past 20 years has provided evidence of the approaches acceptability, effectiveness and durability when implemented with families of children with developmental disabilities and problem behavior. Although quality of life is a key tenet of PBS, only a few studies of PBS with families have measured quality of life outcomes. The purpose of this study is to present family functioning results from the second half of a longitudinal study that investigated the consequential validity of an ecological approach to family centered PBS. The approach aimed to transform coercive into constructive family processes in family routines during a process of comprehensive assessment, multicomponent plan design and implementation support in collaboration with families. Ten families of children with developmental disabilities participated. Settings were 32 family routines, with two to four routines per family. Family functioning measures were family quality of life, parental stress, parental locus of control and social support. A repeated measures, quasi-experimental group design across mothers and fathers evaluated the statistical significance of changes in family functioning when comparing baseline to intervention and follow-up phases. Results evidenced significant improvements for mothers in family quality of life and parental stress during intervention and follow-up, and in parental locus of control during follow-up. Results evidenced significant improvements for fathers in parental stress during intervention and follow-up, but no significant improvements in family quality of life or parental locus of control. Results are discussed in terms of contributions to the literature, implications for practice, limitations, and future research.

Source at https://doi.org/10.1186/s13054-018-2241-4. Licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Background: We aimed to investigate the extent of the agreement on practices around brain death and postmortem organ donation. Methods: Investigators from 67 Collaborative European NeuroTrauma Effectiveness Research in Traumatic Brain Injury (CENTER-TBI) study centers completed several questionnaires (response rate: 99%). Results: Regarding practices around brain death, we found agreement on the clinical evaluation (prerequisites and neurological assessment) for brain death determination (BDD) in 100% of the centers. However, ancillary tests were required for BDD in 64% of the centers. BDD for nondonor patients was deemed mandatory in 18% of the centers before withdrawing life-sustaining measures (LSM). Also, practices around postmortem organ donation varied. Organ donation after circulatory arrest was forbidden in 45% of the centers. When withdrawal of LSM was contemplated, in 67% of centers the patients with a ventricular drain in situ had this removed, either sometimes or all of the time. Conclusions: This study showed both agreement and some regional differences regarding practices around brain death and postmortem organ donation. We hope our results help quantify and understand potential differences, and provide impetus for current dialogs toward further harmonization of practices around brain death and postmortem organ donation.

Self-efficacy (SE) refers to one’s sense of personal competence and is a key element of human agency. Among individuals who are homeless or vulnerably housed, SE has the potential to provide important information about an individual’s ability to seek out and make use of resources and persevere in the face of multiple challenges. SE is understudied as a personal variable in research with homeless samples. Thus, it is important to identify appropriate measures of general and domain-specific SE for this population and evaluate their psychometric properties. Three relevant SE scales are the Generalized Self Efficacy Scale, Perceived Health Competence Scale, and Housing Self-Efficacy Scale. The purposes of this study were to examine the internal structure and score reliability for each of these SE scales, report performance on and intercorrelations among the SE scales, and examine the relationship of demographic variables to SE scale scores, with a sample of adults who were homeless or vulnerably housed. Strict unidimensionality was evaluated using confirmatory factor analysis. Model fit was examined using fit indices and residual polychoric correlation matrices. Essential unidimensionality was evaluated using exploratory factor analysis and the ratio of first to second eigenvalues. Internal consistency estimates of reliability were obtained using ordinal alpha. None of the SE measures were found to be strictly unidimensional but all three measures were found to be essentially unidimensional. This finding supported the use of total scores for each measure. Ordinal alphas ranged from .87 to .93 for the three SE measures and thus were satisfactory. Correlations among the three measures ranged from .36 to .45. Demographic variables showed little relationship to the three SE measures. The study findings provided initial psychometric evidence to support the use of these three SE measures with a homeless or vulnerably housed adult sample.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether homeless or vulnerably housed individuals experienced response shift over a 12-month time period in their self-reported physical and mental health status. Data were obtained from the Health and Housing in Transition study, a longitudinal multi-site cohort study in Canada (N = 1190 at baseline). Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) and methods for response shift detection at the item level, based on the approach by Oort, were used to test for reconceptualization, reprioritization, and recalibration response shift on the SF-12 in four groups of individuals who were homeless (n = 170), housed (n = 437), or who reported a change in their housing status [from homeless to housed (n = 285) or housed to homeless (n = 73)] over a 12-month time period. Mean and variance adjusted weighted-least squares estimation was used to accommodate the ordinal and binary distributions of the SF-12 items. Using MG-CFA, a strict invariance model showed that the measurement model was equivalent for the four groups at baseline. Although we found small but statistically significant response shift for several measurement model parameters, the impact on the predicted average mental and physical health scores within each of the groups was small. Response shift does not appear to be a significant concern when using the SF-12 to obtain change scores over a 12-month period in this population.

High-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) greatly expands the potential for genomics discoveries, but the wide variety of platforms, protocols and performance capabilitites has created the need for comprehensive reference data. Here we describe the Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities next-generation sequencing (ABRF-NGS) study on RNA-seq. We carried out replicate experiments across 15 laboratory sites using reference RNA standards to test four protocols (poly-A-selected, ribo-depleted, size-selected and degraded) on five sequencing platforms (Illumina HiSeq, Life Technologies PGM and Proton, Pacific Biosciences RS and Roche 454). The results show high intraplatform (Spearman rank R > 0.86) and inter-platform (R > 0.83) concordance for expression measures across the deep-count platforms, but highly variable efficiency and cost for splice junction and variant detection between all platforms. For intact RNA, gene expression profiles from rRNA-depletion and poly-A enrichment are similar. In addition, rRNA depletion enables effective analysis of degraded RNA samples. This study provides a broad foundation for cross-platform standardization, evaluation and improvement of RNA-seq.

Twenty clinically healthy goats were divided into two equal groups based on two different diets. Goats in group A were fed with 25 % barley, 12 % oat, 15 % faba bean, 10 % pea, 20 % sugar beet pulps, 5 % molasses and 3 % mineral. Goats in group B were fed with 25 % corn, 15 % soybean hulls, 12 % soybean meal, 10 % sunflower meal, 20 % sugar beet pulps, 5 % molasses and 3 % mineral. To establish the effect of diet composition on haematological and biochemical concentrations, blood samples were collected from the external jugular vein once a week, for 1 month (T0–T4), twice daily (0700 and 1800 hours). Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed a significant effect of different diets (P

Regular physical activity is associated with a range of physical and psychological health benefits. In North America the majority of adolescents are insufficiently active. The purpose of this study was to examine the prospective relationship between adolescents' perceptions of transformational leadership displayed by their school physical education teachers and their own physical activity behaviors, both with respect to within-class physical activity (WCPA) and also leisure time physical activity (LTPA). The study used a prospective observational design. Using multilevel structural equation modeling (MSEM), we examined the extent to which adolescents' affective attitudes mediated the effects of teachers' behaviors on adolescents' physical activity responses. Two thousand nine hundred and forty-eight adolescents (M age = 14.33, SD = 1.00, N female = 1,641, 55.7 %) from 133 Grade 8–10 classes in British Columbia (Canada) provided ratings of their physical education teachers' behaviors midway through the school year. Two months later, students completed measures of affective attitudes, WCPA, and LTPA. The results indicated that adolescents' perceptions of transformational teaching explained significant variance in both WCPA and LTPA, and these effects were fully mediated by adolescents' affective attitudes (total indirect effect: b = 0.581, p

Investigations of human potential and well-being recently have focused on mindfulness— au nique quality of consciousness that is defined as being aware of one' st houghts and actions in the present moment. Previous research exam- ining mindfulness among adults has found mindfulness to be positively related to indicators of well-being, such as opti- mism, positiveaffect, and self-regulation,and to benegatively related to indicators of maladjustment, such as depression and anxiety. Nonetheless, although much is known about the correlates of mindfulness in adult populations, the research examining mindfulness in children or adolescence is scant. The research is limited, in part, because of absence of mea- sures that assess mindfulness in children and adolescents. The present investigation was designed to address this shortcoming by examining the reliability and validity of a modified version of the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)—a measure designed to assess mindfulness in adults. A total of 286 fourth to seventh grade children com- pleted the modified version of the MAAS, the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale—Children (MAAS-C), as well as a battery of measures assessing a corpus of dimensions of well-being, including self-concept, optimism, positive and negative affect, school efficacy, classroom autonomy and supportiveness,depression, and anxiety. Resultsindicated that (1) the MAAS-C had high internal consistency (e.g., Cronbach's alpha) and a one-factor solution, and (2) mindful- ness, as assessed via the MAAS-C, was related in expected directions to indicators of well-being across the domains of traits and attributes, emotional disturbance, emotional well- being, and eudaimonic well-being. These findings were in accord with those of previous research with the MAAS in adult populations. Theoretical considerations regarding early adolescent development are discussed.

Relapsed childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) carries a poor prognosis, despite intensive retreatment, owing to intrinsic drug resistance. The biological pathways that mediate resistance are unknown. Here, we report the transcriptome profiles of matched diagnosis and relapse bone marrow specimens from ten individuals with pediatric B-lymphoblastic leukemia using RNA sequencing. Transcriptome sequencing identified 20 newly acquired, novel nonsynonymous mutations not present at initial diagnosis, with 2 individuals harboring relapse-specific mutations in the same gene, NT5C2, encoding a 5'-nucleotidase. Full-exon sequencing of NT5C2 was completed in 61 further relapse specimens, identifying additional mutations in 5 cases. Enzymatic analysis of mutant proteins showed that base substitutions conferred increased enzymatic activity and resistance to treatment with nucleoside analog therapies. Clinically, all individuals who harbored NT5C2 mutations relapsed early, within 36 months of initial diagnosis (P = 0.03). These results suggest that mutations in NT5C2 are associated with the outgrowth of drug-resistant clones in ALL.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of seasonal variations in Mediterranean area on haematological parameters in ten dairy cows (Bruna breed) kept under natural photoperiod and temperature. On blood samples, collected through an external jugular venipuncture every 30 days for 12 months, haematological profile was performed using an automatic multiparametric analyser for haematology. Red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell, haemoglobin (Hb), haematocrit (Hct), mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular haemoglobin, mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration, platelets (PLT) and plateletcrit (PCT) were measured. One-way for repeated measure analysis of variance showed a statistically significant effect of time of year (P < 0.05) on RBC, Hb, Hct, PLT and PCT. The majority of the haematological values obtained, comparable to the values considered to be normal for dairy cows, showed that seasonal variations in haematological parameters are related to changes in physical environment with particular emphasis on ambient temperature, relative humidity and temperature–humidity index. These parameters need further investigations in relation to age and sex differences with particular attention to reproductive status.

The purposes of this paper are to highlight the foundations of multilevel construct validation, describe two methodological approaches and associated analytic techniques, and then apply these approaches and techniques to the multilevel construct validation of a widely-used school readiness measure called the Early Development Instrument (EDI; Janus and Offord 2007). Validation evidence is presented regarding the multilevel covariance structure of the EDI, the appropriateness of aggregation to classroom and neighbourhood levels, and the effects of teacher and classroom characteristics on these structural patterns. The results are then discussed in the context of the theoretical framework of the EDI, with suggestions for future validation work.

The vast majority of measures have, at their core, a purpose of personal and social change. If test developers and users want measures to have personal and social consequences and impact, then it is critical to consider the consequences and side effects of measurement in the validation process itself. The consequential basis of test interpretation and use, as introduced in Messick’s (Educational measurement, Macmillan, New York, pp. 13–103, 1989) progressive matrix model of unified validity theory, has been misunderstood by many measurement experts, test developers, researchers, and practitioners. The purposes of this paper were to (a) review Messick’s unified view of validity and clarify his consequential basis of test interpretation and use, (b) discuss the kinds of questions evoked by value implications and social consequences and their role in construct validity and score meaning, (c) present a reframing of Messick’s model and a new model of unified validity and validation, (d) bring the concept of multilevel measures under the same validation umbrella as individual differences measures, and (e) offer some thoughts and directions for more explicit consideration of value implications, intended social consequences, and unintended side effects of legitimate test interpretation and use. This paper has implications for the interpretation, use, and validation of both individual differences and multilevel measures in education, psychology, and health contexts.

Whenever one uses a composite scale score from item responses, one is tacitly assuming that the scale is dominantly unidimensional. Investigating the unidimensionality of item response data is an essential component of construct validity. Yet, there is no universally accepted technique or set of rules to determine the number of factors to retain when assessing the dimensionality of item response data. Typically factor analysis is used with the eigenvalues-greater-than-one rule, the ratio of first-to-second eigenvalues, parallel analysis, root-mean-square-error-of-approximation, or hypothesis testing approaches involving chi-square tests from Maximum Likelihood or Generalized Least Squares estimation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how these various procedures perform individually, and in combination, when assessing the unidimensionality of item response data via a computer simulated design. Conditions such as sample size, magnitude of communality, distribution of item responses, proportion of communality on second factor, and the number of items with non-zero loadings on the second factor were varied. Results indicate that there was no one individual decision-making method that identified unidimensionality under all conditions manipulated. Given the low communalities, all individual decision-making methods failed to detect unidimensionality for the combination where sample size was small, magnitude of communality was low, and item distributions were skewed. A set of guidelines and a new statistical methodology are provided for researchers.

The objective of this study was to investigate the substantive aspect of construct validity of the Satisfaction with Life Scale adapted for Children (SWLS-C; Gadermann et al. in Soc Indic Res 96:229–247, 2010). Specifically, the study examined the cognitive processes of children when responding to the items of the SWLS-C to find out how they interpret and respond to the items. Think-aloud protocol interviews were conducted with 55 students in grades 4–7 (58% girls, mean age of 11 years, ranging from 8.8 to 12.8 years) and content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings indicate that most children had no difficulty in understanding the items, and used mainly two strategies for responding to the items: (1) an absolute strategy, in which children used absolute statements to indicate the presence or absence of something that is important for their judgment of their satisfaction with life, and (2) a relative strategy, in which children used relative or comparative statements. In the absolute statements, children primarily referred to social relationships, personal characteristics, time use, and possessions. In the relative statements, the children primarily compared what they have to (a) what they want (b) what they had in the past, (c) what other people have, and (d) what they feel they need. Furthermore, most children considered it important that information on their life satisfaction is obtained. The results are discussed with regard to multiple discrepancies theory (Michalos in Soc Indic Res 16:347–413, 1985) and previous empirical findings. The results provide insights into children’s cognitive processes when responding to items on life satisfaction and provide validity evidence that the SWLS-C is an appropriate measure to assess life satisfaction in children of this age.

One of the key factors for promoting well-being lies in balancing one’s daily life occupations and the nature of these occupations. Occupation refers to a group of everyday life goal-directed activities which may be associated to any life domain, not necessarily work, such as leisure, education, or self-care. Yet it is not clear what constitutes occupational imbalance, and its association to other factors has not been examined systematically. This study proposed and tested a theoretical model for specifying the structural relationships between occupational imbalance, occupational characteristics, personality and well-being. 288 working adults completed the following questionnaires: Inter-goal Relations Questionnaire (occupational imbalance), Personal Projects Analysis (occupational characteristics), the Big Five Inventory (personality traits) and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (well-being). Twenty-five models were tested using structural equation modeling. All the models fit the data well. Occupational characteristics, with the exception of stress, served as significant mediators between personality and well-being, yet occupational imbalance did not play a significant role across all models. Our findings provide substantial support for the importance of occupation to well-being, however occupational imbalance is still an elusive concept that requires further investigation theoretically and empirically.

When I think of pioneers I imagine a hardy people traveling from a former life to a new unsettled place full of unknowns.

Socioeconomic gradients for five school readiness domains were examined in multilevel analyses in relation to English-as-a-Second-Language status (comparing English-, Punjabi-, and Cantonese-speaking children) and gender, drawing from a population-based sample (n = 40,722) from British Columbia, Canada. School readiness ratings were obtained from the teacher-administered Early Development Instrument (EDI; Janus and Offord (Canadian journal of behavioural science 39: 1–22, 2007) and linked to enumeration area (6-digit postal code) level socioeconomic status census data. The findings show that (i) girls obtain consistently higher ratings on all developmental domains of the EDI than boys, (ii) the socioeconomic gradient for Punjabi-speaking children is significantly flatter than for English- and Cantonese-speaking children, and (iii) English-, Punjabi-, and Cantonese-speaking children obtain similar ratings on all developmental domains, except communication skills (in English), once analyses control for socioeconomic status. The findings are discussed with regard to cultural and ecological theories of development, and recommendations for the design and analyses of future research are provided.

This paper described the versatility of the multiple-indicator multilevel (MIML) model in helping to resolve four common challenges in studying growth using longitudinal data. These challenges are (1) how to deal with changes in measurement over time and investigate temporal measurement invariance, (2) how to model residual dependence due to the nested nature of longitudinal data, (3) how to model observed trajectories that do not follow well-known functions commonly discussed in the methodology literature (e.g., a linear or quadratic curve), and (4) how to decide which predictors are relatively more important in explaining individuals’ change over time. With an example of psychological well-being from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, we illustrated how the four methodological challenges can be resolved using the 3-phase MIML procedures and the Pratt’s importance measures.

This study introduces the Satisfaction with Life Scale adapted for Children (SWLS-C) and presents psychometric findings regarding its validation. The SWLS-C was adapted from the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diener et al. 1985), which is one of the most commonly used measures to assess satisfaction with life in adults. Three subject matter experts adapted the SWLS by changing the wording of the item stem and response format in order to make it more understandable for children. A stratified random sample of 1,233 students (48% girls) in grades 4–7 (mean age 11 years and 7 months) provided data on the SWLS-C and measures of optimism, self-concept, self-efficacy, depression, emphatic concern, and perspective taking. The SWLS-C demonstrated a unidimensional factor structure and high internal consistency. Furthermore, differential item functioning and differential scale functioning analyses indicated that the SWLS-C measures satisfaction with life in the same way for different groups of children (i.e., with regard to gender, first language learned at home—English vs. other language(s) than English—and across different grades) at the item and at the scale level. Associations between scores on the SWLS-C and demographic variables were statistically non-significant or of small effect size. In addition, the SWLS-C showed evidence of convergent and discriminant validity in relation to the other measures. Our results indicate that the SWLS-C is a psychometrically sound instrument that demonstrated evidence of construct validity for this age group. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

The satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) is a widely accepted and widely used tool for measuring well-being. Although its potential as a cross-cultural index is recognized, an introduction and systematic validation of the Hebrew version is needed. Thus, the purpose of this study is: (1) to describe the process of developing the Hebrew version of the SWLS, and (2) to examine its construct validity as well as its internal consistency. Four hundred and eighty seven working adults completed the following self reported Hebrew language versions of the: (1) SWLS, (2) positive affect and negative affect scales (PANAS), and (3) the self-rated health (SRH) scale. In addition, as way of gathering additional evidence of validity, the SWLS was completed by proxy (i.e., each participant’s life partner or significant other). Confirmatory factor analysis supported a single-factor structure with significant correlations between the SWLS and the rest of the measures—PANAS scores, the SRH scores as well as the SWLS scores as measured by proxy. In addition, item-analysis supports the internal consistency of the scale. The Hebrew version of the SWLS is a valid and reliable scale and can be utilized in the Israeli context.

Although the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale is one of the most widely used measures of global self esteem, the underlying measurement structure of the items is still debated. In this study the dimensionality of a six item version of the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale included in the National Population Health Survey of Canada was examined using nested confirmatory factor analyses. The results indicate that the six items measure two correlated dimensions of global self esteem. The first dimension appears to represent a measure of self competence, and the second is interpreted as a measure of self liking. Subsequent tests of predictive power and discriminant validity supported the two dimension interpretation. The two dimensions had substantially different relationships with theoretically related measures of anxiety, negative affect and happiness. In addition to these different correlations, latent variable regressions indicated that the self-competency factor consistently suppressed irrelevant variance in the self liking factor when predicting anxiety, negative affect and happiness.

A case is made that measures used in quality of life and happiness research will be essentially unidimensional: inherently tapping minor dimensions. This is illustrated using Diener’s Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS). It is shown that the SWLS does not meet the standard of strict unidimensionality, but that the interpretation of the total scale score is not compromised because the additional dimensions are relatively minor. In the context of the example, a multi-step strategy is described that allows researchers to test for essential unidimensionality. Throughout the article, essential unidimensionality is contrasted with the received view of strict unidimensionality and confirmatory factor analysis methods.