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Multidimensionality and hierarchical data structure are common in assessment data. These design features, if not accounted for, can threaten the validity of the results and inferences generated from factor analysis, a method frequently employed to assess test dimensionality. In this article, we describe and demonstrate the application of the multilevel bifactor model to address these features in examining test dimensionality. The tool for this exposition is the Child Observation Record Advantage 1.5 (COR-Adv1.5), a child assessment instrument widely used in Head Start programs. Previous studies on this assessment tool reported highly correlated factors and did not account for the nesting of children in classrooms. Results from this study show how the flexibility of the multilevel bifactor model, together with useful model-based statistics, can be harnessed to judge the dimensionality of a test instrument and inform the interpretability of the associated factor scores.

Sensitivity analyses encompass a broad set of post-analytic techniques that are characterized as measuring the potential impact of any factor that has an effect on some output variables of a model. This research focuses on the utility of the simulated annealing algorithm to automatically identify path configurations and parameter values of omitted confounders in structural equation modeling (SEM). An empirical example based on a past published study is used to illustrate how strongly related an omitted variable must be to model variables for the conclusions of an analysis to change. The algorithm is outlined in detail and the results stemming from the sensitivity analysis are discussed.

Multilevel structural equation models (MSEMs) are well suited for educational research because they accommodate complex systems involving latent variables in multilevel settings. Estimation using Croon’s bias-corrected factor score (BCFS) path estimation has recently been extended to MSEMs and demonstrated promise with limited sample sizes. This makes it well suited for planned educational research which often involves sample sizes constrained by logistical and financial factors. However, the performance of BCFS estimation with MSEMs has yet to be thoroughly explored under common but difficult conditions including in the presence of non-normal indicators and model misspecifications. We conducted two simulation studies to evaluate the accuracy and efficiency of the estimator under these conditions. Results suggest that BCFS estimation of MSEMs is often more dependable, more efficient, and less biased than other estimation approaches when sample sizes are limited or model misspecifications are present but is more susceptible to indicator non-normality. These results support, supplement, and elucidate previous literature describing the effective performance of BCFS estimation encouraging its utilization as an alternative or supplemental estimator for MSEMs.

Distinguishing profiles of trauma exposure among low-income adolescent females with depressive symptoms is important for understanding comorbidity, family relationships, and treatment. Specifically, child maltreatment is essential to examine in comparison to other traumas. Participants included 170 adolescent females (65.3% Black; 21.2% White; 13.5% other race; 14.1% Latina/x) with depressive symptoms and their primary caregiver from low-income families. Latent class analysis (LCA) identified three trauma classes. Probabilities of endorsing different subtypes of maltreatment (physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and sexual abuse), number of subtypes of maltreatment, and non-maltreatment traumas (accident, experiencing or witnessing physical assault, death or injury of loved one, medical trauma) varied among groups. Higher levels of family dysfunction and traumatic stress symptoms were reported in both classes with maltreatment exposure as compared to the class with only non-maltreatment trauma exposure. Findings have implications for family-focused interventions for maltreated adolescent females with depressive symptoms from low-income contexts.

Percentage of uncontaminated correlations (PUC), explained common variance (ECV), and omega hierarchical (ωH) have been used to assess the degree to which a scale is essentially unidimensional and to predict structural coefficient bias when a unidimensional measurement model is fit to multidimensional data. The usefulness of these indices has been investigated in the context of bifactor models with balanced structures. This study extends the examination by focusing on bifactor models with unbalanced structures. The maximum and minimum PUC values given the total number of items and factors were derived. The usefulness of PUC, ECV, and ωH in predicting structural coefficient bias was examined under a variety of structural regression models with bifactor measurement components. Results indicated that the performance of these indices in predicting structural coefficient bias depended on whether the bifactor measurement model had a balanced or unbalanced structure. PUC failed to predict structural coefficient bias when the bifactor model had an unbalanced structure. ECV performed reasonably well, but worse than ωH.

Previous empirical evidence is mixed regarding the impact of universal preschool on cognitive skills. We show that preschool enrollment can impact test scores positively if it does not lead to earlier school enrollment. We examine rich student data and use different enrollment cutoff dates in Hungary to separate the beneficial direct effect of earlier preschool enrollment from a negative indirect effect that may occur through earlier school enrollment. We find significant direct impacts: 6th-grade reading (math) test scores increase by 9.0 (6.3) percent of a standard deviation for children who enroll in preschool a year earlier. This impact persists through 10th grade and is larger among disadvantaged children. The findings support the importance of universal preschool for improving cognitive skills and equity. They highlight a key consideration for policy evaluation and design and help reconcile ambiguities in the previous empirical evidence.

Interpersonal trust shows developmental changes during adolescence. The current study used a longitudinal design to examine the development of trust behavior, the presence of gender differences in these developmental trajectories, and the association between individual differences in these developmental trajectories and perspective-taking abilities. The participants played a trust game with a hypothetical trustworthy partner and a trust game with a hypothetical untrustworthy partner in 3 consecutive years (Mage = 12.55 years, Mage = 13.54 years, and Mage = 14.54 years). Concerning the development of trust behavior, the results showed an age-related increase in initial trust behavior and indicated increasingly adaptive trust behavior with age during untrustworthy interactions, whereas no evidence was found for age-related changes in the adaptation of trust during trustworthy interactions. Gender differences were found for the development of initial trust behavior (with boys showing a stronger increase with age than girls), whereas no support was found for the presence of gender differences in the developmental trajectories of adaptive trust behavior during trustworthy and untrustworthy interactions. Furthermore, no evidence was found for perspective-taking abilities to explain individual differences in the development of initial trust behavior or in the development of adaptive trust behavior during trustworthy and untrustworthy interactions. The results provide evidence that, during adolescence initial trust behavior increased with age, more for boys than for girls, and that both boys and girls showed a stronger adaptive response to the untrustworthy partner but not to the trustworthy partner.

Approximately, 15% of children in Western countries suffer from emotional and behavioural problems. However, not all children receive the psychosocial care they need, especially children with a non-Western background experience an unmet need for care. This might be because parents of non-Western children report a lower need for care than parents of Western children, unrelated to the actual need. This study examined the association between teacher-reported problems and psychosocial care use, independent of mother-reported problems. Further, the role of ethnic background in this association was investigated. The study sample of 9-year-old children was retrieved from the Generation R Study (N = 3084), a prospective, population-based cohort of children born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Teacher- and mother-reported problems were measured via questionnaire when the children were 6/7 years old. Psychosocial care use was mother-reported at the research centre when children were 9 years old (8.1%). Hierarchical logistic regressions showed significant positive associations between teacher-reported total, externalising and internalising problems and later psychosocial care use. These associations were independent of mother-reported problems. Children with a non-Western background used less care, but ethnic background did not moderate the association between teacher-reported problems and care use. Our findings suggest that teachers might have an important role, next to parents, in the identification of problems and children’s access to care. This may be particularly important for non-Western children, as they use less psychosocial care than Western children, despite other research showing that they generally display higher levels of problems. Directions for future research and implications are discussed.

BackgroundHuman aggression is influenced by an interplay between genetic predisposition and experience across the life span. This interaction is thought to occur through epigenetic mechanisms, inducing differential gene expression, thereby moderating neuronal cell and circuit function, and thus shaping aggressive behaviour. MethodsGenome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) levels were measured in peripheral blood obtained from 95 individuals participating in the Estonian Children Personality Behaviours and Health Study (ECPBHS) at 15 and 25 years of age. We examined the association between aggressive behaviour, as measured by Life History of Aggression (LHA) total score and DNAm levels both assessed at age 25. We further examined the pleiotropic effect of genetic variants regulating LHA-associated differentially methylated positions (DMPs) and multiple traits related to aggressive behaviours. Lastly, we tested whether the DNA methylomic loci identified in association with LHA at age 25 were also present at age 15. ResultsWe found one differentially methylated position (DMP) (cg17815886; p = 1.12 x 10(-8)) and five differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with LHA after multiple testing adjustments. The DMP annotated to the PDLIM5 gene, and DMRs resided in the vicinity of four protein-encoding genes (TRIM10, GTF2H4, SLC45A4, B3GALT4) and a long intergenic non-coding RNA (LINC02068). We observed evidence for the colocalization of genetic variants associated with top DMPs and general cognitive function, educational attainment and cholesterol levels. Notably, a subset of the DMPs associated with LHA at age 25 also displayed altered DNAm patterns at age 15 with high accuracy in predicting aggression. ConclusionsOur findings highlight the potential role of DNAm in the development of aggressive behaviours. We observed pleiotropic genetic variants associated with identified DMPs, and various traits previously established to be relevant in shaping aggression in humans. The concordance of DNAm signatures in adolescents and young adults may have predictive value for inappropriate and maladaptive aggression later in life.

Background: We aimed to gain more insight into autonomy of older people with intellectual disabilities in a residential care facility in making choices. Methods: We performed a descriptive ethnographic study in a residential facility in the Netherlands for 22 persons, aged 54–89 years, with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities (IQ

Reigeluth, Christopher S. 2022. The Masculinity Workbook for Teens: Discover What Being a Guy Means to You. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications

The aim of this work was 2-fold: (1) to evaluate current knowledge and identify key directions in the study of sluggish cognitive tempo (SCT); and (2) to arrive at a consensus change in terminology for the construct that reflects the current science and may be more acceptable to researchers, clinicians, caregivers, and patients.An international Work Group was convened that, in early 2021, compiled an online archive of all research studies on SCT and summarized the current state of knowledge, noted methodological issues, and highlighted future directions, and met virtually on 10 occasions in 2021 to discuss these topics and terminology.Major progress has been made over the last decade in advancing our understanding of SCT across the following domains of inquiry: construct measurement and stability; genetic, environmental, pathophysiologic, and neuropsychological correlates; comorbid conditions; functional impairments; and psychosocial and medication interventions. Findings across these domains are summarized, and potential avenues to pursue in the next generation of SCT-related research are proposed. Following repeated discussions on terminology, the Work Group selected "cognitive disengagement syndrome" (CDS) to replace "SCT" as the name for this construct. This term was deemed to best satisfy considerations that should apply when selecting terms for a condition or syndrome, as it does not overlap with established terms for other constructs, is not offensive, and reflects the current state of the science.It is evident that CDS (SCT) has reached the threshold of recognition as a distinct syndrome. Much work remains to further clarify its nature (eg, transdiagnostic factor, separate disorder, diagnostic specifier), etiologies, demographic factors, relations to other psychopathologies, and linkages to specific domains of functional impairment. Investigators are needed with interests and expertise spanning basic, clinical, and translational research to advance our understanding and to improve the lives of individuals with this unique syndrome.

The goal of the current study was to investigate whether children's social information processing (SIP) predicts their conversations with peers, including both their remarks to peers and peers' remarks to them. When children (

This article proposes volatility as a term with which to approach some of the challenges that shape the current world. We develop this term as an analytical concept and perspective by thinking with people and ecologies from the margins, where uncertainty and rapid transformations have long been the order of the day. An approach focusing on volatility as a social and ecological condition provides an opportunity to consider what life in a radically uncertain world means and does to its inhabitants, which may offer useful lessons to those of us who are currently being forced to let go of their illusionary certainties. The article introduces a special issue elaborating volatility as a concept and perspective in various contexts and from different angles.Résumé : Cet article propose la volatilité comme un terme permettant d’aborder certains défis qui façonnent le monde actuel. Nous développons ce terme en tant que concept analytique et perspective en réfléchissant avec les populations et les écosystèmes en marge, où l’incertitude et les transformations rapides sont depuis longtemps à l’ordre du jour. Une approche axée sur la volatilité en tant que condition sociale et écologique permet d’examiner ce que signifie de vivre dans un monde radicalement incertain, notamment pour ses habitants - une approche qui peut donner des leçons utiles à ceux d’entre nous qui sont actuellement contraints de se défaire de leurs certitudes illusoires. L’article introduit un numéro spécial qui élabore la volatilité comme concept et perspective dans divers contextes et sous différents angles.

Women with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have an increased risk of becoming teenage mothers. Adverse effects of hormonal contraception (HC), including depression, may affect adherence to user-dependent contraception and increase the risk for unplanned pregnancies and teenage births in women with ADHD. The current study analyzed whether girls and young women with ADHD are at increased risk for depression during HC use compared with non-ADHD women.A linkage of Swedish national registers covering 29,767 girls and young women with ADHD aged 15 to 24 years and 763,146 without ADHD provided measures of ADHD and depression diagnoses (International Classification of Diseases [ICD] code) and prescription of stimulant medication, HC, and antidepressant medication (Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical [ATC] code). Cox regression models applying an interaction term (ADHD diagnosis × HC use) evaluated the excess risk of HC-induced depression in women with ADHD.Women with ADHD had a 3-fold higher risk of developing depression, irrespective of HC use (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 3.69, 95% CI = 3.60-3.78). Oral combined HC users with ADHD had a 5 times higher risk of depression compared with non-ADHD women who were not using oral combined HC (aHR = 5.19, 95% CI = 4.94-5.47), and a 6 times higher risk in comparison with non-ADHD women who were on oral combined HC (aHR = 6.10 (95% CI = 5.79-6.43). The corresponding risk of depression in women with AHDH who used a progestogen-only pill (aHR = 5.00, 95% CI = 4.56-5.49). The risk of developing depression when using non-oral HC was similarly moderately increased in both groups.Girls and young women with ADHD have an increased risk of developing depression when using oral HC compared with their unaffected peers. Information on risks with HCs as well as potential benefits with long-acting reversible contraceptives needs to be an integrated part of the shared decision making and contraception counseling for young women with ADHD.

Using a historical, autoethnographic approach in this article, we discuss six student-led cricket matches that we organized in Perth, Australia, from 1979 to 1981. From a Foucauldian perspective, we present these games as a student-led resistance against the normalizing and disciplinary processes of official school and youth cricket. The original scoresheets and match summaries exist both then and now only as subjugated knowledges. As these matches’ two captains, we attribute the positive atmosphere, which encouraged such creative initiatives, as being partly due to one class teacher's vision and ethos, which contrasted with the toxic hypermasculinity of the other men teachers. Through a look at our student-led cricket matches of 1979–1981, we recall memories of whiteness within a socially conservative and overall pro-British cultural context.

“Brotherhood” is used for marketing all-male Catholic schools and is often synonymously with “belonging.” This article examines those terms from three perspectives—the academic literature, the students’ views, and the views of faculty and staff—to define them. Regarding school, belonging can be defined as being affiliated with the institution, being personally accepted, respected, and included in the social environment. In Catholic schools, belonging is fostered through religion classes, religious art, statues, crucifixes, and displays of student work that illustrate beliefs and practices of the Catholic life, as well as social justice projects. The elements of brotherhood are a shared experience that unites the members and is consistent with the values of the group, group members caring about each other with a desire to see the members of the group succeed, and members taking responsibility for the group and making sacrifices when necessary.

This article analyzes debates about online pornography filters and youth in the Swedish press between 2016 and 2020, focusing on the depiction of boys and young men. Critics of filtering software argued that boys could self-regulate if they were provided better sex education and if parents communicated with them about pornography. In contrast, advocates posited that boys are incapable of developing healthy sexuality because online pornography is a powerful drug that leads to addiction and contributes to a rape culture. As boys were considered unable to get a filter “in their head,” proponents argued for disciplinary supervision through software in schools.

Until recently, river islands have been neglected in island studies and river/water scholarship. We address this research gap by focusing on the ‘fluidscape’ of the Lower Ganga Basin, West Bengal, India. Drawing empirical insights on chars (river islands) of the River Ganga, located upstream and downstream of the Farakka Barrage, we present lives and livelihoods in this ‘ever-shifting landscape’ and demonstrate how the barrage project led to transplantation–obliteration-resurrection of chars in repetitive cycles and activated ambivalence among choruas (communities inhabiting chars). Our fluid tales of everydayness in the volatile river islands show how these ‘muddyscapes of hazards’ become ‘muddyscapes of opportunities’ along ‘situated adaptive practices’ and contingent adjustments pursued by choruas. We establish chars as the most significant metaphor of destabilisation, dislodging widely held ideas about rivers, vulnerability, adaptation, among others. The deployment of ‘volatility’ as the theoretical-conceptual traction allows us to perceive chars beyond vulnerability and instead as viablescapes.Résumé : Jusqu’à récemment, la littérature académique des rivières et espaces aquatiques s’est peu intéressée aux îles fl uviales. L’existence de ce qui est « fluide » - c’est-à-dire, au-delà de la démarcation entre le « solide » et le « liquide » - en Asie du sud deltaïque n’est pas reconnue comme legs du savoir hydrologique colonial. Afin de combler ce vide, cette article présente les résultats d’une enquête empirique conduite sur les îles du bas Gange, en amont et en aval du barrage Farakka. En proposant la notion de « fluidscapes », nous nous attacherons à décrire les vies et modes de vie dans ces espaces toujours en mouvement et montreront comment le projet de barrage a provoqué une rupture sans précédent dans l’écologie de la rivière qui a transplanté, oblitéré et ressuscité des îles fluviales en cycles répétitifs. Il fera également écho à l’attitude ambivalente des Choruas, ces communautés qui habitent les îles fluviales. Ces histoires fluides de la vie quotidienne dans des îles fluviales volatiles nous permettent de mieux comprendre comment ces « espaces boueux dangereux » peuvent devenir des « espaces boueux d’opportunité » par la mise en œuvre de pratiques d’adaptation et d’ajustements contingents de la part des Choruas. Nos enquêtes ethnographiques nous ont conduits à voir dans ces îles fluviale une métaphore de la déstabilisation signifi cative, renversant largement les idées préconçues sur les rivières, la vulnérabilité, l’adaptation, etc. Le recours à la « volatilité » comme concept théorique est fécond dans la perception de ces espaces insulaires spécifi ques comme off rant un au-delà du vulnérable vers des espaces de vie qui sont bien viables, au contraire.

Puberty marks a time of significant transition in the life of a boy as he progresses toward adulthood—and a time of confusion and concern. Many questions are likely thought or asked by the boy as he approaches and lives with puberty. Sex education is taught formally and informally, in the home, on the schoolyard, in the media. Over the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, publishers have produced numerous books about puberty and its experience for young readers. In this article, I consider a specific debate that unfolds in these books, namely, circumcision. To these ends, I define the circumcision debate, briefly consider the genre of puberty books, and analyze the circumcision debate in these books. While these books recognize a circumcision debate, they ultimately frame the circumcised penis or intact penis as equally viable and normal.

Mind-mindedness is associated with positive developmental outcomes. However, much of the literature uses mostly White, middle to high socioeconomic status (SES) samples despite evidence that the benefits of mind-mindedness may vary based on degree of social risk. Additionally, few studies have examined relations between mind-mindedness and language development. The current study investigates whether mind-mindedness predicts children's language development and behavioral functioning and if family history of childhood maltreatment moderates the relation of mind-mindedness to these outcomes. Participants were 98 mothers (49.0% Black, 24.5% White, 13.3% Latina, 7.2% multiracial; 81.6% low SES per Hollingshead classifications) and their children (49 boys, 49 girls) from the Rochester, New York area recruited at Time 1 (

This article explores volatility from the perspective of hilsa fish in the Bengal Delta. The hilsa, known as ilish in Bengali, takes advantage of monsoonal hydrological dynamics in its life cycle. Today, hilsa are changing in response to anthropogenic activities, which attempt to stabilise delta landscapes in response to perceived volatility, but generate new volatilities that are felt and sensed corporeally by people who are entangled with hilsa lifeways. Interactions with a fisher, a cook, a scientist and an environmental activist during multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Bangladesh provide insights into how hilsa are experiencing and responding to spatial, material and temporal environmental transformations. Embodied understandings of hilsa lifeworlds gained through acts of fishing, cooking, dissecting and monitoring reveal the more-than-human reverberations of human-induced volatility.Résumé : Cet article analyse la volatilité du point de vue du poisson hilsa dans le delta du Bengale. Le hilsa, également connu sous le nom de ilish en bengali, exploite la dynamique hydraulogique de la mousson au cours de son cycle de vie. Aujourd’hui, on constate que le poisson hilsa a changé en réponse aux activités anthropique qui tentent de stabiliser l’espace du delta contre sa volatilité perçue. Cette action créé une nouvelle volatilité qui est perçu par les personnes vivant étroitement avec le poisson hilsa. L’étude est basée sur une ethnographie multisite et des interactions avec un pêcheur, un cuisinier, un scientifi que et un activiste écologique au Bangladesh, dont l’objectif était de comprendre comment les expériences avec et l’étude du hisla permettent de saisir les transformations de l’environnement à l’œuvre. Le savoir incorporé des rythmes de vie du hilsa à travers l’activité de pêche, de cuisine, de dissection ou de surveillance donne à voir les réverbérations sur le non-humain de la volatilité induite par l’homme.

Before European colonisation, the Brisbane River supported several indigenous language groups who, working with its natural variations in flow, were able to sustain stable hunter-gatherer lifeways for many millennia. In contrast, colonial settlers made strenuous efforts to control one of Australia’s largest and most unpredictable rivers, driven by aims to achieve social and material stability in what they saw as a hostile and adversarial environment. Part of the perceived threat was – and still is – the river’s ‘volatility’ and its tendency, from time to time, to send great surges of floodwater downstream. Brisbane’s contemporary inhabitants have had to consider how to engage with the non-human environment in ways that move beyond hard-line visions of command and control and embrace more convivial ideas about working with the river.Résumé : Avant la colonisation européenne, la rivière Brisbane a assuré la subsistance de diverses populations indigènes qui, en travaillant avec les variations naturelles du courant, ont été en mesure de perpétuer un mode de vie chasseur-cueilleur pendant des siècles. A leur arrivée, les colons ont en revanche entrepris de maîtriser l’un des fleuves les plus imprévisibles d’Australie en aménageant le delta et en installant des barrages hydrauliques importants sur ses affluents. Ils ont ainsi mis en œuvre une vision particulière de l’ordre sur l’espace naturel, établi une cité portuaire autour du delta, l’ensemble étant guidé par un objectif de stabilité sociale et matériel contre ce qui était perçu comme un environnement hostile. Une dimension de la perception du danger était – et est toujours – la « volatilité » de la rivière et sa tendance, de temps en temps, à envoyer de très grandes quantités d’eau dans son embouchure, inondant ainsi la ville. Faisant écho à des situations similaires dans le monde, il s’est développé une contestation à la fois conceptuelle et matérielle de ces programmes d’ingénierie quand le contrôle qu’ils cherchent à garantir est rendu futile par la force hydraulique de la rivière.