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Infants' use of pointing gestures to direct and share attention develops during the first 2 years of life. Shyness, defined as an approach‐avoidance motivational conflict during social interactions, may influence infants' use of pointing. Recent research distinguished between positive (gaze and/or head aversions while smiling) and non‐positive (gaze and/or head aversions without smiling) shyness, which are related to different social and cognitive skills. We investigated whether positive and non‐positive shyness in 12‐month‐old (n = 38; 15 girls) and 15‐month‐old (n = 45; 15 girls) infants were associated with their production of pointing gestures. Infants' expressions of shyness were observed during a social‐exposure task in which the infant entered the laboratory room in their parent's arms and was welcomed by an unfamiliar person who provided attention and compliments. Infants' pointing was measured with a pointing task involving three stimuli: pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral. Positive shyness was positively associated with overall pointing at 15 months, especially in combination with high levels of non‐positive shyness. In addition, infants who displayed more non‐positive shyness pointed more frequently to direct the attention of the social partner to an unpleasant (vs. neutral) stimulus at both ages. Results indicate that shyness influences the early use of pointing to emotionally charged stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study took a meta-analytic approach to investigate whether students' engagement acts as a mediator in the association between affective teacher-student relationships and students' achievement. Furthermore, we examined whether results differed for primary and secondary school and whether similar results were found in a longitudinal subsample. Our sample consisted of 189 studies (249,198 students in total) that included students from preschool to high school. A distinction was made between positive relationship aspects (e.g., closeness) and negative relationship aspects (e.g., conflict). Meta-analytic structural equation modeling showed that, overall, the associations between both positive relationships and achievement and negative relationships and achievement were partially mediated by student engagement. Subsequent analyses revealed that mediation is applicable to both primary and secondary school. Only the direct association between positive relationships and engagement was stronger in secondary school than in primary school. Finally, partial mediation was also found in the longitudinal subsample.

Meta-analytic structural equation modeling (MASEM) involves fitting models to a common population correlation matrix that is estimated on the basis of correlation coefficients that are reported by a number of independent studies. MASEM typically consist of two stages. The method that has been found to perform best in terms of statistical properties is the two-stage structural equation modeling, in which maximum likelihood analysis is used to estimate the common correlation matrix in the first stage, and weighted least squares analysis is used to fit structural equation models to the common correlation matrix in the second stage. In the present paper, we propose an alternative method, ML MASEM, that uses ML estimation throughout. In a simulation study, we use both methods and compare chi-square distributions, bias in parameter estimates, false positive rates, and true positive rates. Both methods appear to yield unbiased parameter estimates and false and true positive rates that are close to the expected values. ML MASEM parameter estimates are found to be significantly less bias than two-stage structural equation modeling estimates, but the differences are very small. The choice between the two methods may therefore be based on other fundamental or practical arguments.

Two subtypes of dyslexia (phonological, visual) have been under debate in various studies. However, the number of symptoms of dyslexia described in the literature exceeds the number of subtypes, and underlying relations remain unclear. We investigated underlying cognitive features of dyslexia with exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. A sample of 446 students (63 with dyslexia) completed a large test battery and a large questionnaire. Five factors were found in both the test battery and the questionnaire. These 10 factors loaded on 5 latent factors (spelling, phonology, short-term memory, rhyme/confusion, and whole-word processing/complexity), which explained 60% of total variance. Three analyses supported the validity of these factors. A confirmatory factor analysis fit with a solution of five factors (RMSEA = 0.03). Those with dyslexia differed from those without dyslexia on all factors. A combination of five factors provided reliable predictions of dyslexia and nondyslexia (accuracy >90%). We also looked for factorial deficits on an individual level to construct subtypes of dyslexia, but found varying profiles. We concluded that a multiple cognitive deficit model of dyslexia is supported, whereas the existence of subtypes remains unclear. We discussed the results in relation to advanced compensation strategies of students, measures of intelligence, and various correlations within groups of those with and without dyslexia.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between teachers' perceived psychological distance and structural distance from management and teachers' affective organisational commitment (AOC) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Teachers' trust in management was expected to mediate these relationships. Furthermore, the adequacy and openness of communication and participation in decision making were expected to reduce psychological distance. At 10 Dutch schools for vocational education and training, 884 teachers completed a questionnaire. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. Teachers' psychological distance had a negative effect on trust in management (supervisor and higher management) and AOC. Trust in management had a positive effect on AOC, and trust in the supervisor had a positive effect on OCB. Structural distance did not influence teacher outcomes. Communication and participation in decision making reduced teachers' psychological distance from management. The discussion focuses on the implications of the findings to improve the effectiveness of schools.

In this study we examined the role of trust as a mediator in social exchange between teachers and their school, particularly between perceived procedural justice and perceived organizational support, on the one hand, and teachers' affective organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour, on the other hand. A model was developed that distinguished between trust in three agents: team members, the supervisor and higher management. The model was tested in the context of Dutch schools for vocational education and training on a sample of 845 teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires and was analysed with structural equation modelling. Results show that trust was a predictor for desirable teacher outcomes and a mediator in social exchange. In particular trust in team members was related to affective organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behaviour. Trust in the supervisor and trust in higher management were neither related to organizational commitment nor to organizational citizenship behaviour. Perceived organizational support was related to teachers' trust in all trust targets. It also had a direct effect on organizational commitment. Procedural justice influenced trust in the supervisor and trust in higher management. The authors discuss the results in light of previous findings and the context of the study.

Background: Sleep reduction, resulting from insufficient or poor sleep, is a common phenomenon in adolescents. Due to its severe negative psychological and behavioral daytime consequences, it is important to have a short reliable and valid measure to assess symptoms of sleep reduction. Objective: This study aims to validate the Sleep Reduction Screening Questionnaire (SRSQ) that can be used to screen for symptoms of sleep reduction in adolescents. Methods: Various samples from the general and clinical populations were included in the study. The SRSQ is a nine-item questionnaire that is based on the longer, four dimensional Chronic Sleep Reduction Questionnaire (Meijer in "J Sleep Res" 17:395-405, doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2869.2008.00677.x, 2008). Items were selected on the basis of principal components analysis, item-total correlations, and substantive consideration. The SRSQ was validated by calculating correlations with self-reported and objective sleep and self-reported daytime functioning. Cut-off scores were determined so that the SRSQ can be used as a screening instrument. Results: Internal consistencies of the SRSQ were good (Cronbach's alpha = 0.79 in the general population). Correlations with self-reported sleep, daytime functioning and objective sleep variables were satisfactory and in the expected directions. The SRSQ discriminates well between clinical and non-clinical cases. When accounting for prevalence of sleep reduction symptoms in the general population, the area under the curve was 0.91, sensitivity was 0.80 and specificity was 0.87. Conclusions: The SRSQ appears to be a short reliable and valid questionnaire. Due to the limited number of items and the availability of cut-off scores, it is a practical tool for clinical and research purposes.

Methods for identifying dyslexia in adults vary widely between studies. Researchers have to decide how many tests to use, which tests are considered to be the most reliable, and how to determine cut-off scores. The aim of this study was to develop an objective and powerful method for diagnosing dyslexia. We took various methodological measures, most of which are new compared to previous methods. We used a large sample of Dutch first-year psychology students, we considered several options for exclusion and inclusion criteria, we collected as many cognitive tests as possible, we used six independent sources of biographical information for a criterion of dyslexia, we compared the predictive power of discriminant analyses and logistic regression analyses, we used both sum scores and item scores as predictor variables, we used self-report questions as predictor variables, and we retested the reliability of predictions with repeated prediction analyses using an adjusted criterion. We were able to identify 74 dyslexic and 369 non-dyslexic students. For 37 students, various predictions were too inconsistent for a final classification. The most reliable predictions were acquired with item scores and self-report questions. The main conclusion is that it is possible to identify dyslexia with a high reliability, although the exact nature of dyslexia is still unknown. We therefore believe that this study yielded valuable information for future methods of identifying dyslexia in Dutch as well as in other languages, and that this would be beneficial for comparing studies across countries.

In this study, we examine students' educational attitudes upon the transition to Dutch senior vocational education (SVE), a transition associated with high dropout rates in the first year. Prior studies have identified differences in educational attitudes between sociodemographic groups. However, the mechanisms underlying those differences remain topic of debate: some studies point at differences in the school orientation and support in students' social communities outside school, others focus on differences in educational experiences between sociodemographic groups. Multilevel sequential regression analyses on a diverse sample of 1438 students in urban SVE schools reveal that students have very positive educational attitudes upon their transition to SVE. Ethnic minority students express particularly positive attitudes. School-related encouragement and support at home plays an important role in students' attitudes, but the attitudes of students from lower educated or ethnic minority communities are less related to this support. Prior school experiences play an essential, but occasionally counterproductive, role in students' attitudes upon transition, depicting the transition as a fresh new start for some, and an unwelcome threshold for others. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

We present a test for cluster bias, which can be used to detect violations of measurement invariance across clusters in 2-level data. We show how measurement invariance assumptions across clusters imply measurement invariance across levels in a 2-level factor model. Cluster bias is investigated by testing whether the within-level factor loadings are equal to the between-level factor loadings, and whether the between-level residual variances are zero. The test is illustrated with an example from school research. In a simulation study, we show that the cluster bias test has sufficient power, and the proportions of false positives are close to the chosen levels of significance. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)

This study examines the emotional engagement with school of a diverse sample of 909 students in post-secondary vocational education in the Netherlands. Using multilevel regression analysis, we assess the role of students' background characteristics and school experiences, and their interaction, in students' emotional engagement with school. At-risk students do not report lower levels of emotional engagement, except for students using (soft)drugs. While Dutch dropout prevention focuses on fostering a sense of belonging through enhancing teacher-student relationships, we do not find a significant role of perceived support from school staff in students' sense of belonging. A good relationship with classmates is more important to engage students in post-secondary vocational education. Perceiving an academic fit is most prominently related to the emotional engagement of vocational students, indicating that a sense of belonging should not only be defined in social, but also in academic terms. (Contains 2 tables.)

Education policies for greater accountability of schools assume that schools are capable of building their capacity for continuous improvement. While policy-makers, scholars, and practitioners acknowledge the importance of building school-wide capacity for continuous improvement, empirical evidence to this effect remains thin. In this study, we examine the extent to which school improvement capacity develops over time in a sample of elementary schools in The Netherlands. Leadership practices, school organizational conditions, teacher motivation, and teacher learning were used to measure school-wide capacity for improvement. Mixed-model analysis of longitudinal data from 1,010 teachers of 32 Dutch elementary schools showed that schools are capable of building school-wide capacity, and that sustaining a high level of capacity seemed to be more difficult. The findings suggest that improving leadership may be an important first step in the process of building school-wide capacity. (Contains 4 figures, 3 tables and 1 note.)

Purpose: Although it is expected that building schoolwide capacity for teacher learning will improve teaching practices, there is little systematic evidence to support this claim. This study aimed to examine the relative impact of transformational leadership practices, school organizational conditions, teacher motivational factors, and teacher learning on teaching practices. Research Design: Data were collected from a survey of 502 teachers from 32 elementary schools in the Netherlands. A structural model was tested on the within-school covariance matrix and a chi-square test taking into account nonindependence of observations. Findings: Results suggest that teachers' engagement in professional learning activities, in particular experimenting and reflection, is a powerful predictor for teaching practices. Teachers' sense of self-efficacy appeared to be the most important motivational factor for explaining teacher learning and teaching practices. Motivational factors also mediate the effects of school organizational conditions and leadership practices on teacher learning and teaching practices. Finally, transformational leadership practices stimulate teachers' professional learning and motivation and improve school organizational conditions. Conclusions: For school leaders, to foster teacher learning and improve teaching practices a combination of transformational leadership behaviors is required. Further research is needed to examine the relative effects of transformational leadership dimensions on school organizational conditions, teacher motivation, and professional learning in schools. Finally, conditions for school improvement were examined at one point in time. Longitudinal studies to school improvement are required to model changes in schools' capacities and growth and their subsequent effects on teaching practices. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.)

Research on motivation has mainly concentrated on the role of goal orientation and self-evaluation in conducting learning activities. In this paper, we examine the relative importance of teachers' teaching and their efficacy beliefs to explain variation in student motivation. Questionnaires were used to measure the well-being, academic self-efficacy, mastery goal orientation, performance avoidance, intrinsic motivation and school investment of students (n = 3462) and the teaching practices and teachers' sense of self-efficacy (n = 194) in primary schools. Results of the multi-level analyses show that connection to the students' world and cooperative learning methods had a positive effect on students' motivation, while process-oriented instruction by the teacher had a negative effect on motivational behaviour and motivational factors of students. Finally, the results lend credence to the argument that teachers' sense of self-efficacy has an impact on both teachers' teaching and students' motivation to learn. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)

In exploratory or unrestricted factor analysis, all factor loadings are free to be estimated. In oblique solutions, the correlations between common factors are free to be estimated as well. The purpose of this article is to show how likelihood-based confidence intervals can be obtained for rotated factor loadings and factor correlations, by applying maximum likelihood factor analysis subject to scaling and rotation constraints. As an illustrative example, an oblique 5-factor model will be fitted to the variance-covariance matrix of the 30 personality facets measured by the Revised NEO Personality Inventory, and confidence intervals will be estimated for all factor loadings and factor correlations, as well as for the associated reliability and validity coefficients. (Contains 3 tables.)

We propose a method to investigate measurement invariance in the multigroup exploratory factor model, subject to target rotation. We consider both oblique and orthogonal target rotation. This method has clear advantages over other approaches, such as the use of congruence measures. We demonstrate that the model can be implemented readily in the freely available Mx program. We present the results of 2 illustrative analyses, one based on artificial data, and the other on real data relating to personality in male and female psychology students. (Contains 4 tables, 1 figure and 7 footnotes.)