Kai S. Cortina

Locus of control as a mediator of the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction: Age, race, and gender differences

Research indicates that religiosity is associated with better psychological health. However, some studies have shown negative effects of religiosity on psychological health. It was hypothesized that these contradictory findings may be due to the fact that different loci of control beliefs affect psychological health differently. The purpose of this paper is twofold: (1) to verify a model in which locus of control mediates the relationship between religiosity and life satisfaction, and (2) to examine whether this model varies by age, gender, and race. Using Structural Equation Modelling to analyze Wave 1 of the Americans’ Changing Lives dataset, this study confirms the mediation model and suggests that the relationship between religiosity and locus of control varies by gender and age.

Teacher Education in Germany

Teacher education in Germany reflects the tiered structure of the country’s secondary school system. In addition to the common distinction between elementary and secondary education, German teacher education programs differ by secondary school type. Teacher training for the academic-track Gymnasium, which students leave with the general university entrance certificate (Abitur), goes through a rather rigorous training program focused on content knowledge. Teacher training for less-prestigious school types goes through a similar but less content-intensive training program. Regardless of track type, the teacher training program is strictly divided into a first academic phase at university (3–5 years) followed by an in-service training phase (1.5–2 years) run by the respective state’s education authority. Relative to many other countries, the income and job security of teachers in Germany is high. Assessment of teachers or teaching quality is all but unknown.

Automatic classification of activities in classroom discourse

Classroom discourse is the primary medium through which teaching and learning occur. Managed skillfully, it can provide an opportunity for students to develop their understanding and to profit from the ideas of their peers and the teacher. Yet it is difficult for teachers to be mindful of the nature and distribution of classroom discourse at the same time as they juggle other instructional concerns. It is possible to record, transcribe, and analyze classroom discourse, but it is not possible to do this quickly enough to give a teacher timely feedback. We report on the development and validation of an automated system for recording and analyzing aspects of classroom discourse that can result in timely feedback. Based on the LENA system, it aims to identify three common discourse activities: teacher lecturing, whole class discussion and student group work. The system consists of a speech processing module (diarisation performed by the LENA system) and an activity detection module that detects the discourse activities by using classification analysis. Results showed that our automatic detection of discourse activities converged well with those of human coders. The system enables timely and relatively inexpensive generation of a classroom discourse profile, which helps teachers to visualize and potentially improve their classroom discourse management skills.

Bildungsexpansion und kognitive Mobilisierung

Die kognitive Mobilisierung breiter Bevolkerungsschichten gehorte zu den vordringlichen Zielen, die mit den Bildungsreformen der 1960er Jahre verknupft waren. Unabhangig davon, ob man die Bildungsexpansion primar als Ausweg aus dem befurchteten Bildungsnotstand (vgl. Picht 1964) sah oder insbesondere die Bildungsungleichheiten in der Bevolkerung vor Augen hatte (Dahrendorf 1965), es gab kaum einen Zweifel daran, dass Fortschritt nur uber eine bessere schulische Ausbildung fur mehr Schulerinnen und Schuler gelingen konnte. Dass die Bildungsexpansion zu einer kognitiven Mobilisierung fuhren wurde, daran bestand ebenfalls wenig Zweifel. Befragt man dagegen in heutiger Zeit Lehrkrafte, die bereits mehrere Jahrzehnte im Schuldienst sind, so erhalt man praktisch unisono die Auskunft, dass die Schulerkohorten uber die Zeit immer weniger leistungsfahig seien (Baumert 1991).

Socioeconomic background, education, and labor force outcomes: evidence from a regional US sample

This paper examines the long-term association of family socioeconomic status (SES), educational, and labor force outcomes in a regional US longitudinal sample (N = 2264). The results offer insights into the mechanisms underlying the role of family SES in transitions from secondary schooling to early work experiences. It was found that the academic achievement gap associated with SES widens during secondary schooling due in part to course-level tracking. Family SES relates to college enrollment mainly via its association with academic gains in school, but also through family income and father’s occupational status. Family SES is weakly but significantly related to adult offspring’s earnings but more strongly related to occupational status. Educational qualifications and cognitive skills make independent contributions to the explanation of labor force outcomes.

The Mediating Role of Self-Regulation Between Intrafamilial Violence and Mental Health Adjustment in Incarcerated Male Adolescents

This article investigates the relation between history of intrafamilial violence and self-regulatory capacity, cognitive processing, and mental health adjustment in incarcerated adolescents. Adolescents were incarcerated at the time of the study for various violent offenses, ranging from persistent delinquency to sexual assault (n = 115). A model is proposed that posits that self-regulation, cognitive ability, and cognitive processing are integral to the relation between intrafamilial violence and mental health function. The primary hypothesis of the study tests this mediation model. The relations between mental health, cognitive processing, self-regulation, and intrafamilial violence are also examined. The study was conducted during two sessions at a juvenile facility in the Midwest using survey measures, academic and intelligence testing, and cognitive tasks. Youth were between the ages of 13 and 20. Approximately 70% were previously diagnosed with a disability. Significant Pearson’s correlations were found between seven out of eight mental health subscales of the Youth Self-Report (YSR) and intrafamilial violence history. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the role of cognitive processing in the association between intrafamilial violence and mental health function. Nonverbal or performance deficits, a significant difference between verbal skills and nonverbal skills, were related to intrafamilial violence. Self-regulation partially mediated the relation between intrafamilial violence and mental health function. Self-regulation ability may be compromised by intrafamilial violence and be a precursor to both internalizing and externalizing mental health problem in incarcerated youth. Educational, clinical, and research implications are discussed.

Evaluation of the expect respect support group program: A violence prevention strategy for youth exposed to violence

In the present study, we assess the effects of the Expect Respect Support Groups (ERSG) on frequency of teen dating violence (TDV) and general youth violence. ERSG is a school-based violence prevention program for youth who have been exposed to violence in their home, school, or community. Boys and girls (N=1,678, Mage=14.3, S.D.=1.7, Range=11-17) from 36 schools in Texas participated in this accelerated longitudinal (7-year trajectory) study beginning in 2011. Latent growth curve analyses were conducted using three waves of data from three cross-sectional cohorts of adolescents. Among boys, the number of ERSG sessions attended related to incremental declines in psychological TDV perpetration and victimization, physical TDV victimization, sexual TDV perpetration and victimization, reactive aggression, and proactive aggression. Girls attending ERSG demonstrated reductions in reactive and proactive aggression. The present findings suggest ERSG may be an effective cross-cutting strategy to reduce TDV and other forms of violence among high-risk boys and possibly girls. This information provides valuable understanding of TDV and youth violence in high-risk populations and may be useful in tailoring future prevention efforts to different groups of teens.

In Search of Modifiable Risk and Protective Factors for Teen Dating Violence

&NA; The present research explores the additive and interactive effects of anger or hostility (A/H), acceptance of violence (AoV), and constructive conflict resolution strategies (CRS) on the perpetration of physical and sexual teen dating violence (TDV). Adolescents completed surveys assessing physical and sexual TDV perpetration, A/H, AoV, and positive CRS. While the findings require replication with longitudinal data, the results suggest that developing interventions to modify AoV and A/H may have the potential to prevent instances of TDV perpetration among both boys and girls. The results for CRS were mixed and necessitate further exploration. These cross‐sectional data provide insight into potentially fruitful areas of exploration for the development and tailoring of prevention strategies for teens at risk for physical and sexual TDV perpetration.

Multivariate Latent Growth Models: Reading the Covariance Matrix for Multi-level Interpretations

Over the last decade, latent growth modeling (LGM) utilizing hierarchical linear models or structural equation models has become a widely applied approach in the analysis of change. By analyzing two or more variables simultaneously, the current method provides a straightforward generalization of this idea. From a theory of change perspective, this chapter demonstrates ways to prescreen the covariance matrix in repeated measurement, which allows for the identification of major trends in the data prior to running the multivariate LGM. A three-step approach is suggested and explained using an empirical study published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Zur Bedeutung innerer und äußerer Differenzierung für den Bildungsverlauf — eine vergleichende Längsschnittanalyse zum Hochschulübergang

In allen westlichen Gesellschaften ist die Unterscheidung in akademischer und nichtakademischer Bildungskarriere fur den beruflichen und personlichen Lebensverlauf von Bedeutung. Das gegliederte Schulwesen in Deutschland wird haufig mit einer vergleichsweise fruhen Festlegung der Bildungskarriere in Zusammenhang gebracht und binnendifferenzierten Kurssystemen wie in den USA gegenuber gestellt. Anhand der parallelen Analysen zweier Langsschnittstudien in Deutschland (BIJU) und den USA (MSALT) wird aufgezeigt, dass die Bedeutsamkeit der Schulform fur die Prognose einer akademischen Karriere zwar hoch bedeutsam ist, aber nur dann eine bessere Vorhersage gestattet als die Kursbelegung in den USA, wenn andere relevante Grosen unberucksichtigt bleiben. Bei Einbeziehung von Fachleistungen (Tests/Noten) und elterlichem Bildungshintergrund lasst sich in der 10 Klasse fur die USA eine vergleichbar sichere Prognose ableiten wie fur Schuler in Deutschland.