Moral distress and moral competences in midwifery: A latent variable approach

Like other health professionals, midwives need moral competences in order to cope effectively with ethical issues and to prevent moral distress and negative consequences such as fatigue or impaired quality of care. In this study, we developed and conducted a survey with 280 midwives or midwifery students assessing the burden associated with ethical issues, moral competences, and negative consequences of moral distress. Results show that ethical issues associated with asymmetries of power and authority most often lead to the experience of distress. The results are critically discussed in the context of the conceptualization and operationalization of moral distress.

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Concepts and measurement: Ontology and epistemology

Social Science Information ◽

10.1177/0539018412437108 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 51 (2) ◽

pp. 205-216 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Gary Goertz ◽

James Mahoney

Keyword(s):

Latent Variable ◽

Knowledge Generation ◽

Semantic Approach ◽

True Value ◽

Variable Approach ◽

Quantitative Analyses ◽

Measurement Concept ◽

The Difference ◽

Latent Variable Approach

This article discusses some ontological and epistemological differences in qualitative and quantitative approaches to concepts and measurement. Concept formation inevitably raises the issue of ontology because it involves specifying what is inherent and important in the empirical phenomenon represented by a concept, e.g. ‘What is democracy?’ Qualitative researchers adopt a semantic approach and work hard to identify the intrinsic necessary defining attributes of a concept. Quantitative scholars adopt an indicator-latent variable approach and seek to identify good indicators that are caused by the latent variable. Concepts and measurement also raise epistemological issues about the nature and quality of knowledge. In quantitative analyses, the challenges of knowledge generation are closely linked to ‘error’, understood as the difference between an estimated value and a true value. By contrast, in qualitative analyses the challenges of knowledge generation are more closely linked to ‘fuzziness’, understood as partial membership in a conceptual set.

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Distinguishing Adequate Versus Inadequate Cancer Health Literacy Levels: A Discrete Latent Variable Approach

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e581432013-001 ◽

2013 ◽

Author(s):

Levent Dumenci ◽

Robin Matsuyama ◽

Robert Perera ◽

Laura Kuhn ◽

Laura Siminoff

Keyword(s):

Health Literacy ◽

Latent Variable ◽

Variable Approach ◽

Latent Variable Approach

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Executive Functions and Metacognitive Monitoring Are Not Interchangeable in Educational Settings: Their Shared and Unique Contribution to Academic Outcomes

10.31234/osf.io/4jhnz ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Rina PY Lai ◽

Michelle Renee Ellefson ◽

Claire Hughes

Keyword(s):

Executive Functions ◽

Academic Outcomes ◽

Cognitive Skills ◽

Latent Variable ◽

Unique Contribution ◽

Metacognitive Monitoring ◽

Cognitive Predictors ◽

Domain Specific ◽

Variable Approach ◽

Latent Variable Approach

Executive functions and metacognition are two cognitive predictors with well-established connections to academic performance. Despite sharing several theoretical characteristics, their overlap or independence concerning multiple academic outcomes remain under-researched. To address this gap, the present study applies a latent-variable approach to test a novel theoretical model that delineates the structural link between executive functions, metacognition, and academic outcomes. In whole-class sessions, 469 children aged 9 to 14 years (M = 11.93; SD = 0.92) completed four computerized executive function tasks (inhibition, working memory, cognitive flexibility, and planning), a self-reported metacognitive monitoring questionnaire, and three standardized tests of academic ability. The results suggest that executive functions and metacognitive monitoring are not interchangeable in the educational context and that they have both shared and unique contributions to diverse academic outcomes. The findings are important for elucidating the role between two domain-general cognitive skills (executive functions and metacognition) and domain-specific academic skills.

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