Household Possessions and Parental Support in Mexican Students with High Scientific Competencies in PISA 2015

<p style="text-align:justify">Traditionally secondary studies on achievement on Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA) tests point to the significant impact of socioeconomic status and cultural backgrounds of families as well as the role of parental involvement, which in some cases has had a negative impact on achievement. For this article, a model of structural regression was tested, with structural modelling software. This model included the following factors: domestic and educational assets, parental support for students, parents’ perceptions about science, and science competencies among 214 high performing Mexican students on PISA tests in 2015. This resulted in a structural regression model with a goodness of fit, where science competencies were a positive significant variable, impacted by domestic and educational assets and parental involvement. An additional restricted model with four variables manifested as mediators, revealed that science competencies were predicted positively and significantly by domestic and educational assets, and by the manifest parental emotional support variable. Variables related to ownership of educational and cultural assets and resources, as well as parental support, particularly emotional parental support, have positive and significant impact on science competencies.</p>

Cognitive Processes Related to Memory Capacity Explain Nearly All of the Variance in Language Test Performance in School-Age Children With and Without Developmental Language Disorder

The purpose of this study was to investigate the dimensionality of the cognitive processes related to memory capacity and language ability and to assess the magnitude of the relationships among these processes in children developing typically (TD) and children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Participants were 234 children between the ages of 7;0 and 11;11 (117 TD and 117 DLD) who were propensity matched on age, sex, mother education and family income. Latent variables created from cognitive processing tasks and standardized measures of comprehension and production of lexical and sentential aspects of language were tested with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural regression. A five-factor CFA model that included the constructs of Fluid Intelligence, Controlled Attention, Working Memory, Long-Term Memory for Language Knowledge and Language Ability yielded better fit statistics than two four-factor nested models. The four cognitive abilities accounted for more than 92% of the variance in the language measures. A structural regression model indicated that the relationship between working memory and language ability was significantly greater for the TD group than the DLD group. These results are consistent with a broad conceptualization of the nature of language impairment in older, school-age children as encompassing a dynamic system in which cognitive abilities account for nearly all of the variance in linguistic abilities.

Will Anti-Epidemic Campus Signals Affect College Students’ Preparedness in the Post-COVID-19 Era?

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a tremendous global threat and challenge for human beings, and individuals need to be prepared for the next wave of the outbreak, especially in the educational setting. Limited research has focused on individual knowledge, awareness, and preparedness of COVID-19 in postsecondary institutions in the post-COVID-19 era so far. This study aimed to explore whether students’ perceived anti-epidemic campus signals had effects on their awareness of and preparedness for COVID-19. Leveraging the data collected from full-time college students in a province located in East China and building a structural regression model, we found that students’ perceived anti-epidemic campus signals were significantly associated with their awareness of and preparedness for COVID-19. With one perceived signal decrease, there were 0.099 unit and 0.051 unit decreases in students’ awareness and preparedness, respectively. In addition, we indeed found that female students had a higher awareness and better preparedness than their male peers. These findings provided important implications for postsecondary administrators and policymakers, as well as future research.

Factors Influencing Continuous Professional Development of Teacher at University Level

This study intends to find how time, funding and head influence impact on continuous professional development of university teachers. Purposive sampling (non-probability) was used for the study and survey method was adopted. The data was collected from 225 respondents and questionnaire is used as data collection instrument and respondents belongs to a public university Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur Mirs’ which is located in Sindh province. For hypothesis testing, structural regression model was selected. IBM SPSS is the tool we used to analyze the collected data and applied tests like Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and multiple regression and AMOS is used to check Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Overall results provided the evidence that time and funding does not influence on Continuous Professional Development of university teachers while head influence significantly effecting on it. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) enhance competencies and skills of teachers that ensure the quality education therefore it is the demand of the age. This study provides an exclusive viewpoint of university teachers regarding factors influencing on continuous professional development

Explanatory Model of Perceived Stress in the General Population: A Cross-Sectional Study in Peru During the COVID-19 Context

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic had negatively impact mental health worldwide. High prevalence of stress had been previously reported in populations during this context. Many theoretical frameworks had been proposed for explaining the stress process, we aim to proposed and explanatory model for the genesis of perceived stress in Peruvian general population.MethodWe conducted an online survey in Peruvian general population assessing sociodemographic variables and evaluating mental health conditions by using The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10), Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS), Generalized Anxiety Disorder scale (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), and a numerical rating scale (NRS) for fear of COVID-19. Correlation analysis was conducted for the variables of interest. Two regression models were constructed to explore related factor to the dimensions of perceived stress. Finally, a structural regression model was performed with the independent variables.ResultsData of 210 individuals was analyzed. Ages ranged from 15 to 74 years and 39% were women. Additionally, 65.2% of the participants had at least one mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, or stress symptoms). Perceived self-efficacy and positive affect (PA) were correlated, as perceived helplessness with anxious symptoms and negative affect (NA). Regression analysis showed that sex, anxiety symptoms, and NA explained perceived helplessness while positive and NA explained self-efficacy. The structural regression model analysis identified that fear of COVID-19 (composed of fear of infecting others and fear of contagion), predicted mental health conditions (i.e., depressive or anxiety symptoms); also, mental health conditions were predicted by PA and NA. Perceived helplessness and Perceived self-efficacy were interrelated and represented the perceived stress variable.ConclusionWe proposed an explanatory model of perceived stress based on two correlated dimensions (self-efficacy and helplessness) in the Peruvian general population during the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, with two out of three individuals surveyed having at least one mental health condition.

Human flourishing and physical self-concept in physically active women

The aim was to identify the relationship between the physical self-concept profile and human flourishing in physically active women, including the validation of the human flourishing scale, which had not been validated yet to the Spanish context. Five hundred eighty (N=580) women, aged between 18 and 65 years (M = 37.13; SD = 12.56 years) completed the following questionnaires: Human Flourishing (FH), Physical Self-Perception Profile (PSPP), and Habitual Physical Activity in the last six months. After the structural regression analysis, we were able to demonstrate that the scale of human flourishing presented adequate psychometrics with a Cronbach’s alpha of .83 and a CCI of .90. Through the cluster analysis we were able to present two self-concept profiles and the reliability indexes were satisfactory: the profile of high physical self-concept was higher in women with greater human flourishing [ F (1, 579) = 11.75, p&lt;.001, η2=.02] and higher levels of physical exercise [F (1, 579) = 11,19, p&lt;.001, η2=.01] compared to the group with a low physical self-concept. We believe that these variables have a strong influence on the personal adjustment of women and should be addressed through preventive intervention for disorders related to an individual’s distress.

Psychometric properties of the UWES-9S in Peruvian college students

The objective of this study was to evaluate the internal structure dimensionality of the Utrech Work Engagement Scale – Student (UWES–9S) and its association with the academic procrastination reported by 321 psychology students from a private university in Cajamarca (Peru) ranging between 17 and 41 years old (79% women; Mage = 22.50 years; 84% between 17 and 25 years old). The UWES-9S and the Academic Procrastination Scale (APS) were used and both a confirmatory and a bifactor analysis were conducted on the UWES–9S, as well as a structural regression analysis that specified the influence of the general and specific dimensions of engagement on the dimensions of academic procrastination. Regarding the results, the bifactor model is the one that best defines the construct, whereas the general dimension of engagement has a greater influence on the dimensions of academic procrastination than the specific ones. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed, as well as the need to focus on the students’ positive resources in order to achieve greater involvement in their academic work.

Psychometric properties of the UWES-9S in Peruvian college students

The objective of this study was to evaluate the internal structure dimensionality of the Utrech Work Engagement Scale – Student (UWES–9S) and its association with the academic procrastination reported by 321 psychology students from a private university in Cajamarca (Peru) ranging between 17 and 41 years old (79% women; Mage = 22.50 years; 84% between 17 and 25 years old). The UWES-9S and the Academic Procrastination Scale (APS) were used and both a confirmatory and a bifactor analysis were conducted on the UWES–9S, as well as a structural regression analysis that specified the influence of the general and specific dimensions of engagement on the dimensions of academic procrastination. Regarding the results, the bifactor model is the one that best defines the construct, whereas the general dimension of engagement has a greater influence on the dimensions of academic procrastination than the specific ones. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed, as well as the need to focus on the students’ positive resources in order to achieve greater involvement in their academic work.

Análisis de los procesos de regresión y restitución del monumento natural Puente del Inca, Andes Centrales, Provincia de Mendoza, Argentina

The Puente del Inca, next to the homonymous village, is a natural bridge located on the Cuevas River, at about 2,700 m above sea level in the Central Andes of the province of Mendoza, Argentina. Declared Provincial Natural Monument in 2005, since the beginning of the 20th century it has registered a continuous weakening, mainly related to erosive processes that cause detachments of part of the material that makes up its structure. The objective of this study is to determine the factors involved in the structural regression and restitution of the natural bridge. To achieve this, visual inspection, characterization of thermal springs, measurement of accretion-erosion rate of travertine deposits, testing of materials and the development of a structural numerical model by the Finite Element Method, were carried out. Results indicate that the deterioration is linked, mainly, with changes in the geobiological system that regulates the travertine deposition and to the heterogeneous structure of the bridge. Changes of the geobiological system are related to the activity of the thermal waters present in the area, whose discontinuity and/or fluctuations in the flow rate are influenced by both natural and anthropogenic factors. The heterogeneity of the structure conditions the stability of the monument due to the presence of a less resistant material in the lower part of the bridge arch. From the numerical simulation, safety factors between 1.5 and 3 were determined for the bridge, thus, we conclude the structure is stable against its own weight, as long as the bridge maintains the current conditions.