Psicothema最新文献

Background: Academic satisfaction (AS) is a key marker of educational success at university. It is therefore extremely important to investigate any factors that may enhance AS. Drawing on social cognitive theory, Lent's model of life satisfaction, and self-determination theory, the present study examined the roles of academic self-efficacy (ASE) and type of motivation for attending university in AS, while controlling for sex and course year. More specifically, the study investigated whether friendships at university moderated the relationship between AS and ASE, and between AS and the various kinds of motivation for going to university.

Method: A survey was completed by 431 Italian university students. Five moderation regression analyses were run.

Results: Having friends at university affected the relationship between amotivation and AS and between extrinsic motivation and AS: the more students were motivated or had low extrinsic motivation, the more satisfied they were, if they had a high number of friends at university. Conversely, if students lacked motivation or had high extrinsic motivation, they tended to be less satisfied, regardless of how many friends they had at university.

Conclusions: A large number of friends at university maximizes and amplifies the effect of being self-determined on AS. We discuss the educational implications of these findings.

Background: The scientific literature indicates that people from sexual minorities may be at increased risk for mental health difficulties. Moreover, parental support could play a protective role against poor mental health. The objective of this study was to examine whether a person's sexual orientation was related to a greater risk of mental health problems in a representative sample of adolescents. In addition, the study analyzed the possible moderating effect of parental support in the relationship between sexual orientation and mental health, as also moderated by participant gender.

Method: The sample consisted of 1790 secondary-school students. Indicators of emotional and behavioral difficulties, symptoms of depression, psychotic-like experiences, suicidal behavior, well-being, and self-esteem were assessed.

Results: The results indicated significant main effects of gender and sexual orientation. Having a diverse sexual orientation (i.e., lesbian/gay, bisexual and questioning) was related to increased risk of mental health difficulties. Moreover, the results showed a significant interaction effect of gender and sexual orientation on suicidal behavior. Finally, the results showed the moderating effect of parental support and gender in the relationship between sexual orientation and suicidal behavior.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the importance of promoting sexual minority youths' mental health and well-being.

Background: The main objective of the research was (1) to identify different profiles of students based on three purposes they had for homework (academic, self-regulatory and approval-seeking) and (2) to analyze their relationship with the homework effort, completion, and math achievement.

Method: The study involved 3,018 eighth-grade students from various areas in China. Data were analyzed with Mplus using Latent Profile Analysis (LPA).

Results: As hypothesized, four different profiles were identified: High Profile (high in all purposes; 13.39%), Moderate Profile (moderate in all purposes; 56.63%), Low Profile (low in all purposes; 26.04%), and Very Low Profile (very low in all purposes; 3.94%). Belonging to a certain profile was related to the homework effort, completion, and math achievement: the higher the purposes, the greater the homework effort, completion, and higher math performance.

Conclusions: The results of our study suggest certain similarities and consistency between individual groups (similar profiles) at different ages (i.e., eighth and eleventh graders). Belonging to one or the other profile may have different consequences or implications both for the student's behavior (for example, in terms of their involvement in homework and academic achievement) and for the educational practice of teachers and families.

Background: After the lockdown, schools adopted measures to avoid infection, which changed pre-pandemic routines. We evaluated whether the new school conditions constituted a stress factor for children or contributed to their recovery after the impact of the lockdown period.

Method: Participants included 291 families with children between 3 and 11 years of age. The children were assessed by parents through the Child and Adolescent Assessment System (SENA) at three time points: T1 (before COVID-19 confinement), T2 (after the children had spent between 4 and 6 weeks confined), and T3 (one year after the beginning of the pandemic).

Results: For Preschoolers, no statistical differences were found in any scale or time point. For primary-school children, the differences between T1 and T3 were not significant. Comparisons between T2 and T3 showed significant differences in Willingness to study, Emotional regulation and Hyperactivity and impulsivity.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that returning to school might have improved some dimensions of primary-school children’s well-being. However, it seems that neither the confinement nor the restrictive measures have had a negative effect on our sample. To interpret these findings, we discuss the psychological factors of protection and vulnerability.

Background: False memory has been extensively studied using the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm. Despite the robustness of the effect, there is wide variability in the results, which is not fully understood.

Method: Three experiments independently examined the role of backward associative strength (BAS), forward associative strength (FAS), and theme identifiability (ID) on false memories. In Experiment 1, lists varied in BAS while controlling FAS and ID. In Experiment 2, FAS was manipulated while BAS and ID were controlled. Finally, in Experiment 3, lists varied in ID while controlling BAS and FAS. Data was analyzed using both frequentist and Bayesian analyses.

Results: We found false memories in all three experiments. Specifically, false recognition was higher in high-BAS than in low-BAS lists in Experiment 1. In Experiment 2, false recognition was higher in high-FAS than in low-FAS lists. In Experiment 3, false recognition was lower in high-ID than in low-ID lists.

Conclusions: These findings suggest that both BAS and FAS─variables that promote error-inflating processes─and ID─which promotes error-editing processes─contribute independently to the production of false memories. Splitting apart the role of these variables helps to understand the variability of false memories and to extrapolate DRM tasks to explore other cognitive domains.

Background: Although measures to prevent COVID-19 infection have been greatly relaxed in many countries, they are still quite stringent in others. However, not all citizens comply with them to the same extent. Many studies show the importance of personality traits in predicting compliance with these measures, but it is not so clear what the role of intelligence is. Therefore, we aimed to assess whether intelligence is related to compliance with these measures, and what its predictive role is when considered together with the dark triad and dysfunctional impulsivity.

Method: A total of 786 participants answered four questionnaires. We performed correlations, multiple regression analysis, and structural equation analysis.

Results: Multiple regression analysis showed that psychopathy and dysfunctional impulsivity were the variables that contributed most to compliance, while intelligence contributed very little. The results of the structural equation modelling suggested that intelligence had only an indirect relationship with compliance, through its relationship with the negative personality traits dysfunctional impulsivity and the dark triad.

Conclusions: Intelligence seems to modulate the relationship between negative personality traits and compliance. Therefore, more intelligent people with negative personality traits would not tend to have such low levels of compliance.

Background: Underage gambling is a widespread phenomenon with its own characteristics that differentiate it from adult gambling. In addition, problem gambling has shown a remarkable prevalence in previous studies. The present study examines underage gambling behaviour, studying its characteristics, as well as motivational and contextual aspects, and estimating the volume of problem gambling and possible moderating variables.

Method: A sample of 9,681 students aged between 12 and 17 years old reported their involvement in gambling and filled in the Brief Adolescent Gambling Screen (BAGS), with 4,617 of them completing a questionnaire about gambling behaviours.

Results: Almost a quarter (23.5%) of the students reported having gambled in their lifetime (16.2% in-person, 1.4% online and 6% in both modalities), and 1.9% presented symptoms of problem gambling (BAGS ≥ 4). In-person gamblers preferred sport-betting machines, usually gambled in bars, and did not have their age checked. Online gamblers reported mainly sports betting, doing so on websites and paying with PayPal-like services and credit cards. Most gambled with friends and to win money. Problem gamblers were similar but gambled more frequently.

Conclusions: These results present an image of the gambling situation among minors and, more importantly, of its context and related variables.

Background: Previous studies show contradictory results regarding the bidirectional association between physical activity and nighttime sleep. The objective of the present study was to add knowledge to these possible relationships using autoregressive models.

Method: 214 adolescents (117 boys and 97 girls), with a mean age of 13.31 years agreed to participate. The study variables were measured with accelerometers for 7 full days over three consecutive years. The mlVAR package was used to compute estimates from multivariate vector autoregression models.

Results: The 5-delay models showed a better fit. Autoregressive effects were observed in sleep onset, sleep offset and sedentary behavior, which could explain the relationships found in previous studies between physical activity and sleep. Sleep onset, total sleep time, and sleep efficiency had direct effects on sedentary behavior. Moderate-to-vigorous physical activity was not related to any of the sleep variables.

Conclusions: The hypothesis that there are bidirectional/reciprocal relationships between physical activity and sleep cannot be accepted.

Background: Validated measures of cyber dating violence are scarce and have barely explored the sexual dimension. The present study advanced this line of research by developing a new instrument that differentiates between sexual, verbal and control dimensions.

Method: The instrument was created in four phases: literature review, focus groups with young people, expert review, and creation of the final scale. This instrument was administered to 600 students from high schools in Seville and Córdoba, aged between 14 and 18 ( M = 15.54; SD = 1.22).

Results: A three-factor latent structure was confirmed for the aggression and victimization scales: verbal/emotional, control, and sexual. Using Item Response Theory, a refined version of the scales resulted in 19 items for both aggression and victimisation. Prevalence analysis showed that verbal/emotional forms were the most frequent, followed by control and sexual.

Conclusions: The CyDAV-T instrument can be considered a valid instrument for assessing cyber dating violence in the adolescent population.

Background: Suicide is the second leading cause of death in young people aged 15-29 in Spain. It is imperative to detect cases with suicidal risk for early intervention. The purpose of the study was to examine the self-reported presence of suicide spectrum indicators using a trichotomous rating scale: no, yes, prefer not to say . This last alternative was intended to safeguard the sensitive nature of the phenomenon and explore its clinical character.

Method: 5,528 adolescents made up the definitive sample (12-18 years; M ± SD = 14.20 ± 1.53; 50.74% female).

Results: Prevalence reached 15.38% for ideation, 9.32% for planning, and 3.65% for previous suicide attempts. Girls' rates were twice those of men. Suicidality showed a tendency to increase with age. Adolescents with the presence of suicidal indicators (yes) and omission of response (prefer not to say) both had lower levels of socioemotional strength and subjective well-being, and higher levels of psychopathology than the group with the absence of markers (no).

Conclusions: Prefer not to say is a response category that increases the sensitivity of the self-report, allowing more accurate identification of cases with a high suicidal risk that would go unnoticed by the traditional dichotomous system (no-yes).