Context-dependent responses to the spread of COVID-19 among national and international students during the first lockdown:An online survey

Background: Restrictions to minimize social contact was necessary to prevent the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus but may have impacted individuals' mental well-being. Emotional responses are modulated by contextual information. Living abroad during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have boosted the feeling of isolation as the context is unfamiliar. Objectives: This study compared the psychological impact of social distancing in national students (living in a familiar context) versus international students (living in an unfamiliar context). Methods: During March/April 2020 (first lockdown in the Netherlands), 850 university students completed an online survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to compare how students' responses to the virus were predicted by health anxiety, emotional distress, and personal traits. Results: Compared with national students, international students showed higher levels in 4 identified factors (COVID-19-related worry, perceived risk of infection, distance from possibly contaminated objects, distance from social situations). The factors were mainly predicted by health anxiety across international students, while emotional distress and individual traits (eg, intolerance of uncertainty) played a role across national students. Conclusions:In the familiar context, individual characteristics (traits) predicted the responses to the virus, while the unfamiliar context drove individuals' health-focused responses. Living in a foreign country is associated with psychological burdens and this should be considered by universities for more pronounced social support and clear references to health-related institutions.</p

Measuring and modeling exposure to external workplace aggression in three types of emergency responders

The measurement properties of indices about workplace aggression initiated by the public, referred to as external workplace aggression, are under-researched. This study addressed how exposure to external workplace aggression is best measured and modeled in three types of emergency responders. The study inspected the factor structure and explored the addition of severity to an existing measure of frequency of exposure to workplace aggression, which addresses forms of physical aggression, threats, and verbal and nonverbal/nonphysical aggression (gestures) by people outside the organization directed toward employees. Self-reported data from 1,499 emergency responders, including emergency medical workers, firefighters, and police officers in the Netherlands, were analyzed using factor analyses in Mplus. In addition, the relationships between workplace aggression indices and a measure of the situational risk for violence were tested. Results show that the frequency index measured exposure to external workplace aggression better than the index combining the frequency and severity, and that factor structures of indices differed, regarding number and content of factors, between the three groups of emergency responders. An important implication is that researchers and policy employees can use a relatively simple measure to examine exposure to aggression in organizations

Power of a randomization test in a single case multiple baseline AB design

A randomization test can be used to statistically test hypotheses in multiple baseline designs to complement the commonly used visual inspection analysis. A crossed factor simulation study was performed to investigate the power of a randomization test in an multiple baseline design. The results sho

Context-Dependent Responses to the Spread of COVID-19 Among National and International Students During the First Lockdown:An Online Survey

Background: Restrictions to minimize social contact was necessary to prevent the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus but may have impacted individuals' mental well-being. Emotional responses are modulated by contextual information. Living abroad during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic may have boosted the feeling of isolation as the context is unfamiliar. Objectives: This study compared the psychological impact of social distancing in national students (living in a familiar context) versus international students (living in an unfamiliar context). Methods: During March/April 2020 (first lockdown in the Netherlands), 850 university students completed an online survey. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to compare how students' responses to the virus were predicted by health anxiety, emotional distress, and personal traits. Results: Compared with national students, international students showed higher levels in 4 identified factors (COVID-19-related worry, perceived risk of infection, distance from possibly contaminated objects, distance from social situations). The factors were mainly predicted by health anxiety across international students, while emotional distress and individual traits (eg, intolerance of uncertainty) played a role across national students.Conclusions: In the familiar context, individual characteristics (traits) predicted the responses to the virus, while the unfamiliar context drove individuals' health-focused responses. Living in a foreign country is associated with psychological burdens and this should be considered by universities for more pronounced social support and clear references to health-related institutions.</p

The Influence of utterance-related factors on the use of direct and indirect speech

People routinely shift between direct and indirect speech in everyday communication. The factors that impact the selection between these two modes of reporting during language production are under-investigated. The present study examined how utterance-related factors (the vividness of non-verbal information and the utterance type) influence the use of direct and indirect reported speech in narratives. Participants were asked to watch and retell four movie clips. All narratives were videotaped and then transcribed verbatim for analyses. The data were analyzed using a mixed effects logistic regression model. The results showed that the utterances accompanied by vivid voice were more likely to be reported in direct speech. The vividness of facial expressions did not influence the form in which utterances were reported. In addition, we found that utterances that belonged to so-called Main Clause Phenomena were more likely to be reported in direct speech than in indirect speech. The current study helps us further understand the factors that influence structure choices during language production

Coping and resilience in adults: a cross-sectional network analysis

Background and objectives: Coping and resilience, how we deal with problems and difficulties and recover from misfortune or change, are two well-known interrelated conce

Move more:Combining gamification and physical nudges to promote walking breaks and reduce sedentary behavior of office workers. A randomized controlled trial

Background: Sedentary behaviour (SB) and lack of physical activity (PA) have been associated with poorer health outcomes and are increasingly prevalent in individuals working in sedentary occupations, such as office jobs. Gamification and nudges have attracted attention as promising strategies to promote health behaviour change. However, most studies of effectiveness so far lacked active controls, and few studies have tested interventions combining these two strategies. Objective: This study investigated the effectiveness of an intervention combining a gamified digital intervention with physical nudges to increase PA and reduce SB in Dutch office workers. Methods: Employees of the municipality of Rotterdam (N = 298) from two office locations were randomized at the location-level to either a 10-week intervention, combining a five-week gamification phase encompassing a gamified digital intervention with social support features and a five-week physical nudges phase, or to an active control (i.e. limited digital application with self-monitoring and goal-setting). The primary outcome was daily step count objectively measured via accelerometers. Secondary outcomes were self-reported PA and SB. Mixed-effects models were used to analyse the effects of the intervention on the primary and secondary outcome measures of participants up to one month after the intervention. Results: A total of 234 participants completed the study and provided accelerometer data. During the gamification phase, participants in the intervention condition significantly increased their number of daily steps (from 10138 to 10901; 763.5 increase) compared to those in the active control (from 10403 to 10619; 215.6 increase) (p = 0.01). These improvements were not sustained during the physical nudges phase (p = 0.76) or follow-up (p = 0.88). Conclusions: A digital intervention with gamification and social support features significantly increased the step count of office workers, compared to an active control encompassing self-monitoring and goal-setting. Physical nudges in the workplace were insufficient to promote maintanence of behaviour change achieved in the gamification phase. Future research should explore how to improve the long-term effectiveness of gamified digital interventions

Assessing the temporal stability of a measure of trait emotional intelligence: Systematic review and empirical analysis

Determining the temporal stability of a construct is crucial to establishing its validity and utility in real-world scenarios. To-date, few studies have investigated the test-retest reliability of trait emotional intelligence (trait EI), particularly over extended periods of time. The present study presents relevant data from the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (TEIQue) over variable intervals, ranging from 30 days (one month) to 1444 days (≈ four years). Results provide support for trait EI theory, demonstrating strong temporal stability at all levels of the construct (global, factor, and facet). Future research may focus on extending the test-retest intervals at both ends (i.e., below one month and over four years) as well as on comparisons between different trait EI measures

Collaborative learning intervention associated with small increases in home-based school involvement for lower SES families in deprived neighbourhoods

This study investigated the impact of the Dutch family-oriented collaborative learning intervention, characterised by a partnership approach and provision of personalised support. We assessed effects on parents' home-based school involvement, perceived quality of the parent-teacher relationship, and parenting skills. Fifty-six families with children in grades 1-4 (aged 4-9) were randomly assigned to an intervention or waiting list condition. Results of two path models, using cluster-robust standard errors to adjust for nesting within our data, and controlling for baseline values of our outcome variables, indicated small improvements in home-based school involvement among families in the intervention group, but no differences in the perceived quality of the parent-teacher relationship nor in parenting skills. Our findings provide preliminary evidence for the idea that, under conditions of a partnership approach and provision of personalised support, efforts to support and strengthen the capacities of lower SES parents to promote child development can be fruitful

No intolerance of errors:The effect of intolerance of uncertainty on performance monitoring revisited

Errors have been conceptualized as internal forms of threat that can cause harm in unpredictable ways. An index of error processing is the error-related negativity (ERN), an event-related potential reflecting variability in the sensitivity to errors. Prior work has shown the relationship between psychopathology symptoms and the ERN is unclear, and may be moderated by intolerance of uncertainty (IU), a trait that captures how people react to unpredictability. IU includes two subfactors of prospective IU (active seeking of predictability) and inhibitory IU (behavioral paralysis). In the present study, 188 undergraduates performed an Eriksen flanker task designed to elicit the ERN, while brain activity was recorded using electroencephalography (EEG). Participants completed the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale, Short Form (IUS-12), and other measures of anxiety, depression and worry. Total IU explained 5 % of the variance in correct-response negativity (CRN), but was not associated with the ERN in our sample. In contrast to previous findings, the IU subfactors did not predict the ERN or post-error slowing (PES), nor did total IU and depression interact to predict the ERN. Exploratory analyses also showed that total IU did not moderate the relationship between trait anxiety and the ERN. Small samples may have previously exaggerated the links between self-reported IU and the ERN. As such, further high-powered replications are required to confirm if, and how, they are related