Political, religious and occupational identities in context: Placing identity status paradigm in context

This study critically contrasts global identity with domain-specific identities (political, religious and occupational) and considers context and gender as integral parts of identity. In a cross-sectional survey, 1038 Greek Cypriot adolescents (449 boys and 589 girls, mean age 16.8) from the three different types of secondary schools (state, state technical and private) and from different SES completed part of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-Identity Status-2 (EOMEIS-2). The macrocontext of Greek Cypriot society is used to understand the role of context in adolescents’ identities. Results showed that Greek Cypriot young people were not in the same statuses across their global, political, religious and occupational identities. This heterogeneity in the status of global identity and of each identity domain is partially explained by differences in gender, type of school and SES (Socio-Economic Status). The fact that identity status is found to be reactive to context suggests that developmental stage models of identity status should place greater emphasis on context

What Works for Whom in School-Based Anti-bullying Interventions? An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis

The prevalence of bullying worldwide is high (UNESCO, 2018). Over the past decades, many anti-bullying interventions have been developed to remediate this problem. However, we lack insight into for whom these interventions work and what individual intervention components drive the total intervention effects. We conducted a large-scale individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 39,793 children and adolescents aged five to 20 years (Mage = 12.58, SD = 2.34) who had participated in quasi-experimental or randomized controlled trials of school-based anti-bullying interventions (i.e., 10 studies testing nine interventions). Multilevel logistic regression analyses showed that anti-bullying interventions significantly reduced self-reported victimization (d =  − 0.14) and bullying perpetration (d =  − 0.07). Anti-bullying interventions more strongly reduced bullying perpetration in younger participants (i.e., under age 12) and victimization for youth who were more heavily victimized before the intervention. We did not find evidence to show that the inclusion of specific intervention components was related to higher overall intervention effects, except for an iatrogenic effect of non-punitive disciplinary methods–which was strongest for girls. Exploratory analyses suggested that school assemblies and playground supervision may have harmful effects for some, increasing bullying perpetration in youth who already bullied frequently at baseline. In conclusion, school-based anti-bullying interventions are generally effective and work especially well for younger children and youth who are most heavily victimized. Further tailoring of interventions may be necessary to more effectively meet the needs and strengths of specific subgroups of children and adolescents. </p

The stages, content and context of adolescent identity

Adolescent identity attracts much interest in the research community, however the\ud majority of existing studies conceptualise it as a global construct with minor\ud examination of its content. The present research focuses on a snapshot of domainspecific\ud identities: political, religious and occupational, viewed as complex constructs,\ud and examines them in various dimensions. First, the developmental stages of global\ud identity as theorised by Erikson and Marcia are critically contrasted with domainspecific\ud identities. Second, the analysis of the content of adolescents' identities reveals\ud different values, attitudes and beliefs, which were used in a cluster analysis to identify\ud distinct identity types. Thirdly, gender and context differences of developmental stages,\ud content and types of adolescents' identities are considered. The context of Greek\ud Cypriot society, specifically, the ecological systems of the politics of partition, the\ud strong Greek Orthodox faith and the contradictions of tradition and\ud modernisation/Europeanization are used to understand the role of the environment in\ud adolescents' identities.\ud In a cross-sectional survey, 1,038 Greek Cypriot adolescents (449 males and 589\ud females, mean age 16.8) completed part of the Extended Objective Measure of Ego-\ud Identity Status, which assesses identity developmental stages in both global and\ud domain-specific identities. They were also asked to write three answers to three\ud questions of the type "Who Are You?" in each of the referred identity domains. This\ud valuable textual data was analysed by using both variable and person-centered\ud approaches.\ud The results suggest that the identity of adolescents does not always develop\ud synchronously across its domains, thus, the presentation of only global identity conceals\ud the complexity of identity as a multi-faceted concept. This was especially evident in the\ud analysis of the content of political, religious and occupational identities that revealed\ud interesting and varying elements, as well as meaningful and heterogeneous identity\ud types. The significance of identity content and its use in the understanding of adolescent\ud identity is highlighted. Gender and context are integral parts of the developmental\ud stages and the content of adolescents' identities

What Works for Whom in School-Based Anti-bullying Interventions? An Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis

The prevalence of bullying worldwide is high (UNESCO, 2018). Over the past decades, many anti-bullying interventions have been developed to remediate this problem. However, we lack insight into for whom these interventions work and what individual intervention components drive the total intervention effects. We conducted a large-scale individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis using data from 39,793 children and adolescents aged five to 20 years (Mage = 12.58, SD = 2.34) who had participated in quasi-experimental or randomized controlled trials of school-based anti-bullying interventions (i.e., 10 studies testing nine interventions). Multilevel logistic regression analyses showed that anti-bullying interventions significantly reduced self-reported victimization (d = − 0.14) and bullying perpetration (d = − 0.07). Anti-bullying interventions more strongly reduced bullying perpetration in younger participants (i.e., under age 12) and victimization for youth who were more heavily victimized before the intervention. We did not find evidence to show that the inclusion of specific intervention components was related to higher overall intervention effects, except for an iatrogenic effect of non-punitive disciplinary methods–which was strongest for girls. Exploratory analyses suggested that school assemblies and playground supervision may have harmful effects for some, increasing bullying perpetration in youth who already bullied frequently at baseline. In conclusion, school-based anti-bullying interventions are generally effective and work especially well for younger children and youth who are most heavily victimized. Further tailoring of interventions may be necessary to more effectively meet the needs and strengths of specific subgroups of children and adolescents.</p

What Works for Whom in School‑Based Anti‑bullying Interventions? An Individual Participant Data Meta‑analysis

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale: Cross-National Measurement Invariance and Convergent Validity Evidence

Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) is a widely used measure that captures somatic symptoms of coronavirus-related anxiety. In a large-scale collaboration spanning 60 countries (Ntotal = 21,513), we examined the CAS’s measurement invariance and assessed the convergent validity of CAS scores in relation to the fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19S) and the satisfaction with life (SWLS-3) scales. We utilized both conventional exact invariance tests and alignment procedures, with results revealing that the single-factor model fit the data well in almost all countries. Partial scalar invariance was supported in a subset of 56 countries. To ensure the robustness of results, given the unbalanced samples, we employed resampling techniques both with and without replacement and found the results were more stable in larger samples. The alignment procedure demonstrated a high degree of measurement invariance with 9% of the parameters exhibiting noninvariance. We also conducted simulations of alignment using the parameters estimated in the current model. Findings demonstrated reliability of the means but indicated challenges in estimating the latent variances. Strong positive correlations between CAS and FCV-19S estimated with all three different approaches were found in most countries. Correlations of CAS and SWLS-3 were weak and negative, but significantly differed from zero in several countries. Overall, the study provided support for the measurement invariance of the CAS and offered evidence of its convergent validity while also highlighting issues with variance estimation

The Coronavirus Anxiety Scale: Cross-National Measurement Invariance and Convergent Validity Evidence

Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS) is a widely used measure that captures somatic symptoms of coronavirus-related anxiety. In a large-scale collaboration spanning 60 countries (Ntotal = 21,513), we examined the CAS’s measurement invariance and assessed the convergent validity of CAS scores in relation to the fear of COVID-19 (FCV-19S) and the satisfaction with life (SWLS-3) scales. We utilized both conventional exact invariance tests and alignment procedures, with results revealing that the single-factor model fit the data well in almost all countries. Partial scalar invariance was supported in a subset of 56 countries. To ensure the robustness of results, given the unbalanced samples, we employed resampling techniques both with and without replacement and found the results were more stable in larger samples. The alignment procedure demonstrated a high degree of measurement invariance with 9% of the parameters exhibiting noninvariance. We also conducted simulations of alignment using the parameters estimated in the current model. Findings demonstrated reliability of the means but indicated challenges in estimating the latent variances. Strong positive correlations between CAS and FCV-19S estimated with all three different approaches were found in most countries. Correlations of CAS and SWLS-3 were weak and negative, but significantly differed from zero in several countries. Overall, the study provided support for the measurement invariance of the CAS and offered evidence of its convergent validity while also highlighting issues with variance estimation

Trust in government moderates the association between fear of COVID-19 as well as empathic concern and preventive behaviour

With the COVID-19 pandemic, behavioural scientists aimed to illuminate reasons why people comply with (or not) large-scale cooperative activities. Here we investigated the motives that underlie support for COVID-19 preventive behaviours in a sample of 12,758 individuals from 34 countries. We hypothesized that the associations of empathic prosocial concern and fear of disease with support towards preventive COVID-19 behaviours would be moderated by trust in the government. Results suggest that the association between fear of disease and support for COVID-19 preventive behaviours was strongest when trust in the government was weak (both at individual- and country-level). Conversely, the association with empathic prosocial concern was strongest when trust in the government was high, but this moderation was only found at individual-level scores of governmental trust. We discuss how motivations may be shaped by socio-cultural context, and outline how findings may contribute to a better understanding of collective action during global crises