Thinking about those who value you based on how smart you are: Effects on effort and test anxiety

The work examined whether activating a domain of a close other’s contingency of acceptance leads to more anxiety in anticipation of an evaluative performance in that domain (Study 1), and greater effort toward improving oneself in that domain (Study 2). In a between-group experimental design, contingencies of acceptance were manipulated by a guided visualization of a close other whose acceptance was perceived either as non-contingent (intrinsic), contingent on a task-irrelevant domain (physical appearance), or contingent on a task-relevant domain (competence). The effects of the acceptance contingency condition on anxiety and effort were not statistically significant. However, in Study 1, six risk factors for being vulnerable to the influence of contingencies of acceptance were identified. There was an indication of an interaction between the presence of risk factors and acceptance contingency condition. Specifically, individuals classified as at high risk of susceptibility to acceptance contingencies (but not those at low risk) reported considerably more anxiety in competence acceptance contingency condition compared to intrinsic acceptance contingency condition (d = 0.77). These results suggest that perceived potential for failure in the domain of competence may constitute a threat to one’s level of social acceptance, and that shifting an activated acceptance contingency to a domain irrelevant to the pursuit of competence may reduce anxiety about a performance evaluative of one’s competence for people vulnerable to the influence of acceptance contingencies. However, caution has to be exercised in interpreting the results due to violation of assumptions of conducted statistical significance tests

Towards an integrative perspective on the structure of teacher work engagement

In recent years, there has been a bourgeoning scholarly interest in teacher engagement that has stemmed, in part, from broader policy discussions around teacher effectiveness. However, theory and research on the dimensional structure of teacher engagement data remains underdeveloped, potentially limiting the interpretational utility of inferences drawn from teacher engagement research. The present study examined the dimensionality of teacher work engagement data using an analytic framework designed to account for multiple sources of construct-relevant multidimensionality. In addition, the measurement and structural invariance across teaching level, the longitudinal invariance and stability, and criterion-related validity with respect to job satisfaction were examined. Results showed that a bifactor-ESEM model, characterized by factors representing general engagement and specific energetic investments, provided the best representation of teacher engagement data. This measurement structure was found to be invariant across teaching level; however, plausible latent mean differences in the engagement dimensions were found across primary and secondary teachers, such that primary teachers reported significantly higher general engagement and specific engagement with students than secondary teachers. Results also supported the full longitudinal measurement invariance of the retained measurement structure and considerable rank-order stability of the general and specific engagement dimensions over a four-month period. Finally, evidence of the criterion-related validity of the engagement scores with respect to job satisfaction was obtained. Taken together, the study yields crucial evidence supporting a novel multidimensional, hierarchical representation of teacher engagement