ADVANCED MULTILEVEL MODELS FOR COMPARING GROUP CHARACTERISTICS: THE CASE OF SEX DIFFERENCES IN READING ACHIEVEMENT

To help improve and advance research methodology when comparing the group characteristics, two advanced multilevel models were developed and introduced, which would allow a deeper and more refined look at the issue of sex differences in reading achievement. The first model is a restricted multilevel model for the examination of institutional effects on multiple groups of individuals. The goal of this multivariate multilevel model with individuals nested within institutions was to estimate the institutional effects on multiple groups of individuals. With the employment of 2009 OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) data, an application was illustrated to examine whether school reading environment had the same effect on reading achievement between boys and girls. In this two-level model, the level 1 was a multivariate model highlighting students’ average reading achievement for each sex group (two dichotomous variables) and level 2 was two linear regression equations, one for boys and one for girls. The effects of five school reading environment variables (diversity of reading, enjoyment of reading, stimulators of reading, daily reading hours, and online reading hours) were constrained respectively to be the same for both boys and girls. A significance test was performed to examine whether this restriction held true. It was found that the effects of enjoyment of reading and online reading hours were statistically different on reading achievement between boys and girls based on PISA 2009 dataset. The model is an effective omnibus statistical technique to examine the institutional effects on multiple groups of individuals, which unmasked the specific group dynamics concerning institutional effects with a broad applicability as well as convenient execution. The second model was a multilevel model with heterogeneous sigma squared function to compare distributional properties of multiple groups. A good understanding of the distributional properties across groups is an essential part of making group comparisons. The combination of central tendency and variability is the preferred way to describe (and compare) distributions across groups. An advanced multilevel model with an embedded analytic function referred to as heterogeneous sigma squared was developed to perform statistical tests of significance to compare means and variances across multiple groups at the same time, which made it convenient to examine the distributional properties comprehensively and simultaneously. With the employment of 2009 OECD PISA data, an application was illustrated to examine the distributional properties concerning reading achievement for boys and girls. In the two-level model, the level one had sex as the categorical independent variable (dummy coded as boys = 0 and girls = 1) and level two had the random intercept modeled by school background variables. It was found that girls performed significantly better than boys in reading achievement, but boys and girls share similar variance in reading achievement. A violin plot revealed that girls had higher mean and occupied the very top distribution of reading achievement, while boys had a lower mean and occupied the very bottom of reading achievement. The distribution for girls was near normal, but there were two peaks for boys indicating that the distribution for boys was not normal. The full model explained a total of nearly a third of the variance in reading achievement. The above advanced multilevel models can be easily extended to examine other equity issues in education. It is the hope of the author that these advanced multilevel models would inspire statistical efforts in developing other advanced models. The results of similar models may promote more credible educational reforms through a revisit to educational policies and practices concerning equity issues in education (based on more robust and precise empirical evidence)

What cultural values determine student self-efficacy? An empirical study for 42 countries and economies

Self-efficacy is a vital personal characteristic for student success. However, the challenge of cross-cultural comparisons remains as scalar invariance is hard to be satisfied. Also, it is unclear how to contextually understand student self-efficacy in light of cultural values in different countries. This study implements a novel alignment optimization method to rank the latent means of student self-efficacy of 308,849 students in 11,574 schools across 42 countries and economies that participated in the 2018 Program in International Student Assessment. We then used classification and regression trees to classified countries with differential latent means of student self-efficacy into groups according to Hofstede’s six cultural dimensions theory. The results of the alignment method recovered that Albania, Colombia, and Peru had students with the highest mean self-efficacy, while Slovak Republic, Moscow Region (RUS), and Lebanon had the lowest. Moreover, the CART analysis indicated a low student self-efficacy for countries presenting three features: (1) extremely high power distance; (2) restraint; and (3) collectivism. These findings theoretically highlighted the significance of cultural values in shaping student self-efficacy across countries and practically provided concrete suggestions to educators on which countries to emulate such that student self-efficacy could be promoted and informed educators in secondary education institutes on the international expansion of academic exchanges

How to better balance academic achievement and learning anxiety from time on homework? A multilevel and classification and regression tree analyses

Using education survey data from 153, 317 Grade 4 students and 150, 040 Grade 8 students in China, this study examined the relationship between time on homework and academic achievement and learning anxiety with hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and classification and regression tree (CART) approaches. With a classification of time spent on homework into four related variables, this study found that, firstly, time spent on in-school homework during weekdays had positive effects on students’ achievement for both grades, and the positive effect was stronger for Grade 8 students than Grade 4 students. Moreover, a maximum of 1 h was recommended for Grade 4 students. Secondly, time spent on out-of-school homework on weekdays was negatively correlated with students’ academic achievement and positively with learning anxieties. It had greater detrimental effect on Grade 8 than Grade 4. Thirdly, Grade 8 students were encouraged to have more out-of-school homework on weekend with more than 2.8 h on average recommended. It was expected to complement extant studies and provide the practical findings for teachers, practitioners and school policy makers in making any homework assignment planning or conducting interventions

Exploring the Relationship between Transition Planning and Economic Hardship for Youth with Disabilities

Using NLTS2012 data, we will create a transition planning construct. Then we will examine the relationship with an established economic hardship construct for youth with disabilities who are 16 or older

The effect of subliminal priming on team trust: The mediating role of perceived trustworthiness

The present study aimed to explore the effect of subliminal priming on team trust and the mechanism through the mediating role of perceived trustworthiness. A total of 144 participants were asked to complete a lexical decision task that was embedded with the “trust” or “suspicion” Chinese words as the subliminal stimuli. Then, they played a public good game and evaluated the perceived trustworthiness of the team. The results of the study showed that subliminal stimuli had a significant effect on team trust [β = –0.99, 95% CI = (−1.64, −0.33)]. Perceived trustworthiness was found to have a significant mediating effect between the priming condition and team trust [β = −0.35, 95% CI = (−0.72, −0.02)]. The current study revealed the underlying mechanism through which subliminal priming techniques influence team trust and informed efforts by altering perceived trustworthiness

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Version of Human-Computer Trust (HCT) Scale in the Chinese Sample of Adults

An appropriate human-computer trust (HCT) is a key element affecting the use of Intelligent Decision Aids (IDA). Through item-level analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis, this study showed that the revised version of the HCT consisting of two sub-factors cognitive-based trust (10 items) and affect-based trust (6 items) was a valid and reliable scale to assess human's trust towards computers in China, using two groups of samples with different occupation backgrounds in China. Moreover, variables trust in automation and interpersonal trust were used to examine HCT's criterion validity, both of which showed moderate to high significant correlations with each dimension of HCT. It was the first psychometric assessment and validity test of the HCT scale in different culture using a large-scale dataset and expected to provide both theoretical and practical values for future researchers

The Effectiveness of Telepsychology with Veterans: A Meta-analysis of Services Delivered by Videoconference and Phone.

Veterans face a variety of stressors due to their military service and are more likely to develop psychological problems as a result. Research suggests that as many as half of veterans with mental health conditions go untreated due to barriers including lack of accessibility to services and stigma. The present study builds on previous research by using meta-analytic techniques to determine the effectiveness of telepsychology-delivered therapy with veterans. Empirical studies were included if they reported veteran-related outcome data on a psychological intervention used to treat a mental health condition remotely using either videoconferencing or telephone. Twenty-seven studies including 2,648 total participants (1,667 in treatment conditions and 981 in control conditions) met our inclusion criteria and were incorporated into our analysis. Twenty-five studies provided pre-post data to evaluate various therapy outcomes, and 18 studies used a randomized clinical trials (RCTs) design that allowed a comparison between telehealth and traditional in-person therapy. Publication bias was evaluated using correlations between sample and effect sizes for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression for pretest-posttest and RCT designs; risk was determined to be minimal. Weighted average pre-post effect sizes were moderate-to-strong for depression and trauma, and videoconferencing was more effective than telephone for depression (d = 0.86 and 0.46, respectively) and trauma (d = 1.00 and 0.51, respectively). Weighted average effect sizes computed from RCT studies suggest telepsychology is similarly effective as services provided face-to-face. More research is needed for telepsychology-delivered treatments for other mental health conditions faced by veterans

Establishing Construct Validity of a Measure of Adolescent Perceptions of College and Career Readiness

The purpose of this study was to establish construct validity of a college and career readiness measure using a sample of youth with (n = 356) and without (n = 1,599) disabilities from five high schools across three states. We established content validity through expert item review, structural validity through initial field-testing, and convergent validity by correlating domain scores with school academic and behavioral data. A four-factor measurement model emerged representing the domains Ownership of Learning, Academic Engagement and Processes, Interpersonal Engagement, and Career Development. Domain scores were significantly correlated with achievement, college admission exam scores, and attendance. Implications for research and practice with an emphasis on transition service delivery via multi-tiered systems of support are discussed

Deep Dive on Open Practices: Understanding Registered Reports in Education Research with Amanda Montoya and Betsy McCoach

Registered reports are a new publication mechanism where peer review and the decision to publish the results of a study occur prior to data collection and/or analysis. Registered reports share many characteristics with preregistration, but are distinct by involving the journal prior to completing the study. Journals in the field of education are increasingly offering opportunities to publish registered reports. Registered reports offer a variety of benefits to both the researcher and to the research field. In this workshop, we will discuss the basics of registered reports, benefits and limitations of registered reports, and which journals in education accept registered reports. We provide some practical advice on deciding which projects are appropriate for registered reports, implementing registered reports, and time management throughout the process. We discuss how special cases can be implemented as registered reports, such as secondary data analysis, replications, meta-analyses, and longitudinal studies