Cognitive style and creativity: The role of education in shaping cognitive style profiles and creativity of adolescents.

BACKGROUND: Previous research on cognitive styles (CSs) has often overlooked their complexity and the effect of the environment on their development. While research supports visual abilities as predictors of domain-specific creativity, there is a lack of studies on the predictive power of CS in relation to creativity beyond abilities. AIMS: The current study aimed to explore the validity of the CS construct as environmentally sensitive individual differences in cognition. We examined the internal structure of the CS construct, its predictive power in creativity beyond visual abilities, and how CSs of Singaporean secondary school students are shaped with age under specific sociocultural influences (Singapore's emphasis on STEM disciplines). SAMPLE: Data were collected from 347 students aged 13-16 from a secondary school in Singapore. METHODS: Students were administered nine tasks assessing their visual abilities and learning preferences, artistic and scientific creativity, and questionnaires assessing their CS profiles. RESULTS: The confirmatory factor analyses provided evidence for a matrix-type CS structure consisting of four orthogonal CS dimensions and third levels of information processing. Structural equation models demonstrated significant contributions of context independence and intuitive processing to artistic and scientific creativity, respectively, beyond visual abilities. The results also suggested that Singapore's education system could be contributing to significantly shaping adolescents' CS profiles. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings support the validity of CS as individual differences in cognition that develop to cope with environmental demands. They highlight the importance of providing an appropriate environment in shaping adolescents' CS profiles to support the development of domain-specific creativity according to their strengths and talent.

Caregiving for Uganda's elders with disability: Using cross-sectional surveillance data to identify healthcare service gaps in low- and middle-income settings.

BACKGROUND: Disability is highly prevalent in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs), but there is a relative dearth of disability and caregiving research from LMICs. OBJECTIVE: To examine type and severity of disability experienced by individuals 60 years and older, caregivers and type of caregiving assistance, and the interrelationships between sociodemographic factors involved in Uganda. METHODS: Data was collected from two Eastern Ugandan districts using the WHO Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0. Data on availability of caregiver was analyzed for 816 participants with disability. Group comparisons and regression analyses examined differences based on caregiver availability. RESULTS: Approximately 66% of individuals with disability had a caregiver. The mean age of those with a caregiver (74.7 ±â€¯8.9 years) was statistically significantly (p = .0004) higher than that of individuals without caregiver (72.4 ±â€¯8.2 years). Significant differences based on caregiver availability were found relative to sex (p = .009), age (p≤.001), education level (p≤.001), occupation (p≤.001) and head of household status (p≤.001). The most frequent types of disability were related to vision (78.4%) and ambulation (71.7%). Caregiving most often fell to family members. Logistic regression results showed that individuals over the age of 80 years were 2.51 times more likely to have a caregiver compared to those 60-69 years (p≤.001). Those in the highest wealth quintile were 1.77 times more likely to have a caregiver. CONCLUSIONS: Findings demonstrate gaps in caring for aging individuals with disabilities in LMICs and highlight the importance of understanding caregiver access in generating effective healthy aging initiatives and long-term care systems.