A multidimensional, person-centred perspective on teacher engagement: Evidence from Canadian and Australian teachers.

BACKGROUND: Hitherto, little work has examined the proposition that teachers may simultaneously invest varying degrees of their energetic resources in the teaching and learning environment. AIMS: Drawing on a multidimensional, person-centred perspective, the study aimed to identify profiles of teacher engagement, reflecting distinct configurations of teachers' energetic investments, and their generalizability across Canadian and Australian teachers. Additionally, we examined teachers' self-efficacy beliefs as predictors of engagement profile membership and the cross-country generalizability of these relations. We also examined emotional exhaustion (EE) and job satisfaction (JS) as outcomes of profile membership in Canadian and Australian teachers, respectively. SAMPLES: The samples comprised 586 Canadian and 595 Australian teachers. METHODS: Data on teachers' multidimensional engagement and teacher self-efficacy were collected in both the Canadian and Australian samples. Additionally, data on Canadian teachers' burnout and Australian teachers' job satisfaction were collected. RESULTS: Latent profile analyses revealed three engagement profiles, representing distinct configurations of teachers' multidimensional energetic investments, which were found to mostly generalize. Additionally, self-efficacy beliefs were found to predict the likelihood of engagement profile membership equally in Canadian and Australian teachers, and EE in Canadian teachers and JS in Australian teachers were found to differ significantly across the profiles. CONCLUSIONS: The results of the study constitute among the first evidence that teachers may be differentially engaged in the teaching environment with respect to their distinct energetic investments, and such differential profiles of engagement have differential implications for well-being-related outcomes and can be predicted by their teaching capability beliefs.

Students' multidimensional profiles of math engagement: Predictors and outcomes from a self-system motivational perspective.

BACKGROUND: Math engagement research has been largely limited to examining the unique and additive relations of engagement dimensions with outcomes. However, an emerging perspective is that students may simultaneously invest varying degrees of their distinct energetic resources (e.g., cognitive vs. emotional) in their interactions with the math learning environment. AIMS: Adopting a person-centred perspective, we examined unique latent subpopulations of adolescents' multidimensional math engagement. Importantly, we did so while accounting for generality and specificity in engagement data, including general engagement and specific cognitive, emotional, and social engagement dimensions. Additionally, we examined students' math self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and gender as predictors, and math achievement indices as outcomes, of profile membership. SAMPLE: The sample comprised 400 Australian school students taking mandatory math classes. METHODS: Data on students' multidimensional engagement, math self-efficacy, math outcome expectations, and demographic characteristics were collected at the beginning of the academic semester. Standardized test scores and class grades were retrieved at the end of the semester. RESULTS: Latent profile analyses, based on preliminary bifactor exploratory structural equation models intended to tease apart generality from specificity in engagement data, revealed 'Minimally Engaged', 'Emotionally Disengaged', and 'Moderately-to-Highly Engaged' profiles. Additionally, math self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and gender were found to predict the likelihood of profile membership. Finally, class grades, but not standardized test scores, were found to significantly differ across the profiles, accounting for prior achievement, gender, and grade level. CONCLUSIONS: The findings replicate previous work that has shown profiles of student engagement and extend this work by (1) accounting for known generality and specificity in engagement data and (2) obtaining evidence for relations of profile membership with gender, self-beliefs, and achievement.

The uncertain state of work in the U.S.: Profiles of decent work and precarious work.

This research utilized a person-centered approach to identify profiles of decent work and precarious work, which were explored due to their centrality in current debates about the uncertain state of work conditions in the U.S. Using the Decent Work Scale and the Precarious Work Scale, the following five profiles were identified from a sample of 492 working Americans: 1) Indecent-Precarious; 2) Highly Decent; 3) Low Health Care-Low Rights; 4) Vulnerability-Dominant; 5) Health Care-Stability. These profiles were further elaborated by examining the relationship of theoretically-informed predictors and outcomes that would distinguish profile membership. Using psychology of working theory as an organizing framework for determining predictors and outcomes, the findings revealed that work volition, age, income level, and educational level significantly predicted profile membership, and autonomy, social contribution, survival needs, job satisfaction, and life satisfaction differed meaningfully across the profiles. Implications for theory, research, practice, and public policy are discussed highlighting the complexity of work conditions and their relationship to various aspects of vocational and psychological functioning.

Resolving Dimensionality Problems With WHOQOL-BREF Item Responses.

The World Health Organization Quality of Life Scale (WHOQOL-BREF) is predicated on a multidimensional perspective on quality of life (QOL); yet studies are unclear about the latent structure underlying responses. This article reports on a study conducted to investigate the structure of WHOQOL-BREF scores. Competing latent structures of the data were examined in a general population sample. In addition, the complete factorial invariance of the retained model was investigated across gender. We also investigated latent mean differences in the QOL dimensions over age as well as age by gender interactions effects. Based on responses to the WHOQOL-BREF, support was found for a bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling representation of the data. This measurement structure accounts for construct-relevant multidimensionality in item responses due to the presence of general and specific factors underlying the data and the fallibility of indictors as pure reflections of only the single constructs they are purported to measure. Furthermore, support was found for measurement and structural invariance across gender. Finally, evidence was obtained for a curvilinear relationship of age with QOL, characterized by a midlife nadir. Taken together, the results of the study yield important validation data for the WHOQOL-BREF and tentatively resolve the dimensionality issues in the measurement of QOL using this instrument.

Construct Validity of Scores From the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale in a Sample of Postsecondary Students With Disabilities.

Although theory posits a multidimensional structure of resilience, studies have supported a unidimensional solution for data obtained from the commonly used Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). This study investigated the latent structure of CD-RISC responses in a sample of postsecondary students with disabilities. Furthermore, the validity of CD-RISC scores was examined with respect to career optimism and well-being. The analyses were conducted using confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). Results supported a bifactor-ESEM representation of the CD-RISC data that accounts for construct-relevant multidimensionality in scores due to the presence of general and specific factors and the fallibility of indicators as pure reflections of the constructs they measure. Although three specific factors showed meaningful residual specificity over and above the general factor, two specific factors were weakly defined with little meaningful residual specificity. However, these factors may retain some utility in the bifactor-ESEM model insofar as they control for limited levels of residual covariance in items. Evidence was also obtained for relations of the general and substantively interpretable specific factors with career optimism and well-being. The results of the study provide validation data for the CD-RISC and clarify recent research converging on seemingly disparate unidimensional and multidimensional solutions.

A Thematic Analysis of Career Adaptability in Retirees Who Return to Work.

Retirement can no longer be conceptualized as disengagement, as the end of a person's career, as it is in the life-span, life-space theory. Increasingly, retirees are returning to work, in paid, and unpaid positions, in a part-time or full-time capacity, as an act of re-engagement. Vocational psychology theories are yet to adequately conceptualize the phenomenon of retirees' re-engagement in work. The research reported in this paper is the first attempt to understand re-engagement through the theoretical lens of career construction theory (CCT) and its central construct, career adaptability. The study involved intensive interviews with 22 retirees between the ages of 56 and 78 years (M = 68.24), who had retired no less than 1 year prior to the study. Participants were engaged in a discussion about their reasons for returning to the world of work. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts extracted evidence of the four career adaptability resources: concern, control, curiosity, and confidence. In addition, the influence of family and making a contribution were discerned as important themes. These findings are the first evidence that the CCT and career adaptability provide a new conceptual lens to theorize and conduct research into the phenomenon of retirement.

Construct Validity of the Social Provisions Scale: A Bifactor Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

Extant theory posits well-differentiated dimensions of perceived social support as measured using the Social Provisions Scale (SPS). However, evidence is inconsistent with this multidimensionality perspective, with SPS factor correlations near unity and higher between-factor than within-factor item correlations. This article reports on research investigating the internal structure, gender invariance, and predictive validity of SPS scores. The analyses are conducted in a novel bifactor exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) framework, which is designed to account for presumed psychometric multidimensionality in SPS items due to (a) their fallibility as pure indicators of the constructs they are purported to measure and (b) the coexistence of general and specific factors. Based on 376 item responses, evidence was obtained for a bifactor-ESEM representation of the SPS data. In addition, support was found for the invariance of item thresholds and the latent mean invariance of six of the seven SPS factors in the retained solution. Only mean levels of Social Integration were found to differ by gender, with men scoring higher than women. Finally, evidence was obtained for the predictive validity of SPS scores with respect to loneliness and psychological well-being. Quite apart from yielding evidence validating the SPS, this research demonstrates the utility of bifactor ESEM for psychological assessment.

The Role of Trait Emotional Intelligence in Academic Performance: Theoretical Overview and Empirical Update.

Considerable debate still exists among scholars over the role of trait emotional intelligence (TEI) in academic performance. The dominant theoretical position is that TEI should be orthogonal or only weakly related to achievement; yet, there are strong theoretical reasons to believe that TEI plays a key role in performance. The purpose of the current article is to provide (a) an overview of the possible theoretical mechanisms linking TEI with achievement and (b) an update on empirical research examining this relationship. To elucidate these theoretical mechanisms, the overview draws on multiple theories of emotion and regulation, including TEI theory, social-functional accounts of emotion, and expectancy-value and psychobiological model of emotion and regulation. Although these theoretical accounts variously emphasize different variables as focal constructs, when taken together, they provide a comprehensive picture of the possible mechanisms linking TEI with achievement. In this regard, the article redresses the problem of vaguely specified theoretical links currently hampering progress in the field. The article closes with a consideration of directions for future research.

The mediating roles of coping and adjustment in the relationship between personality and academic achievement.

BACKGROUND: Existing literature has documented relationships between personality traits and academic achievement as well as some of the mechanisms underlying these links. However, the pathways by which personality traits are associated with achievement during stressful educational circumstances require further investigation. AIMS: This study examined a model of the roles of conscientiousness and neuroticism in achievement during the typically stressful university transition, with a focus on coping strategies and academic adjustment to university as mediators in the putative chain of events linking the dispositional traits with achievement. SAMPLE: The sample comprised 498 first-year students attending a metropolitan university in Australia. METHODS: A multiwave design was used with measures of the personality traits administered at the beginning of the semester, measures of coping administered 4 weeks thereafter, and data on academic adjustment collected mid-semester. Students' GPA data were retrieved at the end of the semester. RESULTS: In structural equations analyses, conscientiousness was associated with greater primary control engagement coping and lesser narrow disengagement coping, whereas the opposite was found for neuroticism. Furthermore, conscientiousness and neuroticism were indirectly associated with academic adjustment via the coping strategies, and the personality factors were also indirectly associated with achievement via the coping strategies and academic adjustment linked serially in three-path mediated sequences. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study replicate existing data concerning the direct and indirect relationships of personality with coping and adjustment, and extend these data by elucidating the pathways through which conscientiousness and neuroticism are linked with achievement during a typically stressful educational event.

The Internal Structure of Responses to the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form: An Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling Approach.

Notwithstanding the wide use of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form (TEIQue-SF) as a brief assessment of trait emotional intelligence (TEI), the psychometric properties of this measure have not been systematically examined. This article reports on research conducted to evaluate the latent structure underlying TEIQue-SF item data and test the gender invariance of scores as critical initial steps in determining the psychometric robustness of the inventory. In doing so, the article demonstrates an application of exploratory structural equation modeling as an alternative to the more restrictive independent clusters model of confirmatory factor analysis for examining factorially complex personality data. On the basis of 476 responses to the TEIQue-SF, evidence was obtained for the multidimensionality of the inventory reflected in a retained correlated traits solution. Tests of gender invariance revealed equivalence of item factor loadings, intercepts, uniquenesses, correlated uniquenesses, and the factor variance-covariance matrix, but not latent means. Men were found to be moderately higher on self-control and sociability than women, whereas women scored marginally higher on emotionality than men. No significant gender differences were found on mean levels of well-being. The benefits of the multidimensionality of the TEIQue-SF, limitations of the study, and directions for future research are discussed.