Multilevel Analysis (multilevel + analysis)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


THE ROLE OF PUBLIC SOCIAL CONTROL IN URBAN NEIGHBORHOODS: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF VICTIMIZATION RISK,

CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 4 2001
MARÍA B. VÉLEZ
This study introduces public social control into multilevel victimization research by investigating its impact on household and personal victimization risk for residents across 60 urban neighborhoods. Public social control refers to the ability of neighborhoods to secure external resources necessary for the reduction of crime and victimization. I find that living in neighborhoods with high levels of public social control reduces an individual's likelihood of victimization, especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Given the important role that residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods can play in securing public social control, this contingent finding suggests that disadvantaged neighborhoods can be politically viable contexts. [source]


A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF PROMPTING SELF-REGULATION IN TECHNOLOGY-DELIVERED INSTRUCTION

PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
TRACI SITZMANN
Two studies were conducted to examine the effect of prompting self-regulation, an intervention designed to improve learning from technology-delivered instruction. In Study 1, trainees who were prompted to self-regulate gradually improved their declarative and procedural knowledge over time, relative to the other conditions, whereas test scores declined over time for trainees who were not prompted to self-regulate. In Study 2, basic performance remained stable over time and strategic performance improved over time for trainees who were prompted to self-regulate, relative to the other conditions, whereas performance declined over time for trainees who were not prompted to self-regulate. Trainees' cognitive ability moderated the effect of the prompts on basic performance and task-specific self-efficacy moderated the effect of the prompts on strategic performance. Prompting self-regulation resulted in stronger performance gains over time for trainees with higher ability or higher self-efficacy. These results demonstrate prompting self-regulation improved performance over time, relative to the other conditions, in both online, work-related training and laboratory settings. The results are consistent with theory suggesting self-regulation is a dynamic process that has a gradual effect on performance and highlight the importance of using a within-subjects design in self-regulation research. [source]


U.S. Soft Power and the "China Threat": Multilevel Analyses

ASIAN POLITICS AND POLICY, Issue 3 2010
Satoshi Machida
This study investigates the impact of U.S. "soft power" in the international system. Specifically, it examines how American soft power affects individuals' perceptions of the "China threat." Based on the theoretical model developed by Rousseau (2006), the present research considers how citizens develop their perceptions of China in relation to the United States. Multilevel analyses relying on the Pew Global Attitudes Project 2007 verify the view highlighting the compatibility of these two states in the international system. The analyses find that the diffusion of U.S. soft power in each state significantly reduces the urgency of the China threat. Implications from this study contribute to our understanding of U.S-China relations in rapidly changing international environments. [source]


Multilevel Analysis of the Chronic Care Model and 5A Services for Treating Tobacco Use in Urban Primary Care Clinics

HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 1 2009
Dorothy Y. Hung
Objective. To examine the chronic care model (CCM) as a framework for improving provider delivery of 5A tobacco cessation services. Methods. Cross-sectional surveys were used to obtain data from 497 health care providers in 60 primary care clinics serving low-income patients in New York City. A hierarchical generalized linear modeling approach to ordinal regression was used to estimate the probability of full 5A service delivery, adjusting for provider covariates and clustering effects. We examined associations between provider delivery of 5A services, clinic implementation of CCM elements tailored for treating tobacco use, and the degree of CCM integration in clinics. Principal Findings. Providers practicing in clinics with enhanced delivery system design, clinical information systems, and self-management support for cessation were 2.04,5.62 times more likely to perform all 5A services ( p<.05). CCM integration in clinics was also positively associated with 5As delivery. Compared with none, implementation of one to six CCM elements corresponded with a 3.69,30.9 increased odds of providers delivering the full spectrum of 5As ( p<.01). Conclusions. Findings suggest that the CCM facilitates provider adherence to the Public Health Service 5A clinical guideline. Achieving the full benefits of systems change may require synergistic adoption of all model components. [source]


A Multilevel Analysis of Gender Differences in Psychological Distress Over Time

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, Issue 2 2009
Amanda L. Botticello
Females have higher rates of depression than males, a disparity that emerges in adolescence and persists into adulthood. This study uses hierarchical linear modeling to assess the effects of school context on gender differences in depressive symptoms among adolescents based on two waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N=9,709 teens, 127 schools). Analysis indicates significant school-level variation in both overall symptom levels and the average gender gap in depression net of prior symptoms and individual-level covariates. Aggregate levels of depressive symptomatology were positively associated with contextual-level socioeconomic status (SES) disadvantage. A cross-level contingency emerged for the relationship between gender and depressive symptoms with school SES and aggregate perceived community safety such that the gender "gap" was most apparent in contexts characterized by low SES disadvantage and high levels of perceived safety. These results highlight the importance of context to understanding the development of mental health disparities. [source]


Staff- and School-Level Predictors of School Organizational Health: A Multilevel Analysis

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 6 2007
Katherine Bevans PhD
ABSTRACT Background:, An organizationally healthy school environment is associated with favorable student and staff outcomes and thus is often targeted by school improvement initiatives. However, few studies have differentiated staff-level from school-level predictors of organizational health. Social disorganization theory suggests that school-level factors, such as faculty turnover, student mobility, and concentration of student poverty, would be negatively associated with school organizational health, but these relationships may be moderated by staff-level factors. Methods:, The present study examined the association among school- and staff-level predictors of staff-perceived school organizational health (eg, academic emphasis, collegial leadership, and staff affiliation), as measured by the Organizational Health Inventory. Results:, Multilevel analyses on data from 1395 staff across 37 elementary schools indicated that school membership accounted for between 26% and 35% of the variance in different components of staff-perceived organizational health. Two-level hierarchical analyses indicated that both school- and staff-level characteristics are important predictors of organizational health. Furthermore, some school and staff characteristics interacted to predict staff affiliation and collegial leadership. Conclusions:, Findings suggest that factors at both the school and staff level are important potential targets for school improvement. Administrators aiming to improve relationships among staff members should be cognizant of staff-level characteristics (race, age, and role in school) associated with less favorable perceptions of the school environment, whereas efforts to enhance student work ethic and discipline should target schools with specific school-level characteristics (high rates of faculty turnover and student mobility). [source]


Multilevel Analysis for Applied Research: It's Just Regression! by Robert Bickel

PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 1 2008
Article first published online: 6 FEB 200
First page of article [source]


Self-Interest, Symbolic Attitudes, and Support for Public Policy: A Multilevel Analysis

POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2009
Richard R. Lau
This paper examines the role of self-interest and symbolic attitudes as predictors of support for two domestic policy issues,guaranteed jobs and incomes and national health insurance,in the American National Election Survey (ANES) between 1972 and 2004. As was the case in 1976 when Sears, Lau, Tyler, and Allen (1980) first explored this topic, symbolic attitudes continue to be much more important predictors of policy attitudes than various indicators of self-interest over the 30 years we analyze. We explore this finding further to determine whether any individual/internal and external/contextual variables affect the magnitude of self-interest effects on policy support. Five possible internal moderators of self-interest effects are examined: (1) political knowledge, (2) issue publics, (3) political values, (4) social identifications, and (5) emotions, but none are found to boost the magnitude of the self-interest effect. However, we do find some evidence that contextual variables representing the social/information environment moderate the impact of self-interest on public opinion. [source]


Linking personality states, current social roles and major life goals

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 6 2009
Wiebke BleidornArticle first published online: 23 JUN 200
Abstract Employing an experience-sampling design, the interplay between personality states, social roles and major life goals was examined as it unfolds in the stream of people's daily lives. Multilevel analyses revealed a considerable amount of both within- and between-person variability in state expressions of personality traits justifying further examination of predictors at both levels of analyses. Roles proved as predictors of current personality states albeit effects differed significantly between individuals. Life goals accounted for between-person differences in average personality states but were not effective in predicting differences in relations between personality states and roles. Altogether, findings testify to the viability of the employed research strategy to analyse the interplay between both dispositional and fluctuating influences on individuals' trait expressions in behaviour. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


The effect of chronic benzodiazepine use on cognitive functioning in older persons: good, bad or indifferent?

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY, Issue 12 2007
E. J. M. Bierman
Abstract Objective This study investigates the effects of benzodiazepine (BZ) use on cognitive performance in elderly persons in a longitudinal design. Study design and setting Data were obtained from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), in the Netherlands. 2,105 respondents (,62 years of age) were included and had repeated measurements over a period of 9 years. For all BZs the type, dosage, frequency and duration of use was measured. The equivalent of a dose of diazepam was determined with regard to type and dosage and a cumulative dosage was calculated. General cognitive functioning was measured with the Mini-Mental State Examination, information processing speed was measured with the coding task, fluid intelligence with Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices and episodic memory with the Auditory Verbal Learning Test. Multilevel analyses were used to investigate the relationship between BZ use and cognitive decline. Results A negative effect of BZ use on cognitive performance was found. However, the effect sizes were very small. Conclusion This study suggests that both duration and cumulative exposure to BZ has a small negative effect on the long-term cognitive functioning of elderly people in the community. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


How neighborhoods matter for rural and urban children's language and cognitive development at kindergarten and Grade 4,

JOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010
Jennifer E.V. Lloyd
The authors took a population-based approach to testing how commonly studied neighborhood socioeconomic conditions are associated with the language and cognitive outcomes of residentially stable rural and urban children tracked from kindergarten (ages 5,6) to Grade 4 (ages 9,10). Child-level kindergarten Early Development Instrument (EDI) data were probabilistically linked to scores on Grade 4's Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA), 4 years later, and to socioeconomic data describing the children's residential neighborhoods. Multilevel analyses were performed for a study population of 5,022 children residing in 105 neighborhoods across British Columbia, Canada: 635 children in 20 rural neighborhoods and 4,825 children in 85 urban neighborhoods. Concentrated immigration consistently predicted better child outcomes. Moreover, the determinants of children's language and cognitive outcomes analyzed cross-sectionally differed from the determinants of outcomes analyzed longitudinally. Furthermore, there were notable differences in the extent of the relationship between neighborhood socioeconomic conditions and rural and urban children's outcomes over time. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Student and Teacher Perceptions of School Climate: A Multilevel Exploration of Patterns of Discrepancy

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 6 2010
Mary M. Mitchell PhD
BACKGROUND: School climate has been linked with improved academic achievement and reduced discipline problems, and thus is often a target of school improvement initiatives. However, few studies have examined the extent to which student and teacher perceptions vary as a function of individual, classroom, and school characteristics, or the level of congruence between teachers' and their students' perceptions of school climate. METHODS: Using data from 1881 fifth-grade students and their 90 homeroom teachers, we examined parallel models of students' and teachers' perceptions of overall school climate and academic emphasis. Two additional models were fit that assessed the congruence between teacher and student perceptions of school climate and academic emphasis. RESULTS: Multilevel analyses indicated that classroom-level factors were more closely associated with teachers' perceptions of climate, whereas school-level factors were more closely associated with the students' perceptions. Further analyses indicated an inverse association between student and teacher ratings of academic emphasis, and no association between student and teacher ratings of overall climate. CONCLUSIONS: Teacher ratings were more sensitive to classroom-level factors, such as poor classroom management and proportion of students with disruptive behaviors, whereas student ratings were more influenced by school-level factors such as student mobility, student-teacher relationship, and principal turnover. The discrepancy in ratings of academic emphasis suggests that while all of the respondents may have shared objectively similar experiences, their perceptions of those experiences varied significantly. These results emphasize the importance of assessing both student and teacher perceptions in future research on school climate. [source]


Staff- and School-Level Predictors of School Organizational Health: A Multilevel Analysis

JOURNAL OF SCHOOL HEALTH, Issue 6 2007
Katherine Bevans PhD
ABSTRACT Background:, An organizationally healthy school environment is associated with favorable student and staff outcomes and thus is often targeted by school improvement initiatives. However, few studies have differentiated staff-level from school-level predictors of organizational health. Social disorganization theory suggests that school-level factors, such as faculty turnover, student mobility, and concentration of student poverty, would be negatively associated with school organizational health, but these relationships may be moderated by staff-level factors. Methods:, The present study examined the association among school- and staff-level predictors of staff-perceived school organizational health (eg, academic emphasis, collegial leadership, and staff affiliation), as measured by the Organizational Health Inventory. Results:, Multilevel analyses on data from 1395 staff across 37 elementary schools indicated that school membership accounted for between 26% and 35% of the variance in different components of staff-perceived organizational health. Two-level hierarchical analyses indicated that both school- and staff-level characteristics are important predictors of organizational health. Furthermore, some school and staff characteristics interacted to predict staff affiliation and collegial leadership. Conclusions:, Findings suggest that factors at both the school and staff level are important potential targets for school improvement. Administrators aiming to improve relationships among staff members should be cognizant of staff-level characteristics (race, age, and role in school) associated with less favorable perceptions of the school environment, whereas efforts to enhance student work ethic and discipline should target schools with specific school-level characteristics (high rates of faculty turnover and student mobility). [source]


U.S. Soft Power and the "China Threat": Multilevel Analyses

ASIAN POLITICS AND POLICY, Issue 3 2010
Satoshi Machida
This study investigates the impact of U.S. "soft power" in the international system. Specifically, it examines how American soft power affects individuals' perceptions of the "China threat." Based on the theoretical model developed by Rousseau (2006), the present research considers how citizens develop their perceptions of China in relation to the United States. Multilevel analyses relying on the Pew Global Attitudes Project 2007 verify the view highlighting the compatibility of these two states in the international system. The analyses find that the diffusion of U.S. soft power in each state significantly reduces the urgency of the China threat. Implications from this study contribute to our understanding of U.S-China relations in rapidly changing international environments. [source]


Multilevel analysis of effects of individual characteristics and household factors on self-rated health among older adults in rural Vietnam

GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 2 2010
Hoang Van Minh
Aim: This paper aims to describe self-rated health (SRH) status among older adults in a rural community of Vietnam, and examine individual and household-level factors associated with good health rating among the study populations. Methods: The study was carried out in the Bavi district, a rural community located 60 km west of Hanoi, the capital, within the Epidemiological Field Laboratory of Bavi (FilaBavi) in Vietnam in 2006. All people aged 50 years and over who lived within the district were surveyed. Face-to-face household interviews were conducted by trained surveyors using standard World Health Organization/INDEPTH network questionnaire,summary version. A logistic multilevel modeling approach was applied to analyze the association between SRH and both individual and household-level factors. Results: The proportion of people aged 50 years and older in FilaBavi reported having good/very good health and poor/very poor health was 15.1% and 24.8%, respectively. SRH status was reported to be better among: (i) men; (ii) younger people; (iii) people with higher education; (iv) people who were currently in marital a partnership; (v) those from wealthier households; and (vi) those who were living in riverside/island or highland areas compared to those of other categories of the same variable. Conclusion: The findings reveal that there exist problems of inequality in health among older adults in the study setting by sex, age, education, wealth status and place of residence. We also found a considerable contribution of the household-level factors to SRH of the study populations.. [source]


County-Level Income Inequality and Depression among Older Americans

HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH, Issue 6p2 2003
Naoko Muramatsu
Objectives. To examine (1) whether county-level income inequality is associated with depression among Americans aged 70 and older, taking into consideration county-level mean household income and individual-level socioeconomic status (SES), demographic characteristics, and physical health, and (2) whether income inequality effects are stronger among people with lower SES and physical health. Data Sources. The individual-level data from the first wave of the Assets and Health Dynamics among the Oldest Old survey (1993,1994) were linked with the county-level income inequality and mean household income data from the 1990 Census. Study Design. Multilevel analysis was conducted to examine the association between income inequality (the Gini coefficient) and depression. Principal Findings. Income inequality was significantly associated with depression among older Americans. Those living in counties with higher income inequality were more depressed, independent of their demographic characteristics, SES, and physical health. The association was stronger among those with more illnesses. Conclusions. While previous empirical research on income inequality and physical health is equivocal, evidence for income inequality effects on mental health seems to be strong. [source]


Ten-Year Longitudinal Relationship Between Physical Activity and Lumbar Bone Mass in (Young) Adults,

JOURNAL OF BONE AND MINERAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2003
Ingrid Bakker
Abstract Little is known about the influence of long-term daily physical activity (PA) on lumbar bone mass after peak bone mass has been reached, that is, during [young] adulthood. The purpose of this study was to investigate the longitudinal relationship between PA and lumbar bone mineral density (LBMD) in healthy subjects over a 10-year period. The data reported here relate to 225 male and 241 female participants in the Amsterdam Growth and Health Longitudinal Study, who were measured at the mean ages of 27, 32, and/or 36. LBMD, habitual daily PA, total body weight, and calcium intake were assessed at each measurement point. The effects of two aspects of PA were analyzed: the mechanical (MECHPA; sum of all ground reaction forces) and metabolic (METPA; weighted metabolic score of intensity, frequency, and duration) components, each within a separate model. Multilevel analysis was used to investigate the relationship between PA and LBMD over the 10-year period. Gender, total body weight, and calcium intake were included in the analysis as covariates. The results indicated that MECHPA was a significant positive linear predictor of LBMD for males (r = 0.09; p < 0.001) but not for females. For the METPA, no linear longitudinal relationship with LBMD was found. The results suggest that there is a metabolic threshold at which extra PA becomes "deleterious" and METPA in its totality becomes ineffective for LBMD. It is concluded that during the (young) adult period, between 27 and 36 years of age, PA causing mechanical loading on the skeleton has a small positive influence on LBMD in males. [source]


Use of O*NET as a job exposure matrix: A literature review

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 9 2010
Manuel Cifuentes MD
Abstract Background O*NET is a publicly available online database that describes occupational features across US job titles and that has been used to estimate workplace physical and psychosocial exposures and organizational characteristics. The aim of this review is to describe and evaluate the use of O*NET as a job exposure matrix. Methods A review of the peer-reviewed published and gray literature was conducted. Twenty-eight studies were found that used O*NET to estimate work exposures related to health or safety outcomes. Each was systematically evaluated across eight main features. Results Many health outcomes have been studied with O*NET estimates of job exposures. Some studies did not use conceptual definitions of exposure; few studies estimated convergent validity, most used predictive validity. Multilevel analysis was underutilized. Conclusion O*NET is worthy of exploration by the occupational health community, although its scientific value is still undetermined. More studies could eventually provide evidence of convergent validity. O*NET has the potential to allow examination of occupational risks that might have otherwise been ignored due to missing data or resource constraints on field data collection of job exposure information. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:898,914, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Things to Do Today . . . : A Daily Diary Study on Task Completion at Work

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Brigitte J.C. Claessens
Relatively little is known about how goals in complex jobs are translated into action and how they are completed in real life settings. This study addressed the question to what extent planned work may actually be completed on a daily basis. The completion of daily work goals was studied in a sample of 878 tasks identified by 29 R&D engineers with the help of a daily diary. Multilevel analysis was used to analyse the joint effect of task attributes, perceived job characteristics, and personality attributes on the completion of planned work goals. At the level of task attributes, we found that priority, urgency, and lower importance were related to task completion, and at the individual level, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and time management training. Task completion was not related to task attractiveness, workload, job autonomy, planning, or perceived control of time. On connaît relativement peu de choses sur la manière dont les objectifs dans des tâches complexes sont traduites en action et sur la manière dont elles sont accomplies dans le cadre de la vie quotidienne. Cette étude a abordé la question de savoir dans quelle mesure les travaux prévus peuvent être effectivement achevés dans la vie quotidienne. Pour ce faire, un échantillon de 878 tâches a été identifié par 29 ingénieurs R&D à l'aide d'un journal quotidien. Une analyse multi niveau a été réalisée pour étudier l'effet conjoint des caractéristiques de la tâche et des caractéristiques de la personnalité sur l'accomplissement des objectifs d'un travail planifié. Au niveau des caractéristiques de la tâche, nous trouvons que l'accomplissement de la tâche est liéà la priorité, l'urgence et une importance basse et au niveau individuel à la conscience, la stabilitéémotionnelle et à la gestion du temps. L'accomplissement de la tâche n'est pas liéà son attrait, à la charge de travail, à l'autonomie au travail ou au contrôle du temps perçu. [source]


Effects of gynaecological education on interpersonal communication skills

BJOG : AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF OBSTETRICS & GYNAECOLOGY, Issue 5 2001
A.M. van Dulmen
Objective To investigate the effects of an experimental communication course on how gynaecologists handle psychosocial issues in gynaecological consultation. Design Pre-post testing. Multilevel analysis was used to take into account the similarity among encounters with the same gynaecologist. Sample Eighteen gynaecologists (13 consultants and 5 junior doctors) from five different hospitals participated. All gynaecologists videotaped consecutive outpatient encounters before and after attending an intensive training course. Main outcome measures The communicative performance of the gynaecologists at pre-and post measurement. Results The gynaecologists recorded a total of 526 outpatient encounters, 272 before and 254 after the training. As a result of the training, gynaecologists' sensitivity to psychosocial aspects of their patients increased. At post measurement, the gynaecologists gave more signs of agreement, became less directive, asked fewer medical questions and more psychosocial questions. No difference was found in the duration of the outpatient visits. With the trained gynaecologists, patients asked more questions and provided more psychosocial information. Conclusions Junior doctors and clinically experienced gynaecologists can be taught to handle psychosocial issues without lengthening the visit. [source]


Extreme right-wing voting in Germany in a multilevel perspective: A rejoinder to Lubbers and Scheepers

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 2 2005
HERMANN DÜLMER
The purpose of this article is to shed light on the reasons for this puzzling result. To capture contextual information resembling the individual's life sphere as close as possible, we use data that allow us to include the districts as an additional level between the individual and the state in our multilevel analyses. [source]


Community Storytelling Network, Neighborhood Context, and Civic Engagement: A Multilevel Approach

HUMAN COMMUNICATION RESEARCH, Issue 4 2006
Yong-Chan Kim
From a communication infrastructure theory perspective, the current study examined individuals' civic engagement (neighborhood belonging, collective efficacy, and civic participation) as influenced by 2 multilevel components of the communication infrastructure,an integrated connectedness to a storytelling network (ICSN) and the residential context,focusing on ethnic heterogeneity and residential stability. Our multilevel analyses show that ICSN is the most important individual-level factor in civic engagement,neighborhood belonging, collective efficacy, and civic participation,after controlling for other individual-level and neighborhood-level factors. In both ethnically homogeneous and heterogeneous areas and in both stable and unstable areas, ICSN is an important factor in civic engagement. As contextual factors, residential stability positively affects neighborhood belonging and collective efficacy, and ethnic heterogeneity is negatively related to collective efficacy. Our data do not show any direct contextual effects of residential stability or ethnic heterogeneity on civic participation. However, our HLM analysis showed that the relative importance of ICSN for the likelihood of participation in civic activities is significantly higher in unstable or ethnically heterogeneous areas than in stable or ethnically homogeneous areas. [source]


Burnout contagion among intensive care nurses

JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 3 2005
Arnold B. Bakker PhD
Aim., This paper reports a study investigating whether burnout is contagious. Background., Burnout has been recognized as a problem in intensive care units for a long time. Previous research has focused primarily on its organizational antecedents, such as excessive workload or high patient care demands, time pressure and intensive use of sophisticated technology. The present study took a totally different perspective by hypothesizing that , in intensive care units , burnout is communicated from one nurse to another. Methods., A questionnaire on work and well-being was completed by 1849 intensive care unit nurses working in one of 80 intensive care units in 12 different European countries in 1994. The results are being reported now because they formed part of a larger study that was only finally analysed recently. The questionnaire was translated from English to the language of each of these countries, and then back-translated to English. Respondents indicated the prevalence of burnout among their colleagues, and completed scales to assess working conditions and job burnout. Results., Analysis of variance indicated that the between-unit variance on a measure of perceived burnout complaints among colleagues was statistically significant and substantially larger than the within-unit variance. This implies that there is considerable agreement (consensus) within intensive care units regarding the prevalence of burnout. In addition, the results of multilevel analyses showed that burnout complaints among colleagues in intensive care units made a statistically significant and unique contribution to explaining variance in individual nurses' and whole units' experiences of burnout, i.e. emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. Moreover, for both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, perceived burnout complaints among colleagues was the most important predictor of burnout at the individual and unit levels, even after controlling for the impact of well-known organizational stressors as conceptualized in the demand-control model. Conclusion., Burnout is contagious: it may cross over from one nurse to another. [source]


Socio-economic, socio-political and socio-emotional variables explaining school bullying: a country-wide multilevel analysis

AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR, Issue 6 2009
Enrique Chaux
Abstract Why do some countries, regions and schools have more bullying than others? What socio-economic, socio-political and other larger contextual factors predict school bullying? These open questions inspired this study with 53.316 5th- and 9th-grade students (5% of the national student population in these grades), from 1,000 schools in Colombia. Students completed a national test of citizenship competencies, which included questions about bullying and about families, neighborhoods and their own socio-emotional competencies. We combined these data with community violence and socio-economic conditions of all Colombian municipalities, which allowed us to conduct multilevel analyses to identify municipality- and school-level variables predicting school bullying. Most variance was found at the school level. Higher levels of school bullying were related to more males in the schools, lower levels of empathy, more authoritarian and violent families, higher levels of community violence, better socio-economic conditions, hostile attributional biases and more beliefs supporting aggression. These results might reflect student, classroom and school contributions because student-level variables were aggregated at the school level. Although in small portions, violence from the decades-old-armed conflict among guerrillas, paramilitaries and governmental forces predicted school bullying at the municipal level for 5th graders. For 9th graders, inequality in land ownership predicted school bullying. Neither poverty, nor population density or homicide rates contributed to explaining bullying. These results may help us advance toward understanding how the larger context relates to school bullying, and what socio-emotional competencies may help us prevent the negative effects of a violent and unequal environment. Aggr. Behav. 35:520,529, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source]


Work characteristics, challenge appraisal, creativity, and proactive behavior: A multi-level study

JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2010
Sandra Ohly
Work characteristics such as time pressure and job control can be experienced as a challenge that is positively associated with performance-related behaviors. Using experience-sampling data from 149 employees, we examined the relationships between these work characteristics and creativity and proactive behavior on a daily level. Results from multilevel analyses indicate that time pressure and job control are perceived as challenging, and that challenge appraisal in turn is related to daily creativity and proactive behavior. Furthermore, cross-level mediation analyses revealed that daily work characteristics act as the mechanism underlying the relationships between chronic work characteristics and challenge appraisal. This study supports the view of time pressure as a challenge-related stressor that leads to favorable outcomes. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Smoking, Mood Regulation, and Personality: An Event-Sampling Exploration of Potential Models and Moderation

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY, Issue 3 2007
Nima G. Moghaddam
ABSTRACT The aim of the present study was to test potential models of smoking-related changes in mood and how these are moderated by personality (behavioral activation and inhibition systems). Three models yielding distinct predictions regarding mood changes associated with cues to smoking and effects of ingestion were identified: the negative reinforcement model, the appetitive-incentive model, and the incentive-sensitization model. Seventy participants provided baseline data on personality and mood, and subsequently monitored their smoking behavior over 48 hours using an event-contingent diary,eliciting reports of mood state immediately prior to, and after, each cigarette smoked. MANOVA and multilevel modeling indicated that mood (hedonic tone and energetic arousal) improved significantly (p<.001) from baseline to pre-smoking, but did not change from pre- to post-smoking, thereby supporting the incentive-sensitization model. Further multilevel analyses indicated that significant variability in hedonic tone was moderated by the behavioral activation system. [source]


Students' Drinker Prototypes and Alcohol Use in a Naturalistic Setting

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 1 2010
Renske Spijkerman
Background:, Perceptions about the type of people who drink, also referred to as drinker prototypes, may strengthen young people's motivation to engage in alcohol use. Previous research has shown that drinker prototypes are related to alcohol consumption in both adolescents and young adults. However, the evidence for the strength of these relationships remains inconclusive. One of the caveats in former studies is that all insights about prototype relations are based on self-reported data from youngsters themselves, mostly gathered in a class situation, which may contain bias due to memory distortions and self-presentation concerns. Methods:, The present study examined the impact of drinker prototypes on young adults' drinking patterns by using a less obtrusive measure to assess alcohol consumption, i.e. ad lib drinking among friend groups in the naturalistic setting of a bar lab. Drinker prototypes, self-reported alcohol use in the past, and observed alcohol intake in the bar lab were assessed among 200 college students. Relations between participants' drinker prototypes and their self-reported and observed drinking behavior were examined by computing correlations and conducting multilevel analyses. Results:, Drinker prototypes were related to both self-reported and observed alcohol use. However, the drinking patterns of friend group members had a strong impact on participants' individual drinking rates in the bar lab. After these group effects had been controlled for, only heavy drinker prototypes showed relations with observed alcohol intake in the bar lab. Conclusions:, These findings further establish the value of drinker prototypes in predicting young adults' drinking behavior and suggest that people's motivation to drink alcohol in real-life drinking situations is related to their perceptions about heavy drinkers. [source]


The Impact of Metropolitan Residential Segregation on the Employment Chances of Blacks and Whites in the United States

CITY & COMMUNITY, Issue 3 2010
Niki Dickerson VonLockette
Studies of residential segregation's role in creating employment inequality between blacks and whites have focused on the characteristics of neighborhoods (e.g., mean SES or distance from job centers). In contrast, this study considers the broader structure of metropolitan segregation in which neighborhoods are situated and its impact on the racial disparity in access to employment opportunities. The study employs multilevel analyses and the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth to test the effects of metropolitan segregation in 1980 on respondents' probability of being employed by 1990 net of individual and family level characteristics, and to assess the role of segregation in explaining the race gap in employment between blacks and whites. The analyses reveal that residential segregation decreases employment odds for blacks, but not for whites, and explains the residual race gap in the probability of being employed. In addition, the depressive effect of segregation on employment is weaker for black women than it is for black men. El impacto de la segregación residencial metropolitana en las oportunidades de empleo de personas negras y blancas en los Estados Unidos (Niki Dickerson vonLockette) Resumen Los estudios sobre el rol de la segregación residencial en la creación de la desigualdad en el empleo entre personas de raza negra y personas de raza blanca se han concentrado en las características de los barrios en que viven (por ejemplo, el estatus socio-económico promedio o la distancia a la que se encuentran de los centros de trabajo). Por el contrario, el presente estudio aborda la estructura más amplia de la segregación en el área metropolitana de la que los barrios forman parte y su impacto en la disparidad racial en el acceso a las oportunidades de empleo. El estudio hace uso del análisis multinivel y la Encuesta Longitudinal Nacional sobre la Juventud para evaluar los efectos que tuvo la segregación a nivel metropolitano en 1980 en la probabilidad de que los informantes estuvieran empleados en 1990 (después de tomar en cuenta las características a nivel individual y familiar). El estudio también examinó el rol que la segregación tiene en la brecha en el acceso al empleo entre personas blancas y negras. El análisis revela que la segregación residencial reduce la probabilidad de tener un empleo para las personas de raza negra pero no para las personas de raza blanca y es la razón por la que se mantiene la brecha racial residual en la probabilidad de tener un empleo. Además, el efecto reductor de la segregación en el empleo es más débil para las mujeres negras en comparación con los hombres negro. [source]


Care provision for patients with eating disorders in Europe: what patients get what treatment where?

EUROPEAN EATING DISORDERS REVIEW, Issue 3 2005
Matthias Richard
Abstract In this paper, we report on the similarities and differences between patients with eating disorders and the services provided to them across 80 centres participating in a European collaboration (COST Action B6). Differences in patient characteristics as well as differences in treatment regimen, especially length of treatment, are described. The relationship between patient characteristics, treatment setting and length of treatment is investigated by multilevel analysis. The findings show a rich diversity in service conditions and traditions across European countries. Patients with anorexia nervosa are mostly treated in inpatient settings, patients with bulimia nervosa are treated mostly as outpatients,with the exception of German-speaking countries. Day-patient settings were generally rare. Clinical characteristics of the patients,e.g. severity of symptoms or illness duration,contributed only little to the differences in treatment length (within as well as between centres), whereas organizational factors explained the largest proportion of between centre variability. The findings are discussed from a service research perspective. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and Eating Disorders Association. [source]


Growing supranational identities in a globalising world?

EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF POLITICAL RESEARCH, Issue 5 2008
A multilevel analysis of the World Values Surveys
Using the World Values Surveys (WVS), this article shows that there is a global pattern in public attitudes toward supranational identity: the younger the respondent, the more supranational. Yet a life-cycle effect, as opposed to a generational one, underlies this pattern. A multilevel analysis confirms this age effect on supranational identification in 43 countries covered in the recent wave of the WVS, but provides little support for the idea that a country's integration into the global economy and world society promotes supranational attachments among mass publics, especially youths. Regional integration and globalisation appear either complementary or contradictory to this identity shift, depending upon how ordinary citizens perceive their country's involvement in the processes of regional integration and globalisation, respectively. [source]