Measuring psychological engagement in youth activity involvement.

Although psychological engagement (e.g., enjoyment, concentration) may be critical in fostering positive outcomes of youth activity participation, too few studies have been conducted to establish its role in development. Furthermore, an established measurement tool is lacking. In the current study, we evaluated a brief engagement measure with two Canadian samples of youth (Sample 1, N = 290, mean age = 16.9 years, 62% female; Sample 2, N = 1827, mean age = 13.1 years, 54% female). We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis with structural equation modeling to examine the hypothesized structure of the model. We also assessed the measure's validity by testing relations between engagement and both perceived outcomes and positive features of activity settings. Psychological engagement was best captured by three latent cognitive, affective, and relational/spiritual factors and a second-order latent factor. Also, as anticipated, psychological engagement was associated with features of the activity setting and perceived impact.

Academic self-handicapping: relationships with learning specific and general self-perceptions and academic performance over time.

BACKGROUND: Academic self-handicapping (ASH) tendencies, strategies students employ that increase their chances of failure on assessments while protecting self-esteem, are correlated with classroom goal structures and to learners' general self-perceptions and learning strategies. In particular, greater ASH is related to poorer academic performance but has yet to be examined with respect to learners' performance across a series of tests. AIMS: This research was designed to examine the relationship between students' ASH tendencies and their self-concept clarity, learning strategies, and performance on a series of tests in a university course. SAMPLE: A total of 209 (153 female; 56 male) Canadian university psychology students participated in this study. METHODS: Participants' ASH tendencies, self-concept clarity, approaches to learning, and self-regulatory learning strategies were assessed along with expected grades and hours of study in the course from which they were recruited. Finally, students' grades were obtained for the three tests for the course from which they were recruited. RESULTS: Students reporting greater self-handicapping tendencies reported lower self-concept clarity, lower academic self-efficacy, greater test anxiety, more superficial learning strategies, and scored lower on all tests in the course. The relationships of ASH scores and learner variables with performance varied across the three performance indices. In particular, ASH scores were more strongly related to second and third tests, and prior performances were accounted for. ASH scores accounted for a relatively small but significant proportion of variance for all three tests. CONCLUSIONS: These results showed that ASH is a unique contributing factor in student performance outcomes, and may be particularly important after students complete the initial assessment in a course.

Academic self-handicapping: the role of self-concept clarity and students' learning strategies.

BACKGROUND: Self-handicapping is linked to students' personal motivations, classroom goal structure, academic outcomes, global self-esteem and certainty of self-esteem. Academic self-handicapping has yet to be studied with respect to students' consistency in self-description and their description of themselves as learners. AIMS: This study examined students' self-esteem and self-concept clarity as well as their tendencies to employ deep- or surface-learning approaches and self-regulate while learning in relation to their self-handicapping tendencies and exam performance. SAMPLE: Participants were 161 male and female Canadian, first-year university students. METHOD: Participants completed a series of questionnaires that measured their self-esteem, self-concept clarity, approaches to learning, self-regulation and reflections on performance prior to and following their exam. RESULTS: Self-handicapping was negatively correlated with self-concept clarity, deep learning, self-regulated learning and exam grades, and positively correlated with surface learning and test anxiety. Regression analyses showed that self-concept clarity, self-regulation, surface-learning and test anxiety scores predicted self-handicapping scores. Self-concept clarity, test anxiety scores, academic self-efficacy and self-regulation were predictors of mid-term exam grades. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that students' self-concept clarity and learning strategies are related to their tendencies to self-handicap and their exam performance. The role of students' ways of learning and their self-concept clarity in self-handicapping and academic performance was explored.

Is listening to Mozart the only way to enhance spatial reasoning?

Since 1993, controversy has surrounded the Mozart Effect that refers to enhanced spatial processing following listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos. Some researchers have replicated the effect while others have not. The present study represents an attempt to replicate and generalize the Mozart Effect and to examine the role of participants' expectations. Experimental groups were matched for musical experience and preference, and a Verbal and a Spatial Reasoning condition were used as control groups. Contrary to our hypotheses, the analyses showed that participants' expectations did not enhance performance on a spatial reasoning task. Further, enhanced spatial reasoning occurred following a variety of conditions, not just after listening to Mozart.