A Problem with Discretizing Vale-Maurelli in Simulation Studies.

Previous influential simulation studies investigate the effect of underlying non-normality in ordinal data using the Vale-Maurelli (VM) simulation method. We show that discretized data stemming from the VM method with a prescribed target covariance matrix are usually numerically equal to data stemming from discretizing a multivariate normal vector. This normal vector has, however, a different covariance matrix than the target.

Biomedical, psychological, environmental and behavioural factors associated with adult obesity in a nationally representative sample.

Objective: To identify personality, biomedical and behavioural factors associated with adult obesity in a large longitudinal sample.

Method: In total, 5360 participants with data on personality, neurological functioning, maternal smoking during pregnancy, education and occupation, physical exercise, adult self-reported BMI and obesity were included in the study. Obesity at 55 years was the outcome variable.

Acceptability, usability and utility of a personalised application in promoting behavioural change in patients with osteoarthritis: a feasibility study in Norway.

Objective: The dynamic and interactive mobile application Vett was designed to help change behaviour and is based on cognitive, motivational and visual techniques. Our aim is to investigate the acceptability, usability and utility of Vett as a personalised application for goal achievement.

Setting: The trial took place at the rheumatology clinic at Diakonhjemmet Hospital, Oslo, Norway from January to June 2015.

Childhood heart problems, adulthood emotional stability, and sex associated with self-report heart conditions in adulthood.

The present study investigated biomedical, social, and psychological factors associated with self-reported heart conditions in adulthood in a British cohort. In total, 5697 (50.7% males) participants with data on parental socioeconomic status, childhood cognitive ability, childhood heart problems, educational qualifications, current occupational levels, adulthood personality traits, and the prevalence of self-reported heart conditions in adulthood were included in the study.

Prescribing antibiotics when the stakes are higher - do GPs prescribe less when patients are pregnant? A retrospective observational study.

Background: Most oral antibiotics are prescribed by GPs, and they are therefore the most important influencers with regard to improving antibiotic prescription patterns. Although GPs' prescription patterns in general are well-studied, little is known about antibiotic prescription patterns in pregnancy.

Aim: To study GPs' antibiotic prescriptions in respiratory tract infections (RTIs) during pregnancy, and assess differences, if any, between pregnant and non-pregnant patients.

Semantic algorithms can detect how media language shapes survey responses in organizational behaviour.

Research on sensemaking in organisations and on linguistic relativity suggests that speakers of the same language may use this language in different ways to construct social realities at work. We apply a semantic theory of survey response (STSR) to explore such differences in quantitative survey research. Using text analysis algorithms, we have studied how language from three media domains-the business press, PR Newswire and general newspapers-has differential explanatory value for analysing survey responses in leadership research.

Long-Term Reactions to the Loss of a Close Friend in an Extreme Terror Incident.

This article presents results from one of the first longitudinal studies exploring the effects of losing a close friend to traumatic death, focusing on complicated grief over time and how this is affected by avoidant behavior and rumination about the loss. The sample consists of 88 persons (76% women and 24% men, mean age = 21) who lost a close friend in the Utøya killings in Norway on July 22, 2011.Quantitative data were collected at three time-points; 18, 28, and 40 months postloss.

A Big Five facet analysis of sub-clinical dependent personality disorder (Dutifulness).

This study aimed to examine a Big Five, normal personality trait, "bright side" analysis of a sub-clinical personality disorder: Dependency Personality Disorder. Around 6000 British adults completed the NEO-PI-R which measures the Big Five personality factors at the domain and the facet level. They also completed the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) which has a measure of sub-clinical Dependency Personality Disorder called Dutiful as one of its eleven dysfunctional interpersonal tendencies.

The Great Divide: Academic Versus Practitioner Criteria for Psychometric Test Choice.

This article looks at the two very different worlds of academic personality psychologists and business (human resources) professionals who both use personality tests. It examines the decisions practitioners make when choosing to purchase and use psychometric tests in the workplace. It reviews the relatively few papers on practitioner's knowledge of, attitudes toward, and beliefs about psychological tests.

Who are the high achievers at work? Perceived motivational climate, goal orientation profiles, and work performance.

The purpose of this study was to respond to the call for research on goal orientation (mastery and performance orientation) profiles in work contexts. Among 8,282 engineers and technologists, Latent profile analyses indicated that four different goal orientation profiles existed - primarily mastery oriented, indifferent, moderate multiple goals, and success oriented. Both success oriented employees and employees who are primarily mastery oriented indicated the highest individual work performance.

Childhood locus of control and self-esteem, education, psychological distress and physical exercise as predictors of adult obesity.

Objective: To investigate to what extent locus of control, self-esteem, psychological distress, physical exercise, as well as socio-demographic factors are associated with obesity in 42-year-old adults in a longitudinal birth cohort study.

Method: The sample consisted of 5645 participants born in Great Britain in 1970 and followed up at 10, 34 and 42 years with data on body mass index measured at 34 and 42 years.

Results: There was an increase of adult obesity from 15.

Relationship between Maternal and First Year of Life Dispensations of Antibiotics and Antiasthmatics.

Antibiotics are the most frequent prescription drugs used by pregnant women. Our objective was to investigate if the dispensation of antibiotics and antiasthmatics in children less than 1 year of age is associated with prenatal antibiotic exposure. A secondary aim was to explore the incidence of dispensed antibiotics in pregnancy and dispensed antibiotics and antiasthmatics in children.

The perception of sub-clinical personality disorders by employers, employees and co-workers.

This study set out to determine people's perceptions of different dark-side personality types in the workplace. A total of 240 adults with at least one year's work experience rated vignettes describing job candidates with sub-clinical PDs. PDs were grouped into (Hogan and Hogan's 1997) personality clusters 'Moving Away from', 'Moving Against' and 'Moving Toward' others.

Teenage locus of control, psychological distress, educational qualifications and occupational prestige as well as gender as independent predictors of adult binge drinking.

Our objective was to investigate various psychological and socio-demographic factors in childhood and adulthood that relate to alcohol intake and binge drinking at age 42 years. Data were drawn from the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70), a prospective longitudinal study monitoring the development of babies born in 1970, with nine follow-ups. The analytic sample comprised 5190 cohort members with complete data on parental social class at birth, cognitive ability at age 10 years, locus of control at age 16 years, psychological distress at age 30 years, educational qualifications obtained at age 34 years, and current occupation and alcohol consumption at age 42 years.

Improving social network support for partners facing spousal cancer while caring for minors: Four-month outcomes of a single-centre randomised controlled trial.

Social support is an important predictor of the well-being of partners of cancer patients. Those who are caring for minors (well parents) may be in special need of such support. The aim of this study was to evaluate the 4-month impact of a psychoeducational social support intervention, named the Cancer-PEPSONE programme (CPP), on well parents' received and perceived social support, as well as on their psychological distress, quality of life (QOL) and parental capacity.

Data on social media use related to age, gender and trust constructs of integrity, competence, concern, benevolence and identification.

This article contains data collected from self-report surveys of respondents to measure 1) social media usage, 2) age, 3) gender and 4) trust, measured within five major trust constructs of a) Integrity, b) Competence, c) Concern, d) Benevolence and e) Identification. The data includes all instruments used, SPSS syntax, the raw survey data and descriptive statistics from the analyses. Raw data was entered into SPSS software and scrubbed using appropriate techniques in order to prepare the data for analysis.

Developmental dynamics of early reading skill, literacy interest and readers' self-concept within the first year of formal schooling.

Previous studies have documented robust relationships between emergent literacy and later reading performance. A growing body of research has also reported associations between motivational factors and reading in early phases of reading development. However, there is less research about cross-lagged relationships between motivational factors and reading skills in beginning readers.

Associations between childhood biomedical factors, maternal smoking, personality traits, Body and Mass Index and the prevalence of asthma in adulthood.

Objective: The study set out to investigate socio-economic, biomedical, health and behavioural and psychological factors in childhood and adulthood associated with the prevalence of asthma in adulthood, drawing data from The National Child Development Studies (NCDS), a birth cohort in the UK.

Design: The National Child Development Study, a nationally representative sample of 17,415 babies born in Great Britain in 1958 and followed up at 7, 11, 33 and 50 years was used.

Main Outcome Measure: The prevalence of asthma at age 50 was the outcome measure.

A new coefficient of interrater agreement: The challenge of highly unequal category proportions.

We derive a general structure that encompasses important coefficients of interrater agreement such as the S-coefficient, Cohen's kappa, Scott's pi, Fleiss' kappa, Krippendorff's alpha, and Gwet's AC1. We show that these coefficients share the same set of assumptions about rater behavior; they only differ in how the unobserved category proportions are estimated. We incorporate Bayesian estimates of the category proportions and propose a new agreement coefficient with uniform prior beliefs.

Comparing physical and mental health literacy.

Background: This study attempted to ascertain whether people had better mental vs physical health literacy by comparing their knowledge of six conditions.

Aims: The aim was to link two different literatures which have remained apart.

Methods: In all, 186 young British participants (52% male) with an average age of 25 years completed an online questionnaire describing six vignettes characters.

Intention to quit and the role of dark personality and perceived organizational support: A moderation and mediation model.

This study investigated the role of individual differences (dark personality) and situational factors (perceived organisational support) in explaining intention to quit. Four hundred and fifty-one (50 of which females) ambulance personnel completed three questionnaires (Hogan Development Survey; Perceived Organisational Support Survey; and a single item Intention to Quit measure) as a part of a selection and development assessment. Employees high on Excitable, Sceptical, and Mischievous, but low on Colourful were found to have greater intentions to quit.

Social-Demographic Indicators, Cognitive Ability, Personality Traits, and Region as Independent Predictors of Income: Findings from the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS).

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of over 12,000 people based on the UK Household Longitudinal Study data. We were interested in their monthly income (as the criterion variable) as it related to their gender, age, education, occupation, personality, intelligence, and region where they lived (as the predictor variables). Correlations showed that, after occupation and education, gender and cognitive ability (particularly numeric ability) were the strongest correlates of income.

Mental health literacy, sub-clinical personality disorders and job fit.

Background: This study looked at lay theories of how people with sub-clinical personality disorders experience the world of work.

Aims: The aim was to investigate the paradox that subclinical and clinical personality disorders are seen as beneficial for success, rather than a handicap in certain jobs.

Methods: In all, 230 participants read 14 vignettes derived from Oldham and Morris's book describing DSMIII personality disorders for a popular audience.