1,720,965 research outputs found
Temperament and Character Moderate the Effects of Mindfulness Training on Psychological and Professional Well-Being of School Teachers
Full text linkObjectives: The study aimed to investigate the pre-to-post effects of mindfulness training on school teachers’ psychological and professional well-being, as well as to explore the moderating role of temperament and character on these effects. Method: An 8-week mindfulness-based intervention was delivered via internet-based group meetings to Italian teachers (n = 139), who were assessed within two weeks before and after the intervention with self-report measures of emotional distress (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), interoceptive awareness (Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness), and professional efficacy (Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale), as well as with the Temperament and Character Inventory. A control group of teachers (n = 47) was tested with the same measures in two temporally-matched sessions. Results: Analysis of variance showed positive intervention effects on anxiety (medium effect size), on six of the eight dimensions of interoceptive awareness (medium-to-large effect size) and on two of the three scales of professional efficacy (small-to-medium effect size). Moderation analysis identified the following effects of temperament and character on outcomes: (1) reduced anxiety only for higher baseline reward dependence, or lower-to-middle baseline self-directedness; (2) improved interoceptive attention regulation specifically for middle-to-higher baseline persistence; (3) improved teacher efficacy for student engagement only for lower baseline self-transcendence. Conclusions: The study shows the positive effects of mindfulness training on teachers' psychological and professional well-being. It also highlights the importance of considering the impact of temperament and character dimensions on these effects, for example for developing effective mindfulness-based interventions for teachers. Future research should explore potential mechanisms of action underlying the observed effects and evaluate them in the long term. Preregistration: This study is not preregistered
Effects of Mind-Body Interventions on Adolescents’ Cooperativeness and Emotional Symptoms
Full text linkBackground: Mind-body interventions may support the development of adolescents’ self-regulation and provide a protective effect against maladaptive outcomes, e.g., internalizing and externalizing problems. The present study aimed at evaluating the effects of mindfulness-oriented meditation training (MOM) and autogenic training (AT) on a group of healthy Italian adolescents’ character dimensions, emotional and behavioral difficulties. Methods: 72 adolescents were randomly assigned to MOM/AT conditions and tested before and after the 8-week trainings through self-report measures (Temperament and Character Inventory 125, TCI; Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire for Adolescents, SDQ-A). Main analyses involved robust and repeated measures ANOVAs, carried out separately for character TCI and SDQ-A scales. Results: After trainings, we found increased levels of cooperativeness and reduced emotional symptoms. Changes in these dimensions were negatively correlated: the more participants increased in their cooperativeness the greater decrease they showed in emotional symptoms. Conclusion: Both MOM and AT enhanced a cooperative attitude in adolescents and helped reducing their emotional problems. Therefore, it may be useful to apply these mind-body interventions in school settings as they can have a protective effect on the well-being and psychosocial adjustment of youths, through fostering their character maturity and helping them to better regulate their emotions
Predictive Factors of Anxiety, Depression, and Health-Related Quality of Life in Community-Dwelling and Institutionalized Elderly during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Full text linkThe COVID-19 health emergency and restrictive measures have increased psychological problems, particularly anxiety and depression, in the general population. However, little is known about mental health conditions and the possible risk and protective factors of specific population groups, such as institutionalized vs. community-dwelling elderly. We investigated the abovementioned aspects in a sample of 65–89-year-old people during the third wave of COVID-19 in Italy. We employed a sociodemographic survey and four questionnaires on health-related quality of life (SF-36), loneliness (UCLA), spirituality (FACIT-Sp), and anxiety/depression (HADS). Our findings suggest that the physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being of the elderly had not been seriously impaired by the events related to the pandemic, although most of the participants reported a worsening of their social life and a moderate/high fear of COVID-19. In regression analyses, these two latter aspects turned out to be predictors of higher anxiety, while spiritual well-being and the possibility to get out of the house/institution emerged as protective factors against anxiety and for preserving quality of life, respectively. Our findings help refine the picture of the condition of the elderly in the aftermath of the pandemic, giving some hints about how to continue supporting their well-being and quality of life
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Differential effects of mindfulness meditation conditions on repetitive negative thinking and subjective time perspective: a randomized active-controlled study
No full textObjective: Preliminary findings suggest that different kinds of meditation could work on diverse cognitive and psychological processes. The present study aimed at disentangling the effects of three mindfulness techniques on mental rumination and subjective time perspective. Design: 75 young healthy participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: mindful breathing, body scan, observing-thoughts meditation and an active control condition. The meditation groups practiced mindfulness daily and attended weekly group meetings for 8 weeks, while the control group was involved in reading and discussing a book about mindfulness. Main outcome measures: Self-report measures of mindfulness skills, ruminative thinking, attitude towards time, anxiety, depression and personality traits. Results: In all meditation conditions, analysis of covariance showed a significant improvement in mindfulness skills compared to the control group. We found a specific effect of mindful breathing in reducing participants’ tendency to brooding and in increasing their positive vision of the future, compared to all other conditions. Conclusions: As expected, we found some differential effects: breathing meditation helped practitioners to train more effectively their ability to disengage from maladaptive ruminative thoughts, which could be reflected in a more optimistic attitude toward the future. These results provide useful information to structure better mindfulness-based interventions
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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