An empirical investigation of partial effect sizes in meta-analysis of correlational data

Positive event diversity: Relationship with personality and well-being

OBJECTIVE

Examining the personality and well-being correlates of positive event diversity.

BACKGROUND

Past research has highlighted that personality traits are linked to the frequency of daily positive events. This study is the first to examine positive event diversity, the extent to which positive events are spread across multiple types of positive life domains, as well as its personality and well-being correlates.

METHOD

We conducted parallel analyses of three daily diary datasets (Ns = 1919, 744, and 1392) that included evening assessment of daily positive events and affective well-being. The Big Five personality traits were assessed in baseline surveys.

RESULTS

Positive Event Diversity was related to higher person-mean daily positive affect but not negative affect. Higher Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness, and lower Neuroticism were correlated with more positive event diversity. These associations became nonsignificant when controlling for positive event frequency. Positive event frequency moderated the link between positive event diversity and person-mean affect, such that higher positive event diversity was associated with higher negative and lower positive affect for people who experienced more frequent positive events.

CONCLUSIONS

No consistent evidence was found for personality as a moderator of the positive event diversity-well-being link across the three studies. Further, the well-being implications of positive event diversity may be better understood when interpreting them alongside indexes of positive event frequency.

The robust reciprocal relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms among the general population: Evidence from a quantitative analysis of 37 studies

BACKGROUND

Loneliness has long been associated with depressive symptoms, but there is no evidence on the question of "which comes first". To help us to answer this question, this study conducted a meta-analysis using a cross-lagged formula to examine the reciprocal relations between loneliness and depressive symptoms, as well as potential moderators.

METHODS

The meta-analytic dataset consisted of 37 studies with sample sizes ranging from 52 to 5991. Effect sizes (including autoregressive effects and lagged coefficients) were included. We computed weighted mean effect sizes for the correlation effect and cross-lagged effect between loneliness and depressive symptoms. We also performed a meta-regression to investigate potential moderators.

RESULTS

The results showed that loneliness and depressive symptoms reciprocally predicted each other over time with similar effect sizes. There was no moderation of our overall effect size in either direction by time interval between measurements, the proportion of female participants, mean age of the sample, or type of measurement.

LIMITATIONS

Caution should be taken in drawing final conclusions about the relative strength of reciprocal effects between loneliness and depressive symptoms due to the potential influence of varied research focus in the included studies, which could affect the effect size.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings advance the study of the relationship between loneliness and depressive symptoms by providing evidence that the link between them is symmetrically reciprocal and robust, which may help clinicians to develop effective intervention methods.

The Longitudinal Relationship Between Parenting and Self-Control Needs Reconsideration: A Commentary on Li et al. (2019)

The relationship between parenting and self-control has received much attention from social and developmental psychologists. In a meta-analytic review, Li et al. (2019) identified a longitudinal association between parenting and subsequent self-control (P → SC) of r = .157, p < .001, and a longitudinal association between adolescent self-control and subsequent parenting (SC → P) of r = .155, p < .001. However, the longitudinal associations may have been substantially biased because Li et al. (2019) utilized the bivariate correlation between the predictor at Time 1 and the outcome at Time 2 to estimate the effect size. To provide a more accurate estimate of the longitudinal association between parenting and adolescent self-control, we reexamined the data on the basis of the cross-lagged association. The results showed weaker longitudinal associations for both P → SC (r = .059, p < .001) and SC → P (r = .062, p < .001). Our results point to the importance of utilizing the cross-lagged association in meta-analyzing the longitudinal relationship between variables.

Meta-analytic evidence that attachment insecurity is associated with less frequent experiences of discrete positive emotions

OBJECTIVE

Individual differences in attachment insecurity can have important implications for experiences of positive emotions. However, existing research on the link between attachment insecurity and positive emotional experiences has typically used a composite measure of positive emotions, overlooking the potential importance of differentiating discrete emotions.

METHOD

We conducted a meta-analysis of 10 cross-sectional samples (N = 3215), examining how attachment insecurity is associated with self-reported frequency of experiencing positive emotions, with a distinction made between more social (i.e., love and gratitude) and less social (i.e., peace and awe or curiosity) positive emotions.

RESULTS

High (vs. low) levels of both attachment anxiety and avoidance were associated with less frequent experience of positive emotions regardless of their social relevance. When analyzing each emotion separately, we found that attachment anxiety showed negative relations to all emotions except gratitude. Attachment avoidance was negatively associated with all emotions, and the link was even stronger with love (vs. peace, awe, or curiosity). Additional analyses of daily diary data revealed that attachment anxiety and avoidance were also negatively associated with daily experiences of positive emotions, regardless of social relevance.

CONCLUSION

Our results underscore the need to further investigate the mechanisms underlying insecure individuals' blunted positive emotional experiences.

Research on Rice Fields Extraction by NDVI Difference Method Based on Sentinel Data

To meet the challenge of food security, it is necessary to obtain information about rice fields accurately, quickly and conveniently. In this study, based on the analysis of existing rice fields extraction methods and the characteristics of intra-annual variation of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the different types of ground features, the NDVI difference method is used to extract rice fields using Sentinel data based on the unique feature of rice fields having large differences in vegetation between the pre-harvest and post-harvest periods. Firstly, partial correlation analysis is used to study the influencing factors of the rice harvesting period, and a simulation model of the rice harvesting period is constructed by multiple regression analysis with data from 32 sample points. Sentinel data of the pre-harvest and post-harvest periods of rice fields are determined based on the selected rice harvesting period. The NDVI values of the rice fields are calculated for both the pre-harvest and post-harvest periods, and 33 samples of the rice fields are selected from the high-resolution image. The threshold value for rice field extraction is determined through statistical analysis of the NDVI difference in the sample area. This threshold was then utilized to extract the initial extent of rice fields. Secondly, to address the phenomenon of the "water edge effect" in the initial data, the water extraction method based on the normalized difference water index (NDWI) is used to remove the pixels of water edges. Finally, the extraction results are verified and analyzed for accuracy. The study results show that: (1) The rice harvesting period is significantly correlated with altitude and latitude, with coefficients of 0.978 and 0.922, respectively, and the simulation model of the harvesting period can effectively determine the best period of remote sensing images needed to extract rice fields; (2) The NDVI difference method based on sentinel data for rice fields extraction is excellent; (3) The mixed pixels have a large impact on the accuracy of rice fields extraction, due to the water edge effect. Combining NDWI can effectively reduce the water edge effect and significantly improve the accuracy of rice field extraction.

The association between peer rejection and aggression types: A meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

Although previous studies have assessed the association between peer rejection and aggression, the results are mixed.

OBJECTIVE

This article presents a meta-analysis of the association between peer rejection and aggression types (overt vs. relational) among children and adolescents.

PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING

A total of 61 eligible studies with 70 independent effect sizes were included in the analysis (45,966 participants, M_age = 10.34, SD = 3.13).

METHODS

First, random-effects meta-analyses were conducted to explore the association between peer rejection and aggression types (overt vs. relational). Next, moderation analyses were conducted based on the Q statistics for categorical variables (culture, reporting method of peer rejection, reporting method of aggression) and the meta-regression analyses for continuous variable (age).

RESULTS

Peer rejection was positively correlated with overall aggression (r = 0.42, 95 % CI [0.38, 0.47], p < 0.001), overt aggression (r = 0.46, 95 % CI [0.38, 0.54], p < 0.001) and relational aggression (r = 0.43, 95 % CI [0.35, 0.51], p < 0.001). This correlation was positive for each type when controlling for other form of aggression. Moderation analyses suggested that reporting method of aggression (self-report vs. peer-nomination vs. adult-report vs. observation), reporting method of peer rejection (self-report vs. peer-nomination vs. adult-report) and culture (collectivist vs. individualist) were moderators of the association between peer rejection and overall aggression. Culture moderated the association between peer rejection and overt aggression, while age moderated the association between peer rejection and relational aggression.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings showed a strong positive association between peer rejection and aggression, although this association varied by aggression type and other moderating variables.

PROTOCOL: Causal mechanisms linking education with fertility, HIV, and child mortality: A systematic review

In this review, we will investigate the pathways linking education and health to understand why education appears to improve health in some settings or among certain populations, and not in others, as well as to inform recommendations about how best to target investments in education to maximize the benefits to health. We will seek to answer the following key research questions, focusing specifically on the mechanisms that affect fertility, HIV, and infant and child mortality. If feasible, these answers will include meta-analyses of comparable education and mediator outcomes: (1) Do changes in education affect the primary theorized mediators (e.g., knowledge, attitudes, resources, and agency; health behaviors and harmful practices) of the relationship between education and fertility, HIV and child mortality? (2) How does the relationship between these mediators and education vary across different aspects of education (e.g., grade attainment vs. literacy/numeracy vs. attendance)?

Policies and interventions to remove gender-related barriers to girls' school participation and learning in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review of the evidence

Background

Gender disparities in education continue to undermine girls' opportunities, despite enormous strides in recent years to improve primary enrolment and attainment for girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). At the regional, country and subnational levels gender gaps remain, with girls in many settings less likely to complete primary school, less likely to complete secondary, and often less likely to be literate than boys. The academic and policy literatures on the topic of gender-related barriers to girls' education are both extensive. However, there remain gaps in knowledge regarding which interventions are most likely to work in contexts with different combinations of barriers.

Objectives

This systematic review identified and assessed the strength of the evidence of interventions and exposures addressing gender-related barriers to schooling for girls in LMICs.

Search Methods

The AEA RCT Registry, Africa Bibliography, African Education Research Database, African Journals Online, DEC USAID, Dissertation Abstracts, EconLit, ELDIS, Evidence Hub, Global Index Medicus, IDEAS-Repec, Intl Clinical Trials Registry, NBER, OpenGrey, Open Knowledge Repository, POPLINE, PsychINFO, PubMed, Research for Development Outputs, ScienceDirect, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, as well as relevant organization websites were searched electronically in March and April of 2019. Further searches were conducted through review of bibliographies as well as through inquiries to authors of included studies, relevant researchers and relevant organizations, and completed in March 2020.

Selection Criteria

We included randomized controlled trials as well as quasi-experimental studies that used quantitative models that attempted to control for endogeneity. Manuscripts could be either published, peer-reviewed articles or grey literature such as working papers, reports and dissertations. Studies must have been published on or after 2000, employed an intervention or exposure that attempted to address a gender-related barrier to schooling, analyzed the effects of the intervention/exposure on at least one of our primary outcomes of interest, and utilized data from LMICs to be included.

Data Collection and Analysis

A team of reviewers was grouped into pairs to independently screen articles for relevance, extract data and assess risk of bias for each included study. A third reviewer assisted in resolving any disputes. Risk of bias was assessed either through the RoB 2 tool for experimental studies or the ROBINS-I tool for quasi-experimental studies. Due to the heterogeneity of study characteristics and reported outcome measures between studies, we applied the GRADE (Grading of Recommendation, Assessment, Development and Evaluation) approach adapted for situations where a meta-analysis is not possible to synthesize the research.

Results

Interventions rated as effective exist for three gender-related barriers: inability to afford tuition and fees, lack of adequate food, and insufficient academic support. Promising interventions exist for three gender-related barriers: inadequate school access, inability to afford school materials, and lack of water and sanitation. More research is needed for the remaining 12 gender-related barriers: lack of support for girls' education, child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, lack of information on returns to education/alternative roles for women, school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), lack of safe spaces and social connections, inadequate sports programs for girls, inadequate health and childcare services, inadequate life skills, inadequate menstrual hygiene management (MHM), poor policy/legal environment, lack of teaching materials and supplies, and gender-insensitive school environment. We find substantial gaps in the evidence. Several gender-related barriers to girls' schooling are under-examined. For nine of these barriers we found fewer than 10 relevant evaluations, and for five of the barriers-child marriage and adolescent pregnancy, SRGBV, inadequate sports programs for girls, inadequate health and childcare services, and inadequate MHM-we found fewer than five relevant evaluations; thus, more research is needed to understand the most effective interventions to address many of those barriers. Also, nearly half of programs evaluated in the included studies were multi-component, and most evaluations were not designed to tease out the effects of individual components. As a result, even when interventions were effective overall, it is often difficult to identify how much, if any, of the impact is attributable to a given program component. The combination of components varies between studies, with few comparable interventions, further limiting our ability to identify packages of interventions that work well. Finally, the context-specific nature of these barriers-whether a barrier exists in a setting and how it manifests and operates-means that a program that is effective in one setting may not be effective in another.

Authors' Conclusions

While some effective and promising approaches exist to address gender-related barriers to education for girls, evidence gaps exist on more than half of our hypothesized gender-related barriers to education, including lack of support for girls' education, SRGBV, lack of safe spaces and social connections, inadequate life skills, and inadequate MHM, among others. In some cases, despite numerous studies examining interventions addressing a specific barrier, studies either did not disaggregate results by sex, or they were not designed to isolate the effects of each intervention component. Differences in context and in implementation, such as the number of program components, curricula content, and duration of interventions, also make it difficult to compare interventions to one another. Finally, few studies looked at pathways between interventions and education outcomes, so the reasons for differences in outcomes largely remain unclear.

The Competitive Effects of School Choice on Student Achievement: A Systematic Review

School-choice policies are expected to generate healthy competition between schools, leading to improvements in school quality and better outcomes for students. However, the empirical literature testing this assumption yields mixed findings. This systematic review and meta-analysis tests this theory by synthesizing the empirical literature on the competitive effects of school choice on student achievement. Overall, we found small positive effects of competition on student achievement. We also found some evidence that the type of school-choice policy and student demographics moderated the effects of competition on student achievement. By examining whether school competition improves outcomes, our findings can inform decisions of state and local policymakers who have adopted or are considering adopting school-choice reforms.

The bidirectional longitudinal association between depressive symptoms and HbA1c : A systematic review and meta-analysis

AIM

To investigate whether there is a bidirectional longitudinal association of depression with HbA_1c .

METHODS

We conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL and EMBASE for observational, longitudinal studies published from January 2000 to September 2020, assessing the association between depression and HbA_1c in adults. We assessed study quality with the Newcastle-Ottawa-Scale. Pooled effect estimates were reported as partial correlation coefficients (r_p ) or odds ratios (OR).

RESULTS

We retrieved 1642 studies; 26 studies were included in the systematic review and eleven in the meta-analysis. Most studies (16/26) focused on type 2 diabetes. Study quality was rated as good (n = 19), fair (n = 2) and poor (n = 5). Of the meta-analysed studies, six investigated the longitudinal association between self-reported depressive symptoms and HbA_1c and five the reverse longitudinal association, with a combined sample size of n = 48,793 and a mean follow-up of 2 years. Higher levels of baseline depressive symptoms were associated with subsequent higher levels of HbA_1c (partial r = 0.07; [95% CI 0.03, 0.12]; I² 38%). Higher baseline HbA_1c values were also associated with 18% increased risk of (probable) depression (OR = 1.18; [95% CI 1.12,1.25]; I² 0.0%).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings support a bidirectional longitudinal association between depressive symptoms and HbA_1c . However, the observed effect sizes were small and future research in large-scale longitudinal studies is needed to confirm this association. Future studies should investigate the role of type of diabetes and depression, diabetes distress and diabetes self-management behaviours. Our results may have clinical implications, as depressive symptoms and HbA_1c levels could be targeted concurrently in the prevention and treatment of diabetes and depression.

REGISTRATION

PROSPERO ID CRD42019147551.

Personal relative deprivation and pro-environmental intentions

Personal relative deprivation (PRD; the belief that one is worse off than other people who are similar to oneself) is associated with a reduced willingness to delay gratification, lower prosociality, and increased materialism. These results suggest that PRD may play a role in shaping people’s willingness to act to protect the natural environment. We report 3 studies that investigate a possible link between PRD and pro-environmental intentions (ENV). Study 1 was an exploratory study using a US sample; Studies 2 and 3 were pre-registered replications using UK and US samples, respectively. In each study, participants self-reported PRD and ENV; they also indicated their subjective social status (where they come on a national “ladder” of social class) and reported their income, education, age, and gender/sex. All three studies found a negative correlation between PRD and ENV. However, multiple regression analyses in which ENV was regressed on PRD and all other variables simultaneously indicated that the unique effect of PRD was small and, for Studies 2 and 3, the 95% confidence intervals included zero. No other variable emerged as a clear unique predictor across all three studies. The data suggest that PRD may be associated with reduced intention to act pro-environmentally, but the causal status of this association, and its relationship to other demographic and social-status variables, remains a topic for further research.

Men and women who want epistemic certainty are at-risk for hostility towards women leaders

Researchers have spent the past five decades asking why women leaders face disproportionally more disapproval than their men colleagues. We extend recent research by investigating the need for cognitive closure (NCC), or the desire for stable and certain knowledge, to help answer this question. Consistent with Role Congruity Theory, we propose that individuals with this need are more likely to disapprove of women who break traditional gender roles as well as women leaders, a subcategory of nontraditional woman. We studied the NCC effect relative to the effects of gender and political orientation (i.e., women and political liberals are less likely to disapprove of women leaders). In four studies, including state and dispositional treatments of NCC and a brief meta-analyses, we argue that NCC has an indirect effect on negative attitudes toward women leaders through hostile sexism, among both men and women and from both sides of the political spectrum.

Dark, gray, or bright creativity? (Re)investigating the link between creativity and dishonesty

The question of whether and, if so, how creativity and unethical behavior such as dishonesty are related to each other has been addressed in multiple studies, with mixed results overall. The aim of this Registered Report is to shed further light on this issue. We first present a meta-analysis on the relation between creativity and dishonesty comprising the samples from a pre-registered multi-lab study (on a different topic), which indicated no relation between the constructs in question ( k = 19, N = 2,154, rp = .02). Next, we examined the relation between creativity and dishonesty in a study ( N = 1,152), in which we addressed several limitations of previous research. Specifically, we examined relations between comprehensively assessed creativity and dishonesty using subjective and objective indicators for both constructs. We found mixed results concerning the relation between creativity and dishonesty. In the majority of the confirmatory statistical tests, subjective creativity was positively related, whereas objective creativity was negatively related to dishonesty in the mind game. However, in exploratory analyses, we found that neither subjective nor objective creativity was related to dishonesty in the second dishonesty measure, the sender–receiver game.

Social support and posttraumatic stress disorder: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies

Social support has long been associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but there is no consistent evidence on the strength and direction of this relationship. Whereas the social causation model claims that social support buffers against PTSD, the social selection model states that PTSD reduces social support resources. As the first meta-analysis of the prospective relationships between social support and PTSD, this study synthesized the available longitudinal data (75 samples including 32,402 participants) on these two constructs with a random-effects model. In total, three hundred and fifty-five effect sizes (including cross-sectional, prospective and cross-lagged coefficients) were included in the meta-analysis. With prior levels of the relevant outcomes controlled for, results showed that social support and PTSD reciprocally predicted each other over time with similar effect sizes: Social support predicted PTSD with β = -0.10; PTSD predicted social support with β = -0.09. Moderator analyses suggested that the effects held across most sample characteristics and research designs except for several moderators (gender, time lag, publication year, source of support). These findings provided strong evidence for both the social causation and social selection models, suggesting that the link between social support and PTSD is symmetrically reciprocal and robust.

Reputation effects in peer-to-peer online markets: A meta-analysis∗

Most online market exchanges are governed by reputation systems, which allow traders to comment on one another's behavior and attributes with ratings and text messages. These ratings then constitute sellers' reputations that serve as signals of their trustworthiness and competence. The large body of research investigating the effect of reputation on selling performance has produced mixed results, and there is a lack of consensus on whether the reputation effect exists and what it means. After showing how the reputation effect can be derived from a game-theoretic model, we use meta-analysis to synthesize evidence from 107 studies investigating the reputation effect in peer-to-peer online markets. Our results corroborate the existence of the reputation effect across different operationalizations of seller reputation and selling performance. Our results also show the extent to which the reputation effect varies. We discuss potential explanations for the variation in reputation effects that cannot be attributed to sampling error and thereby point out promising avenues for future research.

What factors predict length of stay in the intensive care unit? Systematic review and meta-analysis

PURPOSE

Studies have shown that a small percentage of ICU patients have prolonged length of stay (LoS) and account for a large proportion of resource use. Therefore, the identification of prolonged stay patients can improve unit efficiency. In this study, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to understand the risk factors of ICU LoS.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We searched MEDLINE, Embase and Scopus databases from inception to November 2018. The searching process focused on papers presenting risk factors of ICU LoS. A meta-analysis was performed for studies reporting appropriate statistics.

RESULTS

From 6906 citations, 113 met the eligibility criteria and were reviewed. A meta-analysis was performed for six factors from 28 papers and concluded that patients with mechanical ventilation, hypomagnesemia, delirium, and malnutrition tend to have longer stay, and that age and gender were not significant factors.

CONCLUSIONS

This work suggested a list of risk factors that should be considered in prediction models for ICU LoS, as follows: severity scores, mechanical ventilation, hypomagnesemia, delirium, malnutrition, infection, trauma, red blood cells, and PaO2:FiO2. Our findings can be used by prediction models to improve their predictive capacity of prolonged stay patients, assisting in resource allocation, quality improvement actions, and benchmarking analysis.

Impact of Process Quality in Early Childhood Education and Care on Academic Outcomes: Longitudinal Meta-Analysis

This meta-analysis studies the association of pedagogical processes in early childhood care and education with outcomes in two academic domains: language and literacy as well as mathematics. It synthesizes evidence from 17 longitudinal studies in nine European countries with 16,461 children in regular center-based care spanning the period between ages 3 and 16. Results of a three-level meta-analysis provided small overall effect sizes for both global and domain-specific process quality, and indicated lasting associations with academic development over children's school career (ES = .11, Cohen's d = .22, and ES = .10, Cohen's d = .20). Effects varied by outcome domain, type of process measure, and differences in adopted analyses, with important implications for pedagogical practice and future research.

Causal effects of education on sexual and reproductive health in low and middle-income countries: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Despite strong theoretical grounding, important gaps in knowledge remain regarding the degree to which there is a causal relationship between education and sexual and reproductive health, as many claims have been made based on associations alone. Understanding the extent to which these relationships are causal is important both to inform investments in education and health, as well as to understand the mechanisms underlying these relationships.

Methods

We conducted a systematic review of the evidence for a causal link between education and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in low and middle-income countries. Education indicators included exposure to formal schooling and learning. SRH outcomes included: age at first sex, age at first marriage, age at first pregnancy/birth, contraceptive use, fertility, and HIV status and other sexually transmitted infections. When possible, we also conducted meta-analyses to estimate mean effects by outcome, and to understand sources of variation between studies.

Results

We identified 35 papers that met our inclusion criteria. Although many of the studies report evidence of a causal relationship between education and one or more SRH outcomes, estimated effects are often small in magnitude. Our meta-analyses reveal mostly null mean effects, with the exception of small effects of increased grade attainment on lower fertility and HIV positive status. We also found inconsistent evidence supporting mechanisms linking education and SRH.

Conclusions

This review demonstrates that, although investments in schooling may have positive ripple effects for sexual and reproductive health in some circumstances, those effects may not be as large or consistent as expected. Further, our understanding of the circumstances in which schooling is most likely to improve SRH remains somewhat limited. An accurate picture of whether and when improvements in education lead to better health outcomes is essential for the achievement of global development goals.

The Mechanisms of Social Norms’ Influence on Consumer Decision Making

Abstract. In the past decades, marketing practitioners have embraced social norms as a powerful instrument of influencing consumers’ behavior. An important distinction has been made between descriptive norms (what most others do) and injunctive norms (what others approve of), and this meta-analysis across 297 studies examines the effects of these types of social norms on consumer decision-making processes. We argue that descriptive norms directly influence behavior, and consequently that their effect on behavior should be stronger than that of injunctive norms. Injunctive norms, by contrast, should be more strongly related to intentions than descriptive norms. Results of the meta-analysis support these predictions, and furthermore provide new insights into the moderating effects of aspects of the norm (specificity of the norm, norm source) and of the target person (gender, age).

Some reflections on combining meta-analysis and structural equation modeling

Meta-analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) are 2 of the most prominent statistical techniques employed in the behavioral, medical, and social sciences. They each have their own well-established research communities, terminologies, statistical models, software packages, and journals (Research Synthesis Methods and Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal). In this paper, I will provide some personal reflections on combining meta-analysis and SEM in the forms of meta-analytic SEM and SEM-based meta-analysis. The critical contributions of Becker (1992), Shadish (1992), and Viswesvaran and Ones (1995) in the early development of meta-analytic SEM are highlighted. Another goal of the paper is to illustrate how meta-analysis can be extended and integrated with other techniques to address new research questions such as the analysis of Big Data. I hope that this paper may stimulate more research development in the area of combining meta-analysis and SEM.

A meta-analysis of longitudinal associations between substance use and interpersonal attachment security

Substance use has long been associated with close relationship distress. Although the direction of influence for this association has not been established, it has often been assumed that substance use is the causal agent and that close relationship distress is the effect. But research seeking to establish temporal precedence in this link has produced mixed findings. Further, theoretical models of substance use and close relationship processes present the plausibility of the inverse pathway-that insecure close relationships may serve as a vulnerability factor for the development of later substance problems. The current review applies an attachment-theoretical framework to the association between close social bonds and substance use and substance-related problems. Targeting longitudinal studies of attachment and substance use, we examined 665 effect sizes drawn from 34 samples (total N = 56,721) spanning time frames ranging from 1 month to 20 years (M = 3.8 years). Results revealed a significant prospective correlation between earlier attachment and later substance use (r = -.11, 95% CI [-.14, -0.08]). Further, cross-lagged coefficients were calculated which parsed auto-regressive effects, indicating that lower attachment security temporally preceded increases in substance use (r = -.05, 95% CI [-.06, -.04]). Analyses further indicated that the pathway from earlier attachment to later substance use was significantly stronger than that from earlier substance use to later attachment. Results also revealed several moderators of the attachment-substance use link. These findings suggest that insecure attachment may be a vulnerability factor for substance use, and indicate close relationship quality as a promising line of inquiry in research on substance use disorder risk. (PsycINFO Database Record

The relationship between the therapeutic alliance and clinical outcomes in cognitive behaviour therapy for adults with depression: A meta-analytic review

Research consistently provides evidence for the relationship between the therapeutic alliance (TA) and outcome across various therapies and presenting problems. Depression is considered the leading cause of disability worldwide, and there is substantial evidence for the efficacy for Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) in its treatment. At present, there is lack of clarity specifically about the relationship between the TA and outcome in CBT for depression. The present review is the first meta-analytic review to explore this relationship and also considering moderators. Within a random-effects model, an overall mean effect size of r = 0.26 (95% CI [.19-.32]) was found, indicating that the TA was moderately related to outcome in CBT for depression. The mean TA-outcome correlation is consistent with existing meta-analysis that looked across a broad range of presenting problems and psychological therapies. A secondary exploratory analysis of moderators suggested the TA-outcome relationship varied according to the TA rater, where the relationship was weaker for therapist raters compared with clients and observer raters. Additionally, the results indicated that the TA-outcome relationship marginally increased over the course of CBT treatment. The results of the meta-analysis are discussed in reference to the wider body of research, methodological limitations, clinical implications, and future directions for research.

Introduction, comparison, and validation of Meta-Essentials: A free and simple tool for meta-analysis

We present a new tool for meta-analysis, Meta-Essentials, which is free of charge and easy to use. In this paper, we introduce the tool and compare its features to other tools for meta-analysis. We also provide detailed information on the validation of the tool. Although free of charge and simple, Meta-Essentials automatically calculates effect sizes from a wide range of statistics and can be used for a wide range of meta-analysis applications, including subgroup analysis, moderator analysis, and publication bias analyses. The confidence interval of the overall effect is automatically based on the Knapp-Hartung adjustment of the DerSimonian-Laird estimator. However, more advanced meta-analysis methods such as meta-analytical structural equation modelling and meta-regression with multiple covariates are not available. In summary, Meta-Essentials may prove a valuable resource for meta-analysts, including researchers, teachers, and students.

Rank Determination of Mental Functions by 1D Wavelets and Partial Correlation

The main aim of this paper is to classify mental functions by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised tests with a mixed method based on wavelets and partial correlation. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised is a widely used test designed and applied for the classification of the adults cognitive skills in a comprehensive manner. In this paper, many different intellectual profiles have been taken into consideration to measure the relationship between the mental functioning and psychological disorder. We propose a method based on wavelets and correlation analysis for classifying mental functioning, by the analysis of some selected parameters measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised tests. In particular, 1-D Continuous Wavelet Analysis, 1-D Wavelet Coefficient Method and Partial Correlation Method have been analyzed on some Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised parameters such as School Education, Gender, Age, Performance Information Verbal and Full Scale Intelligence Quotient. In particular, we will show that gender variable has a negative but a significant role on age and Performance Information Verbal factors. The age parameters also has a significant relation in its role on Performance Information Verbal and Full Scale Intelligence Quotient change.

Neurocognitive enhancement or impairment? A systematic meta-analysis of prescription stimulant effects on processing speed, decision-making, planning, and cognitive perseveration

Increasing numbers of adults, particularly college students, are misusing prescription stimulants primarily for cognitive/academic enhancement, so it is critical to explore whether empirical findings support neurocognitive benefits of prescription stimulants. Previous meta-analytic studies have supported small benefits from prescription stimulants for the cognitive domains of inhibitory control and memory; however, no meta-analytic studies have examined the effects on processing speed or the potential impairment on other domains of cognition, including planning, decision-making, and cognitive perseveration. Therefore, the present study conducted a meta-analysis of the available literature examining the effects of prescription stimulants on specific measures of processing speed, planning, decision-making, and cognitive perseveration among healthy adult populations. The meta-analysis results indicated a positive influence of prescription stimulant medication on processing speed accuracy, with an overall mean effect size of g = 0.282 (95% CI [0.077, 0.488]; n = 345). Neither improvements nor impairments were revealed for planning time, planning accuracy, advantageous decision-making, or cognitive perseveration; however, findings are limited by the small number of studies examining these outcomes. Findings support that prescription stimulant medication may indeed act as a neurocognitive enhancer for accuracy measures of processing speed without impeding other areas of cognition. Considering that adults are already engaging in illegal use of prescription stimulants for academic enhancement, as well as the potential for stimulant misuse to have serious side effects, the establishment of public policies informed by interdisciplinary research surrounding this issue, whether restrictive or liberal, is of critical importance. (PsycINFO Database Record

Angry Birds, Angry Children, and Angry Meta-Analysts

Ferguson’s (2015a) meta-analysis assessed a very important and controversial topic about children’s mental health and video games. In response to the concerns raised by researchers about the appropriateness of the meta-analytical methods used by Ferguson; we decided to reanalyze the data and discuss two major misconceptions about meta-analysis. We argue that partial correlations can (and should) be meta-analyzed instead of zero-order bivariate correlations if the predictors included in the partial correlation represent a similar construct. We also discuss the fallacy by which the conventional meta-analytical model assumes that the studies’ effect sizes came into being according to the same random effect construct used by the analysis. Our replication results using partial correlations, standardized (valid and reliable) outcomes, and an improved meta-analytical model (that does not assume a random effect is the mechanism of data generation) confirmed the main results of Ferguson’s meta-analysis. There was a significant yet very small effect on aggressive behavior of exposure to both general, rp = 0.062, 95% CI [0.012, 0.112], and violent, rp = 0.055, 95% CI [0.019, 0.091], video games. A very small effect was seen on reduced prosocial behavior, but this was only in the general video game exposure category, rp = 0.072, 95% CI [0.045, 0.100].