Differential Predictive Effect of Self-Regulation Behavior and the Combination of Self- vs. External Regulation Behavior on Executive Dysfunctions and Emotion Regulation Difficulties, in University Students

Addressing the links between and internal vs. external regulation factors, achievement emotions and gender in problematic use of ICT at university

Context

The study of internal and external regulation in the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the analysis of academic emotions have become increasingly important due to their impact on academic life at university.

Objectives

This research aims to investigate the links between internal vs. external regulation factors, achievement emotions, and gender in the problematic use of ICT among university students.

Methodology

The study recruited 317 university students, predominantly female (72.51%), using an ex-post facto design. The SRT-ERT scale was used to assess technology-related behaviors, and the AEQ Scales measured academic emotions before, during, and after class. Correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis, and ANOVA were employed to identify significant relationships.

Results

Significant relationships were identified between regulatory behaviors, with male students exhibiting more dysregulated behavior and greater exposure to dysregulatory technology environments. Individual and contextual behavioral nonregulation and dysregulation in the use of ICT were significantly predictive of negative academic emotions.

Conclusion

The findings suggest that both personal and contextual factors of regulation significantly influence the emotional experiences of students in academic settings. The study highlights the need for psycho-educational interventions to promote better regulatory behaviors among university students, particularly males.

Executive functions and their relationship with age: Insights from a novel neuropsychological Assessment Battery in Children-a pilot study

Executive functions (EFs) are a set of cognitive processes that enable individuals to manage and coordinate their thoughts and actions toward achieving specific goals. EFs include planning, organizing, initiating, and monitoring actions, and have been found to improve with age due to the maturation of the brain, especially during childhood. Therefore, our correlational study sought to determine the relationship between the performance in executive functions and age in 79 children (36 girls, 45.6%) throughout development, between the ages of 6 and 12 (mean = 9.25; SD = 2.05), using a battery designed in Chile: BEFE (Batería de Evaluación de las Funciones Ejecutivas: Executive Function Assessment Battery) based on traditional neuropsychological tests to evaluate Working Memory, Inhibitory Control, Cognitive Flexibility, and Planning skills. Our results showed various correlations between the variables age and performance in various behavioral parameters, demonstrating an increase in the number of correct responses (positive correlation) and/or a decrease in errors (negative correlation) with age (6-12) in the subtests that correspond to dimensions of Cognitive Flexibility (Semantic and Phonological Fluency, Card Sorting Game, and Tracing Tasks), Inhibitory Control (ENA-F and Sentence Completion), Working Memory (Audio-verbal WM Forward and Ordering, and Visuospatial WM Forward and Backward), and Planning (La Portada de Antofagasta and FISA Maps). These results are consistent with previous empirical evidence and support the notion of a developmental relationship between EF performance and age. Additionally, this study contributes to understanding EF development in culturally specific contexts, highlighting the importance of contextually relevant assessment tools in evaluating cognitive development.

Dysexecutive symptomatology in everyday functioning and academic achievement in adolescents

Background

During the educational stage, academic achievement depends on various social, family, and personal factors. Among the latter, executive skills in everyday life play a significant role in dealing with the academic demands of adolescents. Therefore, the aim of this study is to ascertain the effects of executive symptomatology in everyday functioning on academic achievement in adolescents.

Method

The study involved 910 students aged between 13 and 15 years (M = 14.09, SD = 0.68) from both public and private schools in the Community of Madrid. The DEX, BDEFS-CA, and BRIEF-SR questionnaires were utilised to assess executive difficulties, while grades in language, mathematics, and natural sciences were used as a measure of academic achievement.

Results

The data revealed statistically significant differences in working memory, emotional control, materials organisation, and task completion. In relation to language and natural sciences subjects. In the case of mathematics, emotional control and task completion were significant variables.

Conclusion

Our results indicate that certain executive skills that are manifested in everyday life activities can contribute, albeit in a variable way, to academic achievement in the subjects studied. This aspect is relevant insofar as it allows us to develop preventive interventions based on the executive training of these everyday skills.

Assessing Frontal Lobe Function on Verbal Fluency and Emotion Recall in Autism Spectrum Disorder by fNIRS

This study applied the functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to investigate frontal activity in autism when performing verbal fluency test and emotion recall task. We recruited 32 autistic adults without intellectual disability and 30 typically-developing controls (TDC). Prefrontal hemodynamic changes were evaluated by fNIRS when the participants performed the verbal fluency test and emotion recall task. fNIRS signals in the prefrontal cortex were compared between autism and TDC. Compared to TDC, autistic adults showed comparable performance on the verbal fluency test but exhibited lower frontal activity on the vegetable category. In the verbal fluency test, left frontal activity in TDC significantly increased in the vegetable category (vs. fruit category). In the emotion recall task, left frontal activity increased significantly in TDC when recalling emotional (vs. neutral) events. This increase of left frontal activity on the more difficult works was not found in autism. Similarly, brain activities were related to test performance only in TDC but not in autism. In addition, more severe social deficits were associated with lower frontal activity when recalling emotional events, independent of autism diagnosis. Findings suggested reduced frontal activity in autism, as compared to TDC, when performing verbal fluency tests. The reduction of left frontal activation in verbal fluency test and emotion recall tasks might reflect on the social deficits of the individual. The fNIRS may potentially be applied in assessing frontal lobe function in autism and social deficits in general population. Trial registration number: NCT04010409.

Conceptual Utility Model for the Management of Stress and Psychological Wellbeing, CMMSPW™ in a university environment: theoretical basis, structure and functionality

This article describes and introduces the Conceptual Utility Model for the Management of Stress and Psychological Wellbeing, CMMSPW™ Its purpose is to assess, evaluate and treat stress and psychological wellbeing. First, the theoretical assumptions of the model are presented. This model is an application of the 3P Model, Theory of Internal vs. External Behavioral Regulation and the Model of Competency for the Management of Stress and Psychological Wellbeing. Second, the conceptual structure of the model is presented. This model allows the structural and functional determination of the variables and predictive, mediating and final factors for stress and psychological wellbeing. Third, the functional structure is presented. For predictive factors, the internal and external self-regulation theoretical model allows us to assess levels of internal and external regulation of the individual and their context, as well as other personal and contextual factors involved in self-regulation. For mediating factors, the model of competence for the management of stress and wellbeing allows us to analyze conceptual (concept and principles), mediating (skills and metaskills) and attitudinal (attitudes, values and habits) variables. Finally, in relation to factors that condition outcomes, we can determine levels of response to stress and psychological wellbeing. Finally, limitations and conclusions are presented. The model also allows us to determine predictive relationships between those three types of variables and is functionally transferable to other contexts, including contexts proper to the psychology of education, clinical practice and healthcare, and psychosocial, organizational and technological contexts.

The combined value of executive functions and self-regulated learning to predict differences in study success among higher education students

Introduction

Self-regulated learning (SRL) has traditionally been associated with study success in higher education. In contrast, study success is still rarely associated with executive functions (EF), while it is known from neuropsychological practice that EF can influence overall functioning and performance. However some studies have shown relationships between EF and study success, but this has mainly been investigated in school children and adolescents. EF refer to higher-order cognitive processes to regulate cognition, behavior, and emotion in service of adaptive and goal-directed behaviors. SRL is a dynamic process in which learners activate and maintain cognitions, affects, and behaviors to achieve personal learning goals. This study explores the added value of including EF and SRL to predict study success (i.e., the obtained credits).

Methods

In this study, we collected data from 315 first-year psychology students of a University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands who completed questionnaires related to both EF (BRIEF) and SRL (MSLQ) two months after the start of the academic year. Credit points were obtained at the end of that first academic year. We used Structural Equation Modeling to test whether EF and SRL together explain more variance in study success than either concept alone.

Results

EF explains 19.8% of the variance, SRL 22.9%, and in line with our hypothesis, EF and SRL combined explain 39.8% of the variance in obtained credits.

Discussion

These results indicate that focusing on EF and SRL could lead to a better understanding of how higher education students learn successfully. This might be the objective of further investigation.

Self- vs. External-Regulation Behavior ScaleTM in different psychological contexts: A validation study

The self- vs. external-regulation behavior theory, SR-ER Theory (2021) model has postulated the Self-Regulation /Non or De-Regulation/Dys-regulation (SR-NR-DR) continuum in the person and in their context. The model also generates a behavioral heuristic that allows us to predict and explain the variability of other dependent behavioral variables in a range of scenarios (clinical, educational, health and technology contexts). Consequently, the objective of this study was to validate the different scales prepared on the basis of the theory presented. A total of 469 students voluntarily completed at different times the five questionnaires presented, to give a total of 1,385 completed questionnaires. Using an ex post facto design, descriptive, correlational, confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA), reliability, and concurrent validity analyses were carried out. The scales were analyzed individually and as a whole. The results showed the acceptable structure of scale and consistent levels of reliability. The five levels generated by the SR-NR-DR (personal and contextual) combinatory heuristic that arises from the theoretical model determined significant differences in the levels of the variables analyzed for each psychological context. We discuss the theoretical implications and the implications for the assessment and improvement of the behaviors analyzed in function of the personal and contextual regulation levels evaluated.

Effects of factors of self-regulation vs. factors of external regulation of learning in self-regulated study

Since the mid-20th century, the study of Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) has aimed to identify the distinctive characteristics that enable individuals to acquire new knowledge and skills under their control. The theory of Internal Self-Regulation vs. External-Regulation in Learning (SRL vs. ERL; 2017) has postulated that a large number of self-regulatory variables are mediated by regulated/non-regulated or dysregulated features of the context. After signing their informed consent, a total of 616 university students completed validated instruments of SRL vs. ERL, behavioral regulation (SRB), regulatory teaching (RT), and metacognitive study control strategies (SRS). Using an ex-post facto design and correlation, regression, structural equation model and mediation analyses, the present research aimed to establish multicausal predictive relationships among the analyzed variables. Results indicated positive predictive effects between the external regulation variables on the self-regulation variables in learning [regulation (SRL)/non-regulation (NRL)/dysregulation (DRL)]; as well as positive predictive effects between SRL on SRB, RT and metacognitive SRS. Additionally, external regulation (ERL) not only predicted but mediated numerous relations among the variables studied. Other findings and important considerations for future research in the field of self-regulation are discussed.

Advances on Self-Regulation Models: A New Research Agenda Through the SR vs ER Behavior Theory in Different Psychology Contexts

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory (1986) influenced the development of several complementary models of the construct of Self-Regulation. Building on the foundation of Self-Determination Theory, SDT (2000), and Zimmerman's Self-Regulation Theory, SR (2001), with their assumptions, contributions, goddesses, and limitations, we come to the Self- vs. External Regulatory Theory, SR-ER (2021). Finally, we integrate recent evidence demonstrating the explanatory adequacy of the SR vs. ER model for different psychological constructions in different settings related to education, health, clinical practice and social work. Complementary, a new theoretical and empirical research agenda is presented, to continue testing the adequacy of SR vs. ER assumptions, and to better understand the behavioral variability of the different constructs studied.