Development and psychometric properties testing of the Non-Cognitive Skills Scale for nursing students

BACKGROUND

Non-cognitive skills are crucial for nursing students to achieve their academic performance successfully and perform clinical practice effectively. Although different non-cognitive assessment tools have been established in various disciplines, few are focused on nursing students.

OBJECTIVE

The study aims to develop and psychometrically validate the Non-Cognitive Skills Scale (NCSS) for nursing students.

DESIGN

Qualitative and quantitative research design.

SETTING

One university in Singapore.

PARTICIPANTS

A total of 347 nursing educators and students participated in this study.

METHODS

A two-phase design was used. In the first phase, focus group discussions and literature reviews were conducted to generate the preliminary items of the NCSS. Content validity was established with an expert panel of 10 members, and the tool was pilot tested on 20 students. In the second phase, the number of items was reduced based on correlation coefficients and factor loading. The psychometric properties of the NCSS were tested on survey responses from 300 students. The Brief Resilience Scale, Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire, and Big Five Inventory-10 were used to investigate concurrent and convergent validity.

RESULTS

A 39-item six-factor NCSS was developed with satisfactory model fit indices (χ2/df: 1.60, IFI: 0.92, TLI: 0.90, CFI: 0.92 and RMSEA: 0.05). Content validity was confirmed with a content validity index of 0.90. A pilot test was conducted to improve readability and clarity. Known-group validity discriminated against age and gender group differences in a predictable way. Concurrent validity and convergent validity were confirmed with acceptable correlation coefficients. Cronbach's α was 0.91, and test-retest reliability was 0.84.

CONCLUSIONS

The NCSS is a reliable and valid tool for assessing the non-cognitive attributes of nursing students. This scale can be considered an admission tool for selecting the suitability of nursing applicants for nursing programmes. Further validation of NCSS is needed using a longitudinal study design in multiple settings across countries.

Non-Cognitive Adaptive Resourcefulness: Scrutiny of Its Multidimensionality and Nomological Validity

Recent research has observed that Mental Toughness, Optimal Regulation, and Self-Efficacy share core features and variance. Investigators have named this commonality Non-Cognitive Adaptive Resourcefulness (NCAR). The NCAR validation study reported that the construct possesses promising psychometric properties, however, further research is required to replicate and extend these findings. Acknowledging this, the present paper using a UK-based sample of 1998 participants (Mage = 40 years, range 18-83), tested the NCAR model against competing alternatives (multidimensional and one-factor solutions), and assessed the nomological validity of NCAR in relation to Perceived Stress and Anxiety Control. Participants completed the self-report study measures online. Exploratory structural equation modelling revealed that a bifactor solution represented data more effectively than one-factor and multi-factor alternatives. Additionally, a structural equation model found that NCAR significantly predicted Perceived Stress (subfactors of Distress and Coping) and Anxiety Control (subfactors of Emotional Control, Threat Control, and Stress Control). Moreover, NCAR predicted PSS Coping and Emotional Control to a greater extent than the specific bifactors (Mental Toughness, Optimal Regulation, and Self-Efficacy). This suggested that NCAR comprises an underpinning, positive psychological energy that facilitates coping. Particularly, an enabling resource that enhances the capacity to thrive under pressure and retain emotional control in demanding and trying circumstances.

Conscription and educational outcomes

Peacetime military service has both positive and negative effects on human capital. While it depreciates academic skills, it also enhances non-cognitive ones. The net effect of conscription is hard to identify due to issues of self-selection, endogenous timing and omitted variables bias. We exploit the compulsory service of men in the Republic of Cyprus preceding university enrolment to deal with the first two problems. After controlling for prior academic performance and other relevant controls in a selection on observables model, we find that duration of service has a positive and significant effect on men's subsequent academic performance as measured by grade point average. Two exogenous reforms-one at the extensive margin and one at the intensive margin of military service-allow us to deal with omitted variables bias. We estimate difference-in-differences models, where female students act as a control group, and show that an increase (reduction) in the average length of army service has a positive (negative) and significant effect on men's academic performance.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00148-023-00944-2.

From asking to observing. Behavioural measures of socio-emotional and motivational skills in large-scale assessments

Socio-emotional and motivational skills are routinely measured using self-reports in large-scale educational assessments. Measures exploiting test-takers' behaviour during the completion of questionnaires or cognitive tests are increasingly used as alternatives to self-reports in the economics of education literature. We compute behavioural measures of socio-emotional and motivational skills using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). We find that these measures capture important aspects of students' academic profiles: some are importantly associated with contemporaneous performance and educational attainment and most measures have a high degree of stability over time. However, these measures are only limitedly correlated among themselves and have low correlations with self-report measures of the same constructs. This is likely a reflection of the fact that behavioural measures are representations of the test taker current 'state', rather than descriptions of the participant view of their own 'trait' like the self-report measures. Moreover, the low correlation across measures suggests that they capture different behavioural responses to the test-taking situation. These differences are still limitedly understood because the measures are constructed ex-post using collateral information collected during the administration of assessments rather than developed ex ante in line with theoretical models of human cognition and affect.

Longitudinal associations between positive attributes and psychopathology and their interactive effects on educational outcomes

Psychopathology is associated with impaired learning and early termination of schooling, whereas positive attributes are associated with better educational outcomes. However, it is important to understand if and how psychopathology and positive attributes longitudinally impact each other so we could shed light on where to intervene to promote educational outcomes through these constructs. A large prospective school-based community cohort of youths (5-15 years of age, 45% female) were assessed and followed up for 3 years (n = 2010; 80% retention). We assessed the longitudinal impact of positive attributes (Youth Strength Inventory) and psychopathology (bifactor model of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire) using a cross-lagged panel model. We also used generalized mixed effects models to investigate how these both constructs predict school dropout and literacy, adjusting for confounders and testing their interaction. Positive attributes negatively predicted, and were negatively predicted by, the general factor of psychopathology and conduct problems in the cross-lagged panel model. Positive attributes (OR = 0.57, 95% CI [0.44, 0.73], p < 0.001) and specific conduct symptoms (OR = 2.33, 95% CI [1.64, 3.33], p < 0.001) predicted school dropout, whereas the general factor of psychopathology predicted lower literacy ability (β =  - 0.08, 95% CI [- 0.11, - 0.05], p < 0.001). However, the protective association of positive attributes on school dropout decreases as the general factor of psychopathology increases. These findings provide new evidence that positive attributes and psychopathology mutually influence each other over development and have interactive effects on educational outcomes.

Estimating the late-life effects of social and emotional skills in childhood using midlife mediators

Social and emotional skills are known to affect health and non-health outcomes, but there is limited evidence on whether these skills in childhood affect late life outcomes because of a shortage of long-running datasets containing this information. We develop a three-stage procedure and use it to estimate the effect of childhood social and emotional skills on health and labour market outcomes in late-life. This procedure makes use of mediators in midlife which are shown to be predicted by childhood skills in one dataset and to predict late-life outcomes in another dataset. We use this method to combine estimates from the National Child Development Survey and the British Household Panel Survey. We find that childhood skills predict marital status, education, home ownership, income and health at age 46 years and these midlife variables predict levels of quality-adjusted life years and labour income accumulated by age 63 years. The combined estimates suggest a standard deviation increase in average Bristol Social Adjustment Guide total score at ages 7 and 11 is associated with 4.2% (standard error = 0.6%) additional quality-adjusted life years and more than 9.9% (£14,539, standard error = £2072) additional accumulated pre-tax earnings by age 63 years. Therefore, childhood interventions to increase social and emotional skills would be expected to reduce future healthcare costs and increase wealth. Our three-stage methodology can be used to predict the life-course effects of investments in childhood skills by combining results from datasets across population cohorts.

Going beyond the mean in examining relationships of adolescent non-cognitive skills with health-related quality of life and biomarkers in later-life

Several studies have established associations between early-life non-cognitive skills and later-life health and health behaviours. However, no study addresses the more important policy concern about how this relationship varies along the health distribution. We use unconditional quantile regression to analyse the effects of adolescent non-cognitive skills across the distributions of the health-related quality of life at age 50 and biomarkers at age 45 years. We examine the effects of measures of conscientiousness, agreeableness and neuroticism recorded at age 16 for 3585 individuals from the National Child Development Study. Adolescent conscientiousness is positively associated with ability to cope with stress and negatively associated with risk of cardiovascular disease in middle-age. Adolescent agreeableness is associated with higher health-related quality of life and lower physiological 'wear and tear', but negatively associated with ability to cope with stress in middle-age. Adolescent neuroticism is associated with lower health-related quality of life, higher physiological 'wear and tear', and a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in middle-age. All of these associations are stronger at the lower end of the health distribution except for the cardiovascular risk biomarkers. These associations are robust to correcting for attrition using inverse probability weighting and consistent with causal bounds assuming proportional selection on observables and unobservables. They suggest policies that improve non-cognitive skills in adolescence could offer most long-term health benefit to those with the poorest health.

Data on farmers' adoption of climate change mitigation measures, individual characteristics, risk attitudes and social influences in a region of Switzerland

We present survey data on the adoption of agricultural climate change mitigation measures collected among 105 farmers in a region in Switzerland in 2019. We surveyed measures farmers use to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on the farm level. The list comprised 13 measures related to energy production and use, herd and manure management as well as crop production. Additionally, data was collected with regard to farmers’ individual concerns and perceptions of climate change, attitudes and goals, self-efficacy and locus of control, income satisfaction and social influences. Moreover, risk preferences as well as loss aversion and probability weighting were elicited using a multiple price list. The survey data was matched with cantonal farm census data, containing information on farm size, farm type and age of the farmers.

Can non-cognitive skills compensate for background disadvantage? -- the moderation of non-cognitive skills on family socioeconomic status and achievement during early childhood and early adolescence

Combining the theory of resources substitution and recent evidence on the importance of children's non-cognitive skills from social sciences, this study asks whether family socioeconomic status' effects on achievement are contingent on or moderated by children's non-cognitive skills. I address this question from a longitudinal perspective by focusing on two developmental stages: early childhood and early adolescence. To overcome the methodological challenges involved in answering these questions, I use Structural Nested Mean Models (SNMM), a recent development in statistical methods. Using data from Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS), I test the hypothesis that higher non-cognitive skills will reduce family SES's effects on achievement in a longitudinal setting. The results corroborate the hypothesis, indicating that non-cognitive skills will moderate family SES's effects, and higher non-cognitive skills will lessen family SES's effects on achievement. In addition, such moderation effects are significant during both focal developmental stages of early childhood and early adolescence.

The roles of non-cognitive and cognitive skills in the life course development of adult health inequalities

Previous research has suggested that greater cognitive skill is protective against the development of socioeconomic health inequalities across the life course, but the relative role of non-cognitive skills has been less investigated in this context. Using the prospective UK 1958 National Child Development Study (N = 18,558), higher factor scores for adolescent non-cognitive skills (NCS; i.e. a combination of work habits and pro-social behaviours) and mean cognitive skill (CS) at age 16 were examined with a path analysis model in relation to socioeconomic status (SES) across the life course (at ages 16, 33 and 50) and poor self-reported health at age 50. Adjusting for adolescent NCS explained over a third of the association between education and health, but the path between social class at age 50 and health was unaffected. Adjustment for CS explained larger proportions of the paths to adult health inequalities; and paths between CS and SES across the life course were stronger than the same paths with NCS. However, NCS was still independently associated with paths to later health inequalities in fully adjusted models, and both types of skill had equivalent inverse direct effects with poor health (OR: 0.82 [95% CI 0.73,0.93] vs 0.83 [0.72,0.96], respectively). Since NCS retained independent associations with SES and health across the life course, they could be a target for policies aimed at ameliorating the production of health inequalities for a wide range of children, regardless of their cognitive skill.

Why does college education matter? Unveiling the contributions of selection factors

This study investigates the contributions of pre-college selection factors that may partially lead to the college degree - health link by using longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (1979) cohort. Propensity score matching method finds that the effects of college degree on various health outcomes (self-rated health, physical component summary index, health limitations, CESD scale) are reduced by 51% on average (range: 37%-70%) in the matched sample. Among these observed factors, cognitive skill is the biggest confounder, followed by pre-college health and socioeconomic characteristics (marital aspiration, years of schooling, marriage, fertility, poverty status) and non-cognitive skills (e.g., self-esteem). Rotter Internal-External Locus of Control scale is not significantly associated with all four health measures. The effects of most indicators of family background (parental education, family stability, family size, religious background) on the health of adult children are not direct but through offspring's early adulthood health and socioeconomic status.

Life-course changes in the mediation of cognitive and non-cognitive skills for parental effects on children's academic achievement

We assess life-course changes in how cognitive and noncognitive skills mediate the effect of parental SES on children's academic achievement using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort. Our results show: (1) the direct effect of parental SES declines while the mediating effect of skills increases over time; (2) cognitive and non-cognitive skills differ in their temporal sensitivities to parental origin; and (3) in contrast to the effect of cognitive skills, the mediating effect of non-cognitive skills increases over time because non-cognitive skills are more sensitive to changes in parental SES. Our results offer insights into the dynamic role skill formation play in status attainment.

The importance of family income in the formation and evolution of non-cognitive skills in childhood

Little is known about the relationship between family income and children's non-cognitive (or socio-emotional) skill formation. This is an important gap, as these skills have been hypothesized to be a critical link between early outcomes and adult socioeconomic status. This paper presents new evidence of the importance of family income in the formation and evolution of children's non-cognitive skills using a recent US panel dataset that tracks children between grades K-5. Findings suggest an important divergence in non-cognitive skills based on family income that accumulates over time and does not seem to be explained by children's health status differences.

Measuring conflict management, emotional self-efficacy, and problem solving confidence in an evaluation of outdoor programs for inner-city youth in Baltimore, Maryland

Substantial evidence supports the value of outdoor education programs for promoting healthy adolescent development, yet measurement of program outcomes often lacks rigor. Accurately assessing the impacts of programs that seek to promote positive youth development is critical for determining whether youth are benefitting as intended, identifying best practices and areas for improvement, and informing decisions about which programs to invest in. We generated brief, customized instruments for measuring three outcomes among youth participants in Baltimore City Outward Bound programs: conflict management, emotional self-efficacy, and problem solving confidence. Measures were validated through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of pilot-testing data from two groups of program participants. We describe our process of identifying outcomes for measurement, developing and adapting measurement instruments, and validating these instruments. The finalized measures support evaluations of outdoor education programs serving urban adolescent youth. Such evaluations enhance accountability by determining if youth are benefiting from programs as intended, and strengthen the case for investment in programs with demonstrated success.

Development of the Personal Responsibility Scale for adolescents

Increasing interest by policy makers and educators in enhancing the non-cognitive factors that impact on the wellbeing of young people across the school years requires valid and reliable measurement scales. This paper reports the psychometric development of the Personal Responsibility Scale drawing on a preliminary 34-item measure developed using data from focus groups with secondary students in Australia. This scale was then administered to 513 students across Years 9-12. Exploratory factor analysis identified three factors, 'personal accountability', 'behavioural and emotional control', and 'cognitive control'. Structural equation modelling was used to examine the congeneric measurement models for these factors. The multidimensional nature of the personal responsibility construct was then examined through multilevel confirmatory factor analysis. These analyses supported a three-factor structure to propose a final 15-item scale. Additional validation requirements, future research possibilities, and implications of this study are addressed.

Income deprivation and mental well-being: the role of non-cognitive skills

We show that the positive relation between income deprivation and mental health is affected by an individual's non-cognitive skills. Income deprivation is operationalized as the Yitzhaki index, i.e., as a function of the sum of income differences between an individual and others in her reference group who are more affluent. Non-cognitive skills are extracted from a Locus of Control questionnaire and the Big Five Inventory, a self-report measurement of an individual in regard to five aspects of personality: conscientiousness, neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness and open-mindedness. The results, based on the 2002-2010 waves of the German Socio-Economic Panel dataset (SOEP), show that deprivation is negative and significantly related with mental health. However, neurotic individuals are more deprivation-sensitive than are others. Compared to the mean effect, a one standard deviation rise in neuroticism is associated with a deprivation effect that is 36.6% and 51.9% larger among men and women, respectively. Although to a lesser extent, extraverted men and conscientious women are also found to be more deprivation-sensitive than are others, the corresponding figures being 31.1% and 45.9%, respectively. These findings suggest that personality differences should be taken into account in the design of policies, practices and initiatives aimed at alleviating the well-being costs of income deprivation.

The drivers of month-of-birth differences in children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills

Previous research has found that children who are born later in the academic year have lower educational attainment, on average, than children who are born earlier in the year, especially at younger ages; much less is known about the mechanisms that drive this inequality. The paper uses two complementary identification strategies to estimate an upper bound of the effect of age at test by using rich data from two UK birth cohorts. We find that differences in the age at which cognitive skills are tested accounts for the vast majority of the difference in these outcomes between children who are born at different times of the year, whereas the combined effect of the other factors (age of starting school, length of schooling and relative age) is close to zero. This suggests that applying an age adjustment to national achievement test scores may be an appropriate policy response to overcome the penalty that is associated with being born later in the academic year. Age at test does not, however, explain all of the difference in children's view of their own scholastic competence. Age adjusting national achievement test scores may help to overcome differences in ability beliefs between children who are born at different times of the year, but our results suggest that additional policy responses may be required.

Height in mid childhood and psychosocial competencies in late childhood: evidence from four developing countries

We use longitudinal data from children growing up in four developing countries (Peru, India, Vietnam, Ethiopia) to study the relationship between height at the age of 7-8 and a set of psychosocial competencies measured at the age of 11-12 that are known to be correlated with earnings during adulthood: self-efficacy, self-esteem and aspirations. Results show that a one standard deviation increase in height-for-age tends to increase self-efficacy, self-esteem and aspirations by 10.4%, 6.4% and 5.1%, respectively. We argue that these findings are likely to be informing of an underlying relationship between undernutrition and the formation of non-cognitive skills.