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The current economic landscape is complex and globalized, and it imposes on individuals the responsibility for their own financial security. This situation has been intensified by the COVID-19 crisis, since short-time work and layoffs significantly limit the availability of financial resources for individuals. Due to the long duration of the lockdown, these challenges will have a long-term impact and affect the financial well-being of many citizens. Moreover, it can be assumed that the consequences of this crisis will once again particularly affect groups of people who have already frequently been identified as having low financial literacy. Financial literacy is therefore an important target for educational measures and interventions. However, it cannot be considered in isolation but must take into account the many potential factors that influence financial literacy alone or in combination. These include personality traits and socio-demographic factors as well as the (in)ability to defer gratification. Against this background, individualized support offers can be made. With this in mind, in the first step of this study, we analyze the complex interaction of personality traits, socio-demographic factors, the (in-)ability to delay gratification, and financial literacy. In the second step, we differentiate the identified effects regarding different groups to identify moderating effects, which, in turn, allow conclusions to be drawn about the need for individualized interventions. The results show that gender and educational background moderate the effects occurring between self-reported financial literacy, financial learning opportunities, delay of gratification, and financial literacy.
Objective: Cognitive models suggest that the self-concept of persons with psychosis can be fundamentally affected. Self-concepts were found to be related to different symptom domains when measured concurrently. Longitudinal investigations to disentangle the possible causal associations are rare.
Method: We examined a sample of 160 people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia who took part in a psychotherapy study. All participants had the DSM-IV diagnosis of a schizophrenia and pronounced negative symptoms. Neurocognition, symptoms, and self-concepts were assessed at two time points 12 months apart. Structural equation modeling was used to test whether symptoms influence self-concepts (scar-model) or self-concepts affect symptoms (vulnerability model).
Results: Negative symptoms correlated concurrently with self-concepts. Neurocognitive deficits are associated with more negative self-concepts 12 months later. Interpersonal self-concepts were found to be relevant for paranoia.
Conclusion: The findings implicate that if deficits in neurocognition are present, fostering a positive self-concept should be an issue in therapy. Negative interpersonal self-concept indicates an increased risk for paranoid delusions in the course of 1 year. New aspects for cognitive models in schizophrenia and clinical implications are discussed.
This paper investigates how the major outcome of a confirmatory factor investigation is preserved when scaling the variance of a latent variable by the various scaling methods. A constancy framework, based upon the underlying factor analysis formula that enables scaling by modifying components through scalar multiplication, is described; a proof is included to demonstrate the constancy property of the framework. It provides the basis for a scaling method that enables the comparison of the contribution of different latent variables of the same confirmatory factor model to observed scores, as for example, the contributions of trait and method latent variables. Furthermore, it is shown that available scaling methods are in line with this constancy framework and that the criterion number included in some scaling methods enables modifications. The impact of the number of manifest variables on the scaled variance parameter can be modified and the range of possible values. It enables the adaptation of scaling methods to the requirements of the field of application.
Background: Recent studies have suggested substantial fluctuations of cognitive performance in adults both across and within days, but very little is known about such fluctuations in children. Children's sleep behavior might have an important influence on their daily cognitive resources, but so far this has not been investigated in terms of naturally occurring within-person variations in children's everyday lives.
Methods: In an ambulatory assessment study, 110 elementary school children (8–11 years old) completed sleep items and working memory tasks on smartphones several times per day in school and at home for 4 weeks. Parents provided general information about the children and their sleep habits.
Results: We identified substantial fluctuations in the children's daily cognitive performance, self-reported nightly sleep quality, time in bed, and daytime tiredness. All three facets were predictive of performance fluctuations in children's school and daily life. Sleep quality and time in bed were predictive of performance in the morning, and afternoon performance was related to current tiredness. The children with a lower average performance level showed a higher within-person coupling between morning performance and sleep quality.
Conclusions: Our findings contribute important insights regarding a potential source of performance fluctuations in children. The effect of varying cognitive resources should be investigated further because it might impact children's daily social, emotional, and learning-related functioning. Theories about children's cognitive and educational development should consider fluctuations on micro-longitudinal scales (e.g., day-to-day) to identify possible mechanisms behind long-term changes.