scholarly journals Inferring Causation from Cross-Sectional Data: Examination of the Causal Relationship between Hyperactivity–Impulsivity and Novelty Seeking

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexis C. Wood ◽  
Fruhling Rijsdijk ◽  
Philip Asherson ◽  
Jonna Kuntsi
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-87
Author(s):  
Stephanie W. Y. Chan ◽  
Wilfred W. F. Lau ◽  
C. Harry Hui ◽  
Esther Y. Y. Lau ◽  
Shu-fai Cheung

2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 986-1011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinod Mishra ◽  
Russell Smyth

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which workplace policies and practices are related to participation in, and frequency and duration of, workplace training, controlling for worker and workplace characteristics. Design/methodology/approach – The authors regress variables depicting participation, frequency and duration of workplace training on workplace policies and control variables. In the case of participation in training, the dependent variable is binary; hence, the authors use a logit model. To examine the number of times which employees participate in training and the number of days they spend training the authors use a Tobit model. The Lewbel (2012) method is used to examine whether there is a causal relationship between workplace policies and the frequency, and duration, of training. Findings – The findings suggest that about half of the workplace policies considered are positively correlated with the incidence and breadth of workplace training. There is also some support for the view that bundling of policies is positively correlated with the provision of workplace training. The Lewbel (2012) results suggest a causal relationship between a bundle of workplace policies and the frequency, and duration, of workplace training. There is, however, no evidence that workplace policies designed to devolve responsibilities to workers and incentivize staff polarizes skills through resulting in more training for professional staff over others. Originality/value – The authors use matched employer and employee cross-sectional data for Shanghai in China. To this point most studies that have examined the determinants of training use data for Europe or the USA. There are few studies of this sort for countries in other regions and, in particular, developing or transition countries. There are no studies at all on the relationship between workplace policies and practices designed to promote organizational performance and training in developing or transitional countries. This study addresses this gap in the understanding of the factors related to on-the-job training in transitional countries, such as China.


Author(s):  
Marcella Caputi ◽  
Barbara Forresi ◽  
Ludovica Giani ◽  
Giovanni Michelini ◽  
Simona Scaini

The first Italian lockdown imposed to fight the spread of COVID-19 caused important disruptions in families’ everyday lives. The main aim of this research was to investigate the predictors of psychopathology in children aged 5–10 years, immediately after the national 2-month lockdown. A total of 158 Italian parents (148 mothers, 10 fathers, mean age = 41 years) were recruited and asked to complete an online research concerning their 158 children (76 boys, mean age = 7.4 years). Parents completed questionnaires on parent–child conflict, resilience, temperament, behavior, and previous adverse childhood experiences. Hierarchical regressions showed that children’s psychopathology was predicted by low child resilience, high novelty seeking and harm avoidance, adverse experiences, and high flooding levels. Moreover, girls exposed to adverse experiences appeared more vulnerable to psychopathology. The recruitment of a convenience sample, the small sample size, and the cross-sectional design of our study limit the generalizability and interpretation of the present findings. Nonetheless, this research extends our knowledge of children’s functioning in such an exceptional period. Shedding light on predictors of children’s psychopathology following prolonged quarantine can indeed guide effective psychological interventions now and in future similar situations.


Author(s):  
Christantie Effendy ◽  
Nurhaeka Tou ◽  
Ridho Rahmadi

The growth of the elderly population in Indonesia from year to year has always increased, followed by the problem of decreasing physical strength and psychological health of the elderly. These problems can affect the increase in dependence and decrease the independence of the elderly in ADL. In previous studies, various factors affect independence in ADLs such as cognitive, psychological, economic, nutrition, and health. However, In general, these studies only focus on predictive analysis or correlation of variables, and no research has attempted to identify the casual relationship of the elderly independence factors. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the mechanism of the causal relationship of the factors that influence the independence of the elderly in ADLs using a casual method called the Stable Specification Search for Cross-Sectional Data With Latent Variables (S3C-Latent). In this research we found strong causal and associative relationships between factors.The causal relationship of elderly independence in ADLs was influenced by cognitive, psychological, nutritional and health factors and gender with α values respectively (0.61; 0.61;1.00, 0.65;0.70). Cognitive factors associated with psychological, economic, nutrition, and health with a value of α (0.77; 1.00; 1.00; 0.64). Furthermore, psychological factors associated with economy, nutrition, and health with a value of α (0.77; 0.95; 0.63). Bisides, economic factors are associated with nutrition and health with α values of ( 0.86; 0.75) and nutrition with health with α values of 0.64. The last association was found between nutritional factors and gender with a value of α 0.76. This research is expected to increase the independence of the elderly in carrying out daily activities.


2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (8) ◽  
pp. 1514-1522 ◽  
Author(s):  
A S Busch ◽  
B Hollis ◽  
F R Day ◽  
K Sørensen ◽  
L Aksglaede ◽  
...  

Abstract STUDY QUESTION How is timing of voice break related to other male pubertal milestones as well as to BMI? SUMMARY ANSWER We provide a comprehensive temporal analysis of male pubertal milestones, including reproductive hormone dynamics, confirm voice break as a late milestone of male puberty and report a likely causal relationship between higher BMI and earlier age at voice break in men. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY Voice break represents a late pubertal milestone and recalled age at voice break is frequently used in epidemiological studies as a measure of puberty. In contrast, clinical studies use mainly testicular enlargement and/or genital tanner stage as the marker of pubertal onset. However, neither correlation of pubertal milestones nor reproductive hormone dynamics have been assessed in detail previously. Further, although BMI and puberty timing are known to be closely linked, cause and effect between these traits are not known. STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION The study included a population-based mixed cross-sectional and longitudinal cohort (2006–2014, COPENHAGEN Puberty Study) of 730 healthy Danish boys. Data for 55 871 male research participants from the 23andMe study were obtained, including genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data and age at voice break. PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS We performed a detailed evaluation of pubertal milestones and reproductive hormone levels (study population 1). A Mendelian randomization (MR) approach was used to determine the likely causal link between BMI and timing of voice break (study population 2). MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE Voice break occurred at mean age 13.6 (95% CI: 13.5–13.8) years. At voice break, mean (95% CI) testosterone levels, LH levels and bi-testicular volume were 10.9 (10.0–11.7) nmol/L, 2.4 (2.2–2.5) IU/L and 24 (23–25) mL, respectively. Voice break correlated moderately strongly with timing of male pubertal milestones, including testicular enlargement, gonadarche, pubarche, sweat odor, axillary hair growth and testosterone above limit of detection (r2 range: 0.43–0.61). Timing of all milestones was negatively associated with age-specific BMI (all P ≤ 0.001). MR analyses inferred likely causal effects of higher BMI on earlier voice break in males (−0.35 years/approximate SD, P < 0.001). LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION Participation rate of the population-based cohort was 25%. Further, boys that were followed longitudinally were examined approximately every 6 months limiting the time resolution of pubertal milestones. Using adult BMI as exposure instead of prepubertal BMI in the MR analysis and the known inaccuracies of the testosterone immunoassay at low testosterone levels may be further limitations. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS We provide valuable normative data on the temporal relation of male pubertal milestones. Further, the likely causal relationship between BMI and puberty timing highlights the importance of preventing obesity in childhood. STUDY FUNDING/COMPETING INTEREST(S) This work was supported by Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (09-067 180); Danish Ministry of the Environment, CeHoS (MST-621-00 065); Capital Region of Denmark (R129-A3966); Ministry of Higher Education and Science (DFF-1331-00 113); Innovation Fund Denmark (InnovationsFonden, 14-2013-4); The International Center for Research and Research Training in Endocrine Disrupting Effects of Male Reproduction and Child Health. B.H., F.R.D., J.R.B.P. and K.K.O. are supported by the Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12015/2). The 23andMe study is supported by the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health (R44HG006981). Members of the 23andMe Research Team are employees of 23andMe, Inc. and hold stock or stock options in 23andMe. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER NCT01411527


2014 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fan-Chen Tseng ◽  
Ching-I. Teng

Purpose – Multiple adoption (the adoption of another auction site in addition to the present one) enables startup or non-leading firms to survive and grow by eroding the customer bases of market leaders. Thus understanding multiple adoption is important. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to propose and examines antecedents of user intention to adopt another online auction site. Design/methodology/approach – This study utilized a cross-sectional design and an online survey, obtaining 495 valid responses. Findings – Analytical results indicate that self-efficacy and inherent novelty seeking contribute to the intention to adopt another auction site. Moreover, transaction opportunities enhance the intention. Perceived network externality also increases the intention. However, perceived relational switching costs reduce such intention. Originality/value – This study is new in investigating why users intend to use another auction site and identifying the antecedents.


2015 ◽  
Vol 9s1 ◽  
pp. SART.S22440 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Cinnamon Bidwell ◽  
Valerie S. Knopik ◽  
Janet Audrain-Mcgovern ◽  
Tiffany R. Glynn ◽  
Nichea S. Spillane ◽  
...  

Trait novelty seeking has been consistently implicated in substance use, yet the origins and mechanisms of novelty seeking in substance use proneness are unclear. We aimed to characterize novelty seeking as a phenotypic marker of substance use proneness in adolescence, a critical period for drug use experimentation. To this end, we parsed novelty seeking's two constituent subdimensions – exploratory excitability (drive for novel experience) and impulsiveness (careless decision-making) – and explored the individual relations of these dimensions to: (1) the use of a variety of licit and illicit substances, (2) family history of substance use, and (3) subjective drug effects. Five hundred eighty five adolescents (mean age = 14.5 years) completed surveys of key variables. Results indicated that, when accounting for the covariation among exploratory excitability and impulsiveness, impulsiveness emerged as the more salient correlate of substance use and was independently associated with initiation of nearly all drug classes. Mediation analyses of the mechanisms of novelty seeking-related risk illustrated that impulsiveness mediated the association of family history of substance use with both initiation and past 30-day frequency of use. Both impulsiveness and exploratory excitability were associated with increased positive and negative subjective drug effects, and the analyses supported a significant indirect pathway from impulsiveness to a more frequent use via positive subjective effects. Although limited by a cross-sectional design, these findings suggest that impulsiveness-like aspects of the novelty seeking construct may represent a useful phenotypic marker for early substance use proneness that potentially (1) increases initiation risk, (2) has familial origins, and (3) promotes more frequent use by altering subjective drug response.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. s859-s859
Author(s):  
V. Farnia ◽  
F. Tatari ◽  
M. Alikhani ◽  
J. Shakeri ◽  
V.T. Ngo ◽  
...  

IntroductionAmphetamine abuse has become a serious health concern worldwide, and this holds also true for Iran.AimsInvestigating psychological and socio-demographic dimensions to predict amphetamine-abuse.MethodsHundred amphetamine abusers and 100 healthy controls took part in this cross-sectional study. Participants completed questionnaires covering socio-demographic and psychological dimensions.ResultsCompared to healthy controls, amphetamine abusers reported more insecure and ambivalent attachment styles, higher novelty-seeking and risky behaviour, less current social support and stable relationships, and lower emotional competencies. No differences were found for socio-demographic dimensions.ConclusionsResults from this cross-sectional study underscore that amphetamine abuse was related to poor social relationships, poor emotional competencies and higher risky behaviour. The cross-sectional nature of the study, however, does preclude any conclusions about the causal direction of amphetamine abuse and poor interactional behavior.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enjeline Hanafi ◽  
Kristiana Siste ◽  
Tjhin Wiguna ◽  
Irmia Kusumadewi ◽  
Martina Wiwie Nasrun

AbstractTemperament profiles of an individual with high novelty seeking and low harm avoidance have been reported to be related to substance addiction, but smartphone addiction could be different from substance addiction. Medical students have high exposure to smartphone use. Screening their risk of smartphone addiction based on the temperament profile may help in deciding best prevention approach. This research aimed to examine the temperament profile and its association with vulnerability to smartphone addiction of medical students in Jakarta, Indonesia. The research was conducted with cross sectional design and simple random sampling. The Temperament and Character Inventory and the Smartphone Addiction Scale were used to measure desired outcomes. Logistic regression analysis was performed to identify the relationship between demographic factors, pattern of smartphone use, temperament type, and vulnerability to smartphone addiction. Of the 185 samples, most subjects have low novelty seeking, high reward dependence, and high harm avoidance. The average smartphone usage in a day was 7.94 hours (SD 3.92) with the initial age of smartphone usage was 7.58 years (SD 2.43). The respondents used smartphone for communication and accessing social media. High harm avoidance temperament was significantly associated with risk of smartphone addiction with OR 2.035; 95% CI 1.119 to 3.701). This study shows that smartphone addiction has similarities with other behavior addictions. Harm avoidance temperament is associated with the risk of smartphone addiction. Screening on risk of smartphone addiction based on temperament type should be done on medical students.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nobuyuki Sano ◽  
Makoto Kyougoku

Background: Achievement motive is defined as the intention to achieve one's goals. It is an important consideration in rehabilitation. However, previous studies have not demonstrated the causal relationship between achievement motive and a more enhanced quality of life such as the concept of ikigai and role expectation. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the effect of achievement motive on ikigai, social participation, and role expectations of community-dwelling elderly people. Method: Participants were community-dwelling elderly people in day-service centers. A total of 281 participants (male: 127, female: 154) answered the self-administered questionnaire in cross-sectional research. The questionnaire comprised demographic data and scales that evaluated achievement motive, social participation, ikigai, and role expectation. We studied the causal relationship established on our hypothesized model by a structural equation modeling approach. Results: We checked the standardized path coefficients and the modification indices, and the modified model were good fit statistics: CFI = .984, TLI = .983, RMSEA = .050, 90% CI [.044, 055]. Achievement motive had a significant direct effect on ikigai (direct effect = .455, p value = .000), a significant indirect effect on ikigai via social participation or role expectation (indirect effect = .170, p value = .000) and a total effect on ikigai (total effect = .615). Discussion: This result suggested that enhancing the intention to achieve one's goals enables participants to feel a spirit of challenge with a purpose and a sense of fulfillment in daily living. At the same time, engaging in important activities for oneself as well as recognizing one's role in society enables participants to experience a willingness to help others. We recommend that rehabilitation therapists collaborate with their clients to form new goals based on the client's achievement motive.


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