The role of motivation, temperament, personality and well-being as predicting propensity factors for mathematical abilities was investigated in 30 adults. By embedding these predictors in the Opportunity-Propensity framework, this study aimed to reveal their unique contribution in math development, which is important to improve mathematics education. To our knowledge, the present study is the first to combine predictors and find evidence for the importance of some non-cognitive and socio-emotional propensity factors for mathematical performance by using primary data. Results indicated significant interrelations between the propensities, pleading to integrate them in math research. Furthermore, the relationship propensities and mathematics was dependent on the specific investigated math task, which is in line with the componential nature of mathematics. Negative Affect was the best prediction of accuracy (lower levels of subjective well-being associated with lower levels of mathematical accuracy) whereas Intrinsic Motivation was the best predictor for fact retrieval speed. Limitations and implications for future research are described.

Teachers often face complex educational judgments and research has shown that teachers are prone to be influenced by unrelated information in their judgments and decisions. To investigate the influence of potential misinformation we employed a list-method directed forgetting paradigm and investigated a simulated judgment scenario, in which participants were asked to recommend a higher or lower school track for a fictitious elementary school child. Previous research using list-method directed forgetting revealed that participants can intentionally forget information but this information might still influence further judgments. In two experiments, data on recall performance, school track recommendation, and the evaluative impression of the target were analyzed to investigate whether participants were able to intentionally forget information and whether the to-be-forgotten information influenced later judgments. To-be-forgotten information was either presented before (Experiment 1) or following (Experiment 2) information instructed to be remembered. Both experiments revealed that participants did not forget information instructed to be forgotten and their judgments were not influenced by this information. Bayes factors spoke in favor of the null hypotheses, indicating that the influence of to-be-forgotten information on simulated school track recommendations is questionable. Our results revealed important boundary conditions of directed forgetting in applied contexts.

The aim of this study was to examine if perceived family violence of victimized children is related to their perceived aggressive behavior. It has been acknowledged that children learn and behave what they observe and practice including violence. A stratified random sample (N =1160) of Omani school students was drawn from grades 6 to 9. The study used perceived family violence and perceived aggressive behavior measures to collect data. CFA was performed to test the proposed factor structure as well as the structural model. The invariance test lent support to the hypothesis that the structure of constructs is invariant across gender. However, the relations between constructs were not invariant. Children (boys and girls) who expressed high verbal violence on them reported they were more verbally and physically aggressive. Boys, but not girls, who reported high physical violence on them reported they were more verbally and physically aggressive. The relation between perceived family violence and perceived aggressive behavior seem to be dependent on gender and types of family violence as well as the kind of children’s aggressive behavior.

The diagnostic utility of the Woodcock- Johnson III Tests of Cognitive Abilities and Clinical Clusters was assessed in a sample of 52 children (26 Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disordered (ADHD) and 26 matched controls). Multivariate analysis of variance followed by post-hoc testing and d-ratios yielded some statistically significant and clinically meaningful differences between groups on the Cognitive Fluency Cluster and the Tests of Auditory Attention, and Rapid Picture Naming. Discriminant function analyses indicated that the WJ III COG Tests collectively classified 80.77% of the sample correctly (76.92% of controls and 84.62% of children with ADHD correctly identified). The Auditory Attention and Rapid Picture Naming tests were found to make the most significant contribution overall to the discriminant function. Using a cut-score of 85, the WJ-III COG Clinical clusters and subtests examined in this study offered fair to weak diagnostic utility based on indices of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive power, as well as results of Receiver Operating Characteristic curve analyses. Implications for research and practice are outlined.

During the second decade of the 21st century families and schools world-wide have been affected by several critical events, with economic recession, the refugee crisis, and lately the COVID-19 pandemic being the most prominent. Pertaining to the school community (students, educators, administration, parents, school personnel etc.), evidence-based interventions for improving mental health and supporting psychosocial adjustment are necessary. In this paper the development, implementation, and evaluation of the international WeCARE (We Connect, Accept, Respect, Empower) program, an online multilevel intervention for promoting well-being and resilience in the school community during unsettling times, is presented. The Program has a multicultural perspective and provides the opportunity to students from different countries to cooperate and develop multicultural skills. The intervention is based on a conceptual model for enhancing positive development, resilience, social and emotional skills, and competence. The interventions were implemented on individual and system levels over four consecutive years, including web-based teachers’ training and supervision, seminars for parents, and classroom implementation. Furthermore, collaboration amongst schools and educational settings was highlighted, in the form of networking at national and international level. Based on the evaluation results, the necessity for further development and implementation of programs for the promotion of resilience and well-being during unsettling times is discussed.