The effects of intergroup contact on prejudice are well established. However, its effects on minority group well-being have been rarely studied. We hypothesized that contact with members of the ...majority culture will be related to better well-being, and that this is facilitated by majority language proficiency. We tested this hypothesis in a three-wave longitudinal study of refugees over 2 years (N = 180). Cross-lagged path modeling confirmed that intergroup contact at earlier time points was associated with increased well-being at later time points; the reverse associations (from earlier well-being to later contact) were not reliable. Self-rated earlier English language competence was positively associated with later intergroup contact (but not the reverse), suggesting that improving majority language proficiency might be the key to better well-being of refugees, with intergroup contact being the mediator between language and well-being.
The article is devoted to complexity as the characteristic of the document text, and its complexity as a specific operation, the result of which can be assessed objectively and subjectively. ...Objective complexity of the document text contributes to the following challenges for the author: 1) in terms of content to convey new information concerning a certain professional or social activities; 2) in terms of expression to convey information in the usual form (in accordance with the canons of construction of document text). However, when compiling the document the authors seek to solve additional tasks that determine the subjective difficulty of the text: 1) explain, comment on parts of text that convey special knowledge in the document; 2) to overcome the lack of textual and language competence when building document text; 3) enter the recipients misleading. The author examines such factors document texts complexity as the content, according to the canons of construction of document text, the commenting, the lack of textual competence of the author, the authors desire to enter the recipients misleading about the reported information. In different communicative situations, these factors can be modified or perform jointly that determines the variability of both objective and subjective indices of difficulty of the text document.
One of the objectives of the 2030 Agenda is the improvement of vocational education and training at international and national levels, achieving, among other things, the internationalization of such ...education. To meet this objective, it is necessary to improve linguistic competence in English as L2 of students undergoing vocational training. The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of affective variables on the level of self-efficacy of English linguistic competence (L2) in early childhood education vocational education and training. Seventy-six students (M = 20.82; SD =2.30) in higher vocational education in this domain, with an average B1 level proficiency (according to CEFR) were selected and administered the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the English Willingness to Communicate Questionnaire (WTC), the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (AMTB), and an ad hoc questionnaire on self-efficacy in English language skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing, reading comprehension, and English language in general). The results indicate that anxiety, willingness to communicate in English, and attitude/motivation toward English predict students’ self-efficacy in their level of English language proficiency (L2). Anxiety has a negative influence, explaining the low 15.6 percent of self-efficacy, and willingness to communicate and attitude have a positive influence explaining the 23 and 22.7 percent of self-efficacy, respectively. The practical educational implications, aimed at methodological proposals to improve the level of linguistic competence in English as L2 in vocational training, are discussed.
For decades, developmental research has involved the study of sex differences in language acquisition. Many studies of these differences have found a slight advantage in competence for females early ...in life that seems to wane with age. However, because most of these studies have focused on sex differences in mean values, they have mostly neglected sex differences in variance with males being more variable. In the current study, we examined sex differences in language competence in terms of mean values and variance in large samples (N > 10,000) of German children aged 3–6 years. We administered several tests to assess the children's vocabulary, grammar, speech comprehension, pronunciation, and the processing of sentences and nonce words. Girls performed better than boys in all domains, most often to a statistically significant degree, although the effect sizes were small. Differences decreased with age. Boys varied significantly more than girls in their language competence. In response, we discuss explanations for these findings, as well as recommend directions for future research.
Assess whether hospital characteristics associated with better patient experiences overall are also associated with smaller racial-and-ethnic disparities in inpatient experience.
Hospitals that are ...smaller, non-profit, and serve high proportions of White patients tend to be high-performing overall, but it is not known whether these hospitals also have smaller racial-and-ethnic disparities in care.
We used linear mixed-effect regression models to predict a summary measure that averaged eight Hospital CAHPS (HCAHPS) measures (Nurse Communication, Doctor Communication, Staff Responsiveness, Communication about Medicines, Discharge Information, Care Coordination, Hospital Cleanliness, and Quietness) from patient race-and-ethnicity, hospital characteristics (size, ownership, racial-and-ethnic patient-mix), and interactions of race-and-ethnicity with hospital characteristics.
Inpatients discharged from 4,365 hospitals in 2021 who completed an HCAHPS survey ( N =2,288,862).
While hospitals serving larger proportions of Black and Hispanic patients scored lower on all measures, racial-and-ethnic disparities were generally smaller for Black and Hispanic patients who received care from hospitals serving higher proportions of patients in their racial-and-ethnic group. Experiences overall were better in smaller and non-profit hospitals, but racial-and-ethnic differences were slightly larger.
Large, for-profit hospitals and hospitals serving higher proportions of Black and Hispanic patients tend to be lower performing overall but have smaller disparities in patient experience. High-performing hospitals might look at low-performing hospitals for how to provide less disparate care whereas low-performing hospitals may look to high-performing hospitals for how to improve patient experience overall.
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