Search results for "AUSTRALIA"

Children's implicit knowledge of harmony in Western music.

2005

Three experiments examined children's knowledge of harmony in Western music. The children heard a series of chords followed by a final, target chord. In Experiment 1, French 6- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was sung with the vowel /i/ or /u/. In Experiment 2, Australian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target was played on a piano or a trumpet. In Experiment 3, Canadian 8- and 11-year-olds judged whether the target sounded good (i.e. consonant) or bad (dissonant). The target was either the most stable chord in the established musical key (i.e. the tonic, based on do, the first note of the scale) or a less stable chord. Performance was faster (Experiments 1, 2 and 3) and m…

Ethnicity and Educational Inequality: An investigation of School Experience in Australia and France. Ethnicité et inégalité scolaire : une enquête su…

2008

This thesis examines the contribution of ‘ethnic' background to the school experiences of educationally and socially disadvantaged students in the senior years of high school (n=927). To investigate the role both of ethnic identification and its interplay with institutional factors, a comparative analysis of secondary student experiences in two national settings was undertaken. The case of Turkish-background students in Australia and France suggests that the influences of ethnic identity are thoroughly transformed from one setting to the other by distinctive pedagogical structures. Streaming and severe academic judgement in France lower academic self-esteem, while creating resentment and so…

Psychometric properties of the stress control mindset measure in university students from Australia and the UK

2021

Abstract Introduction Beliefs about the consequences of stress, stress mindsets, are associated with health and performance outcomes under stress. This article reports the development and examination of the psychometric properties of a measure of stress mindset: The Stress Control Mindset Measure (SCMM). The measure is consistent with theory on mindsets about self‐attributes and conceptualizes stress mindset as the extent to which individuals endorse beliefs that stress can be enhancing. Methods The study adopted a correlational cross‐sectional survey design in two student samples. Undergraduate students from an Australian university (Sample 1, N = 218) and a UK university (Sample 2, N = 21…

Testing Measurement Invariance Across Spanish and English Versions of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire : An Application of Exploratory Str…

2014

Test of measurement invariance across translated versions of questionnaires is a critical prerequisite to comparing scores on the different versions. In this study, we used exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) as an alternative approach to evaluate the measurement invariance of the Spanish version of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ). The two versions were administered to large samples of Australian and Spanish adolescents. First, we compared the CFA and ESEM approaches and showed that ESEM fitted the data much better and resulted in substantially more differentiated factors. We then tested measurement invariance with a 13-model ESEM taxonomy. Results justified u…

Cross-Cultural Validity of the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire: Comparison of Factor Structures in Australia, Spain, and Turkey

2002

Abstract We evaluated the cross-cultural generalizability of the factor structure for the Physical Self-Description Questionnaire (PSDQ) using confirmatory factor analysis. The factor structure was reasonably invariant over large samples of responses by Australian, Spanish, and Turkish students. Consistent with a priori predictions, the factor structures based on Australian and Spanish high school students were somewhat more similar to each other than to those based on Turkish university students, but these differences were small. Psychometric, theoretical, cross-cultural, and practical considerations support the PSDQ's usefulness in a variety of research and applied settings. The study als…

Health promotion curricula: cross-national comparisons of essential reading.

2000

Maternal body mass index, gestational weight gain, and the risk of overweight and obesity across childhood: An individual participant data meta-analy…

2019

Background Maternal obesity and excessive gestational weight gain may have persistent effects on offspring fat development. However, it remains unclear whether these effects differ by severity of obesity, and whether these effects are restricted to the extremes of maternal body mass index (BMI) and gestational weight gain. We aimed to assess the separate and combined associations of maternal BMI and gestational weight gain with the risk of overweight/obesity throughout childhood, and their population impact. Methods and findings We conducted an individual participant data meta-analysis of data from 162,129 mothers and their children from 37 pregnancy and birth cohort studies from Europe, No…

Revision of the plant bug genus Xenocylapidius (Hemiptera, Heteroptera, Miridae, Cylapinae), with descriptions of five new species from Australia and…

2014

Abstract The genus Xenocylapidius Gorczyca, 1997 is revised. Five new species: Xenocylapidius acutipennis sp. n., Xenocylapidius ater sp. n., Xenocylapidius bimaculatus sp. n., Xenocylapidius gemellus sp. n., and Xenocylapidius rolandi sp. n. are described from Australia and New Caledonia. Illustrations of the male genitalia, color photographs of dorsal and lateral views of the adults of all species, and key to species of the genus Xenocylapidius are provided.

Getting support in polarized societies: Income, social networks, and socioeconomic context

2013

AbstractThis paper explores how unequal resources and social and economic polarization affects the size of social networks and their use to access resources. We argue that individual resource position generates divergent expectations with regard to the impact of polarization on the size of networks on one hand, and their usefulness for accessing resources on the other. Social and economic polarization encourages reliance on informal networks, but those at the bottom of the social structure are forced to rely on more extensive networks than the wealthy to compensate for their isolated and underprivileged position. At the same time, social and economic polarization limits the resources the po…

International perspectives on radiology practice metrics: Australia, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and USA.

2014

INTRODUCTION The delivery of health care around the world is remarkably diverse in 2015. A comparison of the approximately 200 national entities on the planet reveals marked differences in national measures, both on the input side, such as health care spending, and in outcomes, such as life span. Using the percentage of gross domestic product as a metric for comparing health care spending, the current variation among nations is almost an order of magnitude, from the Marshall Islands and the United States at close to 20% to Myanmar at about 2% [1]. Outcomes are also highly variable, with an almost 2-fold difference in life span between the best and worst nations [2]. Within the nations repre…