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Understanding how geographical environments influence peoples' subjective experiences of daily activities is of great potential for improving subjective well-being (SWB), a subject that is presently limited by a lack of available data and proper statistical methods. Focusing on Beijing and using a unique data set that linked residents' seven-day mobility trajectories at a fine spatiotemporal resolution to their complete activity participation and momentary well-being, this article investigates the temporal dynamics of and geographical contextual effects on SWB of daily activities. We developed a unified spatial multilevel stochastic process model to simultaneously capture periodicity, stochastic dynamics, and individual heterogeneity effects. Results show that momentary SWB has a twenty-four-hour periodicity and evolves stochastically around individual equilibrium states depending on key life-circumstance variables. Migrants and low-income residents tend to have lower equilibrium states than their counterparts. Real-time air pollution exposure significantly lowers daily activity satisfaction levels, and an inverted-U-shaped relationship exists between city vibrancy and satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the measurement of decent work in Mexico during the period 2005-2019, using a multidimensional index that encompasses salary (dignified salary) and non-salary (rights) aspects, while analyzing its relationship with the economic environment and openness. Using the hierarchical structure of the database contained in the National Survey of Occupation and Employment (ENOE), a multilevel model is estimated in which a positive relationship is indicated between decent work and the productive branches with the highest direct foreign investment, as well as the states with the greatest weight of exports with respect to their GBP. Also identified is the relationship between this and the heterogeneity in the sociodemographic characteristics of the worker and aspects related to their sectoral and state environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research intends to advance the understanding of the university teacher-student relationship in the context of teachers' market orientation with the aim to improve students' performance. Thus, the study is articulated on three axes: the students' performance approach, the relationship among diverse aspects of teachers, and, finally, the effect of these aspects on students' performance. The results gained from a sample of 45 teachers and 932 students show that teachers' student orientation influences perceived learning and student satisfaction. Other interesting results are also attained that lead to certain conclusions and implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The way schools address migratory movements has a direct impact on integration and social cohesion, making the in-depth study of factors that affect the lower performance of immigrant students in comparison with non-immigrants essential. Using a methodology based on random coefficient models, this paper analyses the differential effect of individual level and school level variables on the estimation of mathematical competence in non-immigrant and immigrant populations. Data are extracted from an educational assessment programme carried out in the Basque Autonomous Community. The sample consists of 16,981 students with an average age of 13.7 years, of which 1,369 are immigrant students. The results reveal that individual and family-level variables show significantly higher impact on student performance than school-level variables. The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of investing in policies to support diversity that work at family level, as a means to achieve fuller equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inglehart's theory of postmaterialism hinged on the scarcity hypothesis, according to which the spread of postmaterialist values depends on the degree of individuals' and societies' existential security, rooted in macro-level economic conditions. But does a country's level of economic development systematically shape individuals' existential security, and thus postmaterialism? In this article, the authors revisit this question by utilizing 2010-2014 World Values Survey data for testing whether the effect of existential security on postmaterialism varies by macro-conditions across 59 countries representing 72% of the world's population. Based on multilevel models, the authors find strong effects of individuals' socioeconomic conditions on postmaterialism, confirming one aspect of the scarcity hypothesis, but also find weak associations between the effects of those conditions by economic factors at the national level. While there is substantial cross-national variation in the effect of individual scarcity, that variation cannot be accounted for by the macro-conditions predicted by the theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A persistent problem in examining culture and education is the entanglement of individual and group aspects of norms, beliefs and behaviour. The challenge often concerns the proper specification and testing of theories about how such group and individual processes work with methods that can address the complexity of hierarchical data sets. Multilevel modelling is an attractive analytic approach for studying individual and group processes in educational settings because it facilitates the incorporation of substantive theory about how such processes work within the clustered sampling schemes typical of educational data. In this article, we illustrate how to incorporate two-level multilevel regression modelling into an example investigation of the reading achievement of immigrant students who receive English language services versus their native-born peers who do not receive these services. We conclude with a few ways in which multilevel modelling can enhance the investigation of multilevel theories regarding how cultural and organizational processes work in educational research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined how child and parent characteristics, and contextual sources of stress, such as marital conflict predict initial status and trajectories of parent involvement, support, and harsh control, over a 4-year period in families in Taiwan ( n = 4,754). Based on Belsky's (1984) ecological model of parenting, three domains predicting parenting were tested, child characteristics (age cohort and gender), father and mother characteristics (education and depressive symptoms), and contextual sources of stress (marital conflict). The study followed two cohorts of children; the younger cohort was followed from first to fourth grade and the older cohort from fourth to seventh grade. Initially, fourth graders reported more parental involvement, support, and harsh control than first graders. However, involvement, support, and harsh control decreased across the 4 years for the older cohort as they transitioned to early adolescence. In the first year, girls reported more parental involvement and support and less harsh control than boys. Across the 4 years, involvement and support increased, and harsh control decreased for boys; whereas involvement stayed the same, support slightly decreased, and harsh control slightly increased for girls. Children whose parents were more educated reported more parent involvement, support, and harsh control in the first year. Children whose fathers were chronically depressed and whose parents were experiencing marital conflict reported decreasing parent involvement and support over the years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examined the influence of coaches on sources of enjoyment of youth basketball players accounting for differences in chronological age, biological maturity status and years of training experience. Fifty-eight male basketball players aged 9.5 to 15.5 years were considered from a youth club. Three coaches supervising yearly age group teams from under 11 to under 15 teams were considered. Variables included chronological age, estimated age at peak height velocity, years of training experience, stature, body mass and sitting height by anthropometry; Sources of Enjoyment in Youth Sport Questionnaire was used. Multilevel modelling was used to partition variance between groups and control the influence of age and maturity status on enjoyment. Variance partition coefficients derived from multilevel null models showed a substantial variation by coach for age, maturity status and body dimensions. For the sources of enjoyment dimensions it was apparent an influence of the coach mostly for positive parental involvement. Controlling separately for age and somatic maturity status category, substantial variation by coach became apparent for self-referenced competencies and affiliation with peers, and the influence of coach was removed for positive parental involvement. After controlling variation associated to the coach the influence of age and maturity status remained present. The influence of the coach in the sources of enjoyment in adolescent basketball was apparent in adolescent basketball players. Furthermore, coaches' influence became more apparent after accounting for age and biological maturity status differences between players. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the establishment of the first democratic local councils in 1979, ten municipal elections have taken place in Spain. In the few studies devoted to them, voting has habitually been explained by using national variables and following the wellknown model of second-order elections. In this paper we examine the validity of these conclusions by also considering local factors. We have estimated several hierarchical models using an ambitious datasetwhich includes both individual and contextual variables for a representative sample of Spanish municipalities between 1991 and 2011. Our empirical results are particularly interesting, with individual factors such as voters' ideology and contextual indicators such as the unemployment rate at the municipal level having a significant impact on the probability of voting for the incumbent mayor's party. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The expansion of public policies of large scale assessment in Education has brought attention to the economic, social and psychological aspects associated with students' school performance. This study investigated the association between sociodemographic variables and the noncognitive variables of socio-emotional anxiety and self-efficacy, and of the school context in the 5th and 9th grades of elementary school and the 3rd year of secondary education in public schools in the state of Minas Gerais. We used the hierarchical multilevel modeling method in each grade, and the results indicated that the variables of school context affect the expression of selfefficacy beliefs and students anxiety. The results show that individual interventions and the school environment organization could contribute to providing a more suitable learning environment and to improve equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

OBJECTIVES To examine factors associated with home delivery among women in Pwani Region, Tanzania, which has experienced a rapid rise in facility delivery coverage. METHODS Cross-sectional data from a population-based survey of women residing in rural areas of Pwani Region were linked to health facility locations. We fitted multilevel logistic models to examine individual and community factors associated with home delivery. RESULTS A total of 752 (27.95%) of the 2691 women who completed the survey delivered their last child at home. Women were less likely to deliver at home if they had any primary education [odds ratio (OR) 0.62; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.50, 0.79], were primiparous (OR: 0.52; 95% CI: 0.37, 0.73), had more exposure to media (OR: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.66, 0.96) or had received more (OR: 0.78; 95% CI: 0.63, 0.96) or better quality antenatal care (ANC) services (OR: 0.48; 95% CI: 0.34, 0.67). Increased wealth was strongly associated with lower odds of home delivery (OR: 0.27; 95% CI: 0.18, 0.39), as was living in a village that grew cash crops (OR: 0.56; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.88). Farther distance to hospital, but not to lower level facilities, was associated with higher likelihood of home delivery (OR 2.49; 95% CI: 1.60, 3.88). CONCLUSIONS Poverty, multiparity, weak ANC and distance to hospital were associated with persistence of home delivery in a region with high coverage of facility delivery. A pro-poor path to universal coverage of safe delivery requires a greater focus on quality of care and more intensive outreach to poor and multiparous women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Este trabajo analiza la asociación entre el consumo de medios informativos de televisión y las actitudes hacia la inmigración. Se emplea un modelo multinivel para estudiar la asociación entre el consumo de medios informativos de televisión, el tratamiento mediático de la inmigración y las actitudes públicas hacia los grupos minoritarios, a partir de una encuesta realizada a universitarios. Los resultados evidencian el impacto del consumo agregado de medios de informativos de televisión sobre la percepción del fenómeno migratorio actual y los componentes cognitivo/afectivos de la actitud. Asimismo, se pone de manifiesto la utilidad de este enfoque analítico para la comprensión de los procesos que describen la relación entre los medios informativos y las actitudes hacia la inmigración. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reviews the main trends in quantitative research for communication studies. It argues that the emergence of new techniques of statistical analysis, such as multilevel modelling, has had a substantial impact on the evolution of communication as a scientific discipline, whilst decisively fostering development of more sophisticated theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Educational research has advanced theoretical approaches by defining and designing integrated models oriented up to the study of relationships between constructs not directly observable embedded in complex contexts. In parallel, data analysis software has allowed testing these complex models in reasonable computing environments in terms of time and effort. This techno-scientific revolution in the developed software for quantitative data analysis has transformed scientific practice in educational research. In this paper is assumed the growing trend in educational research on design and fit of comprehensive models of educational phenomena. More specifically we will focus on the statistical decision trees, in structural equation models and multilevel models, which come to dominate the landscape of educational research since the mid 70's and have recently been generalized thanks to technological development. The impact on educational research has been a widespread use of sophisticated statistical models than ever so far. It is necessary to think about what theoretically grounded models have to be tested with statistical tools as powerful as those being described in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In all election, parties and candidates face a clear dilemma on how to invest their communicational resources: either on air (mass media) or on land (direct contact on social networks). Each of the two main contenders of the 2006 elections centered its efforts in one of these possibilities. pan used mass media, while PRD invested in social networks until the first presidential debate, and afterwards turned towards the extensive use of radio and television ads. This article seeks to evaluate how effective were the campaigns of both parties. Based on a multilevel logistic model, we find that the social networks had a significant impact on the preference for the PRD candidate. This impact varied according to the initial preferences for the PRD candidate in the electoral precinct. We find no evidence, however, that communicating with neighbors or the social networks effect had a direct influence for the pan candidate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multilevel analysis was conducted to predict final grades in courses from different majors for a sample, stratified by academic areas, of 848 students at the University of Costa Rica. A group of factors from institutional, socio-demographic, psychosocial and pedagogical aspects were employed as independent variables. The best predictor was the Admission Average, which combines grades from high school and an aptitude test score. Some non-cognitive variables were also explicative; the most important being the score on a scale of emotional intelligence. The methodology employed by the professor showed explicative power as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses country effects on firm performance. Empirical analysis was based on a sample of 83,641 observations and 10,927 firms in 37 countries and 224 industries, in a 10 year time span. A cross-classified 3-level hierarchical linear model allowed the estimation of country, industry and country-industry interaction effects, which had approximately the same relative importance. Altogether, these effects were nearly as important as firm effect. The influence of each specific country on the performance of its firms was also studied and a ranking of countries based on firm profitability was developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work is a bibliometric approximation to the multilevel models, in order to contribute indicators of the general impact that these models have, regarding theoretical as much as applied works. The works that have been reviewed are included in the magazine "Newsletter Multilevel Modelling" during the period of 1989-2005. In the same way, different denominations in which these models appear in the literature have been noted, providing information from diverse areas: educational, psychological and of other sciences. Referring to the use of the telematic networks, certain indispensable article references are indicated to update and follow-up the development and application of these analysis strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the results of a test of the main properties of safety climate through the multilevel statistical models. The main objectives of the study include empirical testing of safety climate's property of shared perceptions, testing of the predictive power of safety climate on accident occurrence and the determine the relative importance of the safety climate dimensions in the Spanish industrial context.