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Customer needs in service settings are idiosyncratic. Responding to these unique needs requires frontline employees to be creative. Little research looks at the drivers of service employee creativity. We aim to fill that void by assessing two potential key creativity drivers, control mechanisms and management orientations. We collected data from frontline employees and their managers and used multilevel mediation modeling, configurational modeling and analysis of necessary conditions. Multilevel analysis revealed that the influence of process and social controls on employee creativity are fully mediated by self-control, whereas the effects of cultural control are partially mediated. The effect of the service orientation of management on employee creativity is partially mediated by self-control, whereas the effect of profit orientation is fully mediated. Causal models from employee control mechanisms and management orientation configurations provide a deeper insight of sufficient conditions leading to employee creativity. Necessary employee control mechanisms and management orientations are identified.

This study was designed to examine academic self-concept as a potential mediator to better understand the relations between academic attitudes and academic achievement in early adolescence. A total of 1398 high school students from Alicante, Spain (47% female, M = 12.5 years), participated in the study. Multilevel mediation analyses with Monte Carlo confidence intervals were used to measure within-subject effects at the student level (L1) and between-subject effects at the class level (L2). Academic attitudes (attitudes towards teachers and attitudes towards school) and academic self-concept were measured with validated scales, whereas academic achievement was assessed using the end-of-term grades obtained by the students in nine subjects. The results show, first, significant effects of the academic attitude constructs on the mediational and dependent variables at both the within and between levels. Second, academic self-concept was an important mediator for all academic attitude constructs at both levels of analysis. These results highlight the importance of academic self-concept during early adolescence and suggest that academic attitudes are crucial for the future development of educational models. Con el fin de tener un mejor entendimiento de la relación existente entre las actitudes académicas y el rendimiento académico en la adolescencia inicial, se lleva a cabo el presente estudio teniendo en cuenta el autoconcepto académico como mediador relevante. Un total de 1398 estudiantes de la provincia de Alicante, España (47% mujeres, M = 12. 5 años), participan en el estudio. Se emplean análisis de mediación multinivel para medir los efectos intra-sujetos al nivel del estudiante (L1), e inter-sujetos al nivel de la clase (L2). Las actitudes académicas (actitudes hacia el profesorado y actitudes hacia la escuela) y el autoconcepto académico se miden mediante escalas validadas, mientras que el rendimiento académico se mide a partir de las calificaciones que obtienen los estudiantes en nueve asignaturas. Los resultados muestran, en primer lugar, efectos significativos de las actitudes académicas sobre la variable mediacional y la variable dependiente en los niveles intra e inter. Además, se aprecia un efecto indirecto significativo del autoconcepto como mediador de las actitudes académicas en ambos niveles de análisis. Estos resultados muestran la importancia del autoconcepto académico durante la adolescencia inicial, y señalan la necesidad de considerar las actitudes académicas como variables fundamentales en el desarrollo y puesta en práctica de modelos educativos.

This study aimed to examine the direct effects of environmental characteristics of early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres on adiposity, and the indirect effects through daily movement behaviours (physical activity, sedentary time and naps).274 children (average age 19.73 ± 4.15 months) from 27 ECEC centres participated in this study. Environmental characteristics of ECEC centres were rated using the Infant/Toddler Environment Rating Scale-revised edition (ITERS-R). Daily movement behaviours were assessed using 24-h accelerometry. Body mass index z-scores were used to indicate adiposity.There were no significant direct effects or indirect effects of environmental characteristics on toddlers' adiposity through daily movement behaviours. However, the environmental characteristics of "personal care routine" (B=0.72, p = 0.041) and "activity" (B = 0.87, p 0.050) were positively associated with the percentage of time these toddlers spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). "Listening and talking" was also positively associated withnap(s) durations (B = 4.08 p = 0.001).The relationships between environmental characteristics of ECEC centres and adiposity in toddlers, as well as, the mediating roles of daily movement behaviours still need confirmation by future longitudinal and experimental studies with long follow-up periods. At the same time, a broader spectrum of environmental characteristics of these settings needs to be examined with toddlers' adiposity in future studies; other potential mediators may also need to be taken into considerations.

Background School context greatly affects students' cigarette smoking. Based on the ‘context–process–outcomes’ model, this study investigated school safety as a context variable to explore how safety (at the school level) affects students' smoking behaviours. Methods Hierarchical linear modelling was used to examine the link between school safety at the school level and students' cigarette smoking, with school satisfaction as a mediator. Data were obtained from the National Children's Study of China (2009), where 24,013 fourth- to ninth-grade students from 607 schools were recruited from 100 counties in 31 provinces (boys 52.9%, elementary school students 50.1%, middle school students 49.9%). Results Student-level and school-level factors were associated with an increased likelihood of cigarette smoking. Multilevel mediation analyses showed that school safety problems increased the behaviour of cigarette smoking directly as well as indirectly through student's school satisfaction, controlling for both student- and school-level covariates; its direct effect was larger than its indirect effect. A gender difference also existed in the multilevel mediation model: for girls, school satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between school safety at the school level and cigarette smoking, but only partially for boys. There was no grade-stage difference in the multilevel mediation model. Conclusions Limitations of the study as well as implications are discussed. School safety should receive increased attention from policymakers because of its impact on students' cigarette smoking behaviour. The construction of a safe school climate should be approached dynamically and multi-perspectivally.

The aim of the present study was to examine whether mindfulness and academic emotions are beneficially related in specific learning situations. For that purpose, we conducted a field study during two lecture sessions in which we measured momentary mindfulness and academic emotions of N = 105 university students repeatedly, resulting in N = 551 measurements. As expected, multilevel analyses indicated that students who were more mindful during the lecture felt more positive and less negative activating emotions, better valence, and were more optimistic about an upcoming exam. In contrast to our hypotheses, trait mindfulness was not found to be related to current academic emotions. Multilevel mediation analyses point towards an indirect effect of trait mindfulness via momentary mindfulness during the lecture sessions. These findings suggest that mindfulness is of high relevance to academic emotions which in turn are important for learning, achievement, and well-being.

This paper explores whether high-school sports are functional and accessible activities to keep students from school disciplinary behaviors. For this purpose, we included students racial and linguistic status, socioeconomic status, sex, and prior academic performance with the school’s proportion of free-lunch recipients and minorities, to understand how sport participation affects students of diverse groups. Additionally, the study implemented a multilevel mediation modeling to the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) data and assessed student dropouts with sequential mediators of sport participation, school misbehavior, and suspension. The findings of the study largely revealed that White students participated in sports more than Black, Hispanic, and Asian. Likewise, students who speak English as the primary language and male students participated in sports more than their counterparts. White sport participants displayed fewer incidents of suspension than White non-sport participants. Black, Hispanic, and White sport participants had lower dropout incidents than their non-sport-participating counterparts.

Two studies were conducted to examine the promotional role of meaning in life (MIL) on hope and the underlying mediating mechanism via future temporal focus (FTF). Study 1 was a three-wave longitudinal survey including 418 employees (Mage = 35.68; 54.3% women). Results showed that Time 1 MIL positively predicted Time 3 hope via Time 2 FTF. Study 2 was an intervention study conducted with Chinese undergraduate students (n = 129; Mage = 19.65; 84.5% women) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The intervention involved taking a photograph each day of things that “make you feel your life is meaningful.” MIL and FTF were measured before and after the intervention, and assessed daily during the intervention week. Results of the longitudinal mediation analysis and 2-1-2 multilevel mediation model supported the mediational role of FTF between MIL and hope. Furthermore, results showed that MIL increased significantly in both the intervention (n = 64) and control conditions (n = 65). Hierarchical linear modeling found a significant positive relationship of daily MIL on daily FTF. The present findings supported MIL's future-oriented function on hope via FTF. Nevertheless, special attention should be given to the stress context when conducting MIL interventions to promote MIL and hope.

Background Rumination is linked to negative affect (NA), and there is accumulating support for an association between rumination and eating disorder (ED) behaviors. However, no research has examined the dynamic interrelationships between negative affect, rumination, and binge eating in naturalistic settings. Methods The present study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to assess the hypotheses that momentary rumination would mediate relationships between NA and binge eating, and momentary NA would mediate relationships between rumination and binge eating. Given that rumination may be focused on weight, shape, and food in ED samples, models were examined separately for general and ED-specific rumination. Forty women completed a 10-day EMA protocol that included measures of NA, general and ED-specific rumination, and binge eating. Results Multilevel mediation models indicated significant within-subjects indirect effects, such that momentary general rumination mediated the association between NA and binge eating, and NA also mediated the association between general but not ED-specific rumination and binge eating. Between-subjects effects indicated women with higher overall NA reported greater ED-specific rumination, which was associated with greater binge eating. Limitations The study was limited by a modest sample size, and the design precludes causal inferences. Conclusions Results highlight the momentary interplay between rumination and NA as a mechanism underlying binge eating, as well as the specificity of ruminative thought content in relationship to binge eating. Future work is needed to address the construct of rumination in the context of eating disorder interventions.

Purpose Prior research suggests that neighborhood context has an important role in shaping individuals' generalized trust, which is an important ingredient in establishing social capital and collective efficacy. Because most of the empirical research focuses on the direct effects of neighborhood conditions such as disadvantage and disorder, there is a rather limited understanding of how social mechanisms affect individual levels of trust. As a result, it remains unclear whether several theoretically relevant social processes mediate the effect of neighborhood disorder. Methods Using data from the Project of Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods—Community Survey (PHDCN-CS), multilevel mediation modeling is used to investigate whether social mechanisms, specifically fear and negative police efficacy, mediate the relationship between neighborhood disorder and individual-level generalized trust. Results Our results show that neighborhood disorder reduces generalized trust and that fear and negative perceptions of police efficacy mediate the effects of neighborhood disorder. Conclusions Social mechanisms, specifically fear and negative police efficacy, are salient processes in the neighborhood disorder and generalized trust relationship. Theoretical and policy implications of these findings are discussed.

Natural environments are associated with positive health and well-being. However, little is known about the influence of environmental qualities on well-being and the mechanisms underlying this association. This study explored whether perceived restorativeness and it subscales would mediate the effects of perceived biodiversity, perceived naturalness, walk duration and perceived intensity on emotional well-being.\ud \ud Participants (n = 127) of a national walking program in England completed pre- and post-walk questionnaires (n = 1009) for each group walk attended within a 13-week period. Multilevel mediation examined the hypothesised indirect effects.\ud \ud Perceived restorativeness mediated the effects of perceived bird biodiversity, perceived naturalness, and perceived walk intensity on positive affect, happiness and negative affect. The effect of walk duration on happiness was also mediated by perceived restorativeness. Perceived walk intensity had a direct effect on positive affect and happiness.\ud \ud Findings have implications for theory development, future biodiversity-health research and practitioners interested in designing restorative environments.

Multilevel mediation analyses test whether students' mid-year reports of classroom experiences of autonomy, relatedness with peers, and competence mediate associations between early in the school year emotionally-supportive teacher-student interactions (independently observed) and student-reported academic year changes in mastery motivation and behavioral engagement. When teachers were observed to be more emotionally-supportive in the beginning of the school year, adolescents reported academic year increases in their behavioral engagement and mastery motivation. Mid-year student reports indicated that in emotionally-supportive classrooms, adolescents experienced more developmentally-appropriate opportunities to exercise autonomy in their day-to-day activities and had more positive relationships with their peers. Analyses of the indirect effects of teacher emotional support on students' engagement and motivation indicated significant mediating effects of autonomy and peer relatedness experiences, but not competence beliefs, in this sample of 960 students (ages 11–17) in the classrooms of 68 middle and high school teachers in 12 U.S. schools.

Despite the dual benefits of transactive memory systems (TMSs) for individual innovative behavior and team innovation, prior literature has seldom explored these issues simultaneously. This study both explores how TMSs affects individual creative self-efficacy and innovative behavior and examines whether the TMS affects team innovation by collecting survey data from 475 individuals in 86 teams participating in two iterations of the Intelligent Ironman Creativity Contest in Taiwan. Findings suggest a multilevel mediation model in which creative self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between TMSs and the individual’s innovative behavior. At the team level, the TMS positively affects team innovation. This paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications.

Based on expectancy-value theory, this research examined the link between student-perceived teacher-support and reading literacy via multiple mediation effect of reading self-concept and reading enjoyment with a Chinese sample of PISA 2018. Student-reported measures of teacher support, reading enjoyment and reading self-concept, and standardized tests of reading literacy were adopted. Multilevel mediation analysis showed that the direct effect of student-perceived teacher support on reading literacy is not significant at the school level, but significant at the student level, and the indirect effect of student-perceived teacher support on reading literacy through reading enjoyment, reading self-concept, first reading self-concept and then reading enjoyment is significant both at the student level and at the school level with SES and gender controlled. The present results indicate that perceived teacher support is beneficial to student learning by fostering academic self-concept and academic enjoyment. The current results have significant practical implications for teaching practices.

Self-efficacy, fear of movement, and depression may mediate the sequential pathway of how pain leads to disability in nonspecific low back pain. Participants with chronic (>13 weeks) non-specific low back pain were included. They were prospectively monitored for eight consecutive weeks. Each second day, all participants filled in a survey (30 surveys pp). Questionnaires on current back pain intensity (NRS) and disability (PDI) were completed in each survey. One out of three standardized questionnaires on self-efficacy (SES), fear of movement, kinesiophobia (TSK), or depression (PHQ-9) were randomly completed each time. Multilevel mediation analyses on the within-(temporal changes) and between-patients total and indirect (mediated by SES; TSK and PHQ-9) effect of pain on disability were conducted for three temporal associations: No time delay, Simple temporal delay, and Double delay. In total, 280 questionnaires were filled in by 10 participants (m = 4; 34.4 ± 12.2 years). A moderate to strong effect of pain on disability in the no delay-model for the within-patients (0.436), and (all models) in the between-patients (0.595–0.627) models was found. The way how pain affects kinesiophobia was influenced by the time passed. Kinesiophobia itself predicted disability. Further, depression was affected by (within and between) pain intensity (NRS). In the simple delay effects mediation, depression affects disability (within) and is itself affected by the pain (between). No indirect effect of self-efficacy, fear of movement and depression in the pain-disability relationship was found. Understanding underlying mechanisms of how and when pain leads to disability might help to find accurate measures in therapy setting.

Background Breast cancer survivors with elevated inflammation have a greater risk for cancer recurrence, premature mortality, and comorbid disease development. The psychological stress survivors experience when confronted with a breast cancer diagnosis and cancer treatment can heighten inflammation. Identifying factors that reduce stress and inflammation could lead to improvements in survivors’ long-term health. Accordingly, this study examined the health-enhancing effects of romantic relationships—a key health determinant—on breast cancer survivors’ stress and inflammation. Methods Breast cancer survivors (n = 139, stages 0–IIIC) completed a baseline visit before treatment and two follow-up visits 6 and 18 months after treatment ended. Women completed self-report questionnaires assessing their romantic relationship satisfaction and perceived stress, and they provided a blood sample for serum markers of inflammation at each visit. The longitudinal design allowed for examination within and between survivors. We conducted multilevel mediation analyses to assess how changes in survivors’ relationship satisfaction were related to changes in stress and inflammation from visit to visit (i.e., within-person effects), as well as how the average effects of relationship satisfaction were associated with average stress and inflammation levels throughout the study (i.e., between-person effects). Results At the within-person level, at visits in which survivors were more satisfied with their relationships, they also perceived less stress, which in turn was related to lower than their own average levels of serum C-reactive protein and proinflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-6, and interleukin-1β). At the between-person level, survivors who had greater relationship satisfaction throughout the study had lower perceived stress, which was linked to lower levels of inflammation. Conclusion Breast cancer survivors in satisfying romantic relationships felt less stressed and in turn had lower inflammation throughout cancer treatment. This study illustrates the utility of a within-person approach to not only consider the average effects of relationship satisfaction, but also how changes in their own relationship satisfaction impact stress and inflammation over time. Our findings demonstrate important psychological and immunological pathways through which satisfying relationships may promote breast cancer survivors’ long-term health.

Research suggests that early mother–child attachment styles are predictive of cognitive skill development in middle childhood. Yet, little work has considered the differential associations of varying attachment styles on reading and math skills in middle childhood, and the mechanisms explaining those relationships across time. Using data from the first three phases of the National Institute of Child and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, this study examined associations between early mother–child attachment styles and math and reading skill development in middle childhood (i.e., ages 54 months to fifth grade). In addition, using a multilevel mediation approach, we considered children's task engagement and engagement/exploration in the classroom as mechanisms explaining gains in cognitive skills. Findings revealed that insecure/other attachment predicted lower average levels of reading and math skills in fifth grade, while ambivalent attachment was associated with lower average levels of math skills in fifth grade. Children's task engagement partially mediated associations between insecure/other attachment and reading skills, as well as associations between ambivalent attachment and math skills. Task engagement also partially mediated associations between insecure/other attachment and math skills in middle childhood. Implications for attachment theory and educational practice are discussed.

This study investigated the relations between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and students’ self-reported engagement in learning from texts with instructional pictures. Participants were the biology, geography, and German teachers of 46 classes (Grades 5–8) and their students. Teachers’ instructional behaviors and students’ engagement in learning from texts with instructional pictures were assessed by means of student ratings. Teachers’ beliefs about using texts with instructional pictures in their teaching were assessed by a self-report questionnaire. Results showed that the more teachers believed that students should be taught clear strategies on how to learn from texts with instructional pictures the more engagement was reported by their students. A multilevel mediation model showed that the association between teachers’ beliefs and students’ self-reported engagement was mediated by teachers’ perceived instructional behavior.

The present study examined the relative contributions of changes in obsessive–compulsive symptoms among eating-disorder patients with (n = 254) and without (n = 254) obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) to eating-disorder symptom improvement observed with inpatient treatment. Consistent with hypothesis, multilevel mediation analyses revealed that improvements in OCD symptoms over time accounted for significant variance in the improvements in eating-disorder symptoms over time, with stronger mediation evident among eating-disorder patients with comorbid OCD (percent mediated; PM = 22.5%) compared to those without OCD (PM = 12.2%). However, decreases in eating-disorder symptoms over time fully mediated improvements in OCD symptoms over time, and this mediated pathway did not vary substantially as a function of comorbid OCD status. The theoretical and treatment implications of these findings for conceptualizing the relationship between eating disorders and OCD are discussed.