Browsing by Author "Ahmed, Yusra"
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item An Investigation of Cultural Sensitivity and Racial Bias in the Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition(2023-08) McLaren, Ronnie; Sharp, Carla; Ahmed, Yusra; Babcock, Julia C.; Walton, Quenette L.Mentalizing, or one’s ability to understand the mental states of oneself and others, is vital for social functioning and is predictive of a wide range of social and psychological outcomes. Mentalizing ability develops via social learning and is dependent upon the environment in which one is raised. The Movie for the Assessment of Social Cognition is a widely used and ecologically valid measure of social cognition in which participants answer multiple-choice questions about the thoughts and feelings of characters in a short movie. While we know that there are cross-cultural differences in mentalizing, no study has yet investigated the impact of race within the USA on MASC scores. Thus, the aims of the proposed study are to, in a sample of young adults (N = 1,230), 1) investigate the factor structure of the MASC, 2) evaluate the MASC for bias based on race and ethnicity by evaluating its measurement invariance across racial and ethnic groups, 3) investigate the contribution of cultural sensitivity and racial ingroup effects to any cross-group differences in MASC performance using qualitative and quantitative exploratory analyses, and 4) evaluate cross-racial differences in patterns of mentalizing. Factor analytic results support a unidimensional factor structure, and measurement invariance analysis provides evidence for racial invariance. Non-Hispanic White individuals are more likely to select the “correct” answer than other racial groups, suggesting that optimal mentalizing strategy and mentalizing values and norms may differ based on racial group membership. However, limitations of measurement invariance in assessing sources of common method variance limit the strength of these conclusions.Item CONTRIBUTIONS OF ATTENTION AND READING TO WRITING PROFICIENCY OF FOURTH-GRADE STRUGGLING READERS(2022-08-09) Reid, Erin K.; Keller-Margulis, Milena A.; Ahmed, Yusra; Aguirre-Muñoz, Zenaida; Kent, Shawn C.Background: Writing proficiency facilitates higher achievement in educational and professional endeavors, yet the majority of students fail to meet national writing benchmarks before they graduate from high school. While attention and reading are known to contribute to writing skill development, most research on these relationships focuses on early elementary school years. Upper elementary school years mark a substantial leap in writing skill development, making it a critical period to study. Additionally, it is unclear how the attention-reading-writing relationship manifests among struggling readers, a population at risk for writing difficulties. Purpose: This project evaluated models of writing component skills among fourth-grade struggling readers. Specifically, the study examined 1) the relationship between attention symptoms, word reading, and reading comprehension, 2) the contribution of attention and reading to overall writing, and 3) the contribution of attention and reading to identified factors of writing. Method: Participants included 133 fourth-grade struggling readers from two southwestern U.S. cities who participated in a larger intervention study. Measures included the Strengths and Weaknesses of ADHD Symptoms and Normal Behavior (SWAN) for attention, the Woodcock-Johnson III (WJ-III) Letter-Word Identification test for word reading, the WJ-III Passage Comprehension test for reading comprehension, and the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) writing test for overall writing. STAAR writing samples were also scored on the 6 + 1 Trait writing model. Path analysis was used to evaluate the models of attention, reading, and writing. Confirmatory factor analysis was applied to examine the factor structure of writing across the 6 + 1 traits. Structural equation modeling was employed to evaluate the contributions of attention and reading to the identified writing factors. Results: In this sample of fourth-grade struggling readers, inattention and reading comprehension were the most consistent predictors of writing across analyses. Although inattention predicted writing, it did not predict word reading performance. Additionally, while reading comprehension was predictive of writing performance, word reading was not. Consistent with the literature, hyperactivity-impulsivity did not relate strongly with any academic outcomes. A unitary writing factor best characterized the writing of students in the sample. Conclusion: Findings largely replicated existing research on attention, reading, and writing, but extended the literature by focusing on fourth-grade struggling readers. Results indicated that higher-level academic skills had a greater impact on writing, which could suggest that as academic rigor increases in the upper elementary school grades, basic skills such as word reading are less predictive of success on complex tasks such as writing. Inattention and reading comprehension were the primary component skills found to impact writing. Focusing assessment and intervention efforts on building student skills in these areas may help to increase writing proficiency. The finding that a unitary writing factor was identified for fourth-grade struggling readers could influence the way in which writing instruction is delivered. Outcomes from this project have implications for educational practices that could help equip students with the writing proficiency required for educational and professional success.Item Parent-Adolescent Concordance in Borderline Pathology and Why It Matters(2017) Wall, Kiana; Ahmed, Yusra; Sharp, CarlaItem The Assessment of Writing, Self-Monitoring, and Reading (AWSM Reader) and Relations with Executive Functioning(2020-12) Gioia, Anthony R.; Cirino, Paul T.; Ahmed, Yusra; Woods, Steven P.Extant literature measuring academic outcomes in school-aged children indicates a significant overlap in the domains of writing and reading. Cognitive predictors, such as executive function (EF), have been implicated for both domains, though less is known regarding its joint relation to reading and writing. In this study, we focus on evaluating the psychometric properties of a novel measure that directly evaluates both reading comprehension and writing, as well as the contribution of EF to these domains. Participants consisted of 377 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade struggling readers. The Assessment of Writing, Self-Monitoring, and Reading (AWSM Reader) was created to measure reading comprehension and writing (Key Words and Ideas Expressed) within the same topic. Reliability was α = .58 for the AWSM Reader reading comprehension, α = .80 for Key Words, and α = .75 for Ideas Expressed. The AWSM Reader validity for reading was r = .50, for Key Words was r = .50, and Ideas Expressed was r = .47, (all ps < .001). Correlations between the AWSM Reader reading and writing portions were r = .56 and r = .51 (both ps < .001), respectively. EF was a unique predictor of AWSM Reader reading comprehension (ηp2 = .016, p = .005) and Key Words (ηp2 = .014, p = .010), and was approaching significance for Ideas Expressed (ηp2 = .008, p = .065), over demographic and language covariates. However, partialing both language and EF, the reading portion of the AWSM Reader continued to have significant correlations with Key Words and Ideas Expressed, r = .50 and r = .46 (both p < .001), respectively. Overall, the results stress the difficulty in constructing combined reading and writing measures, but give direction for how this might be accomplished. Further, these results highlight the contribution of EF to reading and writing, though EF (and language) did not fully account for the relation between the domains.Item The Hierarchical Factor Structure of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5(2019-08) Wall, Kiana; Sharp, Carla; Ahmed, Yusra; Cirino, Paul T.; Steinberg, LynneSection III of the DSM-5 contains a dimensional, trait-based Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) as an area for future research, given proposals that a trait-based model of personality pathology may address inadequacies of the traditional categorical diagnostic model. Accompanying the AMPD is a trait-based, self-report measure of personality pathology – the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5).The latent factor structure of the PID-5 is important given that it determines scoring procedures for the measure and helps inform the relationship between traits and the PD diagnoses in the AMPD, in other words, the latent structure of personality pathology. Therefore, it is necessary to consider this structure in great detail to ensure the structural validity and reliability of the measure and the AMPD moving forward. Against this background, the aim of the current study was to clarify the latent factor structure of the PID-5 using hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in a diverse, undergraduate student sample (N = 983). Results indicated that the majority of facet scales in the PID-5 were unidimensional. The psychoticism domain achieved acceptable model fit, but the others required modifications to achieve acceptable model fit. However, the entire hierarchical model of the PID-5 was not supported. Results of the current study call into question the hierarchical structure of the PID-5 for conceptualizing and assessing for personality pathology. Although domain scales of the PID-5 may reach acceptable levels of internal consistency and uni-dimensionality, the incremental utility of the domain scales over the facet scales in assessing for the presence of personality pathology remains in question. Further, the hierarchical structure of the PID-5 requires further investigation using item-level factor analytic techniques to compare alternative models to the structure proposed in the AMPD of the DSM-5.Item The Role of Magnitude Processes and Working Memory for Learning Algebra(2017-05) Lacey, William; Cirino, Paul T.; Ahmed, Yusra; Massman, Paul J.There has been much research into the predictors of early mathematics. In contrast, less information is available about how such predictors inform later skills such as algebra. Algebra is an important “gateway” to higher order mathematics, which is relevant given the increasing demand for workers in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields. The present study investigates the role of both domain general and domain specific skills (including earlier developing math skills) for algebra. We focus on working memory, and magnitude processes (comparison and estimation), and contextualize their impact with fractions performance in 9th graders (n = 90). Fraction number line and fraction competency were found to predict end of year algebra performance as well as change across the 9th grade year in algebra performance. Working memory did not show a significant relationship to algebra performance. This study highlights the role that rational number skills play in the development and growth of later developing math skills.