Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulty performing and learning m... more Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulty performing and learning motor skills. Automatic activation of the mirror neuron system (MNS) during action observation and its coupling to the motor output system are important neurophysiological processes that underpin observational motor learning. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that MNS function is disrupted in children with DCD by using sensitive electroencephalography (EEG)-based measures of MNS activation during action observation. Specifically, we predicted reduced mu-suppression and coherence in DCD compared with typically developing children. Neural activation of the motor network was measured by EEG, specifically event-related desynchronization (ERD) of mu rhythms and fronto-parietal coherence. Children (15 DCD/15 controls) were tested under two task conditions: observational learning (imitation of an observed action) and detection (report a deviant movement after observation). EEG-metrics were compared between groups using linear mixed-effects models. As predicted, children with DCD showed lower levels of mu suppression and reduced modulation of coherence during the observational learning task compared with their non-DCD peers. Notably, mu suppression was reduced in DCD over the entire imitation task (repetitions, and both observation and pause intervals). Action observation can be used for the acquisition of new motor skills. This form of learning entails the transposition of the observed action to the existing internal representations of the observer's own motor system. The present neurophysiological results suggest that this process of learning is impaired in children with DCD. The results are discussed in relation to current hypotheses on mechanisms of DCD.
Description influence.ME provides a collection of tools for calculating measures of influential d... more Description influence.ME provides a collection of tools for calculating measures of influential data for generalized mixed effects models. It analyses models that were estimated using lme4. The basic rationale behind identifying influential data is that when iteratively single units are omitted from the data, models based on these data should not produce substantially different estimates. To standardize the assessment of how influential a (single group of) observation(s) is, several measures of influence are common practice, such as DFBETAS and Cooks ’ Distance. In addition, we provide a measure of percentage change of the fixed point estimates and a simple test to detect changing levels of significance.
In this article we raise the research question to what extent the declining number of church memb... more In this article we raise the research question to what extent the declining number of church members and the changing voting behavior among church members and non-members explain the longitudinal trend in voter turnout of the largest Christian political party in the Netherlands, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). In a counterfactual analysis we simulated no disaffiliation since 1970 and found a more or less constant loss of 9 seats in the Dutch House of Representatives throughout the whole period. Next, we simulated no change in voting behavior of both church members and non-members since 1970 and this resulted in a substantial loss of 10 to 14 seats, concentrated in 1994-2010. We also estimated the contribution of church members' and non-members' voting behavior separately. It turned out that until 1994 the effects were opposite to each other. As a result the net effect of voting behavior was close to zero for a long time. This changed dramatically from the 1994 elections onwards as many church members did not vote for the CDA anymore and tipped the balance. This was especially so in the 2010 elections, where the CDA faced unprecedented losses. * Manfred te Grotenhuis, Rob Eisinga en Ben Pelzer zijn als statistici verbonden aan de sectie sociologie van de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. Tom van der Meer is politicoloog, afdeling politicologie, Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing... more Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2016
This article analyses the influence of national context on civil society strength based on four k... more This article analyses the influence of national context on civil society strength based on four key dimensions: level of democracy, political stability, rule of law and economic development. Whereas existing studies mainly focus on Western and post-communist countries, we explicitly include developing countries in our analysis. We use associational membership as proxy for civil society strength and include data of 53 countries. Rule of law, economic development and (to a lesser extent) political stability emerge from our multilevel regression models as the main factors affecting civil society membership. Unlike previous studies, we show that these relations are quadratic instead of linear. This means that where existing theories predict a drop in memberships in developing countries, we find a rise. In other words, harsh conditions actually strengthen civil society in terms of membership levels. We argue that this could be the case because reasons for CSO membership are essentially different in the developed and in the developing world. Contrary to theoretical assumptions, democratic rights do not appear critically important for civil society membership.RésuméCet article analyse l’influence du contexte national sur le dynamisme de la société civile en tenant compte de quatre aspects clés : le niveau de démocratie, la stabilité politique, la primauté du droit et le développement économique. Les études existantes portent essentiellement sur les pays occidentaux et postcommunistes, mais nous intégrons de façon explicite les pays en développement dans notre analyse. Nous utilisons le nombre de membres d’associations comme indicateur sur le dynamisme de la société civile et intégrons les données de 53 pays. La primauté du droit, le développement économique et – dans une moindre mesure – la stabilité politique apparaissent dans nos modèles de régression multiniveaux comme les principaux facteurs ayant une incidence sur le nombre de membres de la société civile. Contrairement aux études précédentes, nous montrons que ces relations sont quadratiques plutôt que linéaires. Cela signifie que là où les théories existantes prévoient une baisse des adhésions dans les pays en développement, nous constatons une hausse. En d’autres termes, des conditions difficiles renforcent réellement la société civile en termes de niveaux d’adhésion. Nous croyons que cela pourrait être le cas, car les raisons pouvant expliquer l’adhésion des organisations de la société civile (OSC) sont fondamentalement différentes dans les pays développés et les pays en développement. Contrairement aux hypothèses théoriques, les droits démocratiques ne semblent pas avoir une importance essentielle pour le nombre de membres de la société civile.ZusammenfassungIn diesem Beitrag wird der Einfluss des nationalen Kontextes auf die Stärke der Bürgergesellschaft beruhend auf vier wichtigen Dimensionen analysiert: Grad der Demokratie, politische Stabilität, Rechtsstaatlichkeit und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung. Während sich die meisten Studien hauptsächlich auf westliche und postkommunistische Länder konzentrieren, schließen wir Entwicklungsländer ausdrücklich in unsere Analyse ein. Wir verwenden die Verbandsmitgliedschaft als Indikator für die Stärke der Bürgergesellschaft und erfassen Daten aus 53 Ländern. In unseren mehrstufigen Regressionsmodellen stellen sich die Rechtsstaatlichkeit, die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und (in einem geringeren Umfang) die politische Stabilität als die Hauptfaktoren heraus, die sich auf die Mitgliederschaft der Bürgergesellschaft auswirken. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Studien zeigen wir, dass diese Verbindungen quadratisch statt linear sind. Das heißt, dass in Fällen, in denen die bestehenden Theorien einen Rückgang bei den Mitgliedschaften in Entwicklungsländern voraussagen, wir einen Anstieg sehen. Mit anderen Worten stärken ungünstige Bedingungen die Bürgergesellschaft mit Bezug auf die Zahl der Mitgliedschaften. Wir behaupten, dass dies unter Umständen daran liegt, dass sich die Gründe für eine Mitgliedschaft in Bürgergesellschaftsorganisationen in den Industrienationen und den Entwicklungsländern grundlegend unterscheiden. Im Gegensatz zu den theoretischen Annahmen, erscheinen demokratische Rechte nicht ausschlaggebend für die Mitgliedschaften der Bürgergesellschaft zu sein.ResumenEl presente artículo analiza la influencia del contexto nacional sobre la fortaleza de la sociedad civil basándose en cuatro dimensiones claves: el nivel de democracia, la estabilidad política, el imperio de la ley y el desarrollo económico. Mientras que los estudios existentes se centran principalmente en los países occidentales y poscomunistas, incluimos explícitamente a los países en vías de desarrollo en nuestro análisis. Utilizamos la pertenencia a asociaciones como indicador de la fortaleza de la sociedad civil e incluimos datos de 53 países. El imperio de la ley, el desarrollo económico y (en menor medida) la estabilidad política surgen de…
This article investigates the relationship between major life events and sport participation duri... more This article investigates the relationship between major life events and sport participation during the transition to adulthood. Two waves (2009 and 2013) of a Dutch panel study provided information on education, employment, relationship, civil/marital status, and parenthood for 2829 Dutch citizens (ages 15-45) and their sport behaviour. Our analyses indicate that respondents who left full-time education, began to work, entered and/or formalised a relationship, and became a parent participated less frequently in sport than those who did not (between-person differences). Moreover, experiencing these events reduced sport frequency (within-person changes). All events except beginning to work reduced the number of sports practised. Further, those who entered an intimate relationship were more likely to switch from a 'heavy' club-sport setting to a 'lighter', more individualised setting and to stop practising sport altogether, compared to those who stayed single. Those who left full-time education and started working were more likely to continue sport in a club setting, compared to those who continued education and did not start working. Sport providers, programmes, and policies could use these results to inform efforts to preempt impacts of major life events, thus curbing drop out and retaining sport participants, especially during the transition to adulthood.
Computation of p-values presented in Table 6. A.zip file providing the R code to reproduce the e... more Computation of p-values presented in Table 6. A.zip file providing the R code to reproduce the exact p-values presented in Table 6. (ZIP 1 kb)
This paper outlines a nonstationary, heterogeneous Markov model designed to estimate entry and ex... more This paper outlines a nonstationary, heterogeneous Markov model designed to estimate entry and exit transition probabilities at the micro-level from a time series of independent cross-sectional samples with a binary outcome variable.
If your regression model contains a categorical predictor variable, you commonly test the signifi... more If your regression model contains a categorical predictor variable, you commonly test the significance of its categories against a preselected reference category. If all categories have (roughly) the same number of observations, you can also test all categories against the grand mean using effect (ANOVA) coding. In observational studies, however, the number of observations per category typically varies. This paper shows how all categories can be tested against the sample mean. The paper explains the procedure, called weighted effect coding, using R, SPSS, and Stata on the accompanying website. A follow-up Hints & Kinks expands the procedure to regression models that test interaction effects. The authors show that, within this framework, the weighted effect coded interaction displays the extra effect on top of the main effect found in a model without the interaction effect. This offers a promising new route to estimate interaction effects in observational data, where different catego...
An important property of the intrinsic estimator is discussed, which has received no attention in... more An important property of the intrinsic estimator is discussed, which has received no attention in literature so far: the age, period, and cohort estimates of the intrinsic estimator are not unique but vary with the parameterization and reference categories chosen for these variables. We give a formal prove of the non-uniqueness property for effect coding and dummy variable coding. For data on female mortality in the U.S. over the years 1960-1999, we show that the variation in the results obtained for different parameterizations and reference categories is substantial and leads to contradictory conclusions. We conclude that the non-uniqueness property is a new argument to not routinely apply the intrinsic estimator.
The focus of this article is on the research-related activities that primary school teachers cond... more The focus of this article is on the research-related activities that primary school teachers conduct in their daily work. Furthermore, the school support for these activities is examined. The research-related activities were operationalized on basis of Van Strien's research cycle and characteristics of systematic reflection. Data has been collected with a survey (n = 220) and a comparative case study in two schools. The results show that teachers in their perceptions conduct many research-related activities, though strong differences were found between schools. The case study of the two schools shows an explicit and collectively conducted school policy with a focus on evidence-informed decision-making to be positive for teachers' research-related activities.
Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulty performing and learning m... more Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) have difficulty performing and learning motor skills. Automatic activation of the mirror neuron system (MNS) during action observation and its coupling to the motor output system are important neurophysiological processes that underpin observational motor learning. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that MNS function is disrupted in children with DCD by using sensitive electroencephalography (EEG)-based measures of MNS activation during action observation. Specifically, we predicted reduced mu-suppression and coherence in DCD compared with typically developing children. Neural activation of the motor network was measured by EEG, specifically event-related desynchronization (ERD) of mu rhythms and fronto-parietal coherence. Children (15 DCD/15 controls) were tested under two task conditions: observational learning (imitation of an observed action) and detection (report a deviant movement after observation). EEG-metrics were compared between groups using linear mixed-effects models. As predicted, children with DCD showed lower levels of mu suppression and reduced modulation of coherence during the observational learning task compared with their non-DCD peers. Notably, mu suppression was reduced in DCD over the entire imitation task (repetitions, and both observation and pause intervals). Action observation can be used for the acquisition of new motor skills. This form of learning entails the transposition of the observed action to the existing internal representations of the observer's own motor system. The present neurophysiological results suggest that this process of learning is impaired in children with DCD. The results are discussed in relation to current hypotheses on mechanisms of DCD.
Description influence.ME provides a collection of tools for calculating measures of influential d... more Description influence.ME provides a collection of tools for calculating measures of influential data for generalized mixed effects models. It analyses models that were estimated using lme4. The basic rationale behind identifying influential data is that when iteratively single units are omitted from the data, models based on these data should not produce substantially different estimates. To standardize the assessment of how influential a (single group of) observation(s) is, several measures of influence are common practice, such as DFBETAS and Cooks ’ Distance. In addition, we provide a measure of percentage change of the fixed point estimates and a simple test to detect changing levels of significance.
In this article we raise the research question to what extent the declining number of church memb... more In this article we raise the research question to what extent the declining number of church members and the changing voting behavior among church members and non-members explain the longitudinal trend in voter turnout of the largest Christian political party in the Netherlands, the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA). In a counterfactual analysis we simulated no disaffiliation since 1970 and found a more or less constant loss of 9 seats in the Dutch House of Representatives throughout the whole period. Next, we simulated no change in voting behavior of both church members and non-members since 1970 and this resulted in a substantial loss of 10 to 14 seats, concentrated in 1994-2010. We also estimated the contribution of church members' and non-members' voting behavior separately. It turned out that until 1994 the effects were opposite to each other. As a result the net effect of voting behavior was close to zero for a long time. This changed dramatically from the 1994 elections onwards as many church members did not vote for the CDA anymore and tipped the balance. This was especially so in the 2010 elections, where the CDA faced unprecedented losses. * Manfred te Grotenhuis, Rob Eisinga en Ben Pelzer zijn als statistici verbonden aan de sectie sociologie van de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen. Tom van der Meer is politicoloog, afdeling politicologie, Universiteit van Amsterdam.
Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing... more Take-down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 2016
This article analyses the influence of national context on civil society strength based on four k... more This article analyses the influence of national context on civil society strength based on four key dimensions: level of democracy, political stability, rule of law and economic development. Whereas existing studies mainly focus on Western and post-communist countries, we explicitly include developing countries in our analysis. We use associational membership as proxy for civil society strength and include data of 53 countries. Rule of law, economic development and (to a lesser extent) political stability emerge from our multilevel regression models as the main factors affecting civil society membership. Unlike previous studies, we show that these relations are quadratic instead of linear. This means that where existing theories predict a drop in memberships in developing countries, we find a rise. In other words, harsh conditions actually strengthen civil society in terms of membership levels. We argue that this could be the case because reasons for CSO membership are essentially different in the developed and in the developing world. Contrary to theoretical assumptions, democratic rights do not appear critically important for civil society membership.RésuméCet article analyse l’influence du contexte national sur le dynamisme de la société civile en tenant compte de quatre aspects clés : le niveau de démocratie, la stabilité politique, la primauté du droit et le développement économique. Les études existantes portent essentiellement sur les pays occidentaux et postcommunistes, mais nous intégrons de façon explicite les pays en développement dans notre analyse. Nous utilisons le nombre de membres d’associations comme indicateur sur le dynamisme de la société civile et intégrons les données de 53 pays. La primauté du droit, le développement économique et – dans une moindre mesure – la stabilité politique apparaissent dans nos modèles de régression multiniveaux comme les principaux facteurs ayant une incidence sur le nombre de membres de la société civile. Contrairement aux études précédentes, nous montrons que ces relations sont quadratiques plutôt que linéaires. Cela signifie que là où les théories existantes prévoient une baisse des adhésions dans les pays en développement, nous constatons une hausse. En d’autres termes, des conditions difficiles renforcent réellement la société civile en termes de niveaux d’adhésion. Nous croyons que cela pourrait être le cas, car les raisons pouvant expliquer l’adhésion des organisations de la société civile (OSC) sont fondamentalement différentes dans les pays développés et les pays en développement. Contrairement aux hypothèses théoriques, les droits démocratiques ne semblent pas avoir une importance essentielle pour le nombre de membres de la société civile.ZusammenfassungIn diesem Beitrag wird der Einfluss des nationalen Kontextes auf die Stärke der Bürgergesellschaft beruhend auf vier wichtigen Dimensionen analysiert: Grad der Demokratie, politische Stabilität, Rechtsstaatlichkeit und wirtschaftliche Entwicklung. Während sich die meisten Studien hauptsächlich auf westliche und postkommunistische Länder konzentrieren, schließen wir Entwicklungsländer ausdrücklich in unsere Analyse ein. Wir verwenden die Verbandsmitgliedschaft als Indikator für die Stärke der Bürgergesellschaft und erfassen Daten aus 53 Ländern. In unseren mehrstufigen Regressionsmodellen stellen sich die Rechtsstaatlichkeit, die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und (in einem geringeren Umfang) die politische Stabilität als die Hauptfaktoren heraus, die sich auf die Mitgliederschaft der Bürgergesellschaft auswirken. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Studien zeigen wir, dass diese Verbindungen quadratisch statt linear sind. Das heißt, dass in Fällen, in denen die bestehenden Theorien einen Rückgang bei den Mitgliedschaften in Entwicklungsländern voraussagen, wir einen Anstieg sehen. Mit anderen Worten stärken ungünstige Bedingungen die Bürgergesellschaft mit Bezug auf die Zahl der Mitgliedschaften. Wir behaupten, dass dies unter Umständen daran liegt, dass sich die Gründe für eine Mitgliedschaft in Bürgergesellschaftsorganisationen in den Industrienationen und den Entwicklungsländern grundlegend unterscheiden. Im Gegensatz zu den theoretischen Annahmen, erscheinen demokratische Rechte nicht ausschlaggebend für die Mitgliedschaften der Bürgergesellschaft zu sein.ResumenEl presente artículo analiza la influencia del contexto nacional sobre la fortaleza de la sociedad civil basándose en cuatro dimensiones claves: el nivel de democracia, la estabilidad política, el imperio de la ley y el desarrollo económico. Mientras que los estudios existentes se centran principalmente en los países occidentales y poscomunistas, incluimos explícitamente a los países en vías de desarrollo en nuestro análisis. Utilizamos la pertenencia a asociaciones como indicador de la fortaleza de la sociedad civil e incluimos datos de 53 países. El imperio de la ley, el desarrollo económico y (en menor medida) la estabilidad política surgen de…
This article investigates the relationship between major life events and sport participation duri... more This article investigates the relationship between major life events and sport participation during the transition to adulthood. Two waves (2009 and 2013) of a Dutch panel study provided information on education, employment, relationship, civil/marital status, and parenthood for 2829 Dutch citizens (ages 15-45) and their sport behaviour. Our analyses indicate that respondents who left full-time education, began to work, entered and/or formalised a relationship, and became a parent participated less frequently in sport than those who did not (between-person differences). Moreover, experiencing these events reduced sport frequency (within-person changes). All events except beginning to work reduced the number of sports practised. Further, those who entered an intimate relationship were more likely to switch from a 'heavy' club-sport setting to a 'lighter', more individualised setting and to stop practising sport altogether, compared to those who stayed single. Those who left full-time education and started working were more likely to continue sport in a club setting, compared to those who continued education and did not start working. Sport providers, programmes, and policies could use these results to inform efforts to preempt impacts of major life events, thus curbing drop out and retaining sport participants, especially during the transition to adulthood.
Computation of p-values presented in Table 6. A.zip file providing the R code to reproduce the e... more Computation of p-values presented in Table 6. A.zip file providing the R code to reproduce the exact p-values presented in Table 6. (ZIP 1 kb)
This paper outlines a nonstationary, heterogeneous Markov model designed to estimate entry and ex... more This paper outlines a nonstationary, heterogeneous Markov model designed to estimate entry and exit transition probabilities at the micro-level from a time series of independent cross-sectional samples with a binary outcome variable.
If your regression model contains a categorical predictor variable, you commonly test the signifi... more If your regression model contains a categorical predictor variable, you commonly test the significance of its categories against a preselected reference category. If all categories have (roughly) the same number of observations, you can also test all categories against the grand mean using effect (ANOVA) coding. In observational studies, however, the number of observations per category typically varies. This paper shows how all categories can be tested against the sample mean. The paper explains the procedure, called weighted effect coding, using R, SPSS, and Stata on the accompanying website. A follow-up Hints & Kinks expands the procedure to regression models that test interaction effects. The authors show that, within this framework, the weighted effect coded interaction displays the extra effect on top of the main effect found in a model without the interaction effect. This offers a promising new route to estimate interaction effects in observational data, where different catego...
An important property of the intrinsic estimator is discussed, which has received no attention in... more An important property of the intrinsic estimator is discussed, which has received no attention in literature so far: the age, period, and cohort estimates of the intrinsic estimator are not unique but vary with the parameterization and reference categories chosen for these variables. We give a formal prove of the non-uniqueness property for effect coding and dummy variable coding. For data on female mortality in the U.S. over the years 1960-1999, we show that the variation in the results obtained for different parameterizations and reference categories is substantial and leads to contradictory conclusions. We conclude that the non-uniqueness property is a new argument to not routinely apply the intrinsic estimator.
The focus of this article is on the research-related activities that primary school teachers cond... more The focus of this article is on the research-related activities that primary school teachers conduct in their daily work. Furthermore, the school support for these activities is examined. The research-related activities were operationalized on basis of Van Strien's research cycle and characteristics of systematic reflection. Data has been collected with a survey (n = 220) and a comparative case study in two schools. The results show that teachers in their perceptions conduct many research-related activities, though strong differences were found between schools. The case study of the two schools shows an explicit and collectively conducted school policy with a focus on evidence-informed decision-making to be positive for teachers' research-related activities.
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