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1 – 10 of 11Monica L. Baskin, Christie Zunker, Courtney B. Worley, Brenda Dial and Linda Kimbrough
This paper seeks to describe the design, implementation, and lessons learned from an obesity prevention pilot program delivered in a low resource school in the USA.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to describe the design, implementation, and lessons learned from an obesity prevention pilot program delivered in a low resource school in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
A planned program evaluation was conducted to: document explicitly the process of designing and implementing the program; and assess the feasibility and acceptability of the program to inform future planning. Evaluation data were gathered using document review (i.e. minutes from meetings with research staff and school personnel), key informant interviews, and focus groups. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Quantitative data were summarized using descriptive statistics.
Findings
A total of 113 African‐American students (47 per cent female) participated in the program. Over half were overweight or obese and mean nutrition and physical activity behaviors were below recommended guidelines. A participatory process involving school administrators, teachers, parents, and students resulted in the design of a program salient to the target population and responsive to the school's limited financial and human resources. The program was positively viewed by student and school staff alike. Challenges for implementing the program included: maintaining classroom management with very large class sizes and limited school staff, and difficulty in actively engaging parents in program implementation.
Research limitations/implications
As a pilot program at a single school during one school year, the results may have limited generalizability. However, the paper supports the feasibility and acceptability of obesity prevention interventions in schools with limited resources.
Practical implications
School‐based programs can support nutrition education and increased physical activity opportunities, which may promote lifelong health behaviors. Future programs can increase the likelihood of behavior change and program sustainability by limiting class sizes, increasing parent involvement, integrating intrapersonal level changes with institutional factors, and developing community partnerships.
Originality/value
The research described provides insights into effective strategies and lessons learned for developing school‐based obesity‐prevention programs in schools with limited resources.
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Matthew E. Archibald, Rachel N. Head, Jordan Yakoby and Pamela Behrman
This study examines chronic illness, disability and social inequality within an exposure-vulnerabilities theoretical framework.
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines chronic illness, disability and social inequality within an exposure-vulnerabilities theoretical framework.
Methodology/Approach
Using the National Survey of Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), a preeminent source of national behavioral health estimates of chronic medical illness, stress and disability, for selected sample years 2005–2014, we construct and analyze two foundational hypotheses underlying the exposure-vulnerabilities model: (1) greater exposure to stressors (i.e., chronic medical illness) among racial/ethnic minority populations yields higher levels of serious psychological distress, which in turn increases the likelihood of medical disability; (2) greater vulnerability among minority populations to stressors such as chronic medical illness exacerbates the impact of these conditions on mental health as well as the impact of mental health on medical disability.
Findings
Results of our analyses provided mixed support for the vulnerability (moderator) hypothesis, but not for the exposure (mediation) hypothesis. In the exposure models, while Blacks were more likely than Whites to have a long-term disability, the pathway to disability through chronic illness and serious psychological distress did not emerge. Rather, Whites were more likely than Blacks and Latinx to have a chronic illness and to have experienced severe psychological distress (both of which themselves were related to disability). In the vulnerability models, both Blacks and Latinx with chronic medical illness were more likely than Whites to experience serious psychological distress, although Whites with serious psychological distress were more likely than these groups to have a long-term disability.
Research Limitations
Several possibilities for understanding the failure to uncover an exposure dynamic in the model turn on the potential intersectional effects of age and gender, as well as several other covariates that seem to confound the linkages in the model (e.g., issues of stigma, social support, education).
Originality/Value
This study (1) extends the racial/ethnic disparities in exposure-vulnerability framework by including factors measuring chronic medical illness and disability which: (2) explicitly test exposure and vulnerability hypotheses in minority populations; (3) develop and test the causal linkages in the hypothesized processes, based on innovations in general structural equation models, and lastly; (4) use national population estimates of these conditions which are rarely, if ever, investigated in this kind of causal framework.
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Peter G. Roma and Wendy L. Bedwell
To better understand contributing factors and mediating mechanisms related to team dynamics in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments.
Abstract
Purpose
To better understand contributing factors and mediating mechanisms related to team dynamics in isolated, confined, and extreme (ICE) environments.
Methodology/approach
Literature review.
Findings
Our primary focus is on cohesion and adaptation – two critical aspects of team performance in ICE environments that have received increased attention in both the literature and funding initiatives. We begin by describing the conditions that define ICE environments and review relevant individual biological, neuropsychiatric, and environmental factors that interact with team dynamics. We then outline a unifying team cohesion framework for long-duration missions and discuss several environmental, operational, organizational, and psychosocial factors that can impact team dynamics. Finally, we end with a discussion of directions for future research and countermeasure development, emphasizing the importance of temporal dynamics, multidisciplinary integration, and novel conceptual frameworks for the inherently mixed work and social setting of long-duration missions in ICE environments.
Social implications
A better understanding of team dynamics over time can contribute to success in a variety of organizational settings, including space exploration, defense and security, business, education, athletics, and social relationships.
Originality/value
We promote a multidisciplinary approach to team dynamics in ICE environments that incorporates dynamic biological, behavioral, psychological, and organizational factors over time.
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In the 1970s, the United States Congress enacted two statutes that have had dramatic and far‐reaching effects on the education of handicapped children by public schools. These two…
Abstract
In the 1970s, the United States Congress enacted two statutes that have had dramatic and far‐reaching effects on the education of handicapped children by public schools. These two laws, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Education For All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (known as Public Law 94–142), have required local public school agencies to provide new eductional programs for thousands of handicapped children not previously served by the public schools. Counselors, principals, and teachers were quickly informed of the law's requirements and willingly began the task of main‐streaming and assimilating these children into various curricula. Their physical needs were attended to rapidly; their societal and emotional needs, unfortunately, lagged behind. Within the past seven years, there has been an increase in books, articles, and films specifically addressed to counseling the handicapped. Unlike past literature which focused only on the vocational aspect of rehabilitation counseling, current writing emphasizes personal counseling meant to assist a disabled child to participate fully in the problems and joys of daily living.
Taylor M. Gamble, Al Kopak and Norman Hoffmann
Most people admitted to jails present indications of substance use disorder, and methamphetamine use disorders (MUDs) have recently become the most prevalent in certain…
Abstract
Purpose
Most people admitted to jails present indications of substance use disorder, and methamphetamine use disorders (MUDs) have recently become the most prevalent in certain communities. Much of the research conducted with jail populations has focused on large urban facilities, despite them representing a small number of the nearly 3,000 correctional centers in the USA. This study aims to examine MUDs in a large multisite sample of adults admitted to rural jails in the USA to help inform better practices aimed at addressing these conditions.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted with 525 adults ranging in age from 18 to 72 years within three rural detention centers within the USA using the Comprehensive Addictions and Psychological Evaluation-5. Retrospective records were extracted to assess relationships between Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders diagnostic classifications for MUDs, length of detention and jail admission over a 12-month period.
Findings
Results indicate those who met diagnostic criteria for MUD were more likely to be charged with a drug-related offense, a more serious offense (i.e. felony) and also spend more time detained relative to those who did not receive a similar diagnosis. Multivariate regression analyses also demonstrated persons with MUD diagnoses were significantly more likely to be admitted to the detention center on multiple occasions compared to those without a diagnosis.
Originality/value
Evidence from an understudied population supports the need to address MUDs among adults detained in rural jails. Proper diagnosis and linkage to care can enhance efforts to reduce the prevalence of these conditions.
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Parthasarathi Das and Venugopal Pingali
The purpose of the study is to propose a framework for understanding the dynamism of the human self-system from evolutionary and socio-psychological perspective. The study aims to…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the study is to propose a framework for understanding the dynamism of the human self-system from evolutionary and socio-psychological perspective. The study aims to help scholars interested to use an evolutionary lens for examining consumer behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
Relying on the principle of self-cybernetics, the study proposed a general framework explaining the operating mechanism of human self-system. The proposed framework incorporates the socio-psychological and the evolutionary perspective of the human self-concept.
Findings
The framework may help consumer scholars to integrate socio-psychological and evolutionary theories to produce novel and testable hypotheses.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to propose a framework based on the principle of cybernetics to facilitate the use of an evolutionary lens in consumer research.
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Ruchi Garg, Jaydeep Mukherjee, Soumendu Biswas and Aarti Kataria
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that drive consumer love toward a brand and the opportunities a consumer’s love create for a brand in India.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that drive consumer love toward a brand and the opportunities a consumer’s love create for a brand in India.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 23 in-depth interviews were conducted with consumers. The interview transcripts were analyzed through thematic analysis using qualitative software Nvivo10.
Findings
This paper proposes a conceptual model where respect, brand experience, and brand reputation have been identified as factors driving brand love and affective commitment, consumer citizenship behavior, repurchases intention, consumer forgiveness, and attitude toward the extension as outcomes of brand love.
Practical implications
Consumers bond with brand helps in mitigating the feelings of transgressions by the brand, and also protects brand from negative word of mouth. Consumers who are in love with a brand show positive attitude toward its extensions. These results provide pointers to brand managers on how to protect and expand the business.
Originality/value
The extant brand love research seems to be solely in the western context. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study of its kind that empirically investigates antecedents and consequences of brand love in India.
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Robert C. Davis, Carl Jensen, Lorrianne Kuykendall and Kristin Gallagher
As a result of advances in DNA and other forensic technologies, police agencies are showing increased interest in cold-case investigations, with larger departments dedicating…
Abstract
Purpose
As a result of advances in DNA and other forensic technologies, police agencies are showing increased interest in cold-case investigations, with larger departments dedicating staff to conducting these investigations or forming cold-case squads. The purpose of this paper is to provide information on how police agencies organize and conduct cold-case investigations.
Design/methodology/approach
To assess the current practices used in cold-case investigations, an exploratory survey was sent to a stratified random sample of police agencies across the US survey findings are based on 1,051 returns.
Findings
Results include the following. Most agencies do little cold-case work, with only 20 percent having a protocol for initiating cold-case investigations, 10 percent having dedicated cold-case investigators, and 7 percent having a formal cold-case unit. Cold-case funding is tenuous: 20 percent of cold-case work is funded through line items in the budget, with most funded by grants or supplemental funds. Success rates for cold-case investigations are low: about one in five cases are cleared. Agency factors associated with higher clearance rates included level of funding and access to investigative databases.
Practical implications
As new forensic tools are developed, cold-case investigations will become an increasingly prominent activity of criminal investigation units. The survey reported on in this paper gives the first glimpse of how agencies are handling these cases.
Originality/value
To the knowledge, there are no other empirical studies on how agencies structure and conduct cold-case investigations.
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