Search results

Previous research suggests that many active females are not engaging in sports bra use, despite the positive health benefits. The aim of this study was to establish and compare sports bra use, preferences and bra fit issues for exercising females in some of the largest and most diverse global underwear markets (the US, the UK and China).

A survey covering activity levels, sports bra use and preferences, bra issues and demographics was administered via Qualtrics and completed by 3,147 physically active females (aged ≥ 18 years) from the US (n = 1,060), UK (n = 1,050) and China (n = 1,037).

In general, participants were 25–29 years, 121 to 140 pounds, 34B bra size and pre-menopausal. “I cannot find the right sports bra” was the most frequent breast barrier to exercise (25.4%). Three-quarters of women wore a sports bra during exercise, with significantly higher use in China (83.9%), compared to the UK (67.2%). A third of all participants reported sports bra shoulder straps “digging into the skin”. Sports bra preferences were: compression sports bras with a racer back, wide straps and thick straps in the US and the UK; thin straps in China and adjustable straps and underband, no wire and maximum breast coverage in the US and the UK, including nipple concealment and with padded/moulded cups.

Information provided on differences in sports bra use, preferences and bra issues across three major global markets could be utilised by brands and manufacturers to optimise bra marketing and fit education initiatives and inform future sports bra design and distribution strategies.

Advocacy has long been identified as a valuable mechanism for providing support to individuals who experience difficulties in accessing services and whose voices often remain unheard in decisions relating to meeting their individual needs. However, the advocacy needs of older people age 65 and over with mental health problems remains a relatively under‐researched area.This paper presents findings from a small study undertaken in partnership with Sandwell Advocacy, a voluntary sector organisation, and researchers from Coventry University in one local authority area in the West Midlands. The aims of the study were to explore the advocacy needs of people aged 65 years and over with mental health problems and to determine the current level of demand or need for advocacy among this user group. A key motivation for this study was to explore the ways in which advocacy could provide a ‘voice’ to those whose needs are often marginalised in both social care service provision and wider society.

The annual cost of alcohol‐related harm in the UK is estimated to be between £17.7 and £25.1 billion with healthcare costs alone reaching £2.7 billion and the costs of alcohol‐fuelled crime and disorder accounting for £7.3 billion each year. The aim of the study was to examine the prevalence of alcohol use disorders (AUD) in prison and probation settings in the North East of England, and to compare the ability of the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Offender Assessment System (OASys) at identifying alcohol‐related need in probation clients. A quantitative prevalence study was carried out using anonymous questionnaires with participants from four prisons and three probation offices in the North East who voluntarily completed the AUDIT questionnaire during a 1‐month period in 2006. Response outcomes on AUDIT were compared with OASys scores which identify alcohol‐related need in probation. At the time of the study OASys scores were not available for offenders in prison. Seven hundred and fifteen questionnaires were completed. Sixty‐three per cent of men and 57% of women were identified as having an AUD with over a third of all individuals scoring within the possibly dependant range (20+ on AUDIT). Around 40% of probation cases who were classified as either hazardous, harmful or possibly dependant drinkers on AUDIT were not identified by OASys. The results indicate that the prevalence of AUD in offenders is much higher than in the general population. In addition, current methods of identifying offenders with alcohol‐related need in probation are flawed and as many such people go undetected. Alcohol assessment procedures need to be improved in criminal justice setting order to correctly identify people with AUD.

The paper has intended to advance the research on the relationship between COVID-adjusted HR practices (CAHRP) and employees' stress (ES) by exploring the mediating role of employees' satisfaction from remote working (ESRW). Further, a consolidative moderated mediation model with HR pandemic readiness (HRPR) as moderator on the above-stated relationship has also been proposed.

A data set of 2266 respondents from 84 countries across six continents of the world was analysed using techniques like factor analyses, correlations and bootstrapping through PROCESS Macro in SPSS 23.

The results highlighted that ESRW significantly mediated the relationship of CAHRP and ES. Further, HRPR moderated significantly the indirect relationship between CAHRP and ES via employees' satisfaction. This relationship was found stronger at highest level as against lower level of HRPR.

This study has augmented empirical evidences to the existing literature of COVID-19 by presenting HRPR as a new dimension of HR and its role in handling the challenging situations of pandemics.

This study investigates the impact that perpetrator coercion type, victim resistance type and respondent gender have on attributions of blame in a hypothetical child sexual abuse case. A total of 366 respondents read a hypothetical scenario describing the sexual assault of a 14‐year‐old girl by a 39‐year‐old man, before completing 21 attribution items relating to victim blame, perpetrator blame, the blaming of the victim's (non‐offending) parents, and assault severity. Overall, men judged the assault more serious when the perpetrator used physical force as opposed to verbal threat or misrepresented play as a coercive act. Men also deemed the victim's non‐offending parents more culpable when the victim offered no resistance, rather than physical or verbal resistance. Women judged the assault equally severe regardless of coercion type, although they did rate the victim's family more culpable when the victim offered verbal rather than physical resistance. Implications and ideas for future work are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to show that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) may have utility with this client group in routine clinical practice.

This uncontrolled double case study describes the targeting of ACT processes with people referred to a mental health service for people with intellectual disabilities because of distressing intrusive thoughts. It includes qualitative data to illustrate the opinions of the participants eight weeks after the end of therapy.

Both clients described rapid relief from distress, with some additional untargeted benefits emerging too. The participants provided follow-up qualitative data in which they described how the therapy had helped them as well as areas where it had not.

This paper presents uncontrolled case studies selected from routine clinical practice. They were selected due to their similarity of outcome and will not represent the experience of every client treated this way.

The practical implications are that a therapy often considered to rely on the use of metaphors and the manipulation of complex metacognitions may be useful for people with more limited verbal and cognitive ability if the therapy is adapted to meet their level of ability.

There has been very little published on using ACT with an intellectual disabilities population. This paper has originality value in that it illustrates the application of the approach in routine clinical practice. Additionally, the qualitative follow-up allows the participants’ voices to be heard about their experience of this approach.

This study aims to explore barriers and pathways to a whole-institution governance of sustainability within the working structures of universities.

This paper draws on multi-year interviews and hierarchical structure analysis of ten universities in Canada, the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Brazil, the UK and The Netherlands. The paper addresses existing literature that championed further integration between the two organizational sides of universities (academic and operations) and suggests approaches for better embedding sustainability into four primary domains of activity (education, research, campus operations and community engagement).

This research found that effective sustainability governance needs to recognise and reconcile distinct cultures, diverging accountability structures and contrasting manifestations of central-coordination and distributed-agency approaches characteristic of the university’s operational and academic activities. The positionality of actors appointed to lead institution-wide embedding influenced which domain received most attention. The paper concludes that a whole-institution approach would require significant tailoring and adjustments on both the operational and academic sides to be successful.

Based on a review of sustainability activities at ten universities around the world, this paper provides a detailed analysis of the governance implications of integrating sustainability into the four domains of university activity. It discusses how best to work across the operational/academic divide and suggests principles for adopting a whole institution approach to sustainability.