Search results

Through the lens of the Social Exchange Theory, this study investigates the role of emotional and psychological well-being in explaining the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality.

Using a cross-sectional quantitative research design, the study gathered data from 298 tertiary students. Statistical analysis was conducted using Hayes Process Macro in SPSS.

Results from the study challenge conventional assumptions, indicating a positive and significant relationship between academic stress and friendship quality. In addition, the study revealed that psychological well-being partially mediates the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality, while emotional well-being fully mediates the relationship between academic stress and friendship quality.

This study is limited to the tertiary institutions in Ghana. Future studies may consider expanding the scope to other levels of education to gain a more comprehensive perspective of the variables of the study.

This study presents a novel approach by examining the proposed model within the Ghanaian setting. It offers valuable perspectives on the interplay between academic stress, well-being, and friendship quality.

Peer mentoring programs in higher education settings support incoming students in their transition and adaptation to college life. Mentoring program evaluation research primarily focuses on student outcomes and documents mentoring relationship quality (MRQ) as an important component of programs that facilitate change. The current study examines MRQ in a college peer mentoring program and explores its association with mentors’ and mentees’ perceptions of family relationships.

The sample included 629 first-year students (Mage = 18.4 and 54.2% female) and 88 mentors (Mage = 20.6 and 65.9% female). Each mentor was matched with eight to 10 incoming students in the same department. Dyadic data were collected prior to the program (pre-test) and at the end of the fall semester (mid-program) and spring semester (post-test). At pre-test assessment, mentors and mentees rated their family relationships, perceived trust, loyalty, and fairness in their families. At follow-up assessments, mentees reported their MRQ, mentoring duration, and mentoring activities.

A multilevel modeling analysis revealed that mentees’ and mentors’ perceptions of loyalty in their families predicted higher levels of MRQ at the end of the program. However, mentors’ perceived trust in their families was negatively associated with MRQ.

This study adds to the youth mentoring literature by focusing on family-of-origin experiences of both mentors and mentees from a dyadic and relational perspective. These findings have implications for future research and the practice of formal mentoring programs in college settings.

Value-based healthcare suggested using patient-reported information to complement the information available in the medical records and administrative healthcare data to provide insights into patients' perceptions of satisfaction, experience and self-reported outcomes. However, little attention has been devoted to questions about factors fostering the use of patient-reported information to create value at the system level.

Action research design is carried out to elicit possible triggers using the case of patient-reported experience and outcome data for breast cancer women along their clinical pathway in the clinical breast network of Tuscany (Italy).

The case shows that communication and engagement of multi-stakeholder representation are needed for making information actionable in a multi-level, multispecialty care pathway organized in a clinical network; moreover, political and managerial support from higher level governance is a stimulus for legitimizing the use for quality improvement. At the organizational level, an external facilitator disclosing and discussing real-world uses of collected data is a trigger to link measures to action. Also, clinical champion(s) and clear goals are key success factors. Nonetheless, resource munificent and dedicated information support tools together with education and learning routines are enabling factors.

Current literature focuses on key factors that impact performance information use often considering unidimensional performance and internal sources of information. The use of patient/user-reported information is not yet well-studied especially in supporting quality improvement in multi-stakeholder governance. The work appears relevant for the implications it carries, especially for policymakers and public sector managers when confronting the gap in patient-reported measures for quality improvement.

We call the attention of management scholars to the methodological traps inherent to data collected using self-reported emotional experience in the context of integration after mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In a systematic review, we identified 15 peer-reviewed empirical articles where authors discuss the impact of emotions in post-merger situations based on interview data. We found that the authors of 12 studies appear to have been unaware of the problems of the interview method or implicitly accepted the inherent and unavoidable distortions and biases of self-reported emotions over time. We argue that these distortions and biases represent threats to data validity and reliability. In support of this position, we cite literature suggesting it is difficult for researchers to reconstruct emotions experienced based on interviews conducted a few weeks after the events, so results based on this method may not be valid. The authors of these articles all relied on data collected several months or years after M&A integration events. Then, they sought to assess the impact of emotions at the time of the integration process. As a consequence, conclusions based on these data may be unreliable. We conclude with recommendations for overcoming this potential source of invalid data in post-merger integration (PMI) studies.

The study aims to investigate market reactions associated with the JUST 100 rankings published by JUST Capital, a non-profit organization, as well as differences in financial reporting quality and performance between selected firms and their industry peers.

This study uses a sample of 431 firms selected as the 100 America’s Most Just Companies between 2016 and 2020 by JUST Capital. This study performs both an event study to determine whether the rankings are useful to investors and cross-sectional regression analyses on the characteristics of selected firms compared to their peers.

This study finds that investors react positively to selected firms around the time of the release of the JUST 100 rankings, suggesting that the rankings are decision-useful. This study also finds that selected firms exhibit higher accounting quality and financial performance than their peers.

Rankings may not be free from bias because of JUST Capital’s ownership of an exchange-traded fund.

The findings validate the rankings as well as the methodology used by JUST Capital, as they show market participants value firms that engage in socially responsible actions through their commitment to positively impact five key stakeholder groups: employees, customers, communities, environment and shareholders.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that shows the importance of the JUST 100 rankings for investment decisions. Considering the growing push for companies to disclose environmental, social and governance (ESG) activities, this study provides evidence to support ESG disclosure regulations.

The Social Norms Approach (SNA) is a health behaviour intervention which promotes positive behaviour change by challenging and reducing misperceived social norms of peer behaviours and attitudes. This study reports a novel qualitative evaluation of an in-school SNA intervention which aimed to reduce 11-to-12-year-old students’ unhealthy snacking behaviours by reducing misperceived peer norms.

A qualitative evaluation of seven teachers’ and eighteen students’ experiences of taking part in the SNA intervention based on focus group discussions and an open-ended survey.

An inductive reflexive thematic analysis indicated that the SNA intervention was an effective and engaging means of delivering normative feedback to younger adolescents. The use of a paper-and-pens creative poster-making activity, where students were tasked with designing the intervention materials featuring normative feedback based on their baseline data, encouraged students to discuss and reflect on the discrepancies between their perceived norms and the actual reported unhealthy snacking norms. Challenges were identified with ensuring intervention fidelity and in students’ understanding of how to record survey responses using Likert scales.

This study demonstrates the usefulness of exploring post-intervention perceptions of SNA interventions, particularly from the perspective of the intended recipients. The study also provides useful information for those intending to develop in-school SNA interventions in the future, particularly the importance of involving participants in the designing of intervention materials as a means of promoting engagement with an SNA-based dietary behaviour intervention.

This paper aims to build on Part 1 which generated a theory representing the experiences of charity peer leaders facilitating well-being interventions (Burns, 2024). This study (Part 2) examines the process of peers [1] becoming peer leaders using the generated theory.

Following the Medical Research Council Process Evaluation Framework (Moore et al, 2015), the methods for this study were as follows: discussion and informal questions with all project staff (skilled group facilitators and peer leaders) at the start of the Refugee projectx; in-depth, self-report questionnaire with the skilled group facilitators; researcher observations of the peer leaders learning to lead and leading the groups; and group interview with peer leaders.

When analysed in line with the theory, the data showed the following: being empathic and validating someone’s story helps the person feel like their journey counts and is of worth; the “dance” of rapport and relationship is a vital ingredient for a successful group; the process of sharing stories and giving hope bring rewards; hope can be gained, given and given again without diminishing hope within the giver.

The theory that emerged in this study is unique to Part 1 and therefore Part 2 is also original, to the best of the author’s knowledge. The demonstration of the use of the theory in practise could support mental health peer work in offsetting statutory health-care costs.

This study aims to report on the feasibility, acceptability and outcomes of a peer support program designed to promote social participation for adults with serious mental illness (SMI) in China.

The authors used a community-based participatory research approach to adapt and test a six-month, culturally responsive peer program with 68 participants. Peer supporters were trained and supervised in Guangzhou, China. Peer workers were hired via a competitive process and completed both classroom and field training. Study participants were offered individual and group socialization activities. Participants completed measures on recovery, quality of life, functioning and symptoms at three time points (pre-, post- and follow-up).

Nearly 90% of participants expressed satisfaction with their peer supporters and the frequency of services. Findings showed a significant increasing trend for the social relationships domain of quality of life from baseline to follow-up. Female participants reported significantly increased recovery from pre to post and increased psychological quality of life pre-follow-up as compared to their male counterparts. Supervision logs documented positive gains from participants such as increased help-seeking, improved social skills, enhanced emotion regulation and self-confidence and established routine, alongside challenges like inconsistent engagement, low service incentives and an overreliance on social workers. Peer supporters also reported concerns about their own lack of skills and in navigating relationships between participants and their family members.

Peer interventions have been well studied in Western countries but underexplored in China. This research addresses this gap by presenting a peer program aimed at enhancing the social participation of Chinese with SMI.

This study aims to examine the ability of big data analytics (BDA) to investigate financial reporting quality (FRQ), identify the knowledge base and conceptual structure of this research field and explore BDA techniques used over time.

This study uses a comprehensive bibliometric analysis approach (performance analysis and science mapping) using software packages, including Biblioshiny and VOSviewer. Multiple analyses are conducted, including authors, sources, keywords, co-citations, thematic evolution and trend topic analysis.

This study reveals that the intellectual structure of using BDA in investigating FRQ encompasses three clusters. These clusters include applying data mining to detect financial reporting fraud (FRF), using machine learning (ML) to examine FRQ and detecting earnings management as a measure of FRQ. Additionally, the results demonstrate that ML and DM algorithms are the most effective techniques for investigating FRQ by providing various prediction and detection models of FRF and EM. Moreover, BDA offers text mining techniques to detect managerial fraud in narrative reports. The findings indicate that artificial intelligence, deep learning and ML are currently trending methods and are expected to continue in the coming years.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide a comprehensive analysis of the current state of the use of BDA in investigating FRQ.

To enrich the research on the economic consequences of enterprise digital development from the perspective of capacity utilization.

Using a sample of listed firms from 2010 to 2020, this paper exploits text analysis of annual reports to construct a proxy for enterprise digital development.

Results show that enterprise digital development not only improves their own capacity utilization but also generates a positive spillover effect on the capacity utilization of peer firms and firms in the supply chain. Next, based on the incomplete information about market demand and potential competitors when making capacity-building decisions, the mechanism tests show that improving the accuracy of market forecasts and reducing investment surges are potential channels behind the baseline results. Cross-sectional tests show the baseline result is more pronounced when industries are highly homogeneous and when firms have access to less information.

This paper contributes to the research related to the economic consequences of digital development. With the development of the digital economy, the real effects of enterprise digital development have also triggered extensive interest and exploration. Existing studies mainly examine the impact on physical operations, such as specialization division of labor, innovation activities, business performance or total factor productivity (Huang, Yu, & Zhang, 2019; Yuan, Xiao, Geng, & Sheng, 2021; Wang, Kuang, & Shao, 2017; Li, Liu, & Shao, 2021; Zhao, Wang, & Li, 2021). These studies measure the economic benefits from the perspective of the supply (output) side but neglect the importance of the supply system to adapt to the actual market demand. In contrast, this paper focuses on capacity utilization, aimed at estimating the net economic effect of digital development by considering the supply-demand fit scenario. Thus, our findings enrich the relevant studies on the potential consequences of digital development.