Tawanda Machingura, Gurjeet Kaur, Chris Lloyd, Sharon Mickan, David Shum, Evelyne Rathbone and Heather Green
Previous research has provided limited evidence on whether and how demographic factors associate with sensory processing patterns (SPP) in adults. This paper aims to examine…
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has provided limited evidence on whether and how demographic factors associate with sensory processing patterns (SPP) in adults. This paper aims to examine relationships between SPPs and sociodemographic factors of age, sex, education and ethnicity in healthy adults.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross-sectional study design was used. A total of 71 adult participants was recruited from the community, using convenience sampling. Each participant completed the Adolescent/Adult Sensory Profile (AASP) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales – short version (DASS-21). Demographic information on age, sex, education and ethnicity was collected. Results were analysed using descriptive statistics and multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA).
Findings
SPPs, as measured by the AASP, were significantly correlated to demographic factors of age and education after controlling for emotional distress using the DASS-21. A statistically significant multivariate effect was found across the four dependent variables (low registration, seeking, sensitivity and avoiding) for the age category, F = 6.922, p = 0.009,
Research limitations/implications
This was a cross-sectional study with limitations including that the study used a relatively small sample and was based on self-reported healthy participants.
Practical implications
SPPs may correlate with healthy adults’ age and to a lesser extent education. This suggests that it might be helpful to consider such demographic factors when interpreting SPPs in clinical populations, although further research in larger samples is needed to reach firmer conclusions about possible implications of demographic variables.
Originality/value
The findings in this paper add to the growing evidence that suggest that SPPs vary with sociodemographic factors.
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Jing Sun, Nicholas Buys, Donald Stewart, David Shum and Lynette Farquhar
This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of smoking amongst university students in Brisbane, Australia and associated risk factors.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to evaluate the prevalence of smoking amongst university students in Brisbane, Australia and associated risk factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A cross‐sectional design was used for the study. A sample of 2,414 university students aged 18‐30 was examined to estimate the prevalence of tobacco use. Smoking was measured by means of an online survey that inquired about current tobacco use, socio‐demographic characteristics, self‐rated physical and mental health status and attitudes toward smoking.
Findings
The prevalence of tobacco use was 24.9 per cent among male students, 16.6 per cent among female students and 18.8 per cent overall. Low to medium level stress is a strong predictor of smoking in male students. Age and income are significantly related to smoking in female students. For both male and female students, disengagement coping strategies to deal with stressors, feeling not bothered by exposure to smoking, and knowledge of the effect of smoking on health were found to be independently related to smoking.
Research limitations/implications
Factors associated with an increased probability of tobacco smoking were: stress in male students, disengagement coping strategies and holding approval attitudes toward smoking, acceptance of exposure to smoking, and poor knowledge of the effect of smoking on health in both male and female students. It is recommended that active coping strategies, such as exercise and social participation, are the most effective ways of enabling students to cope with smoking cessation and other stressors.
Practical implications
Future initiatives may need to focus on increasing the environmental supports to assist students to actively cope with life stressors, In addition, the implementation of health education programmes, which are designed to modify behaviour via a change in attitudes and beliefs in university, should be examined.
Originality/value
The association between cigarette smoking and morbidity and quality of life among university students is not well documented in Australia. The contribution of this paper is to increase understanding of the association between smoking and life stressors, coping strategies, attitudes and knowledge about the effects of smoking on health in Australia university students.
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Jing Sun, Nicholas Buys, Donald Stewart and David Shum
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether university students' smoking behaviour is associated with higher levels of stress and depression directly, or indirectly, via…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether university students' smoking behaviour is associated with higher levels of stress and depression directly, or indirectly, via the mediation of coping, personal beliefs and social support.
Design/methodology/approach
The study design involves a cross‐sectional survey. Structural equation modelling was employed to explore the relationships between smoking behaviour, stress and depression via the mediating effects of coping resources, personal beliefs and social support.
Findings
The higher the stress and depression levels, the more likely the respondents' were to adopt disengagement coping strategies and to engage in smoking behaviour. Stress was not found to have a significant direct effect on smoking behaviour when depression, active coping abilities and social support were included as mediators in the model. Thus, if stress is high yet coping skills are also high and personal beliefs are anti‐smoking, the likelihood of smoking was low.
Research limitations/implications
Disengagement coping strategies significantly increased the likelihood of smoking when stress heightened depression level. However, stress did not independently increase the chance of smoking when active coping and social support were moderating the effects of depression on smoking behaviour. Personal beliefs also acted as an independent contributor to increase the likelihood of smoking when pro‐smoking beliefs were held by individuals. Overall, this study suggests that personal coping strategies and personal beliefs, with social support, are important protective mechanisms through which stress and depression influence smoking behaviour.
Practical implications
Health promotion programmes to encourage smoking cessation should therefore include measures to encourage young adults to adopt active coping strategies (e.g. exercise, recreational activities) to make interventions effective in reducing smoking rate.
Originality/value
This study identifies important mechanisms that underpin smoking behaviour among university students. The results provide evidence that supports the resilience perspective that personal coping resources, personal beliefs and protective factors, such as social support, are important factors either to lead people to adopt smoking behaviour, or to decrease the likelihood of smoking.
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Dongwon Yun and Cass Shum
Drawing on attribution theory, this study aims to examine how and when abusive supervision affects insubordination, focusing on employees’ attribution bias related to leader…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on attribution theory, this study aims to examine how and when abusive supervision affects insubordination, focusing on employees’ attribution bias related to leader gender.
Design/methodology/approach
Two mixed-method studies were used to test the proposed research framework. Study 1 adopted a 2 (abusive supervision: low vs high) by 2 (leader gender: male vs female) by employee gender-leadership bias quasi-experiment. A sample of 173 US F&B employees completed Study 1. In Study 2, 116 hospitality employees responded to two-wave, time-lagged surveys. They answered questions on abusive supervision and gender-leadership bias in Survey 1. Two weeks later, they reported negative external attribution (embodied in injury initiation) and insubordination.
Findings
Hayes’ PROCESS macro results verified a three-way moderated mediation. The three-way interaction among abusive supervision, leader gender and gender-leadership bias affects external attribution, increasing insubordination. Employees with high leader–gender bias working under female leaders make more external attribution and engage in subsequent insubordination in the presence of abusive supervision.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, that examines the mediating role of external attribution of abusive supervision. Second, this research explains the gender glass ceiling by examining employees’ attribution bias against female leaders.
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Asli Ogunc and Randall C. Campbell
Advances in Econometrics is a series of research volumes first published in 1982 by JAI Press. The authors present an update to the history of the Advances in Econometrics series…
Abstract
Advances in Econometrics is a series of research volumes first published in 1982 by JAI Press. The authors present an update to the history of the Advances in Econometrics series. The initial history, published in 2012 for the 30th Anniversary Volume, describes key events in the history of the series and provides information about key authors and contributors to Advances in Econometrics. The authors update the original history and discuss significant changes that have occurred since 2012. These changes include the addition of five new Senior Co-Editors, seven new AIE Fellows, an expansion of the AIE conferences throughout the United States and abroad, and the increase in the number of citations for the series from 7,473 in 2012 to over 25,000 by 2022.
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Lindsey Banham and Jim Connelly
This commentary surveys the current arguments for and against modifying the work of doctors and nurses by placing the main viewpoints – substitution and diversification – within…
Abstract
This commentary surveys the current arguments for and against modifying the work of doctors and nurses by placing the main viewpoints – substitution and diversification – within the policy background, particularly that of the UK. We discuss the forces for modification: cost effectiveness, professional development, quality improvement and pragmatic management and how each provides a stand‐point for evaluation of the issues. Policy makers and managers in the health sector should be aware of the rather fragmented evidence base for doctor‐nurse substitution and should consider skill mix changes only when they are clear about: purpose, evidence base, acceptable risks, accountability and quality assurance. Doctor‐nurse substitution is not necessarily cost effective, nor is it unfailingly a gain in nurse professionalism or in quality of care. Of the management perspectives available – advocacy, skepticism or pragmatism – the current evidence and policy base favours pragmatism over evaluations of the rightness or wrongness of a general policy.
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The way of thought and vision and memory is that they often come upon you unexpectedly, presenting nothing new but usually with a clarity and emphasis that it all seems new. This…
Abstract
The way of thought and vision and memory is that they often come upon you unexpectedly, presenting nothing new but usually with a clarity and emphasis that it all seems new. This will sometimes happen after a long period of indecision or when things are extremely difficult, as they have long been for the country, in most homes and among ordinary individuals. Watching one's life savings dwindle away, the nest‐egg laid down for security in an uncertain world, is a frightening process. This has happened to the nation, once the richest in the world, and ot its elderly people, most of them taught the habit of saving in early youth. We are also taught that what has been is past changing; the clock cannot be put back, and the largesse—much of it going to unprincipled spongers—distributed by a spendthrift Government as token relief is no answer, not even to present difficulties. The response can only come by a change of heart in those whose brutal selfishness have caused it all; and this may be a long time in coming. In the meantime, it is a useful exercise to consider our assets, to recognize those which must be protected at all costs and upon which, when sanity returns, the future depends.