Lindsay Bennett and Sharyn Burns
Obesity in children and adolescents is a significant public health concern. The World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework promotes good nutrition and…
Abstract
Purpose
Obesity in children and adolescents is a significant public health concern. The World Health Organization Health Promoting Schools (HPS) framework promotes good nutrition and physical activity in school settings. While HPS is embraced globally, effective implementation and sustainable programmes are a continued challenge. This paper aims to report on the characteristics of current school interventions based on HPS and implementation barriers and enablers.
Design/methodology/approach
A literature search identified peer-reviewed studies of school health interventions reflective of the HPS framework focusing on obesity prevention. Studies from all countries were included, if conducted in primary and/or secondary schools; included a sufficient amount of qualitative implementation or process evaluation data to draw conclusions regarding key barriers and enablers to implementation; and were published in English.
Findings
Nine interventions (n = 9) from seven countries were included. Most were implemented in primary schools and focused on specific grade levels. Engaging parents, the home environment, teacher time constraints, fun interventions, student participation, teacher training, integration with the curriculum and stakeholder engagement all emerged as strong implementation themes. Teachers as role models, establishing community partnerships and policy support also emerged as common themes.
Originality/value
Future interventions may benefit from enhancing teacher and parent health promotion. Partnerships with initiatives focusing on environmental sustainability may simultaneously benefit human and planetary health while strengthening stakeholder engagement opportunities and consistent messaging throughout the community. More comprehensive evaluation data are needed, in particular, for long-term HPS initiatives.
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Jonine Jancey and Sharyn Burns
Few studies have evaluated the satisfaction of mature‐aged postgraduate students. The purpose of this paper is to determine postgraduate coursework students' service expectations…
Abstract
Purpose
Few studies have evaluated the satisfaction of mature‐aged postgraduate students. The purpose of this paper is to determine postgraduate coursework students' service expectations in regard to academic course quality, university services and industry links.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study of 51 taught postgraduate students enrolled in the School of Public Health nested postgraduate courses was conducted. Students completed an online self‐complete survey (response rate of 58 per cent). Descriptive statistics and univariate analysis (chi‐square) were used to explore associations between variables.
Findings
Postgraduate taught students come from a variety of career backgrounds. They place a great deal of importance on their educational experience, especially in regard to academic factors: reputable degree; skilled engaging teachers; access to online resources; ready contact with academics; and supportive enrolment processes.
Practical implications
A greater awareness of student expectations equips universities to provide a more meaningful pedagogical experience and to better address the unique needs of postgraduate students. This is likely to enhance lifelong learning and support retention and progression rates.
Originality/value
This research provides a case study of a specific group of postgraduate students and helps understand some of the unique requirements of this postgraduate group, which is largely older, female, domestic students.
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David James Schmidtke, Mai Nguyen and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
This paper aims to provide an overview of a social marketing intervention that aimed to increase physical activity (aligned to UN SDG 3) among adolescents in Bali, Indonesia.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide an overview of a social marketing intervention that aimed to increase physical activity (aligned to UN SDG 3) among adolescents in Bali, Indonesia.
Design/methodology/approach
Three sequential phases were followed to deliver the social marketing intervention. Phrase 1 (formative research) gained insights that guided a subsequent social marketing intervention. Phase 2 (pilot intervention) gathered preliminary results, to support the development of the final intervention. Phase 3 (intervention) evaluated the effectiveness of the two-month social marketing intervention.
Findings
The results from the intervention tested in this paper identified significant behaviour change in physical activity, demonstrating the effectiveness of the intervention. Furthermore, the paper identifies which intervention inputs contribute to behaviour change and which do not.
Research limitations/implications
This paper describes the outcomes from an eight-week pilot programme that aimed to increase rates of physical activity for Indonesian adolescents and provides early evidence of impact.
Practical implications
This study found that providing adolescents with the opportunity to play team sports increases physical activity behaviour.
Originality/value
There is a lot of ground that needs to be made in terms of designing programs capable of achieving impact in the Global South. The approach reported in this paper can serve as a best-practice model for researchers wanting to drive lasting behaviour change to overcome known inequities in the Global South.
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Ryan McAndrew, Judy Drennan, Rebekah Russell-Bennett and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
Collective motives for alcohol consumption represent a nascent field, with individual-level attributes, peer pressure and broad-level environmental elements being at the forefront…
Abstract
Purpose
Collective motives for alcohol consumption represent a nascent field, with individual-level attributes, peer pressure and broad-level environmental elements being at the forefront of research. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of friendships in the context of alcohol consumption and determine what group-level motives exist for alcohol consumption.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 participants aged 18–30, these discussed the role the participant’s friendship group played in alcohol consumption and helped to elucidate what collective and group-level motives existed.
Findings
Group-level motives can steer a collective’s alcohol consumption by either endorsing it or degrading it, the findings revealed four group-level motives: these were, competition, conformity, hedonism, with opportunity cost receptiveness acting as a buffer.
Research limitations/implications
The small sample and qualitative nature of the study means external validity still needs to be established to generalize the research to other audiences.
Practical implications
By unpacking group-level motives researchers can develop group-level strategies and match specialized interventions with the right priority group.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to address group-level motives for alcohol consumption and makes an important contribution to understanding how group-level factors can impact individuals.
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Virginia Munro, Denni Arli and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
Internationalization has witnessed rapid growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in emerging markets, requiring reflection on how to operate within these markets. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Internationalization has witnessed rapid growth of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in emerging markets, requiring reflection on how to operate within these markets. The purpose of this paper is to assist MNEs to adapt to these markets, and adopt corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy with social initiatives (SIs), relevant to stakeholders, including their employees and the communities they reside in. The current paper does this by examining the relationships between employee identification with the organization’s SIs (SI-I) and their engagement in them (SI-E), alongside their perspective on the general importance of CSR (ICSR) and employee values to help with CSR (VCSR). The findings will better prepare managers in pre-emerging and emerging markets to design CSR strategy and SIs relevant to these markets and their communities.
Design/methodology/approach
Guided by social identity theory, this paper examines local employee identification of SI (SI-I) and engagement in SI (SI-E), in two MNE subsidiaries across varying emerging market levels in developing countries, utilizing a quantitative survey design. Structural equation modeling is utilized to analyze responses of N=544 employees in two South East Asian countries, namely, Indonesia (as an emerging country) and Vietnam (as a pre-emerging country), to determine any differences that may exist between the two countries.
Findings
The findings reveal that SI identification (SI-I) has a strong effect on employee engagement in SIs (SI-E) and also the importance they attach to organizations conducting CSR (ICSR). However, employee values to help with CSR activities (VCSR) has an effect on Vietnamese employees but not Indonesian employees. Likewise, SI-I mediates the effect between ICSR and SI-E for Vietnamese employees but not for Indonesian, suggesting differences exist between these two developing countries where the less developed country, Vietnam, is defined as pre-emerging and Indonesia as an emerging market (MSCI, 2016).
Practical implications
An awareness of the differences that may exist across employees in emerging markets will assist managers to design CSR strategy relevant to the level of market emergence of the host country, allowing for better CSR SIs identification and engagement in these countries.
Originality/value
The research model for this analysis utilizes constructs based on past Identification literature, while including new constructs for this study adapted from past literature, and underpinned uniquely by social identity theory in an International Business setting. The findings indicate differences between emerging and pre-emerging markets for particular constructs, which suggests the importance of considering the market level when implementing MNE CSR strategy. Limited research has been conducted examining the differences between emerging and pre-emerging markets, so further research is required to replicate these findings and provide insight into the differences that may exist for CSR SIs in emerging markets.
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Julia Carins and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
– The purpose of this paper is to report on a quantitative study of the food environment designed to measure aspects of support for healthy eating.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on a quantitative study of the food environment designed to measure aspects of support for healthy eating.
Design/methodology/approach
An ecological view of eating behaviour was taken by examining the food environment that surrounded a military population of interest. Food outlets (n = 34) were assessed using the Nutrition Environment Measures Survey in store (NEMS-S), Nutrition Environment Measures Study in restaurants (NEMS-R) and military Nutrition Environment Assessment Tool (mNEAT) instruments to determine how well food outlets supported healthy eating.
Findings
Despite better-than-average provision of healthy options on-base, the total environment surrounding the military base barely supports healthy eating. Average support to healthy eating was 45 per cent (NEMS) or 27 per cent (mNEAT) of support that could be measured. Individuals accessing this food environment would find few healthy alternatives, little information directing them to healthy choices and pricing and promotion that drives unhealthy eating behaviours.
Research limitations/implications
This study focused on one food environment; replication is recommended to establish foundation data for benchmarking outlets, and further develop these measures for Australian settings. Future studies may assess the media environment to further extend the ecological model used.
Practical implications
A method to measure the food environment is demonstrated which provides formative research insights for use when planning social marketing interventions. Consideration of these influences together with intra- and inter-personal influences offer the potential to better design social marketing healthy eating interventions, by addressing multiple levels within an ecological framework.
Originality/value
This paper answers calls for social marketers to consider the influence of the surrounding environment, using methods not previously used in Australian settings.
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Lisa Schuster, Krzysztof Kubacki and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
This paper aims to investigate whether application of a community-based social marketing (CBSM) principle, namely, increasing the visibility of a target behaviour in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate whether application of a community-based social marketing (CBSM) principle, namely, increasing the visibility of a target behaviour in the community, can change social norms surrounding the behaviour.
Design/methodology/approach
A repeated measures quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation’s Walk to School 2013 programme. The target population for the survey were caregivers of primary school children aged between 5-12 years old. The final sample size across the three online surveys administered was 102 respondents.
Findings
The results suggest that the programme increased caregivers’ perceptions that children in their community walked to and from school and that walking to and from school is socially acceptable.
Originality/value
The study contributes to addressing the recent call for research examining the relationship between CBSM principles and programme outcomes. Further, the results provide insight for enhancing the social norms approach, which has traditionally relied on changing social norms exclusively through media campaigns.
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Nuray Buyucek, Kathy Knox and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
This paper aimed to examine the role of social factors and individual factors on alcohol drinking in a licensed premise.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aimed to examine the role of social factors and individual factors on alcohol drinking in a licensed premise.
Design/methodology/approach
An unobtrusive covert systematic observational study of 632 licensed premise patrons was conducted during May 2015.
Findings
Convergence between genders was observed with females drinking as much and as long as males; 57.9 per cent of patrons drank two and more servings, exceeding daily recommended amounts. Social factors such as group size are more influential on drinking than individual factors such as gender and smoking status. Serving practices such as straws and buying drinks in rounds influence the quantity of alcohol consumed.
Research limitations/implications
The study focussed on one licensed premise. Replication of the method outlined in the current study in different licensed venues, states and countries will permit the role of policy, drinking environments and drinking cultures to be understood.
Practical implications
Drinking patterns of both genders are converging. Thus, intervention efforts should target both genders.
Originality/value
This paper contributes a structured observation protocol that extends our understanding of alcohol drinking beyond quantity by incorporating observation of duration of consumption for each serve, permitting identification of social and environmental factors that can be used to lower licensed premise alcohol drinking.
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Timo Dietrich, Jakob Trischler, Lisa Schuster and Sharyn Rundle-Thiele
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how vulnerable consumers can be involved in transformative service design and how this approach may enhance the design of such…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how vulnerable consumers can be involved in transformative service design and how this approach may enhance the design of such services. The study also analyzes how co-design with vulnerable consumers differs from existing user involvement processes with the purpose of developing a co-design framework.
Design/methodology/approach
A case study approach was employed, with six high schools in Australia identified as sites to conduct co-design sessions for a school-based alcohol education program. Adolescents were invited to review and (re)design an existing alcohol education program.
Findings
The study indicates that co-design with vulnerable consumers cannot be approached in the same way as conventional user involvement processes. Based on the insights generated from six co-design sessions as well as the examination of user involvement and co-design literature, the authors propose a six-step co-design framework. The six steps comprise resourcing, planning, recruiting, sensitizing, facilitation and evaluation.
Research limitations/implications
The co-design framework illustrates important differences to conventional user involvement processes. However, the generalizability of the research findings is limited to a specific study setting and a narrowly defined sample. Future research in a different setting is needed to further validate the presented findings.
Practical implications
For service design practice, this study provides guidelines on how co-design activities with vulnerable consumers can be effectively resourced, planned, recruited, sensitized, facilitated and evaluated. The framework outlines how co-design may be applied so that vulnerable consumers can become empowered participants during the design process.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the knowledge in transformative service research – a priority in service research – and service design by extending the boundaries of our understanding of processes and tools for the involvement of vulnerable consumers in transformative service design.