Who Really Wins? Efficacy of a Croatian Youth Gambling Prevention Program

This paper reports on the development and pilot evaluation of a Croatian school-based youth gambling prevention program “Who really wins?”. The program is aimed at minimizing risk and enhancing protective factors related to youth gambling. A short-term evaluation of the program was conducted with a sample of 190 first and second year high-school students (67.6% boys, aged 14–17 years; average age 15.61). An experimental design with two groups (Training vs. No Training) and two measurement sessions (pre-test and post-test sessions) was used to evaluate change in problem gambling awareness, cognitive distortions, knowledge of the nature of random events as well as in social skills. Results showed significant changes in the post-test sessions, which can be attributed to changes in the Training group. We observed a decrease in risk factors, namely better knowledge about gambling and less gambling related cognitive distortions. Immediate effects on protective factors such as problem solving skills, refusal skills, and general self-efficacy were not observed. Findings also show program effects to be the same for both boys and girls, students from different types of schools, for those with different learning aptitudes, as well as for those at different risk levels with regard to their gambling, which speaks in favour of the program’s universality. The program had no iatrogenic effects on behaviour change and shows promise as an effective tool for youth gambling prevention. Future research and a long-term evaluation are needed to determine whether the observed changes are also linked to behavioural change.     

POLARIZATION,SECULARIZATION, OR DIFFERENCES AS USUAL? The Denominational Cleavage in U.S. Social Attitudes Since the 1970s

Scholarly debates over modernization and social change in the late twentieth century have raised far-reaching questions about the possible consequences for religious group conflict and differences in behavior, identity, and opinion. Three general theoretical interpretations—polarization, secularization, and stable influence—have been asserted in the relevant literatures, yet which interpretation might best capture the effects of religious group memberships during the past three decades remains unresolved. We seek to advance research and debate on the changing influence of religion by investigating questions about the magnitude of, and trends in, religious groups differences in attitudes toward issues relating to gender, abortion, and sexuality during the past three decades. Building from past research, our analyses make use of three innovations: we apply a new typology of religious group memberships; we evaluate main versus interaction effect models to gauge evidence of change in the magnitude of religious influence; and we use indices that enable comparisons of the magnitude of group-based differences in attitudes across distinct issues and over time. Of the seven different issues we analyze, two reveal evidence of growing group-based differences, while the remaining five are characterized by a pattern of stability. We discuss the significance of these results for understanding limits of secularization theory, considering in conclusion how our results contribute to ongoing debate over the effects of religious group memberships.     

Gender, knowledge about AIDS, reported behavioral change, and the sexual behavior of college students

This article reports on an analysis of the relationships among knowledge about AIDS, self-reported changes in sexual behavior, and independent measures of those behaviors--condom use, coital frequency, and number of partners. The sample consisted of 195 sexually active, heterosexual college students attending a northeastern state university in spring 1988. With other relevant variables held constant, statistically significant associations in the predicted direction were found between knowledge and reported change and each of the dependent variables among the men, especially the men not involved in relationships. Among women, however, the only significant association was that between reporting the beginning of condom use and the frequency with which condoms were used in the past year. Possible reasons for these gender differences are discussed.     

‘Just teach us the skills please,we'll do the rest’: empowering ten‐year‐olds as active researchers

This paper discusses the outcomes of an initiative to empower ten‐year‐olds as active researchers. It debates some of the barriers that are commonly cited with regard to children of this age taking ownership of their own research agendas—power relations, competence, knowledge and skills—and challenges the status quo. It describes a study in which a group of ten‐year‐olds participated in a taught programme aimed at equipping them with the knowledge and skills to design their own research. This empowering process resulted in the children undertaking research projects of their own choosing, designed, carried out and reported entirely from their perspective. Reports from two of those projects are presented as part of this paper.     

Medical students' and tutors' experiences of directed and self-directed learning programs in evidence-based medicine: a qualitative evaluation accompanying a randomized controlled trial

This qualitative study aims to interpret the results of a randomized controlled trial comparing two educational programs (directed learning and self-directed learning) in evidence-based medicine (EBM) for medical students at the University of Oslo from 2002 to 2003. There is currently very little comparative educational research in this field. In the trial, no statistically significant differences between the study groups were shown for any outcomes considered (EBM knowledge, skills, and attitudes). Further analysis suggests that main reason for the negative trial results was that the majority of students learned equally effectively, whichever program they received, although implementation of the educational programs was not complete because of varying attendance. This study illustrates a stepwise evaluation model that might be useful in evaluating other socially complex interventions.     

Classroom Goal Structures and HIV and Pregnancy Prevention Education in Rural High School Health Classrooms

Over 5,000 adolescents enrolled in required rural high school health courses reported their perceptions of mastery and extrinsic goal structures in their health classrooms. Data were collected from all students at three time points (prior to HIV and pregnancy instruction, 3 months after instruction, and 1 year after instruction). Results indicated that classroom goal structures were related to both proximal and distal knowledge, attitudes, intentions, and efficacy beliefs. Results in particular indicate that the perception of a mastery goal structure in health education classrooms fosters knowledge, improved attitudes, enhanced efficacy beliefs, and lower intentions to have sexual intercourse.     

Anger, irrational beliefs, and dysfunctional attitudes in violent dating relationships

The purpose of the present investigation was to evaluate whether perpetrators of dating violence could be differentiated from their nonviolent counterparts on measures of anger and cognitive distortion, specifically Ellis's (1994) irrational beliefs and Beck's (1976) dysfunctional attitudes. Of the 95 male and 152 female undergraduates surveyed, 27% (24 males and 43 females) reported using some form of physical aggression against their current dating partner in the past year. On a self-report measure of anger (State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory), violent individuals reported higher levels of Anger Out and lower levels of Anger Control compared to nonviolent participants. While there were no differences between violent and nonviolent participants' levels of Trait Anger, the results suggest that violent individuals have difficulty controlling angry feelings when they arise, which may increase the likelihood of externally directed forms of anger expression. No significant group differences emerged on questionnaire measures of irrational beliefs and dysfunctional attitudes. Within the violent sample, there was no differential pattern of correlations between measures of anger and cognition relative to the nonviolent sample. The present data suggest that while trait-based measures of cognitive distortion explain little variance in self-reported acts of dating violence, future research should investigate whether (a) cognitive distortions are present during affect-inducing partner conflict situations, or (b) vary with violence severity.     

Educating for cross-disciplinary collaboration: Present trends and future possibilities

Abstract

Like other service providers, social workers periodically seek to harness different professional skills and insights in order to make a more comprehensive response to client needs. Unfortunately, cross-disciplinary relationships are hard to establish and maintain, due to structural and cultural barriers. Education and training programs can be used as tools to inculcate the knowledge, skills and attitudes on which successful collaboration depends. The targeting of undergraduate students is controversial. Since they have yet to develop a sense of professional identity, these students may resist pressures to trust and share. This paper contends that it is reasonable to begin instruction at the undergraduate level, and explores possibilities for curriculum development and research.

In summary

Like other human service providers, social workers must come to grips with industrial realities of the early 21st century. As part of this process, they must reappraise their role relationships with other service providers. On some matters at least, it may be possible to transcend traditional rivalries, and develop new forms of partnership and alliance. Education and training programs have a useful role to play in developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes on which successful cross-disciplinary work depends.     

Tolerance for Potential Environmental Health Risks: The Influence of Knowledge,Benefits, Control,Involvement, and Uncertainty

As organizations, especially companies, regulators, and environmentalists, attempt to communicate with key publics about risk conditions in the workplace and neighborhoods, serious research attention is being given to understanding risk communication, especially as mandated in the Superfund Amendment Reauthorization Act of 1986 (SARA). Title 111, Section 313 of that act requires chemical companies to inform key publics about their chemical emissions. In this vein, we compare respondents who are more tolerant of environmental risk with those who are less tolerant based on each group's level of knowledge, perception of benefits, level of involvement, perceived control, and level of uncertainty concerning a potential risk source. Analysis showed a significant difference between less risk-tolerant and more risk-tolerant subjects concerning perception of benefits and level of involvement. As predicted from previous research, no significant difference was found between the two groups based on their knowledge about the issue. No significant differences were found between the two groups for perceived control and level of uncertainty, although differences were found to follow predictions. These findings were analyzed in detail, with special attention to implications both for public relations practitioners who are interested in the content of risk messages and for defining targeted audiences based on those audiences' desire for information.     

Effect of instructional videotapes on AIDS knowledge and attitudes

The effectiveness of four commercial videotape presentations in changing AIDS knowledge and attitudes among 584 college students was evaluated in a pre-post design with control group and follow-up. AIDS knowledge and attitudes were measured prior to, immediately after, and 4 to 6 weeks following presentation of the informational videotapes. In addition, subjects rated each videotape on several specific dimensions, including overall quality. The effects of age, sex, prior exposure to AIDS information, and presence v absence of post-presentation discussion were measured as covariates. In general, there was a significant immediate increase in AIDS knowledge attributable to all four videotapes (p less than .001). These gains persisted until follow-up, with no erosion for three of the four tapes. With the exception of perceived effectiveness of AIDS prevention methods (p less than .001), attitudes toward AIDS showed no change as a result of exposure to any of the videotapes (p greater than .05). Viewer ratings showed two of the videotapes to be superior in terms of perceived overall quality (p less than .05). There were also differences in ratings of videos on other dimensions. Among the covariates, there was no relationship at time of follow-up between post-presentation discussion v no discussion and either knowledge gain or attitude change. Sex was related to one attitude component, with women perceiving the AIDS epidemic as more severe than men (p less than .001).     

Acculturation, gender stereotypes, and attitudes about dating violence among Latino youth

This study examined the relationship between personal characteristics (gender, acculturation, belief in gender stereotypes, recent dating experiences), and attitudes and knowledge about dating violence in urban Latino youth (N = 678). All participants completed self-administered surveys at school. Relative to girls, boys held more problematic (proviolence) attitudes about dating violence and reported less knowledge about dating violence and its consequences. Teens who were more traditional (less acculturated), those who endorsed gender stereotypes, and those who reported recent fearful dating experiences tended to report less knowledge about abuse and lower endorsement of nonviolent attitudes. Multivariate analyses revealed that all four personal variables predicted dating violence knowledge. By contrast, attitudes were predicted by endorsement of gender stereotypes only, or gender stereotypes and gender. Implications for dating violence interventions and future directions for research are explored.     

Involving carers from minority ethnic backgrounds in carer-led research

This qualitative pilot study investigated the interest of minority ethnic informal carers, with no previous experience of research, in engaging in carer-led research. Individual face-to-face interviews and focus groups were conducted to explore the understanding and attitudes carers hold to research alongside the motivators and de-motivators to their involvement in carer-led projects. The findings reveal that carers are interested in initiatives with a practical beneficial outcome for carers or those they look after. Black and minority ethnic carers identified interpreter and translation resources, gender sensitivity and flexibility around their involvement as major considerations. Carers’ perceptions of their transferable skills from personal or professional experiences to research were also closely linked to their willingness to engage in carer-led studies.     

Attitude Change among College Students toward Homosexuality

Abstract

Although audio-visual materials are commonly used on college and university campuses, frequently those materials are not evaluated to determine what impact they may have on students' attitudes. The present research compared the effect of three audio-visual programs on attitudes of college students toward homosexuality. The three programs included a film that dealt with prejudice towards numerous groups but not towards homosexuals; a video-tape of a homosexual clergyman who discussed sexual variance with particular emphasis on homosexuality; and two films in which couples were explicitly engaging in homosexual behavior. A control group was used. All groups received a lecture about homosexuality.

Using a two-way analysis of covariance, significant differences were found among the groups. Subjects that watched the film on prejudice and the video-tape of a discussion of homosexuality, as well as the control group, were all significantly more tolerant toward homosexuality than subjects who watched the explicit films. The difference among groups was immediate only. Five weeks after exposure to audio-visual programs, there were no significant differences. There was no significant difference between males and females, either immediately after seeing the programs or five weeks later. Thus, attitudes of college students toward homosexuality can be altered and were not gender specific.     

Sexual health programming for vulnerable youth: Improving knowledge,attitudes, and behaviors

PurposeAmong girls in foster care, 48% become pregnant at least once by age 19 (Dworsky & Courtney, 2010). Youth in or at-risk for foster care (YFC) report limited knowledge about, access to, and use of condoms; ambivalent attitudes towards teen parenting; and participation in other risky behaviors. For the current study, we adapted and supplemented an evidence-based sexual health program called SiHLE, using a systematic adaptation framework (ADAPT-ITT, Wingood & DiClemete, 2008), to address the unique and targeted needs of youth living in a temporary shelter due to lack of housing. Youth in this study were either in foster care and awaiting placement, or having serious family problems and were at-risk of entering the foster care system.MethodsThirty-six youth participated in SiHLE-YFC during their stay at a temporary shelter. Four 90-minute sessions focused on increasing sexual health knowledge, improving attitudes towards and self-efficacy of condom use, and developing core skills such as problem-solving and communication.ResultsAs hypothesized, youth showed high satisfaction with the intervention and significant improvement in sexual health knowledge from pre to post. At one-month follow-up, youth continued to show significant improvement in sexual health knowledge, along with a significant reduction in risky sexual behaviors. Though not significant, there were moderate effect sizes for changes in attitudes towards teen pregnancy and condoms. There were no changes in attitudes towards teen parenting.ConclusionTaken together, findings suggest that sexual health education directly targeting the unique needs of YFC may improve sexual health knowledge and behavior, and are discussed in the context of challenges associated with intervention and research with this population.     

Assessment of vocational opportunities and continuing job placement for persons with mental disabilities: factors indicating levels of necessary support

We determined primary factors in allocating support for vocational opportunities and continuing job placement for clients with mental disabilities. The study analyzed 29 items regarding work attitudes and vocational skills for 70 clients as assessed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Rehabilitation Center for the Physically and Mentally Disabled. The evaluations were performed using the situational assessment approach with a 3-point support scale system assigned through observation of behavior. The results of these evaluations placed 35 clients in employment groups (A and B) and 35 clients in a sheltered workshop group (C). The data was analyzed by multivariate analysis. Predictions of success and functional differences among the groups were indicated by the data. Differences were found among the three groups in work attitudes and skills such as "self-direction" and "directions for social participation". Out of the 35 clients currently employed, 11 were recognized as needing ongoing assistance from supported employment offices. For the supported employment group (B), the major work attitudes and skills for which they required continuous services for maintaining stable jobs were 'emotional stability' and 'learning of working skills and accomplishment of work.' In a previous study, the major differences between the competitive employment group (A) and the sheltered workshop group (C) were in areas of 'responsibilities,' 'goals for life,' 'motivation for the work and understanding of contents for work,' and 'safety during work.' Our study supports these findings. In addition, transition from the sheltered workshop to supported employment required training to improve skills and support for 'responsibilities,' 'goals for life,' 'participation in leisure activities and community-based activities,' and 'preparation and cleaning for work.'     

Work‐Family Commitment and Attitudes Toward Feminism in Medical Students

The authors examine work—family commitment and attitudes toward feminism in a cross‐sectional, medical student sample (126 women, 145 men). Results indicated no significant gender differences in commitment levels. Third‐year students reported significantly more family commitment than did students in lower years. Women reported significantly more positive attitudes toward feminism than did men. Future research should examine commitment to work and family roles relative to participation in work and family roles and whether medical students have more conservative attitudes toward feminism than do other groups. Reframing multiple role commitments as an opportunity for role integration may help clients identify how work and family can be mutually enhancing and growth‐producing rather than conflictual.     

COMPARING THREE MODES OF INSTRUCTION IN A GRADUATE SOCIAL WORK PROGRAM

Educational outcomes are compared for students taking a social work administration course in 3 formats: traditional, Internet, and hybrid. The traditional group had face-to-face instruction, whereas the Internet students received all instruction through the Internet. The hybrid students had a balance between the 2. Course readings and assignments were the same for each group. The results indicated no difference among these 3 groups in knowledge gain, course content self-efficacy gain, or student satisfaction. These data add to the growing body of research suggesting that online instruction achieves outcomes comparable with the traditional format.     

Forced Migration and HIV/AIDS Risks in Angola

This study examines HIV/AIDS-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour of forced migrants in Luanda, Angola by comparing them with those of voluntary migrants and long-time city residents. The study uses data from a survey of 1081 men and women conducted in 2004 in two suburban municipalities of Luanda. One of the municipalities has a large share and the other a small share of the forced migrant population. The analysis detects differences between forced migrants and the other groups in HIV/AIDS-related knowledge and attitudes, but these differences are explained away by the demographic characteristics and socio-economic disadvantages of forced migrants. With respect to behaviour, we find that regardless of other characteristics forced migrant men are more likely to engage in practices that may lead to increased HIV risks than long-time male city dwellers. The differences between forced and voluntary male migrants show the same tendency but are not statistically significant. While women overall are less likely to engage in potentially risky practices than men, differences among women in the three migration-status groups are not as pronounced as among men.     

Evaluation of Alcohol Screening,Brief Intervention,and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Training for Social Workers

Social work education is well positioned for workforce development initiatives that prepare practitioners to use Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) with people at risk for alcohol use disorders. This article presents preliminary process and outcome evaluation data from the first year of a three-year grant which suggests that the training is acceptable and results in significant changes in trainees’ knowledge, attitudes, and self-perceived SBIRT skills. Training was embedded within the curricula of an urban school of social work, which includes a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) program and a single-concentration clinical Master of Social Work (MSW). Trainees included social work students (n = 134) and field instructors (n = 38). More than 90% of students were very satisfied or satisfied with the training, and 100% of field instructors rated the training as excellent or good. Students demonstrated significant changes from pre- to posttraining in substance use knowledge, confidence in SBIRT skills, and attitudes about integrating SBIRT into practice. Field instructors reported increased confidence in screening. Integrating SBIRT training into social work curriculum is a promising method of developing a workforce that can effectively prevent and alleviate alcohol misuse.