A/H1N1 Vaccine Intentions in College Students: An Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior

Abstract

Objective: To test the applicability of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in college students who have not previously received the A/H1N1 vaccine. Participants: Undergraduate communication students at a metropolitan southern university. Methods: In January–March 2010, students from voluntarily participating communication classes completed a hardcopy survey assessing TPB and clinically significant constructs. Hierarchical regression equations predicted variance in vaccine intentions of students who had not received a flu shot (N = 198; 70% Caucasian). Results: The TPB model explained 51.7% (p < .001) of variance in vaccine intentions. Controlling for side effects, self-efficacy and perceived comparative susceptibility predicted intentions when entered in the first block, whereas attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control significantly contribute when entered in the second block. Conclusions: For students who have not previously received a flu vaccine, vaccine communication should utilize self-efficacy and perceived comparative susceptibility to employ the TPB to promote vaccine intentions.     

Psychosocial Correlates of Condom Use Intentions among Junior High School Students in the Bolgatanga Municipality of Ghana

ABSTRACT

Objectives: We explored sociodemographics, sexual experience, and psychosocial factors influencing condom use intentions of adolescents in Northern Ghana. Methods: Based on social cognitive theories and previous empirical studies investigating condom use, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 2,018 adolescents (M age = 15.8 years) in Bolgatanga, Ghana. Correlations and multinomial logistic regressions were performed. Results: Findings showed that attitudes toward condom availability, injunctive norms toward condom use, sex experience, perceived susceptibility towards STIs, and perceived behavioral control toward buying as well as using condoms differentiated between people with different levels of intentions to use condoms. Conclusions: Implications for intervention development are discussed.     

Exploring turnover intentions among three professional groups of employees

Abstract

Although considerable research effort has been devoted to understanding work attitudes, behaviours and outcomes regarding turnover intentions, little has been done to explore it across different professions. This study takes a step in this direction and examines the effect of affective commitment, job satisfaction and job performance on turnover intentions across three professions. To this end, we surveyed three professional groups of employees and managers: financial officers and social workers employed in the public sector and lawyers employed in the private sector. The results of these three studies show that turnover intentions vary across these professions. Social workers exhibit lower turnover intentions than financial officers and lawyers, who tend to exhibit high turnover intentions. In addition, we found that job satisfaction and affective commitment are negatively associated with turnover intentions, while no significant relationship was found to exist between job performance and turnover intentions. The implications of this study suggest that both researchers and practitioners should take into consideration not only the organizational context, but also the occupational context while exploring the process of voluntary turnover.     

Men's influence on the onset and progress of fertility decline in Ghana, 1988–98

While lower fertility is commonly associated with women's reproductive autonomy, we demonstrate that the influence of men's education on reproductive decision-making increased during the first decade of rapid fertility decline in Ghana. Husband's education exerts a stronger influence on wife's fertility intentions than does her own education, and the magnitude of the effect of his education increased significantly from 1988 to 1998. Lower fertility in Ghana seems to be associated more with men's declining fertility desires than with women's increasing reproductive autonomy. Nevertheless, there is some indication that women's education may play a relatively greater role in reproductive decision-making as fertility decline progresses still further.     

Adolescent fertility and religion in Rio de Janeiro,Brazil in the year 2000: The role of Protestantism

We use survey data from Bulgaria and Hungary to investigate the determinants of whether women intend to have a first or a second child and, if so, whether they intend to have the child within the ensuing 2 years or later. These determinants differ significantly by the order and timing of the intended birth. The variables used include measures of anomie and social capital and these appear to be among the factors that determine both whether to have a child and when. There is some evidence that these measures and economic factors are relatively more important in Bulgaria than in Hungary, and that ideational factors are more important in Hungary, particularly in the case of voluntary childlessness.     

Expectancy of life at birth in 36 nationalities of the Soviet Union: 1958-60

In the 36 nationalities of the Soviet Union the estimated expectancy of life at birth ranged from 50·0 years for Chechens to 71·1 years for Latvians with a median of about 67·5 years for Russians.

In essence, the life table function e₀ was generated from the child-woman ratios with the use of intricate equations based on empirical data obtained from official Soviet publications. A modified version of Bourgeois-Pichat's model was used to estimate life expectancies at birth among the 36 nationalities on the basis of their crude death rates and the percentage of population aged 65 years and over. The 1959 U.S.S.R. Census of Population provided information pertaining to the older age groups. The crude death rates were estimated separately with the aid of second-degree polynomials fitted to the crude demographic measures for 109 administrative areas of the Soviet Union for 1960.

Information about recent improvements in public health, as well as conjectural evaluations of economic advancement in recent years were examined and related to the past and present level of mortality among the Russian people and the remaining population of minorities.     

Changes in the Chinese Population’s Fertility Intentions: 1980-2011

On the basis of the findings of 227 surveys of Chinese fertility intentions over the years 1980-2011, this paper investigates the longitudinal changes in fertility intentions through cross-temporal meta-analysis. It is found that the ideal number of children for the Chinese trended downwards from 1980, but since 2000 the average number has remained basically stable at 1.6 to 1.8. In the 1980s, people’s fertility levels were higher than their fertility intentions. With economic and educational progress in China, both fertility levels and fertility intentions showed a downward trend, with the former declining faster than the latter. Since 1990, people’s fertility levels have been lower than their fertility intentions; that is, their actual number of children has been less than their ideal number. This provides an empirical basis for examining the changes in China’s fertility intentions and fertility levels.     

Who Wants to Work for Japanese Companies? A Case in Malaysia

This study examined the factors associated with job‐pursuit intentions for Japanese companies among young, college‐educated Malaysian respondents. Building on the frameworks of Japanese‐style management and the organizational image theory, the study examined the perceived images of Japanese companies and their relations to the actual job‐pursuit intentions among potential job seekers in Malaysia. Using two types of surveys—one based on students (prospective new graduates), and the other based on mid‐career workers—we found that a positive image of Japanese companies’ human resource management was attractive to both types of potential job applicants. Images related to skill training and monetary compensation were more appealing to students, whereas the image of career development was more appealing to mid‐career workers. We also found that Japanese companies tend to attract members of the workforce who are talented in job‐specific skills and professional knowledge in the Malaysian context.     

We never plan to return home: voices of pre-migrant Ghanaian youth

This qualitative study aimed to explore return migration intentions among pre-migrant youth in Ghana. The study applied the neoclassical economics, new economics of labor migration, and structuralist theories. Thirty-four students (16 females and 18 males) were purposively recruited as participants for the study. Each student participated in one out of four digitally recorded focus group discussions. The data were analyzed to identify emerging themes that addressed objectives of the study. Participants were final year undergraduate and graduate university students and their ages ranged from 22 to 34 years. Analysis of the data revealed that participants had plans to migrate to the diaspora to seek income-generating and educational opportunities. Furthermore, evidence showed that the youth included in this study had no intentions of returning to their country of origin due to three major reasons (economic, family pressure, and stigma). For many pre-migrants, returning to their country of origin is not an option, especially if they are able achieve their goals in the diaspora. Given that return migration usually involves labor migrants who did not reap the benefits of higher earnings abroad and were therefore regarded as failed migrants, there is the need for government and other stakeholders to initiate policies that address the socioeconomic and psychological challenges faced by return migrants.     

Determined to stop? Longitudinal analysis of the desire to have no more children in rural Mozambique

Classic demographic theories conceptualize desired family size as a fixed goal that guides fertility intentions over the childbearing years. However, a growing body of research shows that fertility plans, even nominally long-term plans for completed childbearing, change in response to short-term conditions. Because of data limitations, much of this research has focused on low-fertility contexts, but short-term conditions are likely to be even more important in high-fertility contexts. This paper uses three waves of survey data collected in rural Mozambique to study predictors of the desire to stop childbearing in a context of relatively high fertility and high individual and social instability. We use fixed effects models to assess how women’s desires to stop childbearing are shaped by demographic factors, household economic conditions, and health status, controlling for constant individual characteristics. Results provide evidence that fertility desires both reflect stable underlying goals and evolve in response to individual and social circumstances.