scholarly journals Perceptions of the Uses of Cell Phones and Their Impact on the Health of Early Adolescents in Barcelona: a Qualitative Study

Author(s):  
Marc Olivella-Cirici ◽  
Esther Sánchez-Ledesma ◽  
Xavier Continente ◽  
Catrina Clotas ◽  
Glòria Perez

AbstractThe use of cell phones and video games has transformed rapidly in adolescents, posing a challenge for the scientific community. Using qualitative methodology and a socioconstructivist perspective, we identified perceptions and beliefs about the different uses of cell phones and video games and their relationship with the health and wellbeing of the adolescent population of Barcelona. From an analysis of discussion groups among early adolescents (n = 66 students aged 13–14 years, segmented by gender and socioeconomic level of the school neighborhood), information was obtained on (i) digital devices and their uses, (ii) the determinants of the uses of cell phones and video games, and (iii) the relationship between possible problematic uses and health and wellbeing. Responsible and problematic uses were identified. Problematic use was associated with compensation for social deficits and sometimes with dependency on the device. Differences were identified by gender (boys preferred video games and girls’ social networks). The adolescents were aware of the possible negative impacts on their health associated with problematic use of cell phones and video games and highlighted a lack of critical education in digital skills.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5056
Author(s):  
Barbara Pick ◽  
Delphine Marie-Vivien

This paper explores the issues of representativeness and participation in the collective processes involved in the elaboration of the geographical indications (GI) specifications and the governance of the GI initiatives. The objective is to understand the relationship among collective dynamics, representativeness of relevant stakeholders, and the legal frameworks for the protection of GIs. Using a qualitative methodology based on an analysis of six case studies in France and Vietnam, we show the role of the law in shaping the different ways of understanding and implementing the concept of representativeness in the French producer-led and the Vietnamese state-driven approaches to GI protection. In France, the GI specifications result from negotiations among all legitimate stakeholders, which may prove long, complex, and lead to standards that can continue to be challenged after the GI registration. We also argue that the rules for the representation of all GI users in the decision-making processes do not necessarily lead to fairness. In Vietnam, local stakeholders usually have a consultative role under the authority of the State, resulting in their little understanding and low use of the GI. Their empowerment is further hindered by the involvement of state authorities in the management of the producers’ associations. We conclude by discussing in-between solutions to promote the producers’ representation and participation.


2021 ◽  
pp. 135406882110119
Author(s):  
Matthew Polacko

Previous research into the relationship between income inequality and turnout inequality has produced mixed results, as consensus is lacking whether inequality reduces turnout for all income groups, low-income earners, or no one. Therefore, this paper builds on this literature by introducing supply-side logic, through the first individual-level test of the impact that income inequality (moderated by policy manifesto positions) has on turnout. It does so through multilevel logistic regressions utilizing mixed effects, on a sample of 30 advanced democracies in 102 elections from 1996 to 2016. It finds that higher levels of income inequality significantly reduce turnout and widen the turnout gap between rich and poor. However, it also finds that when party systems are more polarized, low-income earners are mobilized the greatest extent coupled with higher inequality, resulting in a significantly reduced income gap in turnout. The findings magnify the negative impacts income inequality can exert on political behavior and contribute to the study of policy offerings as a key moderating mechanism in the relationship.


Work ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Amy Wagenfeld ◽  
Daniel Winterbottom

BACKGROUND: Adjusting to incarceration is traumatic. An under-utilized strategy understood to buffer and counteract the negative impacts of incarceration are nature interventions. OBJECTIVE: Outcomes of an interdisciplinary design studio course focused on developing masterplans for a women’s prison in the Pacific Northwest (US) are presented. Course objectives included comprehension and application of therapeutic and culturally expressive design principles to increase the benefits of environmental design within a carceral setting; collaboration, developing a deeper, more representative understanding of how design processes can improve the lives of marginalized populations; and enhancing design skills, including at masterplan and schematic scale using an iterative process and reflection. METHODS: A landscape architect, occupational therapist, and architect teaching team, with support from architects and justice specialists facilitated an elective design studio course to redesign the Washington Corrections Center for Women campus. RESULTS: In a ten-week academic quarter, six student design teams created conceptual masterplans for therapeutic outdoor spaces at the Washington Corrections Center for Women. Students presented their plans to prison staff, current and ex-offenders, and architects and landscape architects in practice, and then received positive feedback. CONCLUSION: Despite well-documented need for and value of nature interventions to improve health and wellbeing for everyone regardless of circumstance or situation, the project awaits administrative approval to move forward to installation.


Animation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Raz Greenberg

Produced throughout the 1980s using the company’s Adventure Game Interpreter engine, the digital adventure games created by American software publisher Sierra On-Line played an important and largely overlooked role in the development of animation as an integral part of the digital gaming experience. While the little historical and theoretical discussion of the company’s games of the era focuses on their genre, it ignores these games’ contribution to the relationship between the animated avatars and the gamers that control them – a relationship that, as argued in this article, in essence turns gamers into animators. If we consider Chris Pallant’s (2019) argument in ‘Video games and animation’ that animation is essential to the sense of immersion within a digital game, then the great freedom provided to the gamers in animating their avatars within Sierra On-Line’s adventure games paved the way to the same sense of immersion in digital. And, if we refer to Gonzalo Frasca’s (1999) divide of digital games to narrative-led or free-play (ludus versus paidea) in ‘Ludology meets narratology: Similitude and differences between (video) games and narrative’, then the company’s adventure games served as an important early example of balance between the two elements through the gamers’ ability to animate their avatars. Furthermore, Sierra On-Line’s adventure games have tapped into the traditional tension between the animator and the character it animated, as observed by Scott Bukatman in ‘The poetics of Slumberland: Animated spirits and the animated spirit (2012), when he challenged the traditional divide between animators, the characters they animate and the audience. All these contributions, as this articles aims to demonstrate, continue to influence the role of animation in digital games to this very day.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Shum ◽  
Samantha Dockray ◽  
Jennifer McMahon

Introduction: Early adolescence has been defined as a sensitive developmental period for psychological well-being. As children transition into early adolescence, they begin to regulate their emotions independently of their caregivers and they integrate cognitive processes into their emotion regulation. Brain maturation during early adolescence facilitates the emotion regulation strategy of cognitive reappraisal, whereby adolescents develop the ability to change how they think about an emotion-evoking stimulus to then change how they feel in any given moment. The development of cognitive reappraisal has been found to improve psychological well-being among adults. However, there has been a lack of empirical research identifying the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and psychological well-being among early adolescents. As such, there is a need to highlight gaps in knowledge and to identify and summarise the key findings that have examined cognitive reappraisal and psychological well-being during early adolescence.Methods: The current scoping review will adhere to the guidelines of Arksey and O’Malleys’ scoping review methodology (2005). Five research databases (PsychArticles, PsychINFO, EBSCO, ERIC and Education Source) and two unpublished/grey literature databases (NICE-UK and OpenGrey) will be used to identify relevant literature. Two independent reviewers will then screen the identified studies in accordance with pre-specified eligibility criteria and extract data based on evidence source characteristics, and details regarding the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and psychological well-being. The data will then be charted, organised into main findings and presented as a narrative summary.Discussion: The findings from the scoping review will give an overview of the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and psychological well-being among early adolescents and provide future directions to account for gaps in the research. The results will be disseminated through journals, conferences, blogs and podcasts related to adolescent development, adolescent health and emotion regulation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 76-92
Author(s):  
Indira Arias Rodriguez ◽  
Jorge Muniz Jr. ◽  
Timothy P. Munyon

This research aimed to explore the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational politics (POPS) and their predisposition to involve in knowledge sharing (KS) behaviors at individuals and workgroups level in the Brazilian automotive Modular Consortium. The sample included 144 shop floor employees of Modular Consortium (six connected companies in assembly lines). The POPS-KS relationship was analyzed using different referents, seeking to understand how individuals and groups respond to the presence of organizational politics, and POPS and KS were tested in a Brazilian context, shedding new light on potential cultural influences impacting this relationship. The results evidenced that positive interpersonal communication can contribute to KS, and in turn, KS can counteract the negative impacts of POPS. There was a positive relationship between POPS-KS, indicating that POPS may have functional effects in facilitating KS of individuals and workgroups. Key findings and implications for future research were discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 34-55
Author(s):  
Ailbhe Warde-Brown

The relationship between music, sound, space, and time plays a crucial role in attempts to define the concept of “immersion” in video games. Isabella van Elferen’s ALI (affect-literacy-interaction) model for video game musical immersion offers one of the most integrated approaches to reading connections between sonic cues and the “magic circle” of gameplay. There are challenges, however, in systematically applying this primarily event-focused model to particular aspects of the “open-world” genre. Most notable is the dampening of narrative and ludic restrictions afforded by more intricately layered textual elements, alongside open-ended in-game environments that allow for instances of more nonlinear, exploratory gameplay. This article addresses these challenges through synthesizing the ALI model with more spatially focused elements of Gordon Calleja’s player involvement model, exploring sonic immersion in greater depth via the notion of spatiotemporal involvement. This presents a theoretical framework that broadens analysis beyond a simple focus on the immediate narrative or ludic sequence. Ubisoft’s open-world action-adventure franchise Assassin’s Creed is a particularly useful case study for the application of this concept. This is primarily because of its characteristic focus on blending elements of the historical game and the open-world game through its use of real-world history and geography. Together, the series’s various diegetic and nondiegetic sonic elements invite variable degrees of participation in “historical experiences of virtual space.” The outcome of this research intends to put such intermingled expressions of space, place, and time at the forefront of a ludomusicological approach to immersion in the open-world genre.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Castro-Sánchez ◽  
Mercedes Rojas-Jiménez ◽  
Félix Zurita-Ortega ◽  
Ramón Chacón-Cuberos

Background: At present, new technologies provide numerous benefits in their correct use, while the need arises to study the consumption of some technologies, in this case, videogames, due to the negative consequences that they can cause in those subjects who have not yet consolidated their personality due to their excessive use. The study aimed to determine and establish associations between the dimensions of self-concept and the problematic use of videogames and their gender differences. Methods: A total of 525 university students participated in this study, representing 44.7% of the male gender and 55.3% of the female gender, with an average age of M = 20.80 SD = 3.12 years old. The instruments used were the CESR and AF-5 questionnaires. Results: The results reveal the association (p ≤ 0.05) between the problematic use of videogames and the dimensions of self-concept, showing that students with severe or potential problems have lower levels of self-concept. In addition, it has been found that men have more problems associated with the use of video games than women. Men have a greater physical and emotional self-concept, while women have better social self-concept. Conclusions: This study highlights the inverse association between self-concept and problematic use of video games, a fact that shows the need to develop intervention programs aimed at improving self-concept and to reduce the problematic use of video games. Likewise, the levels of self-concept reveal that men have higher scores in the emotional and physical dimension, while women stand out in the social dimension.


Author(s):  
Rita de Cássia do Vale Caribé ◽  
Alejandra Aguilar Pinto ◽  
Fabiene Castelo Branco Diogenes

Estudo insere-se na área de estudo de usuários, relata os resultados de um survey, realizado no Distrito Federal (DF), Brasil, com o objetivo de identificar as necessidades e o uso de informação pelas mulheres, tendo utilizado uma amostra aleatória de 37 entrevistas estruturadas. Inclui breve revisão de literatura sobre estudos de usuários com o objetivo de identificar as necessidades e uso da informação por diferentes categorias de indivíduos; apresenta a evolução dos estudos de usuários em termos metodológicos e de abordagem quantitativa e qualitativa; e estudos relacionados à necessidade e uso de informação do gênero mulher. Nesta pesquisa foram identificados os graus de importância de alguns temas, as fontes e instrumentos que interessam à mulher do DF e a gradação de freqüência do uso, bem como, analisada a relação dessas fontes de preferência com o perfil de escolaridade, idade e renda.AbstractThis study may be considered an information user needs study. It reports results of a survey conducted in Distrito Federal (DF), Brazil. Its objective was identifying the information needs and use of women, and was used a random sample of 37 interviews structured. Includes brief literature review on user studies with the goal of identifying the needs and use of information by different individuals categories; shows the evolution of user studies of quantitative and qualitative methodology and approach; and the need and use of information from the woman gender studies. In this research the importance degrees of some topics, sources and instruments that are interested to the wife of DF and gradation of frequency of use were identified, were analyzed the relationship of these sources preferably with the profile of education, age and income.KeywordsUser information needs. User studies. Woman gender.AbstractThis study may be considered an information user needs study. It reports results of a survey conducted in Distrito Federal (DF), Brazil. Its objective was identifying the information needs and use of women, and was used a random sample of 37 interviews structured. Includes brief literature review on user studies with the goal of identifying the needs and use of information by different individuals categories; shows the evolution of user studies of quantitative and qualitative methodology and approach; and the need and use of information from the woman gender studies. In this research the importance degrees of some topics, sources and instruments that are interested to the wife of DF and gradation of frequency of use were identified, were analyzed the relationship of these sources preferably with the profile of education, age and income. Keywords User information needs. User studies. Woman gender.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tallulah Harvey

In recent years, literary studies have become increasingly invested in environmentalism. As science reveals the negative impacts of climate change, and demonstrates a growing concern for humanity’s contribution, literature operates as a form of cultural documentation. It details public awareness and anxieties, and acts as a conduit for change by urging empathetic responses and rendering ecological controversy accessible.To explore the relationship between literature and environmental politics, this paper will focus on the work of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick, and his dystopian visions. In his particular brand of sci-fi, there is no future for humanity. Science and technology fail to pave the way for a better and fairer society, but rather towards, as far as Dick is concerned, extinction. He argues that scientific advancement distances us from reality and from a sense of “humanness”. His pessimistic futures are nihilistic but tender; nurturing a love for humanity even in, what he considers to be, its final hours.Unlike the work of other prominent sci-fi writers, Dick’s fiction does not look towards the stars, but is in many ways a return to earth. The barren landscapes of Mars and other planets offer no comfort, and the evolution of the human into cyborgs, androids and post human species is depicted as dangerous and regressive. Dick’s apocalyptic visions ground his readers in the reality around them, acting in the present for the sake of the earth and humanity’s survival. His humanism is critical of grand enlightenment ideas of “progressivism”, and instead celebrates ordinariness. In the shadow of corporate capitalism and violent dictatorial governments, Dick prefers the little man, the ordinary everyday domestic hero for his narratives. His fiction urges us to take responsibility for our actions, and prepares us for the future through scepticism and pessimism, and a relentless fondness for the human.


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