scholarly journals Predicting college students' future intentions to engage in public-sphere water conservation behaviors

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-49
Author(s):  
Austin Wise ◽  
Donald Johnson ◽  
George Wardlow ◽  
Kathi Jogan

The purpose of this study was to describe selected college students’ (N = 252) perceptions of and future intentions (FI) to engage in public-sphere water conservation behaviors, and to determine if FI could be predicted by a single or linear combination of student demographic characteristics  and latent variables. A majority of respondents agreed a growing population will negatively affect water quantity (90.5%) and there is a need for water resource management (85.6%). A majority disagreed or strongly disagreed that they (53.4%), their family (57.1%), or their friends (67.5%) practiced water conservation, or that people in their hometowns were concerned about local water availability (78.1%). A majority agreed they would engage in four of five public-sphere water conservation behaviors in the future: support water conservation programs (86.4%), care more deeply about water conservation (81.2%), join a water conservation organization (79.2%), and vote for stricter water use laws (55.0%). Fewer than one-half agreed or strongly agreed they would donate money to support water conservation (45.8%). Responses to statements concerning water conservation were factor analyzed and two factors were extracted: lack of agency (LA) and subjective norms (SN). A linear combination of gender, LA, and SN explained 36.7% of the variance in FI. 

2012 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Rowan ◽  
E. Hecox ◽  
S. Morea

The last decade has brought many changes to Colorado's water supply outlook. Despite the recent economic recession, the state has experienced significant population growth, and Colorado's population is expected to nearly double within the next 40 years. Other pressures on Colorado's water supply include severe drought, a desire to meet multiple needs (i.e., municipal, environmental, recreational) with existing resources, and impacts to agriculture due to water shortages, urbanization, and transfers to new users. To address these challenges, the Colorado Water Conservation Board (CWCB) has undertaken a visioning process to explore solutions to these future water supply challenges. As part of this process, CWCB has led the state in identifying demand and supply strategies to meet the state's future water needs while considering agriculture and the environment. These strategies have been combined into varying portfolios that include methods such as conservation, local water projects, new Colorado River development, and agricultural transfers. This paper details the development and evaluation of these portfolios and describes stakeholder's efforts to balance meeting Colorado's water needs in the future.


2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 310-317 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean O'Dwyer ◽  
Aideen Dowling ◽  
Catherine C. Adley

Determining the likelihood that groundwater contains faecal coliforms can aid water resource management in facilitating the protection of drinking water supplies. This study assesses the incidence of the faecal indicator organism Escherichia coli in 125 private water supplies (PWSs) serving individual houses in the Mid-West Region of Ireland. Two factors, aquifer type and rainfall (mm), were chosen as independent variables that can affect the vulnerability of a groundwater body. Using a geographical information system, the relative hydrogeological and climatological features unique to each sampling location were derived. Utilising this information, a logistic regression (LR) model was used to predict the probability of contamination of PWSs with E. coli. The model contained two independent variables: rainfall (mm; p < 0.001) and aquifer characteristics (p = 0.001). The full model, containing both predictors, was statistically significant at p < 0.001, indicating that the model distinguished between the independent variables' relationship to the incidence of contamination. The likelihood of E. coli contamination is greater with increased rainfall and in areas where a bedrock aquifer is dominant. The LR model explained between 27.4% (Cox and Snell R squared) and 36.8% (Nagelkerke R squared) of the variance in contamination and correctly classified 75.2% of cases.


1968 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 783-791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leigh Minturn ◽  
Merrilee Lewis

Walder's peer nomination inventory was given to elementary school children and college students and the data analyzed for age differences. The first two factors are essentially the same as Walder's factors and are unaffected by Ss age. The third child factor is similar to Walder's third factor of socially undesirable non-aggressive traits but is better differentiated and more general, including several items measuring rebelliousness. Two additional factors appear in the adult sample, one defined by rebellion and rejection items and one by dominance items.


2018 ◽  
Vol 122 (6) ◽  
pp. 2348-2365
Author(s):  
Boyoung Kim ◽  
Gyuyoung Ha ◽  
Jiwon Kim ◽  
Joonyoung Yang ◽  
Suhyun Suh ◽  
...  

The purpose of this study was to examine the cross-cultural differences in vocational identity between American and Korean university students using the Vocational Identity Status Assessment. A total of 881 university students in both the United States and South Korea were sampled in this study assessing vocational identity. We compared means of latent variables (six dimensions of Vocational Identity Status Assessment in the present study) using latent mean analysis. The results indicated that Korean students showed higher scores on Career Self-doubt and Career Flexibility, whereas American students showed higher scores on In-breadth Exploration, In-depth Exploration, Commitment Making, and Commitment Identification. These results indicated the components of vocational identity that should be considered while providing career guidance to college students from diverse backgrounds. Implications for understanding the cultural differences of college students’ vocational identity and the need for conducting cross-cultural comparison studies to provide insights about the vocational development of college students in cross-cultural settings are discussed.


Author(s):  
Arturo García Santillán ◽  
Milka Elena Escalera Chávez ◽  
Josefina Carmen Santana Villegas ◽  
Bertha Yolanda Guzmán Rivas

Abstract.Mathematical knowledge is very important in the lives of people, therefore, it is necessary understand it and make good use of mathematics in everyday life. Therefore, the aim of this work is to identify whether there is a set of latent variables that allow explain the anxiety toward math on students at Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtepec, Oaxaca. The study is quantitative; and the study sample was formed of 303 college students from several profiles of the social sciences and engineering areas. The instrument utilized, is the scale of Munoz and Mato (2007) and was applied face to face to sample of study, in order to get data that allow us measure mathematics anxiety. The results show that students consider about the exposed variables that, the most prominent variable is the anxiety toward mathematics when faced in real life situations. The results allow us to observe that the studied variables explained 81% of variance that explains the math anxiety; the remaining 19% is explained by other variables that have not been considered in this research. Hence, if the student increases their anxiety in one of those, for example toward compression of mathematical problems, other variables also increase as the results show that there is a direct relationship between them.Keywords: Anxiety, Mathematics, Attitude toward mathematics, mathematics evaluationResumen.Los conocimientos matemáticos son de suma importancia en la vida de las personas, por lo tanto en la actualidad es necesario entender y hacer buen uso de las matemáticas en la vida diaria. El objetivo de este trabajo es identificar si en los alumnos del Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtepec, existe un conjunto de variables que pueden explicar la ansiedad frente a las matemáticas. El estudio es cuantitativo, la muestra de estudio se conformó de 303 estudiantes del nivel universitario del Instituto Tecnológico de Tuxtepec, Oaxaca, de varios perfiles de ciencias sociales e ingeniería. Se utilizó el cuestionario Muñoz y Mato-Vázquez (2007), para medir la ansiedad a las matemáticas. Los resultados muestran que los estudiantes consideran que de las variables expuestas, la más preponderante es la ansiedad que les causa las matemáticas cuando se encuentran en situaciones de la vida real. Los resultados dejan ver que las variables analizadas contribuyen con el 81% a determinar la ansiedad hacia las matemáticas, el 19% restante es explicado por otras variables que no han sido consideradas en esta investigación. De ahí que, si el estudiante incrementa su ansiedad en una de ellas por ejemplo hacia la compresión de los problemas matemáticos, las otras variables también se incrementan ya que los resultados muestran que hay una relación directa entre ellas.Palabras clave: Ansiedad, Matemáticas, Actitud hacia las matemáticas, Evaluación matemática.


Author(s):  
Panagiotis A. Tsaknis ◽  
Alexandros G. Sahinidis

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the entrepreneurial intention of university students using the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and parents' occupation. A questionnaire based survey was employed for the data collection. A total of 1244 students participated in the survey. The sample was a convenience one given that the resources available were limited. The size of the sample allows us to proceed with reliable statistical analyses and produce valid conclusions. The findings of our research showed that perceived behavioral control, subjective norms, attitude and parents' occupation are important variables influencing entrepreneurial intention. The variable that affects entrepreneurial intention the most is attitude. The findings led support to the theory and the hypotheses proposed. These findings indicate that the recommended model can be used to explain a large part of variation in entrepreneurial intention. This study, contributes to the entrepreneurial intention literature providing empirical evidence to help formulate policies encouraging university students' entrepreneurship practices, attracting the interest of both educators and policy makers. This evidence will become increasingly important, as research in the field of entrepreneurship continues to place models of entrepreneurial intentions at the center of our understanding of the entrepreneurial process. Future studies could investigate the validity of the findings reported here, in different contexts using more variables, not included in this study and inquire the potential existence of latent variables which may be confounding the relationships discussed in this paper.


2020 ◽  
pp. 088626052091259
Author(s):  
Laura E. Watkins ◽  
Rosalita C. Benedicto ◽  
Alexandra Brockdorf ◽  
David DiLillo

Intimate partner aggression (IPA) is a serious and prevalent problem among college students. Two factors that may increase risk for in-person IPA are cyber IPA and alcohol use. This study examines the interaction between three types of cyber IPA (cyber psychological, stalking, and sexual IPA) and alcohol use in predicting in-person physical and sexual IPA perpetration. Participants were 268 undergraduate students, who participated in a mass screening at a large midwestern university. More than half of the sample reported perpetrating cyber IPA. A multivariate logistic regression model was used to examine study hypotheses. The R2 for physical IPA perpetration was .69 and the R2 for sexual IPA perpetration was .46. Cyber stalking IPA and alcohol interacted to predict physical IPA perpetration, such that the relationship between cyber stalking IPA and physical IPA perpetration was stronger among individuals who used more alcohol. Contrary to expectations, cyber IPA and alcohol did not interact to predict sexual IPA. However, consistent with hypotheses, cyber stalking IPA was positively associated with sexual IPA perpetration. The high prevalence of cyber IPA and its association with in-person IPA perpetration suggests that prevention programs targeting cyber IPA on college campuses may be warranted.


Author(s):  
Yafei Wu ◽  
Ke Hu ◽  
Yaofeng Han ◽  
Qilin Sheng ◽  
Ya Fang

Life expectancy (LE) is a comprehensive and important index for measuring population health. Research on LE and its influencing factors is helpful for health improvement. Previous studies have neither considered the spatial stratified heterogeneity of LE nor explored the interactions between its influencing factors. Our study was based on the latest available LE and social and environmental factors data of 31 provinces in 2010 in China. Descriptive and spatial autocorrelation analyses were performed to explore the spatial characteristics of LE. Furthermore, the Geographical Detector (GeoDetector) technique was used to reveal the impact of social and environmental factors and their interactions on LE as well as their optimal range for the maximum LE level. The results show that there existed obvious spatial stratified heterogeneity of LE, and LE mainly presented two clustering types (high–high and low–low) with positive autocorrelation. The results of GeoDetector showed that the number of college students per 100,000 persons (NOCS) could mainly explained the spatial stratified heterogeneity of LE (Power of Determinant (PD) = 0.89, p < 0.001). With the discretization of social and environmental factors, we found that LE reached the highest level with birth rate, total dependency ratio, number of residents per household and water resource per capita at their minimum range; conversely, LE reached the highest level with consumption level, GDP per capita, number of college students per 100,000 persons, medical care expenditure and urbanization rate at their maximum range. In addition, the interaction of any two factors on LE was stronger than the effect of a single factor. Our study suggests that there existed obvious spatial stratified heterogeneity of LE in China, which could mainly be explained by NOCS.


2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu (April) Chen ◽  
Soko S. Starobin

Objective: This quantitative study constructed a statistical model to measure family social capital and college social capital among community college students. The authors also examined influences of these two types of social capital constructs on degree aspiration. Method: This study utilized the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Student Success Literacy Survey (SSSL) to collect data in all 15 community college districts in Iowa. With more than 5,000 responses, the authors conducted descriptive analysis, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis. Results: College social capital was measured by three latent variables such as interaction with advisors, interaction with faculty members, and transfer capital. The three latent variables were further measured by 14 survey items. Family social capital was measured by six survey items that described parent–child interaction in high school. The SEM results indicated that college social capital had stronger direct influences on degree aspiration compared with family social capital. The impact of family social capital was delivered through the mediation of college social capital. Contributions: Findings contributed to the literature by emphasizing the important role of institutional agents in promoting degree aspiration. Intervention programs should be implemented to encourage interactions between institutional agents and underrepresented and disadvantaged students.


Water Policy ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 897-916 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. Iribarnegaray ◽  
M. F. E. de la Zerda ◽  
C. M. Hutton ◽  
C. Brannstrom ◽  
V. I. Liberal ◽  
...  

Narratives and discourses on issues such as water management and other complex social–ecological systems respond partly to people's worldviews or social perspectives. Knowledge of these perspectives might help increase the rate of success of specific initiatives related to water conservation and could be an important tool to improve water governance. A study performed in the city of Salta, Argentina, revealed the existence of four social perspectives on issues related to water management. Perspectives were obtained with Q methodology by interviewing 29 local stakeholders. Participants sorted 68 statements organized around four themes (service provider; water rights; public participation; water availability) according to their degree of agreement or disagreement. The findings support our contention that there are clear links between social perspectives and the rate of success of some water policies implemented by the local water utility in the past 15 years, in particular the promotion and use of household water meters and awareness campaigns launched to reduce water consumption. We show that the limited success of these initiatives was partly due to ignorance or disregard of social perspectives on water management.


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