Correlation between participation in physical activity and healthy nutrition: An example of a sports science faculty

Background: It is important to encourage people to participate in physical activities and to develop motivational approaches to healthy nutrition in order to maintain a healthy life. This study was conducted to examine the relationship between the physical activity levels of university students and their attitudes to healthy nutrition. Material and methods: 392 (153 female and 239 male) university students voluntarily participated in the study. In the study, the International Physical Activity Questionnaire-Short Form (IPAQ-SF) and the Attitude Scale for Healthy Nutrition (ASHN) were used. Results: As a result of the analysis conducted in the study group, in the comparison of the students studying at the sports sciences department in terms of gender, smoking and regular exercise variables, a statistically significant difference was found in the level of participation in physical activity in the variable of meals consumed during the day. A positive significant relationship was found between the participants’ attitude towards healthy nutrition and their level of participation in physical activity. Conclusions: It was determined that students with high participation in physical activity also have high attitudes towards healthy nutrition.

Activity Patterns and Functioning. A Contextual–Functional Approach to Pain Catastrophizing in Women with Fibromyalgia

Background: The psychological flexibility model states that activity patterns are not deemed to be intrinsically functional or dysfunctional; it is considered that underlying factors, such as personal goals and contextual factors, are what will determine their effects on disability. Pain catastrophizing has frequently been associated with several important pain-related outcomes. Despite its recent conceptualization within affective–motivational approaches, its moderating role between activity patterns and dysfunction has not been analyzed. Methods: This study analyzes the moderating role of pain catastrophizing and its dimensions (Pain Catastrophizing Scale) between activity patterns (Activity Patterns Scale) and disease impact (Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire—Revised) in 491 women with fibromyalgia. Results: Activity avoidance (p < 0.001), excessive persistence (p < 0.001) and pacing (p < 0.01) patterns were positively associated with fibromyalgia impact. Helplessness shows a moderating role between pain avoidance (B = 0.100, t =2.30, p = 0.021, [0.01, 0.18]), excessive persistence (B = −0.09, t = −2.24, p = 0.02, [−0.18, −0.01]), pain persistence (B = −0.10, t = −2.04, p = 0.04, [−0.19, −0.004]) and functioning. Conclusion: Helplessness (within pain catastrophizing) is a relevant variable within psychological flexibility models applied to activity patterns. Specifically, pain avoidance is especially dysfunctional in patients with high helplessness. To improve excessive persistence and pain persistence, it is necessary to reduce helplessness before regulating activity patterns.

Leader Influence in Role Selection Choices: Fulfilling Role Theory's Potential for Foreign Policy Analysis

While it has been well-documented when and how leaders matter in foreign policy, there is still no clear roadmap on how to connect and investigate the different possibilities that leadership studies offer for the benefit of role theory development. Thus, this article lays the foundation for a dialogue between role theory and leader-based approaches to foreign policy. We approach this as a “glass half full” as leaders are present in role theory, but not properly integrated in terms of theorization and methods to study their influence on the overall selection of roles. We present a range of possible ways to study the beliefs and personal characteristics of leaders and other motivational approaches that inform and shape their role selection process. A better integration of the individual level can give foreign policy scholars and practitioners a more complete picture of why governments decide to prioritize certain roles over others. Introducing a way forward in establishing a more robust connection between leaders and the roles of the state also provides scholars with a more complete toolkit to analyze and unpack agent–structure relations in foreign policy.

Business Communication in the Context of Improving the Personnel Policy of a Modern Organization

The article considers a comprehensive study of priority areas of staff motivation. Based on the systematic approach the practical ways of implementation a motivational mechanism as a key component of improving personnel policy in a banking institution were developed. The role and organization of the motivational mechanism and stimulation of labor activity in the personnel management system in the modern organization were covered. The existing methods, techniques and indicators for assessing the personnel motivation systems taking into account the financial stability of the banking institution were analyzed. Improved systems of work motivation in a modern domestic bank were proposed taking into account the monitoring and forecast of indicators of its financial and economic condition. Motivational approaches were evaluated based on the development of an effective system of material incentives and compensation (intangible) staff package in order to increase the interest of employees in obtaining the maximum result of activities in the studied bank. A comprehensive program of organizational, economic and managerial measures to improve the system of socio-economic motivation of staff in the bank was formed in accordance with the strategic guidelines of the institution.

Theories of tax compliance as a basis of tax control strategies

The relevance of the problems of tax compliance and tax control is due to the character of tax relations and the versatility of the subjects of these relations. Tax control strategies determine the behavior of taxpayers. This study makes it possible to determine the uncertainty regarding various types of tax compliance in the formation of state tax control strategies. The article substantiates the priority of theories of tax compliance in relation to various strategies of state tax control. This study is based on the institutional-tort approach, systematization and comparative analysis. Tax control is considered as a mechanism for influencing the behavior of taxpayers through economic and non-economic deterrence. The results reflect the specifics of the theoretical basis of each type of tax control strategy. Three key theoretical concepts have been singled out: containment theory, behaviorism theory, signal theory. And their corresponding tax control strategies are enforcement strategy, service strategy, trust strategy. Similar features and peculiarities, pluses, minuses of motivational approaches are disclosed. The necessity of their productive combination in modern conditions is determined. The complex combination of the considered theoretical basis in a unified strategy of state tax control allows you to take into account the maximum range of factors of tax compliance, tax tort to prevent and exclude opportunistic behavior. The substantiated priority of tax compliance theories as the basis of various tax control strategies in tax administration creates the basis for the search for new motivational tools in improving tax relations at different stages of society development.

The Absence of the Oppressor: Games for Change and Californian Happiness Engineers

Games for Change have been designed to support various causes and charities for global players and publics located far from a game designer’s country of origin. The intent of this chapter is to contrast Northern and Southern approaches to designing such transnational games for inspiring action, life improvement, and political change. In this chapter I discuss the Games for Change of primarily two designers, Jane McGonigal’s ambitious environmental and entrepreneurial games and gamification literature advocating self-motivational approaches for playful transformation. I also review a more oppositional model proposed a few decades ago by prolific Games for Change designer, Uruguayan, Gonzalo Frasca, situating his ‘Videogames of the Oppressed’ within a tradition of Latin American resistance movements.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF DAILY STEPS TO MOOD AND ENERGY: APPLICATION OF STEPMATE (MOBILE APP FOR TRACKING EXERCISE)

Physical activity is one of the most promising and accessible strategies to promote healthy aging. Yet, the majority of middle-aged and older adults do not engage in the recommended amount of exercise despite awareness of its widespread benefits. Smartphone apps have the potential to be valuable tools in tracking and encouraging physical activity; however, few apps incorporate successful behavior change strategies. Drawing from interviews with older adults, we created a new smartphone app to encourage and track daily walking, StepMATE (Mobile App for Tracking Exercise). StepMATE uses behavior change strategies including action planning and social support to help users determine where, when, and with whom they will walk. The app records steps and also uses experience sampling to assess mood and energy levels twice a day. Adults ages 50 and over (N=58) participated in a one-month study where they used the app to set their own walking goals and track their daily walking. Using multilevel modeling, we found that on days in which adults take more steps than their average, they report higher mood and energy. We also found that on days in which participants achieve their step goal, they report higher mood and energy than on days when they do not achieve their goal. Discussion will center on motivational approaches to behavior change among sedentary older adults.

Management of Obese Pediatric Patients in the Digital Era

In this chapter, state of the art in mHealth solutions for monitoring and treatment of children suffering from obesity is presented and discussed. mHealth solutions are used for self-management, remote monitoring, and counseling of several chronic conditions including diabetes mellitus, heart failure, Parkinson's disease, etc. Concerning childhood obesity, those solutions can combine targeted games and motivational approaches towards both physical activity and diet, which could help in addressing this serious and global health issue in the direction of minimizing co-morbidities and eventually preventing serious, life-threatening events. Management of obese children requires behavior change. Multi-component intervention programs via a mobile platform can play a significant role in weight control during childhood and adolescence. In continuation of the chapter, the authors report on the newest advances in the field of digital health interventions addressing childhood obesity.

SOCIO-PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS THE MOTIVATION PROCESS IN THE ORGANIZATION. MOTIVATION APPROACHES TOOLS TO STIMULATE STAFF

The focus of this report is on the socio-psychological aspects of the motivation process within an organization, as well as on motivational approaches and tools for staff incentives. Because motivation deals with the questions "why" of behavior, it refers to the internal states of the body that lead to provocation, perseverance, energy provision, and direction of behavior. In this sense, first of all, in understanding the level of employee motivation, it is important to know the basic theoretical assumptions related to motivation and some aspects related to human behavior, as well as the values and beliefs that mediate behavior (i.e., the constructs that sit on the path between need and satisfaction). Knowledge of staff motivation helps the manager to navigate its complex nature, to trace the way and the reasons for its occurrence or absence, as well as to understand its strong points. Consideration of motivation, as a relatively distinct system, would allow to identify and relatively accurately evaluate its elements, to trace the relationships between them, and finally to learn the manager to recognize and manage the complex relationships between the overall behavior of the individual and his or her parts.