Interviewing adolescent girls about sexual and reproductive health: a qualitative study exploring how best to ask questions in structured follow-up interviews in a randomized controlled trial in Zambia

Background Numerous studies have documented inconsistent reporting of sexual behaviour by adolescents. The validity and reliability of self-reported data on issues considered sensitive, incriminating or embarrassing, is prone to social-desirability bias. Some studies have found that Audio Computer-Assisted Self Interviewing (ACASI) that removes the personal interaction involved in face-to-face interviews, decreases item non-response and increases reporting of sensitive behaviours, but others have found inconsistent or contradictory results. To reduce social desirability bias in the reporting of sensitive behaviours, face-to-face interviews were combined with ACASI in a cluster randomized trial involving adolescents in Zambia. Methods To explore adolescent girls’ experiences and opinions of being interviewed about sexual and reproductive health, we combined Focus Group Discussions with girl participants and individual semi-structured interviews with teachers. This study was done after the participants had been interviewed for the 6th time since recruitment. Young, female research assistants who had conducted interviews for the trial were also interviewed for this study. Results Respondents explained often feeling shy, embarrassed or uncomfortable when asked questions about sex, pregnancy and abortion face-to-face. Questions on sexual activity elicited feelings of shame, and teachers, research assistants and girls alike noted that direct questions about sexual activities limit what the participant girls may be willing to share. Responding to more indirect questions in relation to the context of a romantic relationship was slightly easier. Efforts by interviewers to signal that they did not judge the participants for their behavior and increased familiarity with the interviewer reduced discomfort over time. Although some appreciated the opportunity to respond to questions on their own, the privacy offered by ACASI also provided an opportunity to give false answers. Answering on tablets could be challenging, but participants were reluctant to ask for assistance for fear of being judged as not conversant with technology. Conclusion Strategies to avoid using overly direct language and descriptive words, asking questions within the context of a romantic relationship and a focus on establishing familiarity and trust can reduce reporting bias. For the use of ACASI, considerations must be given to the context and characteristics of the study population.

Beyond the beauty of occlusion: medical masks increase facial attractiveness more than other face coverings

The sanitary-mask effect (Miyazaki and Kawahara in Jpn Psychol Res 58(3):261–272, 2016) is the finding that medical face masks prompt an image of disease and thus result in lower ratings of facial attractiveness of the wearer. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, medical masks have been found to increase attractiveness (Patel et al. in Plast Reconstruct Surg Glob Open 8(8), 2020) although this could have been a general effect of occlusion. To further explore this issue, female participants were presented with a series of male faces of low or high attractiveness that were occluded with a medical mask, cloth mask, book or not occluded and asked to rate them on attractiveness. The results show that faces were considered as most attractive when covered by medical masks and significantly more attractive when occluded with cloth masks than when not occluded. Contrary to expectation, base attractiveness did not interact with the type of occlusion, suggesting that this is not simply due to occlusion of negative features. The present findings are contrary to the sanitary-mask effect and explanations in terms of social desirability, and the association of medical masks with caregiving professions is explored.

Sustaining the Sociopolitical Spirit of Bilingual Education

In this chapter, the authors contribute results and recommendations from a study featuring the assessment perspectives of school and district administrators of bilingual education programs from two regional areas in the United States. They also present research literature that informs how teaching and learning environments structure membership and belonging as social desirability factors for students from diverse national and English-language backgrounds.

PERAN RASA SYUKUR DAN DUKUNGAN SOSIAL TERHADAP KESEPIAN PADA LANJUT USIA DI PANTI WREDA

Lansia (lanjut usia) merupakan periode perkembangan dewasa akhir. Pada masa dewasa akhir terjadi tahap perkembangan integrity versus despair. Seringkali lansia mengalami ketidakberdayaan dikarenakan menurunnya fungsi fisik dan terbatasnya mobilitas. Lansia yang tinggal di panti wreda cenderung lebih rentan mengalami kesepian karena jauh dari keluarga. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat gambaran rasa syukur dan dukungan sosial guna mengurangi kesepian pada lansia di panti wreda. Penelitian ini menggunakan single case experiment design A-B dengan satu orang partisipan. Penelitian ini menggunakan WHODAS 2.0 dan UCLA Loneliness. Hasil yang diperoleh adalah partisipan sudah tidak bisa berfungsi secara baik dan tidak bisa melakukan kegiatan secara mandiri. Tingkat kesepian berada pada kategori sedang dan aspek paling tinggi berada pada aspek social desirability. Berdasarkan hasil maka penelitan memberikan 3 sesi terkait rasa syukur dan 1 sesi terkait dukungan sosial. Setelah intervensi, diperoleh hasil bahwa rasa syukur dan dukungan sosial berpengaruh mengurangi kesepian pada lansia di Panti Wreda.

Russians’ interpretation of happiness and its determinants: results of the survey

The article presents the results of the representative all-Russian online survey conducted in the late 2020 – early 2021, i. e., in the period defined today by the scientific, authorities and everyday discourses as pre-covid-19 or pre-pandemic. At that time, and the situation has not changed, rankings became extremely popular, including the ranking of countries by the level of happiness, despite the fact that the very word «happiness» is ambiguous, full of contradictory connotations and difficult to define conceptually and empirically even within the disciplinary framework of specific disciplines, including sociology. The article presents the results of the survey (dominant interpretations of happiness, self-estimates in terms of happiness, etc.) and methodological conclusions (pressure of social desirability, gender and generational measurements of happiness and its definitions) from the online survey conducted with the authors questionnaire which allowed respondents to assess their level of happiness and to express their opinion on how it should be defined and what can influence it (a combination of direct and indirect questions).

Social Networking in Adolescents: Time, Type and Motives of Using, Social Desirability and Communication Choices

The evolution of digital media in adolescents has changed the patterns and motives of use and the impact on their communication choices in their social and family networks. The objectives of this study are to understand how peers communicate adopting a social network (SN) or by voice and their social desirability. After the informant consent signature, the adolescents completed a series of self-report questionnaires on the use of SN, on communication preferences, and on social desirability through online. Most of the adolescents belonged to the 17-19 age group (83.6%) and were female (68.9%). Adolescents spent more than 3 hours/day on Whatsapp and more than 2 hours/day on Instagram, while the use of Facebook was on average only 35 minutes/day. Females used digital media for longer than males. Adolescents aged 17-19 years choose more Facebook and voice modes compared to adolescents aged 14 and 16 years. The alternative modes of Whatsapp and voice were chosen more than the social networks in their communication strategies, especially for negative topics. Motives for use were, in addition to boredom, related to maintaining one's social sphere with peers. Some educative considerations were made based on these results.

Impact of Social Desirability and Environmental Awareness on Ecological Behavior among Students

In present scenario, Indian government has regulated many policies and pro environment action with an aim of being aware about environment under which we continue to live. Although, it is not only government responsibility towards developing pro environment attitude rather it should be emerges from us for our nature. However, people become more sensitive for their livelihood needs than environmental concerns which are remarkable notion. So, the present study attempted to study the pro environment attitude and ecological behavior dynamics with an influence of social desirability.

Self-protective and self-sacrificing preferences of pedestrians and passengers in moral dilemmas involving autonomous vehicles

Upon the introduction of autonomous vehicles into daily traffic, it becomes increasingly likely that autonomous vehicles become involved in accident scenarios in which decisions have to be made about how to distribute harm among involved parties. In four experiments, participants made moral decisions from the perspective of a passenger, a pedestrian, or an observer. The results show that the preferred action of an autonomous vehicle strongly depends on perspective. Participants’ judgments reflect self-protective tendencies even when utilitarian motives clearly favor one of the available options. However, with an increasing number of lives at stake, utilitarian preferences increased. In a fifth experiment, we tested whether these results were tainted by social desirability but this was not the case. Overall, the results confirm that strong differences exist among passengers, pedestrians, and observers about the preferred course of action in critical incidents. It is therefore important that the actions of autonomous vehicles are not only oriented towards the needs of their passengers, but also take the interests of other road users into account. Even though utilitarian motives cannot fully reconcile the conflicting interests of passengers and pedestrians, there seem to be some moral preferences that a majority of the participants agree upon regardless of their perspective, including the utilitarian preference to save several other lives over one’s own.