Causal Effects, Migration and Legacy Studies

Social scientists have long been interested in the persistent effects of history on contemporary behavior and attitudes. To estimate legacy effects, studies typically compare people living in places that were historically exposed to some event and those that were not. Using principal stratification, we provide a formal framework to analyze how migration limits our ability to learn about the persistent effects of history from observed differences between historically exposed and unexposed places. We state the necessary assumptions about movement behavior to causally identify legacy effects. We highlight that these assumptions are strong; therefore, we recommend that legacy studies circumvent bias by collecting data on people's place of residence at the exposure time. Reexamining a study on the persistent effects of US civil-rights protests, we show that observed attitudinal differences between residents and non-residents of historic protest sites are more likely due to migration rather than attitudinal change.

Understanding Rural Identities and Environmental Policy Attitudes in America

Attitudinal differences between urban and rural voters in America have been in the spotlight in recent years and engaging rural populations politically has been growing in importance, particularly since the 2016 presidential election. Meanwhile, social and geographic sorting is increasing the salience of a rural identity that drives distinct policy preferences. While recent research has examined how rural identities drive social and economic policy preferences, rural Americans are also particularly relevant to the fate of environmental policy. Farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners manage huge portions of American lands and watersheds and are important stakeholders in the implementation of environmental policies. Despite this, the environmental policy preferences of rural Americans have received little attention from the research community. This study fills a gap in the literature by investigating how collective identities among rural Americans drive environmental policy preferences. Through eight focus groups and thirty-five interviews with rural voters across America (total n=105), this study explores how four components of rural American identity—connection to nature, resentment/disenfranchisement, rootedness, and self-reliance—inform specific rural perspectives on environmental policy. The findings have implications for how to best design, communicate, and implement environmental policies in a way that can better engage rural Americans on this issue.

Role Identification: an Impediment to Effective Core Primary Health Care Teamwork?

<p>This study, which is methodologically grounded in qualitative research and philosophically informed by critical social science, explores important aspects of the socio-political context in which practice nurses and general practitioners (core primary health care team) work within a team environment. It is indicated in the literature that there are benefits for improved health care through the development of collaborative teamwork. However, there have been many barriers identified which prevent collaborative teamwork. Amongst the many barriers, is the lack of role clarity and attitudinal differences. Role clarity and attitudinal differences are the topic of this thesis. This thesis explored and highlighted whether the lack of role clarity and attitudinal differences do indeed impede the team's success, and are barriers to teamwork. The views and opinions of practice nurses and general practitioners understanding of their own and each other's current roles within the general practice setting were explored. The participants had the opportunity to discuss together, in focus group meetings, their thoughts on the topic. This raised their awareness of their taken for granted ideas on role and teamwork. Focus groups offered the participants the added opportunity to question each other which allowed for a deeper and more fulfilling understanding of role. New understandings that emerged could lead to alternative models of health care and influence the future delivery and planning of general practice. The thesis concludes by offering a potentially suitable model/framework which has been developed to further the understanding of teamwork in the future.</p>

Role Identification: an Impediment to Effective Core Primary Health Care Teamwork?

<p>This study, which is methodologically grounded in qualitative research and philosophically informed by critical social science, explores important aspects of the socio-political context in which practice nurses and general practitioners (core primary health care team) work within a team environment. It is indicated in the literature that there are benefits for improved health care through the development of collaborative teamwork. However, there have been many barriers identified which prevent collaborative teamwork. Amongst the many barriers, is the lack of role clarity and attitudinal differences. Role clarity and attitudinal differences are the topic of this thesis. This thesis explored and highlighted whether the lack of role clarity and attitudinal differences do indeed impede the team's success, and are barriers to teamwork. The views and opinions of practice nurses and general practitioners understanding of their own and each other's current roles within the general practice setting were explored. The participants had the opportunity to discuss together, in focus group meetings, their thoughts on the topic. This raised their awareness of their taken for granted ideas on role and teamwork. Focus groups offered the participants the added opportunity to question each other which allowed for a deeper and more fulfilling understanding of role. New understandings that emerged could lead to alternative models of health care and influence the future delivery and planning of general practice. The thesis concludes by offering a potentially suitable model/framework which has been developed to further the understanding of teamwork in the future.</p>

Community Attitudes Reflect Reporting Rates and Prevalence of Animal Mistreatment

Community attitudes toward the treatment of animals are important to understand for the development of intervention programs to prevent mistreatment. We aimed to investigate whether previously identified differences between local government areas (LGAs) in the rates of animal mistreatment reporting and prevalence were reflected by differences in community attitudes. In addition, attitudinal differences based on target species (dogs, cats, horses) and participant gender were considered. A representative telephone survey (N = 1,801) was conducted across six LGAs. Attitudinal themes included affection toward animals, valuing of animals, attitudes toward caring for own animals, and concern for the mistreatment of other animals. Factorial ANOVA was used to identify differences between high and low reporting LGAs, region types (regional, interface, metropolitan), and target species (cat, dog, horse). Respondents from high reporting LGAs demonstrated slightly more affection for animals F(1,1679) = 19.401, p &lt; 0.001, ωp2 = 0.011 and stronger subjective norms F(1,999) = 16.31, p &lt; 0.001, ωp2 = 0.015 than those from low reporting LGAs, but did not differ on the other variables. Participants in areas of high prevalence (regional areas) did not display lower levels of affection or concern for the mistreatment of animals as a whole, nor did they value animals less. However, regional differences were found for several items regarding caring for one's own animals: two behavioral beliefs and two control beliefs. Additionally various differences were found between the regions regarding the level of concern for mistreatment when broken down into the different species. Gender effects were also common. While the attitudinal results do reflect animal mistreatment prevalence and reporting rates, they also highlight the complexity of community attitudes. As such, interventions to prevent mistreatment must have clear targets including the audience, behavior, and species. Targeting smaller regions and thoroughly investigating their unique perspectives, challenges, and strengths are likely to be more effective than generic campaigns.

Health Education Specialists’ Attitudes toward End-of-Life Education And Planning

This study explored attitudinal differences of Certified Health Education Specialists (CHES) and Master Certified Health Education Specialists (MCHES) toward providing end-of-life education. From a national CHES/MCHES list, we stratified health education specialists by geographic location then randomly selected participants. In our sample (N = 373), older individuals, those who cared for terminally ill persons/families, and those who had death and dying education had more positive attitudes toward providing end-of-life education. We offer three approaches to address the advance care-planning crisis: 1) providing additional end-of-life education to medical professionals, 2) assisting medical schools with incorporating experiential learning, and 3) community outreach.

Transnational solidarity among political elites: what determines support for financial redistribution within the EU in times of crisis?

As a consequence of the European Economic Crisis, the European Union (EU) has implanted mechanisms to assist fellow member states facing economic difficulties. Despite an increasing academic interest in public preferences for such intra-EU solidarity measures, research has so far largely ignored individual characteristics that could possibly influence politicians’ views. In this paper, we look at politicians’ preferences for transnational solidarity and argue that these preferences depend on attitudes regarding socioeconomic issues as well as attitudes related to the EU. Moreover, we hypothesize that the relationship is moderated by responsibility attribution and the economic situation in a country. Using survey data of about 4000 politicians running for office in nine EU countries, we find that transnational solidarity is more common for socioeconomically left-wing and pro-EU politicians. Yet, attitudinal differences only cease to matter when the beneficiary state is perceived responsible for the crisis and economic problems at home are low.

Channelling employability perceptions through lifelong learning: an empirical investigation

PurposeGraduates' attitudes towards learning, although subject to change, is a crucial indicator of their understanding and involvement in lifelong learning activities. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether lifelong learning enhances human capital worth to predict perceived employability. An enquiry into the attitudinal differences on lifelong learning among male and female students was also looked into.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical examination using Warp-PLS was conducted on the propositions among 286 engineering graduate students in Kerala, India, from January 2020 to March 2020.FindingsThe Warp-PLS examination reveals a positive association between lifelong learning and perceived employability and warrants the mediating role of lifelong learning in the association between human capital and perceived employability. A gendered variation on attitudinal differences towards lifelong learning is also looked into, and no difference between males and females is found.Originality/valueThe impact of lifelong learning on employability has been conceptually discussed before. This paper is the first attempt to empirically prove the same with a proper theoretical explanation.

A study on attitude towards English language learning among non-English majored students at Tra Vinh University

Achievement in language learning usually depends on both learners’ ability and attitude. If learners have negative attitude towards language learning, it can lead to some detrimental effects. The objectives of the study are to identify students’ attitude to English language learning, to find out the differences of English attitude by gender and by three specializations, and finally to draw some teaching implications at Tra Vinh university. The participants are 89 respondents from 3 main specializations: Office Administration, Tourism and Medical Physician. The questionnaire has 34 items concerning language attitudes in terms of behavioral, cognitive and emotional aspect of attitude. The results show that the students have average positive attitude towards English and interestingly there are no attitudinal differences by gender. However, the attitudes towards English of the three majors are not similar. Tourism students’ attitude is slightly lower than that of the other two specializations.

The internationalisation process of UK SMEs: exporting and non-exporting behaviours based on a four forces behavioural model

Purpose This study aims to develop a new internationalisation model to describe the exporting and non-exporting behaviours of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and then applying it to a sample of UK SMEs. The conceptual model consists of four forces leading to a successful business. Design/methodology/approach The sample is a stratified one taken from KOMPASS directory and focussing on the Greater Manchester area. In total, 250 firms were chosen to be the population of this survey. In total, 110 surveys were received by email i.e. 24 non-exporters and 86 exporters that were fully completed. Findings The four forces of the model include the non-exporting activity, the activity before and after the first export order, differences and similarities between non-exporters and exporters and the regular exporting activity. This model’s findings demonstrate important empirical determinants related to four forces, which, in turn, shape the successful exporting activity. Originality/value The empirical evidence from the study suggests that the major differences between non-exporters and exporters, which include the differences in management perceptions towards exporting, and the differences and similarities of firm and management characteristics, explain only to some degree what constitutes successful exporting behaviour. The model is considered useful for smaller businesses located in the UK. The study highlights the importance of firms before and after the first export order, which provides insights for managers of firms about going through with the first export order rather than withdrawing from this effort. The study reveals the motivations for exporting, the timing, the modes through which firms export, firms’ management characteristics and attitudinal differences between exporters and non-exporters, which are essential for practitioners.