Family Policy Awareness and Marital Intentions: A National Survey Experimental Study

Despite extensively examining the effects of family policies on marriage and fertility rates, previous research has paid little attention to the process of policy implementation and has implicitly assumed that individuals are fully aware of the policy information when making marital and fertility decisions. Challenging this assumption, we theorize policy awareness as an important mechanism for understanding the potential influence of family policies on individuals' marital intentions, an understudied yet crucial determinant of family formation behavior. In an experiment using a national survey of young unmarried individuals in Japan, respondents were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group was informed about 17 Japanese family policy benefits, but most of the respondents knew none or only a few of these benefits. After exposure to the policy information, the treatment group had significantly higher marital intentions than the control group, which had similar baseline characteristics but no information exposure. Crucially, such positive effects were particularly pronounced among high-educated women and high- and low-educated men, reflecting the differentiated effects of policy awareness under Japan's traditional gender role norms. Overall, these findings highlight the pivotal role of policy awareness during the family formation process and contribute to the debate over whether and how family policies may influence different subpopulations.

A 10-Year Systematic Review of Photovoice Projects With Youth in the United States

Introduction Photovoice is a method used in community-based participatory research that places cameras in the hands of people and invites them to record their lives, engage in critical dialogue, and advocate for changes needed in their communities. This article presents a review of the literature from 2010 to 2019 on photovoice projects implemented with U.S. youth informed by an emancipatory research conceptual framework. Method Information on 30 project elements was extracted from each of the 47 publications, representing 39 unique projects that met our inclusion criteria. Projects were also assessed for whether they met the goals of photovoice as originally conceptualized by Wang and Burris in 1997. Results Participants, policy makers, and community members were affected by photovoice projects. Outcomes ranged from researcher specific needs to community change and policy awareness and changes. Common outcomes included (1) gaining knowledge, (2) participant empowerment, (3) community change/action, (4) new partnerships, and (5) reaching policy makers. Of the 39 unique projects, 17 addressed all three photovoice goals, 12 addressed two, and 10 addressed only one. All the projects met the goal of enabling participants to record and reflect their community’s strengths and concerns. Twenty-four were aligned with all three principles of emancipatory research. Discussion Photovoice is a valuable, flexible tool that can enable participants to play an active, guiding role in assessing the needs and assets of their community. Through critical reflection and dialogue, youth can become change agents in their communities. No single set of strategies will work best for every project.

Determinants of adherence to COVID-19 preventive behaviours in Canada: Results from the iCARE Study

Objective: Key to slowing the spread of SARS-Cov-2 is adherence to preventive behaviours promoted through government policies, which may be influenced by policy awareness, attitudes and concerns about the virus and its impacts. This study assessed determinants of adherence to major coronavirus preventive behaviours, including demographics, attitudes and concerns, among Canadians during the first pandemic wave. Methods: As part of the iCARE study (www.iCAREstudy.com), we weighted data from two population-based, online surveys (April and June, 2020) of Canadian adults. Questions tapped into behaviour change constructs. Multivariate regression models identified determinants of adherence. Results: Data from 6,008 respondents (51% female) were weighted for age, sex, and province. Awareness of government policies was high at both time points (80-99%), and adherence to prevention behaviours was high in April (87.5%-93.5%) but decreased over time, particularly for avoiding social gatherings (68.1%). Adherence was worse among men, those aged 25 and under, and those currently working. Aligned with the Health Beliefs Model, perceptions of the importance of prevention behaviours and the nature of peoples COVID-19-related concerns were highly predictive of adherence. Interestingly, health and social/economic concerns predicted better adherence, but having greater personal financial concerns predicted worse adherence at both time points. Conclusion: Adherence to COVID-19 prevention behaviours was worse among men, younger adults, and workers, and deteriorated over time. Perceived importance of prevention behaviours measures and health and social/economic concerns predicted better adherence, but personal financial concerns predicted worse adherence. Results have implications for tailoring policy and communication strategies during subsequent pandemic waves.

Smallholders’ perceptions of policies for preserving the traditional Ongole cattle breed of Indonesia

Agricultural policies can only be effective if intended beneficiaries are sufficiently aware of them. This basic condition for policy success is substantially challenged by smallholder farmers’ lack of awareness of existing support schemes. We studied the perceptions of 600 farmers of preservation policies for the traditional Indonesian Ongole cattle breed. We measured farmers’ knowledge of existing policies, their perceived ease of participation, their participation level and their satisfaction with the benefits obtained. We found that the target group has little awareness of existing policies. Policy awareness increases with education, the less remote the farm is, and with increasing specialization in cattle farming. We recommend therefore that policymakers should simplify and redesign existing policy schemes to create one coordinated policy. The various support schemes currently implemented should be combined in this policy and it should be presented in such a way that is easily understood by farmers. Incentives for Ongole breeders should be tailored, the establishment of farmers groups facilitated, and a breeding and selection programme initiated to improve the genetic potential of Ongole for domestic beef production.

Staff Knowledge Enhancement Program in Hospital Pharmacy: One-Year Experience

Purpose: To assess the effectiveness of Staff Knowledge Enhancement Program (SKEP) among staff, in improving staff knowledge, and awareness of policies and procedures. Methods: After 1 year of implementing SKEP, a survey was conducted among pharmacy staff that participated in SKEP during June 2019 ( n = 38). The survey included 7 questions and the answers were on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree). The investigators also obtained the average monthly time used to solve SKEP test, and the number of therapeutic intervention documentations (TID). Results: Sixty-one percent of the pharmacists and 80% of the technicians were satisfied with the educational content of SKEP; 35% of pharmacists and 93% of technicians felt that their learning needs were met with the SKEP; 83% of pharmacists and 93 % of technicians found SKEP is an effective tool in improving their knowledge; 48% of pharmacists and 34% of technicians felt that SKEP made staff evaluations fair; 38% of pharmacists felt that SKEP is a burden and takes a lot from their free time, while 40% of technicians did not have this feeling; 83% of pharmacist and 93% of the technicians found that the knowledge gained from SKEP applicable in their daily practice; 73% and 74% of the pharmacists and technicians who completed the survey felt that their familiarity with policies and procedures improved after SKEP respectively. The total number of TID increased by 30% and the average duration for the test was 5 hours/month and 68 minutes/month per pharmacist and technician respectively. Conclusion: SKEP is innovative tool which may enhance the knowledge and policy awareness among pharmacy staff.

Child Protection Policy Awareness of Teachers and Responsiveness of the School: Their Relationship and Implications

In every institution in the country, there are countless stories of children being bullied, abused, or maltreated. This can happen inside a school or outside its premises. A child protection policy is a must to protect these children. This study assesses the child protection policy awareness of teachers and the responsiveness of the schools. It also wanted to know the relationship and program implications. The researchers used a descriptive-correlation research design with the survey as the primary data-gathering tool. 146 teachers from seven different schools in a city in Bulacan, Philippines took part in the survey. The study also adopted an instrument from Macatimpag (2018). To analyze the data, the proponents used mean, t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson-r. The results showed that teachers were aware of the Child Protection Policy program of the Department of Education. However, the responsiveness of the schools is not very high. There were significant differences in the results observed in the awareness of teachers and the responsiveness of the schools. In addition, there is a moderate relationship between the awareness of teachers in the Child Protection policy with the responsiveness of the school about the program. Based on the aforementioned findings of the study,the researchers have provided some implications of the study for future references.

Miles Conrad Award 2020: A panel discussion with James Neal, Deanna Marcum, and Todd Carpenter

This paper is based upon a panel discussion that took place after James G. Neal gave his 2020 Miles Conrad Award address during the inaugural NISO Plus conference that was held in Baltimore, MD (USA) from February 23–25, 2020. The discussion was a thoughtful conversation among three information industry leaders - Neal, Deanna Marcum, and Todd Carpenter - that touched upon many of the issues that continue to swirl within the information community today, such as information literacy, information access, policy awareness and advocacy, digital preservation, collaborative initiatives, diversity, information access and control, etc. There were no clear solutions to the issues, but there was general agreement that the future success of all stakeholders requires that we identify those things where we have common interests and common concerns and build the capacity for legal, legislative, and policy advocacy that will allow all stakeholders to be players not only in their communities, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, in Washington, D.C. and in international venues where global information policies are being set.

Toward Reducing Adolescents’ Bottled Water Purchasing: From Policy Awareness to Policy-Congruent Behavior

Policy awareness increases the likelihood of policy-congruent behavior. Yet individuals may differ in the extent to which they notice certain policies; thus, psychological factors that explain behavior can have a differing effect on policy-congruent behavior of individuals. We investigated to what extent the relationship between normative, habitual, intentional, and situational factors that explain bottled water purchasing behavior vary regarding individuals’ awareness of policy targeted at reducing bottled water purchasing. We investigated this question in a representative sample of Lithuanian adolescents. Our study indicated that awareness of policy targeted at bottled water purchasing acts as a moderator for adolescents’ normative, habitual, intentional, and situational factors related to their bottled water purchasing. In low, moderate, and high policy awareness groups, habit was the strongest direct predictor of behavior. Normative factors had a strong effect in explaining intentions; in addition, awareness of consequences was directly related with behavior in the high policy awareness group. However, situational factors were insignificant predictors of self-reported behavior. Based on the results of the current study, we suggest that to achieve policy-congruent behavior, policy makers should consider both policy-reinforcing incentives and the level of policy awareness of the targeted group.