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Participants' Reports (participant + report)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%
Psychology	37%

Selected Abstracts

Verbal and Physical Abuse and Neglect as Manifestations of HIV/AIDS Stigma in Five African Countries

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING, Issue 5 2007
Priscilla S. Dlamini
ABSTRACT Objective: To explore the experience of HIV/AIDS-related stigma for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWA) in Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Swaziland, and Tanzania. Design and sample: Descriptive study using 43 focus groups (n=251 participants), which included male and female PLWA from both rural and urban areas and nurses working with PLWA. Methods: Participants were asked to relate incidents of HIV/AIDS-related stigma that they had experienced or observed. Focus group discussions were taped, and data were content analyzed to identify examples of abuse (verbal and physical abuse and neglect) related to HIV/AIDS stigma. Data analysis also explored targets of abuse, abusers, and consequences of abuse. Results: Participant reports documented extensive verbal and physical abuse and neglect or negating (disallowing of access to services and opportunities) experienced by PLWA and observed by nurses caring for them, and identified negative consequences experienced by PLWA whose HIV-positive status was disclosed to family, friends, or community members. Conclusions: Health care workers who encourage PLWA to disclose their HIV status must carefully consider the implications of encouraging disclosure in an environment with high levels of stigma, and must recognize the real possibility that PLWA may experience serious verbal and physical abuse as a consequence of disclosure. [source]

Age Changes in Prosocial Responding and Moral Reasoning in Adolescence and Early Adulthood

JOURNAL OF RESEARCH ON ADOLESCENCE, Issue 3 2005
Nancy Eisenberg
Age changes' measures of prosocial responding and reasoning were examined. Participants' reports of helping, empathy-related responding, and prosocial moral reasoning were obtained in adolescence (from age 15,16 years) and into adulthood (to age 25,26 years). Perspective taking and approval/interpersonal oriented/stereotypic prosocial moral reasoning increased from adolescence into adulthood, whereas personal distress declined. Helping declined and then increased (a cubic trend). Prosocial moral judgment composite scores (and self-reflective empathic reasoning) generally increased from late adolescence into the early 20s (age 17,18 to 21,22) but either leveled off or declined slightly thereafter (i.e., showed linear and cubic trends); rudimentary needs-oriented reasoning showed the reverse pattern of change. The increase in self-reflective empathic moral reasoning was for females only. Thus, perspective taking and some aspects of prosocial moral reasoning,capacities with a strong sociocognitive basis,showed the clearest increases with age, whereas simple prosocial proclivities (i.e., helping, sympathy) did not increase with age. [source]

Perceived versus reported social referent approval and romantic relationship commitment and persistence

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 3 2008
PAUL E. ETCHEVERRY
The current study examined social network influence processes on romantic relationship outcomes by obtaining the reported opinions of social referents as well as romantic relationship members' perceptions of social network members' opinions. Participants were 254 (151 women) college students from the United States involved in romantic relationships along with a male and female friend who all completed surveys regarding the participants' romantic relationship. This work demonstrated that perceived normative beliefs of social network members significantly mediated the effects of reported social network approval on relationship commitment. Participants' reports of relationship commitment were found to mediate the effect of subjective norms on relationship persistence. Along with network members' relationship approval, participants' satisfaction was found to predict participants' normative beliefs. [source]

Another Breed of "Service" Animals: STARS Study Findings About Pet Ownership and Recovery From Serious Mental Illness

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 3 2009
Jennifer P. Wisdom PhD
This study elucidates the role of pets in recovery processes among adults with serious mental illness. Data derive from interviews with 177 HMO members with serious mental illness (52.2% women, average age 48.8 years) in the Study of Transitions and Recovery Strategies (STARS). Interviews and questionnaires addressed factors affecting recovery processes and included questions about pet ownership. Data were analyzed using a modified grounded theory method to identify the roles pets play in the recovery process. Primary themes indicate pets assist individuals in recovery from serious mental illness by (a) providing empathy and "therapy"; (b) providing connections that can assist in redeveloping social avenues; (c) serving as "family" in the absence of or in addition to human family members; and (d) supporting self-efficacy and strengthening a sense of empowerment. Pets appear to provide more benefits than merely companionship. Participants' reports of pet-related contributions to their well-being provide impetus to conduct more formal research on the mechanisms by which pets contribute to recovery and to develop pet-based interventions. [source]

Collateral Reports in the College Setting: A Meta-Analytic Integration

ALCOHOLISM, Issue 5 2009
Brian Borsari
Background:, The majority of research examining college drinking utilizes self-report data, and collateral reports have been used to verify participants' self-reported alcohol use. Methods:, This meta-analytic integration examined the correspondence of over 970 collateral and participant dyads in the college setting. Results and Conclusions:, Results indicated that there is little bias (mean difference) between collateral estimates of participant drinking and participant's self-report. A cumulative meta-analysis revealed that this (null) effect was stable and unlikely to be altered by subsequent research or the existence of unpublished studies. Analysis of the agreement between collaterals and participant estimates (measured by intraclass correlation coefficients; ICCs) revealed moderate levels of agreement (mean ICC = 0.501). Examination of predictors of both bias and agreement in collateral and participant reports indicates a possible intentional and protective underreporting on the part of the collaterals. Ways to reduce this bias are discussed along with the value of using collaterals to verify participant self-report in the college setting. [source]

Developing an Oral Communication Strategy Inventory

MODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 2 2006
YASUO NAKATANI
This study focuses on how valid information about learner perception of strategy use during communicative tasks can be gathered systematically from English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. First, the study attempted to develop a questionnaire for statistical analysis, named the Oral Communication Strategy Inventory (OCSI). The research project consisted of 3 stages: an open-ended questionnaire to identify learners' general perceptions of strategies for oral interaction (N= 80); a pilot factor analysis for selecting test items (N= 400); and a final factor analysis to obtain a stable self-reported instrument (N= 400). The resulting OCSI includes 8 categories of strategies for coping with speaking problems and 7 categories for coping with listening problems during communication. The applicability of the survey instrument was subsequently examined in a simulated communicative test for EFL students (N= 62). To validate the use of the instrument, participant reports on the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) were compared with the result of the OCSI. When combined with the oral test scores, it was revealed that students with high oral proficiency tended to use specific strategies, such as social affective strategies, fluency-oriented strategies, and negotiation of meaning. [source]

The demand/withdraw pattern of communication in parent,adolescent dyads

PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, Issue 3 2005
JOHN P. CAUGHLIN
The current study used both participant reports and outsider ratings of conversations to examine the demand/withdraw pattern in parent,adolescent dyads (N= 57). Results indicated that demands by either parents or adolescents were associated positively with the other dyad member's withdrawal. Overall, parent-demand/adolescent-withdraw was more prevalent than adolescent-demand/parent-withdraw; however, parent-demand/adolescent-withdraw was significantly lower during discussions of adolescents' issues than during discussions of parents' issues. There were few differences based on the sex of the parent or the child, but parent-demand/adolescent-withdraw during discussion of parents' issues was higher in dyads with mothers than in dyads with fathers. The discussion focuses on the implications for understanding demand/withdraw communication and on the utility of examining demand/withdraw in parent,adolescent relationships. [source]

The cost-effectiveness of antidepressants for smoking cessation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients

ADDICTION, Issue 12 2009
Constant P. Van Schayck
ABSTRACT Objectives In healthy smokers, antidepressants can double the odds of cessation. Because of its four times lower costs and comparable efficacy in healthy smokers, nortriptyline appears to be favourable compared to bupropion. We assessed which of both drugs was most effective and cost-effective in stopping smoking after 1 year compared with placebo among smokers at risk or with existing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods A total of 255 participants, aged 30,70 years, received smoking cessation counselling and were assigned bupropion, nortriptyline or placebo randomly for 12 weeks. Prolonged abstinence from smoking was defined as a participant's report of no cigarettes from week 4 to week 52, validated by urinary cotinine. Costs were calculated using a societal perspective and uncertainty was assessed using the bootstrap method. Results The prolonged abstinence rate was 20.9% with bupropion, 20.0% with nortriptyline and 13.5% with placebo. The differences between bupropion and placebo [relative risk (RR) = 1.6; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.8,3.0] and between nortriptyline and placebo (RR = 1.5; 95% CI 0.8,2.9) were not significant. Severity of airway obstruction did not influence abstinence significantly. Societal costs were ,1368 (2.5th,97.5th percentile 193,5260) with bupropion, ,1906 (2.5th,97.5th 120,17 761) with nortriptyline and ,1212 (2.5th,97.5th 96,6602) with placebo. Were society willing to pay more than ,2000 for a quitter, bupropion was most likely to be cost-effective. Conclusions Bupropion and nortriptyline seem to be equally effective, but bupropion appears to be more cost-effective when compared to placebo and nortriptyline. This impression holds using only health care costs. As the cost-effectiveness analyses concern some uncertainties, the results should be interpreted with care and future studies are needed to replicate the findings. [source]