Moral Character Education after COVID-19: An Interview

This interview piece addresses the following questions: Does the COVID-19 pandemic offer any lessons for moral character education? Do the experiences of students, educators, and communities during the pandemic illustrate the importance of aspects of character education that may have been known but taken for granted? The three authors bring to this the perspectives of a philosopher of moral psychology and education (Curren, the interviewer), a clinical psychologist and co-founder of self-determination theory (SDT), a systematic approach in the psychology of motivation, development, and well-being (Ryan), and a moral theorist focused on mindfulness and virtue (Barber).

School-based caries prevention and the impact on acute and chronic student absenteeism (preprint)

Background Poor oral health is negatively associated with absenteeism, being attributed to millions of lost school days per year. The role of school-based dental programs that address oral health inequities on student attendance has not yet been explored. Methods Caried Away was a longitudinal, cluster-randomized, non-inferiority trial of preventive medicines for dental caries used in a school-based program. To explore the potential impact of caries prevention on attendance, we extracted data on average school absenteeism and the proportion of chronically absent students from publicly-available datasets maintained by the New York City Department of Education for years before, during, and after program onset. Data were obtained for all Caried Away schools as well as a group of untreated comparator schools. Total absences and the proportion of chronically absent students were modeled using multilevel mixed effects linear and two-limit tobit regression, respectively. Multiple model specifications were considered, including exposures to time-varying treatments across multiple years. Models also included a group of untreated comparator schools. Results In years in which treatment was provided through a school-based comprehensive caries prevention program, schools recorded approximately 944 fewer absences than in non-treatment years (95% CI = −1739, −149). Averaged across all study years, schools receiving either treatment had 1500 fewer absences than comparator schools, but this was not statistically significant. In contrast, chronic absenteeism was found to significantly decrease in later years of the program (B = -.037, 95% CI = -.062, -.011). Removing data for years affected by COVID-19 eliminated the significant reduction in total absences during treatment years, yet still showed a marginally significant interaction for chronic absenteeism. Discussion Though originally designed to mitigate access barriers to critical oral healthcare, early integration of school-based dental programs may positively impact school attendance. However, concerns over the reliability of attendance records due to the closing of school facilities resulting from COVID-19 may mask the true effect.

Moral Character Education after COVID-19: An Interview: Journal of the Canadian Philosophy of Education Society. Revue de la Société canadienne de philosophie de l'éducation

This interview piece addresses the questions: Does the COVID-19 pandemic offer any lessons for moral character education? Do the experiences of students, educators, and communities during the pandemic illustrate the importance of aspects of character education that may have been known but taken for granted? The three authors bring to this the perspectives of a philosopher of moral psychology and education (Curren, the interviewer), a clinical psychologist and co-founder of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), a systematic approach in the psychology of motivation, development, and well-being (Ryan), and a moral theorist focused on mindfulness and virtue (Barber).

Severity of dental caries in New York City children receiving school-based prevention and the role of SARS-Cov-2: Results from the CariedAway pragmatic trial (preprint)

Background: Children with dental caries (tooth decay), the world's most prevalent noncommunicative disease, face severe negative impacts on health and quality of life. Methods: The CariedAway trial is a study of the non-inferiority of WHO-sponsored essential medicines when used in a pragmatic, school-based caries prevention model. We present data on severity of disease, evidence of traditional dental care, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on urgent needs of low-income, minority children in New York City. Results: Of the 1398 children enrolled in CariedAway, approximately 30% had untreated caries on any dentition at baseline and only 11% of children presented with evidence of having received preventive dental sealants. When follow-up observations were performed after 24 months, 4% of children had developed fistula and nearly 10% presented with pulpal involvement. Conclusion: School-based caries prevention programs are attractive public health interventions to overcome access barriers to dental care and reduce oral health inequities. We show that there are severe unmet needs in minority urban children that are further exacerbated by a lack of access to care during disease outbreaks. School-based programs using essential medicines can provide lasting care during pandemic periods.

Adherence to COVID-19 measures: The critical role of autonomous motivation on a short- and long-term basis

To limit the spreading of the SARS-CoV-2-virus, governments worldwide have introduced behavioral measures that require considerable effort from their citizens to adhere to. Grounded in Self-Determination Theory, the present research sought to examine in a study among Belgian citizens the cross-sectional (total N = 45975, Mage = 50.42), week-to-week (subsample 1;N = 981, Mage = 41.32), and long-term (subsample 2;N = 5643, Mage = 53.09) associations between various individual motives to follow government guidelines and their self-reported adherence to these measures. Controlling for COVID-specific concerns and perceived risk for infection, autonomous motivation related positively to citizens' concurrent adherence (total sample), their increased week-to-week adherence during the lockdown (subsample 1), and their persistent adherence during an exit phase (subsample 2). Introjected regulation and external regulation were positively and negatively associated with concurrent adherence, respectively, but had no long-term predictive value. The findings indicate that citizens' autonomous motivation is a robust predictor of adherence, suggesting that politicians, policymakers, and experts do well to adopt a communication style that ongoingly fosters autonomous motivation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Impact of COVID-19 restrictions on pathology service utilisation.

BACKGROUND: Isolation and social distancing restrictions due to COVID-19 have the potential to impact access to healthcare services. AIMS: To assess the use of pathology services during the COVID-19 pandemic initial restrictions. METHODS: Repeated cross-sectional study of pathology tests utilisation during a baseline time period early in 2020 compared with pre-lockdown and lockdown due to COVID-19 in South Australia. The outcome measure was changed in a number of pathology tests compared to baseline period, particularly change in the number of troponin tests to determine potential impacts of lockdown on urgent care presentations. RESULTS: In the community setting, the ratio of a number of pathology tests pre-lockdown and post-lockdown versus baseline period decreased from 1.02 to 0.53 respectively. The exception was microbiology molecular tests, where the number of tests was more than three times higher in the lockdown period. The number of troponin tests in emergency departments decreased in the lockdown period compared to the baseline time period; however, there was no evidence of an association between tests result (positive vs negative) and time period (odds ratio (OR) 1.09; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.97-1.22). There was an inverse relationship between age and time period (OR 0.995; 95% CI 0.993-0.997), indicating that fewer troponin tests were conducted in older people during the lockdown compared with the baseline period. CONCLUSION: COVID-19 restrictions had a significant impact on the use of pathology testing in both urgent and non-urgent care settings. Further studies are needed to investigate the effect on health outcomes as a result of the COVID-19 restrictions.

A legacy unfinished: An appreciative reply to comments on self-determination theory's frontiers and challenges

It is an honor to receive comments from such an esteemed group of scholars, and their recognition of the progress in motivational sciences catalyzed by a global community of self-determination theory (SDT) researchers. Given limited space, we respond to only a few of their reactions. In our legacy article (Ryan et al., 2021), we focused on autonomy, in part because, as Koestner and Holding (2021) highlighted, SDT is unique in its emphasis on this concept. Koestner and Holding further suggested that SDT's emphasis on autonomy has a particular salience in this age of COVID-19 in which voluntary compliance matters to public health. We agree, and have seen SDT's ability to differentiate between autonomy and "freedom," and to identify strategies that facilitate maintained behavior change to be highly relevant in this pandemic (e.g., Martela et al., 2021;Vermote et al., 2021). Concerning this emphasis on autonomy, Sheldon and Geoffredi (2021) worried that SDT faces a "major threat" from determinists who object to "free will." Patall (2021) comments about the wide applicability of SDT's "universal" principles. Vallerand (2021) points to major contributions of SDT in focusing on basic human needs, in differentiating types of extrinsic motivation, and in researching human flourishing well before the advent of positive psychology. Sansone and Tang (2021) highlight the complexity of SDT's motivational taxonomy, and that people can have both betweenand within-person differences in configurations of motives. We appreciate these positive reviews of SDT, and agree with our commentators' unanimous view that the theory's work is far from complete. We hope our SDT legacy article thus serves not as a coda, but instead as a springboard for yet further theorizing, experimentation, and interventions that contribute to humanity through supporting people's autonomy and capacity to pursue what really matters to them. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

Do Psychological Needs Play a Role in Times of Uncertainty? Associations with Well-Being During the COVID-19 Crisis.

Across the world, measures were taken to contain the spreading of the COVID-19 virus. Many of these measures caused a sudden rupture in people's daily routines, thereby eliciting considerable uncertainty and potentially also hampering the satisfaction of individuals' psychological needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence. Drawing upon Maslow's Hierarchical Need Theory and Self-Determination Theory, this study examined the unique role of felt insecurity and the psychological needs, as well as their dynamic interplay, in the prediction of mental health. A large and heterogeneous sample of adults (N = 5118; Mage = 43.45 years) was collected during the first ten days of the lockdown period in Flanders, Belgium. A subsample (N = 835, Mage = 41.39) participated during a second wave one week later. Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that felt insecurity, need satisfaction and need frustration all independently predicted various positive (life satisfaction, sleep quality) and negative indicators depressive symptoms, anxiety) of mental health, with little systematic evidence for interactions between the predictors. The pattern of findings obtained concurrently largely held in the longitudinal analyses. Finally, results showed that associations between felt insecurity and lower concurrent and prospective mental health were partially mediated by need satisfaction and frustration, with especially psychological need frustration predicting changes in mental health over time. Overall, the findings suggest that satisfaction of the psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness is not just a 'luxury good'. Satisfaction of these needs is important also in times of insecurity, while need frustration represents a risk factor for maladjustment during such times.

Information Safety Assurances Increase Intentions to Use COVID-19 Contact Tracing Applications, Regardless of Autonomy-Supportive or Controlling Message Framing.

Promoting the use of contact tracing technology will be an important step in global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Across two studies, we assessed two messaging strategies as motivators of intended contact tracing uptake. In one sample of 1117 Australian adults and one sample of 888 American adults, we examined autonomy-supportive and controlling message framing and the presence or absence of information safety as predictors of intended contact tracing application uptake, using an online randomized 2 × 2 experimental design. The results suggested that the provision of data safety assurances may be key in affecting people's intentions to use contact tracing technology, an effect we found in both samples regardless of whether messages were framed as autonomy-supportive or controlling. Those in high information safety conditions consistently reported higher intended uptake and more positive perceptions of the application than those in low information safety conditions. In Study 2, we also found that perceptions of government legitimacy related positively to intended application uptake, as did political affiliation. In sum, individuals appeared more willing to assent to authority regarding contact tracing insofar as their data safety can be assured. Yet, public messaging strategies alone may be insufficient to initiate intentions to change behavior, even in these unprecedented circumstances.