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The long-term shift toward online learning over the past two decades was greatly accelerated by COVID-19, heightening the urgency in higher education for policies meant to better optimize online environments for student learning. The determination of class sizes for online courses is one such policy. In this hierarchical linear regression of undergraduate students' grades in online courses (n = 6,615), we found a significant but negligible positive relationship between section size and students' final grades. Among other findings, we found little evidence to conclude that class size policies have any substantive relationship to students' end-of-course grades in online environments. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Studies in Higher Education is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)
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Identifying and understanding risk perceptions—"how bad are the harms” to humans or to what they value that people see as potentially or actually arising from entities or events—has been critical for risk analysis, both for its own sake, and for expected associations between risk perceptions and subsequent outcomes, such as risky or protective behavior, or support for hazard management policies. Cross-sectional surveys have been the dominant method for identifying and understanding risk perceptions, yielding valuable data. However, cross-sectional surveys are unable to probe the dynamics of risk perceptions over time, which is critical to do while living in a dynamically hazardous world and to build causal understandings. Building upon earlier longitudinal panel studies of Americans' Ebola and Zika risk perceptions using multi-level modeling to assess temporal changes in these views and inter-individual factors affecting them, we examined patterns in Americans' COVID-19 risk perceptions in six waves across 14 months. The findings suggest that, in general, risk perceptions increased from February 2020 to April 2021, but with varying trends across different risk perception measures (personal, collective, affective, affect, severity, and duration). Factors in baseline risk perceptions (Wave 1) and inter-individual differences across waves differed even more: baseline ratings were associated with how immediate the threat is (temporal distance) and how likely the threat would affect people like oneself (social distance), and following the United States news about the pandemic. Inter-individual trend differences were shaped most by temporal distance, whether local coronavirus infections were accelerating their upward trend, and subjective knowledge about viral transmission. Associations of subjective knowledge and risk trend with risk perceptions could change signs (e.g. from positive to negative) over time. These findings hold theoretical implications for risk perception dynamics and taxonomies, and research design implications for studying risk perception dynamics and their comparison across hazards. © 2023 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
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Introduction: The early part of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) was a chronic stressor that led to decreased life satisfaction, increased psychopathology, and decreased social interaction, making it important to study coping strategies that stimulate increases in emotional well-being. Previous research has demonstrated that disengagement coping may be beneficial in scenarios where engagement coping is too difficult or not possible. We hypothesized that disengagement coping would be related to good emotional well-being (high positive emotions and/or perceived control, lower negative emotions and/or stress), with distraction (taking a break from a stressor) related to better emotional well-being than is avoidance (avoiding thoughts and feelings associated with a stressor). Methods: Using a daily reconstruction method that represents a "day in the life" of people in the United States during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, we assessed people's (N = 329) activities, their intention to distract from or avoid the stressor during these activities, emotions, and thoughts about and motivation to deal with COVID. Results: Between-subjects' analyses revealed that habitual distraction did not predict any outcomes, while habitual avoidance related to poorer emotional well-being. Within-subject analyses, however, demonstrated that engaging in distraction (and to a smaller extent, avoidance) was associated with better concurrent emotional well-being and less thinking about COVID. Furthermore, the intent to distract/avoid was more reliable in predicting emotional outcomes than was the activity type. Conclusion: These findings suggest that disengagement from stress can be an adaptive coping behavior during global pandemics and possibly other chronic stressors with similar attributes.
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In order to move to a stable life rhythm and a satisfactory condition of people, which would ensure the organization of the usual mode of daily activities, it is necessary to achieve a sufficiently complete vaccination of the population in a region. At the same time, significant obstacles to achieving the desired result in Ukraine are the hesitation of a large part of the population regarding the vaccination, fear of a purely medical procedure, and distrust of its effectiveness. Due to the lack of a wide range of scientifically grounded research of this problem, insufficient attention is paid to a deeper analysis of the factors influencing the intensity and effectiveness of vaccination. In view of what has been said in the proposed article, many factors related to the vaccination process have been identified based on the developed ontology. A formalized representation of the connections between factors has been made using the semantic network as an information database, which has become a prerequisite for ranking by weight factors. Using the methodology of hierarchies modelling, the levels of factors preferences are established and a multilevel model of their priority influence on the researched process is synthesized. Alternative options for the vaccination process have been designed and a prognostic assessment of the levels of COVID-19 vaccination intensity has been carried out, which allows the selection of the optimal option for the specific parameters of the initial factors. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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The current study examined the association between dispositional and state hope in college students using a 2 -week diary. Specifically, we tested whether dispositional hope predicts lower levels of daily changes in state hope over a 2-week period as well as whether higher-than-normal levels of state hope would result in higher-than -normal levels on subsequent days. Data were collected from 101 students (Mage = 25.91) who were studying online due to COVID-19 restrictions. The sample was predominantly female (74 %) and Black (49 %) or His-panic/Latinx (25 %). The results indicated that individuals with higher levels of dispositional hope at the beginning of the study experienced lower levels of lability in state hope compared to their counterparts with lower levels of dispositional hope. Additionally, when individuals reported levels of state hope on a particular day that were higher than average for them, they experienced a boost in state hope the following day. These results highlight the self-perpetuating nature of hope, and suggest that some individuals are less susceptible to daily fluctuations in hope than others based on their disposition. Furthermore, the results emphasize that hope varies both between - and within - persons.
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PURPOSE: The purpose of current study was to evaluate change in hours of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy utilization for autistic children during the year prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first three months of the pandemic (crisis phase), and the following 9 months of the pandemic (mitigation phase). Additionally, this study aimed to evaluate if change in therapy utilization differed based on child race, ethnicity, and primary payer of services. Finally, we aimed to identify potential mechanisms of ABA therapy disruption by interpreting findings using an extended version of Donabedian's structure-process-outcome model. METHODS: Retrospective clinical data on client demographics and therapy utilization (n = 283) were collected from ABA clinics in California and analyzed with four piecewise growth multi-level models. RESULTS: We found that therapy utilization dropped during the first three months of the pandemic (-10.65 h/month; p < .001) and increased during the following 9 months (2.39 h/month; p < .001). Moderator analyses revelated that Asian, Non-Latinx and school-district funded children had significantly different trajectories of change in therapy utilization compared to white, non-Latinx participants and private insurance funded participants, respectively. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that utilization of ABA therapy was disrupted for a full year following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and that child race/ethnicity and primary payer influenced the degree to which autistic children were impacted by service disruption. These findings have implications for autistic children who lost therapy access during key developmental periods and for the ABA care delivery system.
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Autism Spectrum Disorder , Autistic Disorder , COVID-19 , Humans , Child , Pandemics , Autism Spectrum Disorder/epidemiology , Retrospective StudiesABSTRACT
The COVID-19 crisis has had significant impacts on mental health. Students are dealing with an uncertain context, not only due to COVID-19 but also because most of them have never been involved with the challenges of online school. The COVID-19 situation presents daily challenges that require students to respond adaptively. However, little is known about how students handle their daily emotions, in such challenging settings. Drawing on the broaden-and-built theory, we developed a multilevel model arguing that daily-positive affect would enhance daily engagement, and this would be positively related to students' end-of-the-day mental health. We also predict that the mediating path would be stronger for students with higher levels of self-leadership. To achieve the goals, we conducted a 5-day diary study (n = 64∗5 = 320). Results from multilevel modeling showed that positive emotions trigger academic engagement which, in turn, increases mental health, both at the within and between-person level. Results also demonstrated that self-leadership strengthened the positive mediating path, for students with higher levels of self-leadership. Positive affect appears to be a significant predictor of mental health in higher education settings. Moreover, developing self-leadership is an added value, that may be conceived as a personal resource, and may protect students from the uncertainty triggered by the COVID-19 crisis.
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The current study examined the association between dispositional and state hope in college students using a 2-week diary. Specifically, we tested whether dispositional hope predicts lower levels of daily changes in state hope over a 2-week period as well as whether higher-than-normal levels of state hope would result in higher-than-normal levels on subsequent days. Data were collected from 101 students (Mage = 25.91) who were studying online due to COVID-19 restrictions. The sample was predominantly female (74 %) and Black (49 %) or Hispanic/Latinx (25 %). The results indicated that individuals with higher levels of dispositional hope at the beginning of the study experienced lower levels of lability in state hope compared to their counterparts with lower levels of dispositional hope. Additionally, when individuals reported levels of state hope on a particular day that were higher than average for them, they experienced a boost in state hope the following day. These results highlight the self-perpetuating nature of hope, and suggest that some individuals are less susceptible to daily fluctuations in hope than others based on their disposition. Furthermore, the results emphasize that hope varies both between – and within – persons.
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The European Union Cohesion Policy for the period 2021-2027 focuses on five goals to make the European Union smarter, greener, more connected, more social and closer to citizens. However, a macroeconomic index is proposed as the predominant criterion for allocating the Structural Funds among regions. In this paper, we hypothesise that it is possible to take into account new, complementary criteria that better reflect citizens' quality of life. To that end, we build a composite index of socio-economic vulnerability for the 233 regions. The results show that following our multidimensional approach for allocating the Structural Funds, there are remarkable differences in the maps of priority regions. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic represents a threat to well-being. Are all regions equally exposed to COVID-19 in terms of their socio-economic vulnerability? To address this issue, we estimate multilevel models which indicate that country characteristics interact with regions' characteristics to alter patterns of vulnerability. More specifically, increases in government expenditures in education and an improvement in political stability would reduce the regional vulnerability or foster the capacity for resilience, whereas increases in poverty would be associated with greater vulnerability. Likewise, more vulnerable regions would be the most exposed to the negative socio-economic effects of COVID-19. However, it is remarkable that several regions of Sweden and Finland would be among the group of regions whose socio-economic vulnerability would be the most negatively affected.
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In order to move to a stable life rhythm and a satisfactory condition of people, which would ensure the organization of the usual mode of daily activities, it is necessary to achieve a sufficiently complete vaccination of the population in a region. At the same time, significant obstacles to achieving the desired result in Ukraine are the hesitation of a large part of the population regarding the vaccination, fear of a purely medical procedure, and distrust of its effectiveness. Due to the lack of a wide range of scientifically grounded research of this problem, insufficient attention is paid to a deeper analysis of the factors influencing the intensity and effectiveness of vaccination. In view of what has been said in the proposed article, many factors related to the vaccination process have been identified based on the developed ontology. A formalized representation of the connections between factors has been made using the semantic network as an information database, which has become a prerequisite for ranking by weight factors. Using the methodology of hierarchies modelling, the levels of factors preferences are established and a multilevel model of their priority influence on the researched process is synthesized. Alternative options for the vaccination process have been designed and a prognostic assessment of the levels of COVID-19 vaccination intensity has been carried out, which allows the selection of the optimal option for the specific parameters of the initial factors. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Experiencing stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic such as health-related concern, social isolation, occupational disruption, financial insecurity, and resource scarcity can adversely impact mental health; however, the extent of the impact varies greatly between individuals. In this study, we examined the role of neuroticism as an individual-level risk factor that exacerbates the association between pandemic stressors and depressive symptoms. With repeated assessments of pandemic stressors and depressive symptoms collected from 3181 participants over the course of the pandemic, we used multilevel modeling to test if neuroticism moderated the association between pandemic stressors and depressive symptoms at both between- and within-person levels. At the between-person level, we found that participants who reported more pandemic stressors on average had higher levels of depressive symptoms and that this association was stronger among those high in neuroticism. At the within-person level, reporting more pandemic stressors relative to one's average on any given occasion was also associated with heightened depressive symptoms and this effect was similarly exacerbated by neuroticism. The findings point to pandemic stressor exposure and neuroticism as risk factors for depressive symptoms and, in demonstrating their synergistic impact, may help identify individuals at greatest risk for adverse psychological responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Background: Despite the billions of doses at disposal, less than three-quarters of EU citizens received a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of 2021. The situation is particularly worrying in transition societies, which experience much stronger opposition to vaccination compared to their Western counterparts. To understand whether and to what extent this has to do with the socialist legacy, in this paper we explore wider economic, political, and cultural determinants of the COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the EU. Methods: Data from Flash Eurobarometer 494 conducted in May 2021 were used to model the attitudes of EU citizens toward COVID-19 vaccination. Based on their views and intentions, each of 26,106 survey participants was allocated into one of the following categories: (1) already vaccinated/plan to get vaccinated; (2) indecisive; (3) refuse vaccination. Multilevel multinomial logit was employed to understand what underlies the reasoning of each group. Results: The survey revealed that 13.4% of Europeans planned to delay vaccination against COVID-19, while 11.2% did not intend to get vaccinated. Although numerous demographic and socio-economic factors jointly shape their viewpoints, it is trust (in the authorities, science, peers, and online social networks above all) that strongly dominates citizens' reasoning. Given that most transition societies are witnessing the pandemic of distrust at various levels, this seemingly unrelated feature appears to be vital in explaining why newer member states record lower vaccination rates. Education was also found to play a pivotal role, which is reflected in an individual's ability to critically assess information from various sources. Conclusion: The study results clearly illustrate how long-lasting structural problems (specific for, but not confined to, transition countries) can manifest themselves in unforeseen circumstances if left unaddressed. It is hence of vital importance to learn the lesson and prevent similar issues in the future. Above all, this would require wide-ranging reforms aiming to repair the imperceptible psychological contract between citizens and the state authorities.
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COVID-19 Vaccines , COVID-19 , COVID-19/epidemiology , COVID-19/prevention & control , Humans , Intention , Pandemics , VaccinationABSTRACT
This research paper examines the influence of interpersonal interactions on the course-level persistence intentions of online undergraduate engineering students. Online learning is increasing in enrollment and importance in engineering education. Online courses also continue to confront issues with comparatively higher course dropout levels than face-to-face courses. This study correspondingly explores relevant student perceptions of their online course experiences to better understand the factors that contribute to students' choices to remain in or drop out of their online undergraduate engineering courses. Data presented in this study were collected during fall 2019 and spring 2020 from three ABET-accredited online undergraduate engineering courses at a large southwestern public university: electrical engineering, engineering management, and software engineering. The data was collected during the pre-COVID time. Participants were asked to respond to surveys at 12-time points during their 7.5-week online course. Each survey measured students' perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support for completing the course. Participants also reported their intentions to persist in the course during each survey administration. A multi-level modeling analysis revealed that the Perceptions of course LMS dialog, Perceptions of Instructor Practices, and Perceptions of Peer Support are related to Perceptions of course-level Persistence Intentions. Time was also a significant predictor of persistence intentions and indicated that the course persistence intentions decrease towards the end of the course. A multi-level modeling analysis revealed that LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and peer support are related to course persistence intentions. Time was also a significant predictor of persistence intentions and indicated that the course persistence intentions decrease towards the end of the course. Additionally, interactions between demographic variables and other predictors (Perceptions of course LMS dialogue, Perceptions of Instructor Practices, and Perceptions of Peer Support) were significant. With the increase in perceptions of course LMS dialog, perceptions of instructor practices, and perceptions of peer support, there was a relatively smaller increase in the persistence intentions of veterans than non-veterans. There is relatively more increase in the persistence intentions of females than males as their perceptions of instructor practices increase. Finally, increasing perceptions of peer support led to a relatively larger increase in the persistence intentions of non-transfer students than transfer students and a relatively smaller increase in persistence intentions of students working full-time than other students. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021
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Today, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the demand for remote and asynchronous lessons for musical performance is rapidly increasing. In these lessons, teachers listen to recordings of musical performances and then return textual critique documents to the performers. However, the common document formats that exist in other fields are not widely known in the field of performance instruction. To address this issue, we launched a project in 2020 to collect and publish a dataset of critique documents. This study describes a statistical analysis of the dataset to investigate which types of elements are useful for performers. The multilevel modeling results revealed that the content of the critiques differed more depending on the teacher than on the musical piece or the student. Particularly, the number of sentences about giving practice advice is a key factor for useful critique documents. These findings would lead to improved forms of critique documents and, eventually, to the development of educational programs for teachers. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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INTRODUCTION: Hypertension (HT) has a significant impact on health care worldwide. Therapeutic inertia (TI) is defined as the failure to intensify therapy in the absence of an optimal goal and is widely used as a quality of care parameter. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected many health-care systems, including HT care. Therefore, the present study assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on TI and its predictors in patients with HT. METHODS: The electronic medical records of patients with HT who attended a primary care clinic at a tertiary hospital during pre-COVID-19 (February 2019 to February 2020) and COVID-19 (March to August 2020) periods were reviewed. RESULTS: Our study included 6089 visits during the 12-month pre-COVID-19 period and 2852 visits during the 6-month COVID-19 period. Most of the baseline characteristics of the HT patients were not significantly different between the two time periods. During the COVID-19 period, the percentage of uncontrolled HT visits decreased from 43% to 31%. Similarly, the prevalence of TI decreased from 81% to 77%. False TI was predominantly due to physicians' concerns regarding the in-clinic blood pressure measurement being inaccurate during both the periods. CONCLUSION: After readjustment for the physicians 'reasons, the true TI was 64% and 60% in the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 period. For adjusted physician and patient-related factors, multilevel modeling was used. Senior medical staff visits, elderly patients, prior diabetes mellitus diagnosis, patients who used more than one type of anti-HT medication, and patients with systolic blood pressure >150 mmHg were all predictors of TI. The COVID-19 period, on the other hand had no effect on TI with an adjusted odds ratio of 0.82 (95% confidence interval, 0.67-1.01).
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This study attempts to provide scientifically-sound evidence for designing more effective COVID-19 policies in the transport and public health sectors by comparing 418 policy measures (244 are transport measures) taken in different months of 2020 in Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. The effectiveness of each policy is measured using nine indicators of infections and mobilities corresponding to three periods (i.e., one week, two weeks, and one month) before and after policy implementation. All policy measures are categorized based on the PASS approach (P: prepare-protect-provide; A: avoid-adjust; S: shift-share; S: substitute-stop). First, policy effectiveness is compared between policies, between countries, and over time. Second, a dynamic Bayesian multilevel generalized structural equation model is developed to represent dynamic cause-effect relationships between policymaking, its influencing factors and its consequences, within a unified research framework. Third, major policy measures in the six countries are compared. Finally, findings for policymakers are summarized and extensively discussed.
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The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is influencing our lives in an enormous and unprecedented way. Here, we explore COVID-19-lockdown's consequences for creative activity. To this end, we relied on two extensive diary studies. The first, held on March 2019 (pre-pandemic), involved 78 students who reported their emotions and creativity over 2 weeks (927 observations). The second, conducted on March 2020 (during the pandemic and lockdown), involved 235 students who reported on their emotions, creativity, and the intensity of thinking and talking about COVID-19 over a month (5,904 observations). We found that compared with 2019, during the lockdown, students engaged slightly yet statistically significantly more in creative activities. An analysis of diaries collected during the pandemic also showed that the days when students spent more time discussing or searching for information about COVID-19 were characterized by a higher creative activity yet also mixed emotions. We discuss potential explanations of these unexpected results along with future study directions.
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To examine the change in subjective age with the emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Two competing hypotheses were tested: (a) people felt increasingly older due to the stress generated by the pandemic and (b) people felt increasingly younger due to psychological distancing from older age, a vulnerability to COVID-19. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: An age- and sex-stratified sample of adults from across the United States (baseline N = 3,738) was assessed on 3 occasions: before the COVID-19 outbreak in late January/early February and during the outbreak in late March and again in late April. Multilevel modeling analysis examined the change in subjective age and tested potential moderators of individual differences in the trajectory of subjective age. RESULTS: The average trajectory of subjective age followed a concave curve, with a nadir (feeling younger) during the second assessment in late March. Older age, negative expectations about aging, absence of preexisting conditions, and less stress during COVID-19 were associated with feeling younger but did not predict the rate of change. The only significant predictor of change in subjective age was the belief that the "coronavirus is only a threat to older adults": The more individuals agreed with this statement, the more likely it was that they felt increasingly younger at follow-up. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Subjective age changed during a global health crisis, with people feeling younger with the emergence of COVID-19. The findings support the hypothesis that subjective age partly reflects a coping process of psychological distancing from older age, the age group most vulnerable to COVID-19.