Mediating and moderating effects of task interdependence and creative role identity behind innovation for service: evidence from China and Australia

PurposeInnovation for service contributes to service quality and customer satisfaction, and further benefits service-centered organizations to sustain competitive advantages. However, concurrent mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying innovation for service at both the group and individual levels have been scarcely investigated. The purpose of this study is to explore multilevel mediating and moderating mechanisms behind the relationship between dual-level transformational leadership (TFL) and innovation for service at the group and individual levels.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from two countries (i.e. China and Australia). Multilevel structural equation modeling was employed to validate the research model. Bootstrapping with 5,000 replications and latent moderated structural equation modeling were used to respectively examine the mediating and moderating mechanisms.FindingsThe cross-national results showed that task interdependence and creative role identity respectively played as the group-level and individual-level mediating roles between TFL and innovation for service. It was also found that task interdependence played as a cross-level predictor enhancing individual innovation for service. Task interdependence was a moderator on the relationship between individual-level TFL and creative role identity among Australian employees, but not among Chinese employees. The relationship between creative role identity and individual innovation for service was not moderated by task interdependence among both Chinese and Australian employees.Originality/valueThis study contributes to advancing the TFL–innovation research through revealing dual-level TFL as the antecedent of innovation for service at both the group and individual levels. It also extends the understandings of the mediating and moderating mechanisms behind this dual-level relationship between TFL and innovation for service.

Area-level deprivation and handwashing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic: A multilevel analysis on a nationwide survey in Korea.

This study investigated the association between area deprivation level and performance of handwashing behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic in Korean adults. This study used data from the 2015 Population and Housing Census data to measure area deprivation level. The 2020 Korea Community Health Survey was used for all other variables, including hand hygiene behavior (August through November 2020). The association between area deprivation level and practice of handwashing behavior was examined using multilevel logistic regression analysis. The study population comprised 215,676 adults aged 19 years or above. Compared to the least area deprived group, the most deprived group was more likely to not wash hands after using the restroom (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.13-1.82), after coming home (OR 1.85, 95% CI 1.43-2.39), and using soap (OR 1.55, 95% CI 1.29-1.84). The findings suggest the importance of considering area deprivation in implementing policies that promote handwashing, particularly during a pandemic.

Person and situation effects in predicting outgroup prejudice and avoidance during the COVID-19 pandemic

Recent theories of intergroup relations suggest that factors relevant to disease, disgust, and contagion predict prejudice towards ethnic outgroups. The current research explored the influence of contextual pathogen threat and individual differences in threat sensitivity on outgroup prejudice and avoidance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected from a sample of British adults in June 2020 (N = 524). A multi-level approach was employed to capture differences in confirmed COVID-19 cases across different regions in the UK. Results demonstrated that even in a "strong" pandemic context, individual differences in both disgust sensitivity (DS) and intergroup disgust sensitivity (ITG-DS) explained variability in outgroup distancing. Subjective perceptions of contextual pathogen prevalence, but not actual infection rates, also predicted greater outgroup avoidance. However, a significant cross-level interaction revealed that DS predicted outgroup distancing in regions with higher numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases, but not in areas of lower infection. Thus, individual differences in pathogen avoidance may be especially influential under high situational pathogen stress. There was also some evidence that pathogen threat also predicted greater ingroup attraction. Results provide important insights into factors that promote or inhibit positive intergroup relations during pandemics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Is there a Common Digital Market in the European Union? Implications for the European Digitalization Strategy

Due to the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic, people has changed the way they work, learn and socialize. As result, it is important to identify the pre‐existing digital gaps to implement the European Union digitalization strategy. This study aims to identify typologies of internet use in the 28 European Union (EU) countries (at the time of the survey), based on the characteristics of the users and their internet usage patterns. A two‐level latent class analysis was applied. At the first level, individuals within each country were grouped according to their characteristics of internet use;and, simultaneously, at the second level, countries were grouped based on the similar structure of individual segments. Using data from Eurobarometer, results show that internet use in the EU digital market is not homogeneous. The European Commission should take these pre‐existing gaps into account in the EU digitalization strategy.

Changes in the sleeping habits of Japanese university students during the COVID-19 pandemic: a 3-year follow-up study.

BACKGROUND: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly changed our daily life. Owing to the imposed restrictions, many educational facilities have introduced remote teaching. This study aims to clarify the association between remote teaching and Japanese university students' sleeping habits. METHODS: The participants were medical students at Aichi Medical University. We used data from an ongoing longitudinal sleeping habits survey. For the participants who enrolled in the university during 2018-2020, multilevel analyses of sleep duration during weekdays and weekends across 3 years were conducted, adjusting for sex, grade, place of stay, sleep problems and lifestyle habits. RESULTS: Among the students enrolled in the university, the data of 677 in 2018, 657 in 2019, and 398 in 2020 was available for analysis. The mean sleep duration during weekdays (in minutes) was 407.6 ± 60.3 in 2018, 406.9 ± 63.0 in 2019, and 417.3 ± 80.9 in 2020. The mean sleep duration during weekends (in minutes) was 494.5 ± 82.5 in 2018, 488.3 ± 87.9 in 2019, and 462.3 ± 96.4 in 2020. Multilevel analysis conducted for the 684 participants who enrolled during 2018-2020 showed that sleep duration during weekdays was associated with the place of stay and survey year. Moreover, students reported significantly longer sleep duration during weekdays in 2020 than in 2019, but no significant difference in sleep duration was found between 2018 and 2019. The other multilevel analysis found sleep duration during weekends to be associated with the survey year, sex and always doing something before going to bed. Sleep duration during weekends was shorter in 2020 than in 2019 and longer for male students and students who always do something before going to bed. Ten students were reported to have a delayed sleep phase in 2020. CONCLUSIONS: Students' sleep duration increased during weekdays and decreased during weekends in 2020. This difference could be explained by the COVID-19 pandemic and the introduction of remote teaching.

The Bivalent Shape Task in a Dutch primary school population: A pilot study for a first psychometric assessment.

OBJECTIVE: The Bivalent Shape Task (BST) tests the ability to suppress interfering information. The purpose of this study was to assess some psychometric properties of the BST in 5-11-year-old children, using multilevel analysis. METHODS: The present study was initiated in a Dutch primary school in October 2019. The BST was administered as part of a larger neuropsychological assessment. The outbreak of Covid-19 and the subsequential lockdown in the Netherlands led to a premature termination of the study in March 2020. Data of 38 children were available. This dataset was analyzed and labeled as pilot. RESULTS: Significant main effects of age, time components, levels, correct answer, and several interactions were found on the reaction time in the predicted direction. Random effects could also be modeled. A final statistical combination model is described. CONCLUSION: Despite the small study sample, it seems to be justified to conclude that the BST is a potentially valuable instrument to test interference suppression in 5-11-year-old children. In the analysis of the BST, multilevel analysis has proven to be very rewarding. Since the present study only examined a small part of reliability and validity aspects, further psychometric research is desired.

Contextualising planned behaviours to the vaccination against COVID-19 in the European Union

The article targets the reasons that are behind behaviour orientation in the vaccination process against COVID-19. The data we are using come from the Flash Eurobarometer 494, collected in May 2021. The key dependent variable puts together vaccination intentions (soon, later on in 2021, undecided, later, never) and the fact of being vaccinated or not. A multivariate and multilevel analysis confirms the validity of an extended theory of planned behaviour in explaining the orientation to the vaccination against COVID-19. The space patterning of the behaviours is highly marked by differences among Old versus the New Member States of the European Union, clusters of countries, urban versus rural areas, and also by a function of trust in relevant institutions, and customs of using vaccination to cope with different diseases as an adult. New questions and hypotheses are generated by multiple comparisons. © The Author(s) 2022.

SARS-CoV-2 spread and area economic disadvantage in the italian three-tier restrictions: a multilevel approach.

BACKGROUND: To face the second wave of COVID-19, Italy implemented a tiered restriction system with different limitation levels (yellow = medium; orange = medium-high, red = high) at the beginning of November 2020. The restrictions systematically reduced the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 with increasing strength for increasing tier. However, it is unknown whether the effect of limitations was equal between provinces with different socioeconomic levels. Therefore, we investigated the association between the province's socioeconomic level and SARS-CoV-2 infection daily reproduction number in each restriction level. METHODS: We measured the province's socioeconomic level as the percentage of individuals whose 2019 total yearly income was lower than 10,000€, using the measure as a proxy of economic disadvantage. We estimated the daily reproduction number (Rt) at the province level using the SARS-CoV-2 daily incidence data from November 2020 to May 2021. We then used multilevel linear regression models with random intercepts stratified by restriction level to estimate the association between economic disadvantage and Rt. We also adjusted the analyses for potential confounders of the association between the province's economic disadvantage and the Rt: the percentage of people with 0-5 years, the quartiles of population density, and the geographical repartition. RESULTS: Overall, we found increasing Rt in yellow (+ 0.004 p < 0.01, from Rt = 0.99 to 1.08 in three weeks) and containing effects for the orange (-0.005 p < 0.01, from Rt = 1.03 to 0.93) and the red tier (-0.014 p < 0.01, from Rt = 1.05 to 0.76). More economically disadvantaged provinces had higher Rt levels in every tier, although non-significantly in the yellow level (yellow = 0.001 p = 0.19; orange = 0.002 p = 0.02; red = 0.004 p < 0.01). The results showed that the association between economic disadvantage and Rt differed by level of restriction. The number of days into the restriction and the economic disadvantage had statistically significant interactions in every adjusted model. Compared to better off, more economically disadvantaged provinces had slower increasing trends in yellow and steeper Rt reductions in orange, but they showed slower Rt reductions in the highest tier. CONCLUSION: Lower tiers were more effective in more economically disadvantaged provinces, while the highest restriction level had milder effects. These results underline the importance of accounting for socioeconomic level when implementing public health measures.

Do childcare policies and schedule control enhance variable time workers' work–life balance? A gender analysis across European countries

Variable time work is no longer abnormal in the post‐industrial economy and is accelerating due to digitisation and the COVID‐19 pandemic. Previous studies have revealed a causal relationship between working time variability and work–life balance at the individual level;however, there has been less discussion of the role of the institutional context. This study examines the interplay among childcare policy, schedule control, and its relationship with work–life balance. We conducted a multilevel analysis using the European Working Conditions Survey. The analyses revealed that childcare policy has a U‐shaped relationship with work–life balance for female variable time workers without schedule control. In contrast, workers with schedule control and male workers did not have a curvilinear relationship with the outcome. Our analyses imply that sufficient childcare intervention and its interaction with schedule control are necessary to offset the negative effect of childcare services on work–life balance. [ FROM AUTHOR]

A quantitative approach to the intersectional study of mental health inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic in UK young adults.

PURPOSE: Mental health inequalities across social identities/positions during the COVID-19 pandemic have been mostly reported independently from each other or in a limited way (e.g., at the intersection between age and sex or gender). We aim to provide an inclusive socio-demographic mapping of different mental health measures in the population using quantitative methods that are consistent with an intersectional perspective. METHODS: Data included 8,588 participants from two British cohorts (born in 1990 and 2000-2002, respectively), collected in February/March 2021 (during the third UK nationwide lockdown). Measures of anxiety and depressive symptomatology, loneliness, and life satisfaction were analysed using Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) models. RESULTS: We found evidence of large mental health inequalities across intersectional strata. Large proportions of those inequalities were accounted for by the additive effects of the variables used to define the intersections, with some of the largest gaps associated with sexual orientation (with sexual minority groups showing substantially worse outcomes). Additional inequalities were found by cohort/generation, birth sex, racial/ethnic groups, and socioeconomic position. Intersectional effects were observed mostly in intersections defined by combinations of privileged and marginalised social identities/positions (e.g., lower-than-expected life satisfaction in South Asian men in their thirties from a sexual minority and a disadvantaged childhood social class). CONCLUSION: We found substantial inequalities largely cutting across intersectional strata defined by multiple co-constituting social identities/positions. The large gaps found by sexual orientation extend the existing evidence that sexual minority groups were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Study implications and limitations are discussed.

Working in times of COVID-19: investigating the effect of daily risk perception of COVID-19 infection on goal progress

PurposeBased on the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study aims to understand the daily impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on employee goal progress. In particular, the authors explore how COVID-19 induces anxiety related to task setbacks that consequently influences one's goal progress.Design/methodology/approachA daily diary study was conducted with a total of 558 observations from 60 participants. The data were analyzed using multilevel path analysis with random slopes.FindingsThe perceived risk of COVID-19 infection was positively associated with COVID-19 task setback anxiety, which in turn improved end-of-day goal progress. Lower employee conscientiousness strengthened the relationship between perceived risk of COVID-19 infection and COVID-19 task setback anxiety, and lower supervisor bottom-line mentality strengthened the relationship between COVID-19 task setback anxiety and end-of-day goal progress.Practical implicationsAlthough COVID-19 task setback anxiety results in higher end-of-day goal progress, the authors recommend caution as the cost of coping exists. Thus, supervisors should focus on supporting the employees rather than having a bottom-line mentality.Originality/valueThis study advances stress and coping literature by examining how employees appraise and cope with COVID-19 in work context. The authors demonstrate that a perceived risk of COVID-19 induces task setbacks related to anticipatory anxiety, which in turn influences employee outcomes. In addition, the authors identify employee conscientiousness and supervisor bottom-line mentality as a boundary condition of this process.

Social inequalities in utilization of a feminist telehealth abortion service in Brazil: A multilevel analysis.

The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on health services around the world boosted interest over telehealth models of care. In Brazil, where abortion is heavily restricted, abortion seekers have long relied on international telehealth services to access abortion pills. We conducted a cross-sectional multilevel study to assess the effect of individual and contextual social factors on utilization of one such service. For the individual-level, we analyzed data from the records of abortion seekers contacting this feminist international telehealth organization during 2019 (n = 25,920). Individual-level variables were age, race, education level and pregnancy length. Contextual-level units were states, for which we used data from the national Demographic Census and Household Surveys. Contextual-level variables were household income per capita, adjusted net school attendance rate, percentage of racialized women and income Gini Index. We fitted five multilevel Poisson Mixed-effects models with robust variance to estimate prevalence ratios (PR) of service utilization, which was defined as receiving abortion pills through the service. We found that only 8.2% of requesters got abortion pills through the service. Utilization was higher among women who were older, white, more educated and 5-8-weeks pregnant. Independently of this, service utilization was higher in states with higher income and education access, with lower proportions of racialized women, and located in the South, Southeast and Central-West regions. We concluded that while feminist telehealth abortion initiatives provide a life-saving service for some abortion seekers, they are not fully equipped to overcome entrenched social inequalities in their utilization, both at individual and contextual levels.

Is there a Common Digital Market in the European Union? Implications for the European Digitalization Strategy

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, people has changed the way they work, learn and socialize. As result, it is important to identify the pre-existing digital gaps to implement the European Union digitalization strategy. This study aims to identify typologies of internet use in the 28 European Union (EU) countries (at the time of the survey), based on the characteristics of the users and their internet usage patterns. A two-level latent class analysis was applied. At the first level, individuals within each country were grouped according to their characteristics of internet use;and, simultaneously, at the second level, countries were grouped based on the similar structure of individual segments. Using data from Eurobarometer, results show that internet use in the EU digital market is not homogeneous. The European Commission should take these pre-existing gaps into account in the EU digitalization strategy.

Reptile: Aggregation-level Explanations for Hierarchical Data

Users often can see from overview-level statistics that some results look "off", but are rarely able to characterize even the type of error. Reptile is an iterative human-in-the-loop explanation and cleaning system for errors in hierarchical data. Users specify an anomalous distributive aggregation result (a complaint), and Reptile recommends drill-down operations to help the user "zoom-in" on the underlying errors. Unlike prior explanation systems that intervene on raw records, Reptile intervenes by learning a group's expected statistics, and ranks drill-down sub-groups by how much the intervention fixes the complaint. This group-level formulation supports a wide range of error types (missing, duplicates, value errors) and uniquely leverages the distributive properties of the user complaint. Further, the learning-based intervention lets users provide domain expertise that Reptile learns from. In each drill-down iteration, Reptile must train a large number of predictive models. We thus extend factorised learning from countjoin queries to aggregation-join queries, and develop a suite of optimizations that leverage the data's hierarchical structure. These optimizations reduce runtimes by >6x compared to a Lapack-based implementation. When applied to real-world Covid-19 and African farmer survey data, Reptile correctly identifies 21/30 (vs 2 using existing explanation approaches) and 20/22 errors. Reptile has been deployed in Ethiopia and Zambia, and used to clean nationwide farmer survey data;the clean data has been used to design national drought insurance policies.

What Drives Abdominal Obesity in Peru? A Multilevel Analysis Approach Using a Nationally Representative Survey.

Abdominal obesity (AO) is a serious public health threat due to its increasing prevalence and effect on the development of various non-communicable diseases. A multilevel analysis of the 2019 Demographic and Family Health Survey (ENDES in Spanish) using the Latin American Diabetes Association (ALAD in Spanish) cut-off points was carried out to evaluate the individual and contextual factors associated with AO in Peru. A total of 30,585 individuals 18 years and older were included in the analysis. The prevalence of AO among Peruvians in 2019 was 56.5%. Individuals of older age (aOR 4.64; 95% CI: 3.95-5.45), women (aOR 2.74; 95% CI: 2.33-3.23), individuals with a higher wealth index (aOR 2.81; 95% CI: 2.40-3.30) and having only secondary education (aOR 1.45; 95% CI: 1.21-1.75) showed increased odds of presenting AO compared to their peers. At a contextual level, only the Human Development Index (aOR 1.59; 95% CI: 1.17-2.16) was associated with the development of AO. A high Human Development Index is the contextual factor most associated with AO. It is necessary to formulate and implement new public health policies focused on these associated factors in order to reduce the prevalence of OA and prevent the excessive burden of associated noncommunicable diseases.

Face mask use during the COVID-19 pandemic: how risk perception, experience with COVID-19, and attitude towards government interact with country-wide policy stringency.

BACKGROUND: During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, governments imposed numerous regulations to protect public health, particularly the (mandatory) use of face masks. However, the appropriateness and effectiveness of face mask regulations have been widely discussed, as is apparent from the divergent measures taken across and within countries over time, including mandating, recommending, and discouraging their use. In this study, we analyse how country-level policy stringency and individual-level predictors associate with face mask use during the early stages of the global COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: First, we study how (self and other-related) risk perception, (direct and indirect) experience with COVID-19, attitude towards government and policy stringency shape face mask use. Second, we study whether there is an interaction between policy stringency and the individual-level variables. We conduct multilevel analyses exploiting variation in face mask regulations across countries and using data from approximately 7000 students collected in the beginning of the pandemic (weeks 17 through 19, 2020). RESULTS: We show that policy stringency is strongly positively associated with face mask use. We find a positive association between self-related risk perception and mask use, but no relationship of mask use with experience with COVID-19 and attitudes towards government. However, in the interaction analyses, we find that government trust and perceived clarity of communication moderate the link between stringency and mask use, with positive government perceptions relating to higher use in countries with regulations and to lower use in countries without regulations. CONCLUSIONS: We highlight that those countries that aim for widespread use of face masks should set strict measures, stress self-related risks of COVID-19, and use clear communication.

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC: ASSOCIATIONS OF OPTIMISM AND POSITIVE AFFECT WITH MENTAL & PHYSICAL HEALTH OUTCOMES

COVID-19 has led to the emergence of an altered society. Cumulative and individual stressors may lead to a time of crisis for students over time. Considering the detrimental impacts that stress may have, proper attention should be given to various mental and physical health issues. During this pandemic, there has been a high prevalence of anxiety and depression and serious impairments in mental and physical health. Previous studies suggest that certain psychosocial factors, such as optimism and positive affect, serve as valuable resources for mental and physical health during times of stress. However, the associations between optimism and positive affect with mental and physical health outcomes during the pandemic are yet to be investigated. This study aims to investigate these associations. We hypothesized that greater levels of optimism and positive affect would be associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and physical health symptoms during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. 293 university students were recruited to complete an online questionnaire in the spring of 2020. Longitudinal data was collected from participants every two months after, for a total of five assessments. Students self-reported their optimism, positive affect, anxiety, depression, and physical health levels. Multilevel modeling was used to test associations. Results indicated that greater optimism and positive affect were associated with fewer depressive symptoms, lower anxiety, fewer physical health symptoms, and better self-reported physical health (ps < 0.05). When testing optimism and positive affect together, both were associated with depressive symptoms, but only optimism was associated with anxiety (ps < 0.05). When entered together in the model, optimism and positive affect were not significantly associated with physical symptoms or self-reported physical health (ps > 0.05). Results suggest optimism and positive affect may serve as resources during COVID-19, and there are overlaps in their effects on health. Further investigations could create and implement effective health interventions that promote optimism and positive affect.

Factors Associated With the Utilization of Outpatient Virtual Clinics: Retrospective Observational Study Using Multilevel Analysis.

BACKGROUND: Although the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of telemedicine and virtual consultations worldwide, complex factors that may affect the use of virtual clinics are still unclear. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify factors associated with the utilization of virtual clinics in the experience of virtual clinic service implementation in Taiwan. METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed a total of 187,742 outpatient visits (176,815, 94.2%, in-person visits and 10,927, 5.8%, virtual visits) completed at a large general hospital in Taipei City from May 19 to July 31, 2021, after rapid implementation of virtual outpatient clinic visits due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data of patients' demographic characteristics, disease type, physicians' features, and specialties/departments were collected, and physicians' opinions regarding virtual clinics were surveyed and evaluated using a 5-point Likert scale. Multilevel analysis was conducted to determine the factors associated with the utilization of virtual clinics. RESULTS: Patient-/visit-, physician-, and department-level factors accounted for 67.5%, 11.1%, and 21.4% of the total variance in the utilization of virtual clinics, respectively. Female sex (odds ratio [OR] 1.27, 95% CI 1.22-1.33, P<.001); residing at a greater distance away from the hospital (OR 2.36, 95% CI 2.15-2.58 if distance>50 km, P<.001; OR 3.95, 95% CI 3.11-5.02 if extensive travel required, P<.001); reimbursement by the National Health Insurance (NHI; OR 7.29, 95% CI 5.71-9.30, P<.001); seeking care for a major chronic disease (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.24-1.42, P<.001); the physician's positive attitude toward virtual clinics (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.16-1.93, P=.002); and visits within certain departments, including the heart center, psychiatry, and internal medicine (OR 2.55, 95% CI 1.46-4.46, P=.004), were positively associated with the utilization of virtual clinics. The patient's age, the physician's age, and the physician's sex were not associated with the utilization of virtual clinics in our study. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show that in addition to previously demonstrated patient-level factors that may influence telemedicine use, including the patient's sex and distance from the hospital, factors at the visit level (insurance type, disease type), physician level (physician's attitude toward virtual clinics), and department level also contribute to the utilization of virtual clinics. Although there was a more than 300-fold increase in the number of virtual visits during the pandemic compared with the prepandemic period, the majority (176,815/187,742, 94.2%) of the outpatient visits were still in-person visits during the study period. Therefore, it is of great importance to understand the factors impacting the utilization of virtual clinics to accelerate the implementation of telemedicine. The findings of our study may help direct policymaking for expanding the use of virtual clinics, especially in countries struggling with the development and promotion of telemedicine virtual clinic services.

Using Rogers' diffusion of innovation theory to conceptualize the mobile-learning adoption process in teacher education in the COVID-19 era.

Using mobile learning (ML) has become exceedingly relevant in times of distant teaching. Although much is known about the factors affecting ML usage, less is known about the ML adoption process under constraints such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this exploratory case study was to gain insight into the ML adoption process using the lens of Rogers' Diffusion of Innovation Theory. Participants were in-service (32) and preservice (29) teachers who attended ML training. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews (20), focus groups (6), and participants' reflections (183) at three time points. Data underwent multilevel analysis (content and linguistic analysis), revealing 12 themes that denote the ML adoption process and demonstrated intergroup similarities and differences. The study provides theoretical insight into the ML adoption process under crisis and highlights the features that must be addressed to promote optimal ML adoption in teacher education in both routine and emergency conditions.

ALCOHOL EXPECTANCY ASSOCIATES AS A PROBE OF THE MOTIVATIONAL PROCESSES THAT LEAD TO DRINKING

As previously reported (Benitez & Goldman, 2019), the associational strength of alcohol expectancies gathered using EMA techniques were shown to ramp up in close anticipation of real-world drinking events. The close temporal linkage between expectancy free associate activation and actual drinking supported the idea that expectancy processes effectively probed/influenced motivational processes leading to drinking. Because the EMA design in Benitez & Goldman (2019) did not manipulate critical variables, however, it remained possible that both expectancy activation and drinking increases were influenced by other variables operating in the natural environment. Among these “third variables” were those related to the known weekly cycle of alcohol expectancies and social drinking. To strengthen the inference that changes in expectancies validly reflect changes in the motivation to drink, the present study experimentally manipulated expectancy activation and measured subsequent changes in expectancy reports. The evening before expectancy monitoring, participants were informed that later the next day-a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday-they would be participating in a solitary taste-test of either alcohol or soft drinks. Alcohol expectancies were then measured across four timepoints in the day that culminated in an in-laboratory taste-test. Alcohol expectancies in the alcohol condition were hypothesized to increase across the day as participants anticipated drinking alcohol, in contrast to the soft drink condition, in which expectancies were predicted to stay relatively unchanged. Unfortunately, data collection had to be prematurely ended due to COVID-19, leaving results underpowered for statistical analysis (multilevel modeling). Graphical representations of the available data did suggest, however, that alcohol expectancies from the alcohol condition were overall more positive across time compared to the soft drinks group. This trend remained after controlling for gender, drinker-type, and affect. Furthermore, the differences increased after removing participants who drank before or planned to drink after participation. Taken together, experimental control over a drinking opportunity (or no drinking opportunity) resulted in differing alcohol expectancies (tentatively) consistent with predictions and our previous EMA work suggesting that alcohol expectancy associates effectively probed motivational processes that lead to drinking.