ABSTRACT
Social isolation and generalized confinement in many countries has caused a decrease in physical activity (PA) and an increase in levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Purpose in life is part of people's psychological well-being, and having a clear purpose allows them to face adversities. In this sense, the influence of PA on psychological well-being in situations of confinement makes it necessary for educational and governmental entities to study and promote it. The objective of this work has been to evaluate the incidence with a PA intervention program (Move yourself at home) on the purpose in life during a period of mandatory confinement due to COVID-19. 360 university students participated divided into three groups, control (Sedentary, Sed), and experimental (group with low physical activity, BAct, and physically active, Act). The experimental groups were conducted on a PA intervention program for 11 weeks, from the beginning to the end of the mandatory confinement. A weekly online questionnaire was collected, recording the level of PA (min / week) and the results of the PIL test (purpose in life). The level of PA decreased significantly at the beginning of the confinement and increased significantly in the flexibilization phases. The intervention program was able to help maintain the PA level in participants. PA has a positive effect on the purpose in life and practicing some physical exercise on a regular basis could be a crucial tool to face a state of mandatory confinement. ©Copyright: Federación Española de Asociaciones de Docentes de Educación Física.
ABSTRACT
I suggest that the figure of the teacher is evolving into the role of a student-teacher as a guide that connects life purpose with subject-matter expertise and tacit knowledge (Atkinson, 1992;Burbules, 2008;Mayes, 2005. Polanyi, 1962) during an open-ended quest co-created with the students themselves. Accelerated by the pressure of COVID-19, I argue that trends such as cross-pollination, the learning renaissance, and the vastness, extemporaneousness, and accessibility of knowledge now manifest in a shift for the entire profession of teaching toward the collaborative relationship of student and teacher whereby these roles become one. In this shared space of quest - epsilon-naught - the student-teacher offers guidance to unveil the research questions that matter - i.e., those leading to sustainable collective and individual growth. The teacher as a guide co-creates an educational path that provides the skills to be in omnia paratus, or to navigate virtually any life circumstance. We observe a remarkable awakening from highlighting a destination (i.e., the bodies of theoretical or applied knowledge) to focusing on the journey (i.e., the inquiry and the spirit of the quest in life). In times of sudden descent such as the current pandemic and related constraints, we find ways to ascend and shift our perspective on education. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Urban transportation planning has become a matter of urgency in small cities and, in particular, the need to develop planning models for Tikrit city has become pressing. Questionnaire forms and household interviews were used among families in the city, with 22% asked to complete a full interview, 68% offered paper questionnaires to be retrieved on completion, and the rest contacted electronically due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data from the 4,150 questionnaires collected showed that the characteristics of the community are compatible with those found in other studies and official statistics, with the community of Tikrit being youthful society, with an average of 88.3% of residents not exceeding 60 years of age. After statistical checks were performed on the obtained data, trip generation models were developed using various methods of cross-classification to match vehicle ownership with both income and family size. Using the developed models, the total number of trips by purpose across four sectors were extracted. A comparison of the results across models showed significant difference between the methods, suggesting that the family size variable should be adopted for such modelling as an easily obtainable and relevant variable. © 2023 AIP Publishing LLC.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine meaning in life as an important resource during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approachThis paper summarized key research establishing links between meaning in life and mental health and well-being variables, reviewed the literature on meaning as a protective factor and meaning-making as a coping mechanism amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as provided focal points in cultivating meaning in life. FindingsStudies strongly support the notion that meaning in life is essential for health and well-being. Research also suggests that meaning protects against worsening mental health, and that engaging in meaning-making is a coping process that ultimately leads to improved adjustment despite the stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eight themes are also identified in cultivating skills to build meaning during adverse times. Practical implicationsIntegrating what research has found about meaning, resilience and coping can help individuals develop practical strategies to cultivate meaning in their lives to support themselves and their communities during stressful times. Originality/valueUnderstanding the ways in which meaning can support individuals' health and well-being is critical during a global upheaval such as that of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ABSTRACT
COVID-19 outbreak and the measures needed to contain its first wave of contagion produced broad changes in citizens' daily lives, routines, and social opportunities, putting their environmental mastery and purpose of life at risk. However, these measures produced different impacts across citizens and communities. Building on this, the present study addresses citizens' understanding of the rationale for COVID-19-related protective measures and their perception of their own and their community's resilience as protective dimensions to unravel the selective effect of nationwide lockdown orders. An online questionnaire was administered to Italian citizens during Italian nationwide lockdown. Two moderation models were performed using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) path analysis. The results show that the understanding of the rationale for lockdown only associated with citizens' purpose of life and that it represented a risk factor rather than a protective one. Furthermore, the interaction effects were significant only when community resilience was involved. That is, personal resilience did not show the expected moderation effect, while community resilience did. However, the latter varied between being either full or partial depending on the dependent variable. In light of the above, the theoretical and practical implications of these results will be discussed.
ABSTRACT
Purpose in life is associated with less perceived stress and more positive worldviews. This study examined whether people with more purpose adopt a mindset that views stress as beneficial rather than harmful and whether this mindset is one mechanism between purpose and less stress. We used a short-term longitudinal study (N=2,147) to test stress mindset as a mediator between purpose in life measured prior to the pandemic and stress measured early in the pandemic. We also tested Covid-related worry as a mechanism, given the measurement period spanned pre-pandemic to the first shutdowns in the United States. In contrast to expectations, purpose was unrelated to whether stress was conceptualized as beneficial or harmful (b=.00, SE=.02; p=.710) and thus stress mindset did not mediate the prospective association between purpose and stress. Both purpose in life (b=-.41, SE=.04, p<.001) and stress mindset (b=-.24, SE=.04; p<.001) were independent prospective predictors of stress. Purpose was related to less Covid-related worry, which was a significant mechanism between purpose and stress (indirect effect=-.03, SE=.01; p=.023). A stress-is-enhancing mindset predicted less stress but did not explain why purpose was associated with less perceived stress, whereas fewer Covid-related worries was one pathway from purpose to less stress.
ABSTRACT
PurposeThis study seeks to explore digital natives' mobile usage behaviors and, in turn, develop an analytic framework that helps articulate the underlying components of mobile addiction syndrome (MAS), its severity levels and mobile usage purposes.Design/methodology/approachThe investigation adopts a survey method and a case study. The results of the former are based on 411 random classroom observations and 205 questionnaire responses, and the insights of the latter are derived from 24 interviews and daily observations.FindingsThe findings validate five distinctive signs that constitute MAS and their significant correlations with each of the Big Five personality traits. Classroom observations confirm the prevalence of addiction tendency among digital natives in the research context. Seven levels of MAS and six different mobile usage purposes further manifest themselves from case analysis. There appears to be a sharp contrast between the addicted and non-addicted groups in their mobile purposes and behavioral patterns. Additionally, family relationships seem influential in shaping non-addictive mobile usage behaviors.Research limitations/implicationsPsychological perspectives on MAS may be important but insufficient. Empirical investigation on a global scale, especially with distinctive cross-cultural comparisons, will be highly encouraged. How MAS evolves over time should also serve as future research interests.Practical implicationsTeaching pedagogy of college education might need certain adjustments to intrigue digital natives' learning interests. Future managers might also need to adopt better performance measurements for digital natives who barely separate work from personal matters in their mobile devices.Social implicationsParents and healthcare institutions may need to develop response mechanism to tackle this global issue at home and in society. The long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on MAS might also deserve global attention.Originality/valueThe analytic framework developed provides an original mechanism that can be valuable in identifying MAS severity and associated behavioral patterns.
ABSTRACT
This study investigates the effect of social media (SM) use purposes and user characteristics on individual psychological wellbeing (PWB) during the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19). Informed by the uses and gratifications theory and PWB research, this study analyzed survey data collected from 282 SM users aged 18 through 59 from a minority-serving university in the United States in March-April 2020. Our quantitative data analysis showed that social media can be used to improve the quality of personal experiences during the COVID-19 crisis through three mechanisms-connectedness (i.e., social), engagement (i.e., collaborative), and entertainment (i.e., hedonic). However, the effect varied by gender, SM usage level, and individual concern about COVID-19 risk. The findings contribute to the literature and offer implications in technology use for enhancing public mental health during crises. © 2023 IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic strongly affected the mobility of people. Several studies have quantified these changes, for example, measuring the effectiveness of quarantine measures and calculating the decrease in the use of public transport. Regarding the latter, however, a low level of understanding persists as to how the pandemic affected the distribution of trip purposes, hindering the design of policies aimed at increasing the demand for public transport in a post-pandemic era. To address this gap, in this article, we study how the purposes of trips made by public transport evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic in the city of Santiago, Chile. For this, we develop an XGBoost model using the latest available origin-destination survey as input. The calibrated model is applied to the information from smart payment cards during one week in 2018, 2020, and 2021. The results show that during the week of maximum restriction, that is, during 2020, the distribution of trips by purpose varied considerably, with the proportion of trips to work increasing, recreational trips decreasing, and trips for health purposes remaining unchanged. In sociodemographic terms, in the higher-income communes, the decrease in the proportion of trips for work purposes was much greater than that in the communes with lower income. Finally, with the gradual return to in-person activities in 2021, the distribution of trip purposes returned to values similar to those before the pandemic, although with a lower total amount, which suggests that unless relevant measures are taken, the low use of public transportation could be permanent.
ABSTRACT
Following the January 31, 2020 state of emergency resolution and the pandemic's progress, there has been a compression of the enjoyment and exercise of fundamental rights that, inevitably, has affected with greater vigor the weaker members of society, those who were previously suffering from restrictions on freedoms and limited access to rights. The author proposes a reflection on the relationship between the guarantee of fundamental rights and Covid-19 from the perspective of the inmate population in order to assess how rights and reeducation are linked and how much the pandemic has affected their relationship with the hope that the return to normalcy, means, also, the possibility of a rethinking of the guarantee of fundamental rights of inmates already in prisons and not only extramoenia. © 2023, Societa Editoriale Federalismi s.r.l.. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
By drawing from positive psychology and general strain theory, this study examined whether a sense of purpose in life has an indirect effect between college students' cyberbullying victimization and their depressive symptoms, cyberbullying perpetration, and suicidal thoughts/behaviors. Data were collected from 314 college students (69.9% female) aged 18 to 24 and older from two universities in the Midwest and South-central region of the United States. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) identified that cyberbullying victimization was positively associated with depressive symptoms and cyberbullying perpetration. Moreover, cyberbullying victimization indirectly affected depressive symptoms through a sense of purpose in life. This study will emphasize the importance of fostering cyberbullied college students' purpose in life to college staff, administrators, faculty, and practitioners, and will provide them with strategies to develop campus-wide cyberbullying interventions for college students. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Adolescent girls have reached unprecedented levels of success in today's society. Simultaneously, many adolescent girls face adversities and their mental health remains a concern (Schramal et al., 2010;Spencer et al., 2018;). Positive Youth Development scholars continues to explore how society can best support adolescent girls as they navigate key developmental milestones (Lerner et al., 2005;Damon, 2004). Importantly, research has solidified a number of benefits of Youth Purpose (i.e., a long-term, committed, directed aspiration, with a prosocial desire). Youth Purpose is considered a key developmental asset, and contributes to thriving. Indeed, having a sense of purpose can serve as a protective factor for individuals and help bolster their overall well-being (Liang et al., 2018;Liang et al, 2017;Damon et al., 2003). Youth purpose along with Post Traumatic Growth can positively impact individuals facing adversities (Kashdan & McKnight, 2009;Tedeschi & Lawrence, 2004). Similarly, mentoring relationships are associated with numerous positive outcomes including the development of purpose (Dubois & Rhodes, 2006;Lerner, 2004;Liang et al., 2017). While youth purpose is well documented (Damon et al., 2003;Hill et al., 2010), there is limited research on purpose development for adolescent girls from marginalized backgrounds. Given the profound benefits of purpose, additional research is warranted on how purpose is cultivated in marginalized adolescent girls. This dissertation sought to expand the literature and better understand how adversity relates to purpose development, during the adolescent years and how mentoring relationships can contribute to this development. Additional research is needed to focus on one of the most vulnerable populations, adolescent girls from marginalized backgrounds, and to discover ways to help protect their mental health and well- being as they continue to thrive in society. This study included 13 interviews with adolescent girls from marginalized backgrounds. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data and five major themes emerged. Analyses suggested that while these participants experiences endured adverse experiences, they maintained a positive outlook on life, and their future. With the help of their mentors, and through the development of critical consciousness, participants were able to utilize adverse experiences to help inform their sense of purpose. Data was collected during the COVID-19 pandemic. This crucial time period allowed for the collection of exemplary data, which revealed how adolescent girls utilized the pandemic as a time for self-growth, and how they conceptualized their purpose with respect to the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Driven by recent calls for more research that examines forms of crowdsourcing used to address social challenges, in this article, we contribute to the broader literature on open innovation and crowdsourcing by investigating how crowdsourcing platforms enable the transformation of crowd-based resources. We have focused on initiatives with broader social purposes, rather than those that are for-profit and single firm-driven, where the resulting resources are usually solely controlled by a specific organization. By analyzing 19 crowd-based initiatives with a similar context—responding to the coronavirus disease pandemic—we studied a variety of initiatives and identified three distinct types of crowdsourcing platforms that enable resource transformation: resource pooling;resource cocreation;and resource enabling beyond the platform boundaries. We depict how access to and control of resources vary across initiatives. We have framed our contribution as crowd-resourcing, providing a reference model for the design of platforms based on the type of involvement and expected degree of resource transformation. IEEE
ABSTRACT
Due to the covid-19 pandemic, great changes appeared in education in general and digital technologies played a substantial role in the process. The main objective of this research is to consider students' feedback and opinions on teaching and learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP) in (a) the present form before schools were closed due to the pandemic, (b) the online distance form of instruction during the pandemic, and (c) the present form of instruction after the pandemic. Research questions focused on three areas: (1) what form(s) of instruction students preferred, (2) whether/how digital technologies contributed to the process of instruction, and (3) in which form of instruction they learned more. The ex-post-facto approach and mixed methodology were applied. Data were collected by questionnaire. It was available online for students of the upper secondary school for medical staff (N = 153) and advanced school for higher medical staff (N = 183). We expect that (1) the present form of instruction after the covid-19 pandemic will be appreciated;however, there will also be some supporters of online distance instruction;(2) it will be the present form that will allow students to learn more compared to online distance instruction;(3) both teachers and students will improve their digital skills during the pandemic so that technologies can be exploited to a wider extent in the present form of instruction after the pandemic. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
The use of LMS in learning activities can be done anywhere. A similar application was applied to learning English specifically for midwifery students on Flores Island during the covid-19 pandemic. This study aims to describe the perception of midwifery students about the use of LMS in English learning activities. This study is qualitative research with a case study approach. The study was conducted on midwifery students at the Universitas Katolik Indonesia Santu Paulus Ruteng. Data were collected using interviews, observation, and documentation. Determination of the informant is done purposively with a total of 10 students. The results showed that students had a positive perception of LMS use. LMS is considered to have several advantages that students can use to interact with lecturers and fellow students. In addition, the use of various learning methods such as discussions on chat forums and Question & Answer by utilizing LMS encourages the achievement of student learning goals. However, students urged that they found several barriers to using the LMS, especially related to the instability of the internet network, running out of internet credit, and lack of knowledge and skills in operating the LMS. Against these obstacles, students apply various practical and applicable strategies that can be carried out spontaneously to minimize the impact of any obstacles found, including collaborative strategies that involve the participation of lecturers and other staff. © 2023 ACADEMY PUBLICATION.
ABSTRACT
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine if reading purpose (study or entertainment) varied the effect of reading medium on comprehension and accuracy of perceptions of comprehension. A secondary purpose was to examine how mind wandering relates to reading medium and reading purpose. An unanticipated purpose was examining the role of emergency remote COVID-19 instruction on reading comprehension, mind wandering, as well as both preference for and use of screens and paper. Methods: In this study, undergraduate students (N = 133) were randomly assigned to reading purposes of study or entertainment as well as reading from paper (from a book) or screens (from an iPad). Results: Neither reading medium nor purpose had reliable differences in performance on the text comprehension assessment, metacomprehension, or mind wandering. Reading from one's preferred medium appeared to be related to more accurate metacomprehension. Exploratory analyses indicated less studying from paper and more task-unrelated thoughts while reading from screens after the COVID-19 learning changes. Conclusions: Reading medium may possibly have less effect on comprehension when readers have purposes for reading and the haptic experience of reading is similar by medium. Medium effects on metacomprehension and mind wandering may vary depending on characteristics of the reader. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
Identifying variables was the goal of this investigation. Affecting Plans to vaccinate against COVID-19 and to investigate the mediating and moderating effects of perception of vulnerability to adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines examines the connection between apprehension over COVID-19 as well as vaccination intentions among Korean adults in their 20s. Participants in this study included 161 South Korean 20-something adolescents who were surveyed using an online questionnaire. COVID-19 vaccination intentions differed significantly by gender (t = 10.291, p =.001), occupation (t = 5.430, p =.021), searching for information (t = 6.455 p =.012), number of vaccinations (t = 22.671), p <.001), the dread of COVID-19 (β =.224, p =.002). COVID-19 vaccination intentions in the participants were significantly positively correlated with and apprehension of COVID-19 (r =.251, p <.01) as well as imagined vulnerability to the vaccine's unfavorable outcomes (r =.362, p <.001). Perceived sensitivity to COVID-19's negative consequences vaccines moderated the connection among COVID-19 anxiety as well as COVID-19 vaccination intentions (b = -.036, 95% CI [-0.07, -0.01], t = - 2.473, p =.015), however, it had no mediating consequence (b = -0.02, 95% CI [-0.06, -0.02]). Vaccination intentions were significantly higher in those with low (b = 0.264, 95% CI [0.143, 0.385], t = 4.316, p <.001) and average (b = 0.191. 95% CI [0.197, 0.286], t = 3.993, p <.001) perceived susceptibility to the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines. Therefore, it is necessary to share the country's reliable information and adopt appropriate follow-up measures for the adverse effects of COVID-19 vaccines that can lower perceived susceptibility to the vaccine's adverse effects among adults in their 20s. In addition, the recommendations for further studies the link between aversion to COVID-19 or vaccinations plus various factors distressing COVID-19 vaccination intentions according to age, and further studies regarding factors affecting estimated sensitivity to COVID-19's detrimental consequences and ways to control them are also suggested © 2023, Journal for ReAttach Therapy and Developmental Diversities.All Rights Reserved.
ABSTRACT
Cognitive-behavioral, spiritual, and integral approaches to management each describe a leader's way of being as a matter of congruence between presence and purpose. This article introducesWays of Being Theory (WBT), which bridges these approaches by comparatively analyzing assumptions and empirical observations. WBT defines presence as an individual's dispositional level of awareness and purpose as the typical level of meaning they assign to work. By connecting these tensions, WBT reveals four different ways of being that have critical implications for leaders and organizations facing unprecedented challenges in the wake of COVID. This article also presents findings from a preliminary study on psychometric and comparative characteristics of aWay of Being Inventory (WBI), which partially supports a two-factor structure.
ABSTRACT
The emergence of purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) as a ‘global' asset class has physically and socially transformed university cities through ‘new-build studentification' implicated in the financialization of urban space. Yet, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the risk inherent in this asset's reliance on a narrow submarket, as students' domestic and international mobilities were temporarily disrupted. We interrogate PBSA providers' response to the pandemic through the analysis of real estate consultancy reports, firms' annual reports and other investor-facing documents, in Africa, Australia, Europe and North America, demonstrating how the financialization of this niche sector is sustained through crisis. Tactics include building goodwill to expand market share, temporarily reorienting towards domestic students and operational strategies to cut costs and increase revenues. Despite the sector's optimism, these approaches amplify existing trends of finance-driven new-build studentification in university cities, characterized by uneven development, the privatization of student housing and deepening class and age segregation. © 2023 The Authors. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Royal Dutch Geographical Society / Koninklijk Nederlands Aardrijkskundig Genootschap.
ABSTRACT
Infrastructure Investment Trust (InvIT), one of the recent innovative financial instruments, has been gaining momentum right from its inception in India in 2016. India has seen 18 instances of InvIT instruments being issued, the first as early as March 2016 and the latest one has come out in April, 2022. These instruments are unique in many ways i.e. they are backed mainly by operational assets hence construction related risk are absent. Investors get an option of diversifying their portfolio by including infrastructure assets in them. Since majority (90% of Net Distributable Cash Flow) of the earning is necessarily distributed, its like income instrument;since it is a trust this instrument enjoys tax advantages. This instrumenthelps release the funds from the infrastructure projects at that stage of the project life cycle when the risk has substantially reduced. Expectedly the returns on these instruments should be lower than infrastructure funds employed for the entire lifecycle;at the same time higher than debt instruments. Analysis of returns (over a period on last 54 weeks) on existing liquid InvIT instruments corroborates the above facts. There is an aberration of PGCIL's InvIT having negative correlation with NIFTY Infra Index. This may be because of a couple of reasons;(a). This instrument is still in its infancy;hence is yet to attain necessary liquidity (b) Last couple of yearsare having Covid 19;hence the cash-flows for a few assets have seen abnormal fluctuations. InvIT seems to be a promising investment instruments for Indian infrastructure space.