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Exploring mental health literacy and help-seeking behaviours at university : a survey of UK undergraduate students considering the COM-B model
Get PDFThe number of undergraduate students in the UK experiencing poor mental health is increasing each year, but many are unlikely to seek help for this. Previous work highlights low levels of mental health literacy as a major barrier to students seeking-help. This exploratory study aimed to provide an insight into current student help-seeking behaviours by applying the COM-B model. In addition, the study considered barriers to seeking help in relation to levels of mental health literacy and stages of the help-seeking model. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted to collect quantitative data anonymously from current undergraduate students at UK universities (n = 234) between the 21 January and 20 May 2022. Participants were recruited using social media and, with permission, through university student mailing lists. Results suggest a positive relationship between a student’s level of mental health literacy and the likelihood of them seeking help for their mental health. When seeking help, students appear to have their own individual preferred help sources, with many preferring to seek help from intimate partners and/or online search engines. Results suggest that there are three main individual attributes that could be linked to lower chances of completing the help seeking process: low perceived levels of psychological capability, low mental health literacy levels and low levels of automatic motivation to seek help. Building on the results of this study, future work could address the attributes identified, breaking down barriers and supporting students to seek help in the most effective way moving forward
Woven and warring cosmologies : in search of the missing theory of early modern politico-legal authority
Get PDFOur article discusses the potential of the concept of ‘woven and warring cosmologies’ to better understand how various ways of making and ordering early modern politico-legal authority ‘hang together’. Through an exploration of literatures in history of international law (HIL) and Historical IR (HIR), which tend to remain legally anchored, focus on practices, or put forward ideational meta-concepts, we find that there is a need to develop a concept that can bring together these dimensions and include more materialist and everyday means of making and ordering authority. We therefore engage with an emerging literature in IR and indigenous studies on cosmologies and argue that existing approaches either assume a false regional and temporal homogeneity, or over-emphasise metaphysical, religious, or ideational factors. Instead, we develop a framework of ‘woven and warring cosmologies’ that mitigates against this tendency towards homogeneity and integrates a more materialist focus. Concentrating on early modern Europe, we develop two case studies, Louis XIV (1643-1715) and revolutionary Corsica (1729-1769). In both cases, the construction of authority is cosmological yet woven and warring, shaped by Louis’s deployment of multiple, overlapping, and more or less clashing cosmologies, or in the Corsican case by a bricolage of republicanism, Catholicism, and paganism
Improving issue representation with candidate-level voting advice applications
Get PDFVoting Advice Applications (VAAs) have proliferated in recent years. However, most VAAs only match their users with parties, at least in part because creating a VAA matching voters to individual candidates tends to be more labor-intensive. This could be an important missed opportunity. Candidates may deviate from the party line, but voters are often unaware of the policy platforms of individual candidates and therefore rarely hold them accountable for their issue positions in candidate-based elections. VAAs providing information on issue congruence with individual candidates could help to rectify this. We evaluate the potential of candidate-level VAAs by integrating a randomized experiment into a real-world VAA whereby users were exposed either to candidate-level VAA advice or to more standard party-level VAA advice. Our results suggest that candidate-level VAAs are worth the extra effort: they help voters distinguish candidates from parties and cast votes that are more in line with their policy preferences
Digital leisure use and psychological well-being among recreation management students : the mediating role of social media engagement
No full textThis study examines how recreation management students use digital leisure time and its impact on their psychology. The study aims to explain the effect of digital leisure use through social media engagement on students' psychological well-being. The theoretical model of the study was developed using Self-Determination Theory and the Uses & Gratifications framework. A survey was conducted among recreation management students at three different universities based on quantitative research methods. Structural equation modelling was applied to the 387 useable survey data obtained. According to the results, digital leisure use has a positive effect on psychological well-being. Social media engagement has a differential mediating effect in this relationship: affective social media engagement was found to mediate negatively, whereas cognitive and behavioural social media engagement mediated positively. Thus, although digital leisure use basically enhances psychological well-being, the role of social media engagement in this relationship varies. The results of this study provide important theoretical and practical insights and recommendations for tourism education. It also provides a better context for the factors that influence psychological well-being in the digital leisure space and how social media engagement can influence students
Secret hacker : a learning-based cybersecurity game for group-based settings
No full textExisting cyber security training methods do not deliver sufficient behaviour change to address the growing threat landscape that comes with an ever-more interconnected world. Many people of all ages struggle to effectively recognise cyber threats, and despite increasing investment in cyber security, the incidence of damaging cyber security attacks has only increased. Game-based training methods have been used successfully in a variety of fields, and many gamified and game-based cyber security training methods have been developed. Game-based training methods, as they exist, do not provide a 'silver bullet' solution for cyber security training, as a lack of commercial options, a high upfront cost to develop, and similarity with traditional training means that new game-based training methods have not had the desired impact on the cyber security landscape. This paper discusses the potential of Learning-Based Games - game-like training methods that are developed based on games, rather than on the training materials that educators and trainers intend to deliver. By utilising existing popular games, and introducing cyber security learning content, Learning-Based Games begin their design cycle as proven fun and engaging games, potentially reducing the developmental burden and cost. A new educational card game: Secret Hacker (primarily aimed at school children) is proposed, developed, and provisionally tested with a pilot group of 8 participants. It is based on a popular existing card game, and this paper justifies the design elements that make it well-suited as a game for delivering behaviour change. In particular, Secret Hacker has a focus on fun and engagement, and built-in replayability - and the game structure itself can be adapted to be suitable for more advanced learners. Methods by which this game can be used to gather assessment data are also discussed, to help educators and trainers to understand the cyber security behaviour of the users. This paper will outline the design and investigative process which may subsequently lead to the development of further such educational games, the improvement of Secret Hacker itself, and insight into the effectiveness of Learning-Based Games compared to game-based learning and traditional training
Quality of life and patient reported outcomes in the UK Mammo-50 randomised trial of annual versus less frequent mammographic surveillance in people with breast cancer aged 50 years and over
Get PDFBackground: Mammo-50, a randomised phase III trial, demonstrated that for women aged 50 years or older and 3-years post breast cancer diagnosis, less frequent mammograms (2-yearly after conservation surgery; 3-yearly after a mastectomy) were non-inferior to annual mammograms in terms of detection of recurrences, or new breast primaries. It is important to assess Quality of life (QoL) in this population to ensure no detriment is associated with a less frequent mammographic surveillance schedule.
Methods: A mixed methods QoL sub-study was undertaken to explore potential differences between the trial arms in terms of fear of recurrence, QoL and distress levels and to explore patient reported experiences. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire booklet annually whilst on the trial. Longitudinal random effects regression models were fitted to assess changes in QoL over time and across trial arms. Free text data were collected on participants worries or concerns.
Results: 5235 women were randomised between April 2014 and September 2018, from 114 UK sites of which 4488 women (86%) returned a baseline QoL booklet. With a median 5.7 years follow-up (8.7 years post-curative-surgery), no differences between trial arms were identified for any of the QoL scales measured. Themes identified from the free text data included co-morbidities, family problems and side-effects of hormone therapy.
Conclusions: There were no differences in any of the QoL scales between the trial arms of Mammo-50, implying that less frequent mammographic surveillance does not adversely impact participants’ QoL. Women were concerned with co-morbidities or family problems and side-effects of treatment rather than worries about having less frequent mammograms.
Trial registration: ISRCTN48534559, 26 February 2014.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Clinical trial; Mammographic surveillance; Quality of life
Our World, Our Futures : A dialogic approach to environmental literacy and global citizenship education in primary schools in the Maldives and England
Get PDFEnvironmental literacy and global citizenship education (GCE) are necessary to the development of a fairer, more peaceful and more sustainable world, but teachers frequently lack practical examples of their implementation in the classroom. This article presents Our World, Our Futures, a collaboration between researchers, primary school teachers and children (7–12 years) from the Maldives and England. Its aims were (1) to develop a cross-cultural, dialogic approach to environmental literacy and GCE through cross-curricular and art projects in which students shared their local environmental knowledges and interests with overseas peers; (2) to explore the projects' impacts on students' environmental knowledge, intercultural understanding and solidarity and global citizenship and (3) to examine teachers' responses to the projects and the effects on their professional development. Employing a qualitative methodology informed by teacher-research and ethnography, data collection included classroom observations, interviews and collection of artworks. Findings suggest that students gained insights into their peers' and their own environments, a sense of global and more-than-human interconnectedness, and a desire to contribute to positive change in their local communities and the wider world. Teachers reported increased confidence in employing flexible, dialogic approaches to environmental literacy and GCE, describing the projects as empowering for pupils. Findings highlight how epistemic justice can be promoted within the primary classroom through valuing diverse knowledges and repositioning students and teachers as global citizens and co-creators of knowledge. Our World, Our Futures offers insight into the potential contribution of a cross-cultural, dialogic approach to the field of environmental literacy and global citizenship education as well as examples of how it might work in diverse ways in primary classrooms