Related Behaviors Research Articles

Self-transcendence through the lens of ontological addiction: correlates of prosociality, competitiveness and pro-nature behavior

Self-transcendence and the associated decrease in ego-centeredness are understood to foster altruistic and positive behaviors that promote prosociality and pro-environmental actions. However, the lack of an agreed valid and reliable measure of self-transcendence has posed difficulties in examining this subject. The main aim of this study was to use the recently developed Ontological Addiction Scale (OAS), which assesses dysfunctional ego-centeredness as an inhibiter of self-transcendent change, as a proxy measure to examine whether self-transcendence is indeed related to such “selfless” prosocial and pro-nature behaviors. Secondary aims were to examine ontological addiction (OA) and these behaviors in relation to competitiveness and ego-driven manifestations of prosociality. These relationships were examined via self-report measures in a cross-sectional cohort study of 287 UK adult participants. Findings revealed associations with competitiveness that broadly reflect its association with ego-centeredness through significant correlations with OA, and significant negative correlations with both prosociality and pro-nature behavior. They also supported earlier findings of a significant relationship between OA and measures of anxiety and depression. However, the expected negative correlations between OA and both prosociality and pro-nature behavior were not evidenced, which raises questions regarding the notion of OA as a conceptual antithesis of self-transcendence and/or whether measures of pro-sociality and pro-nature behavior adequately account for “selfish” or “impure” motivations that may underly these behaviors. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Sexual initiation age and related risk-taking behaviours among adolescents in urban secondary schools in Nairobi County

Risky sexual behaviour such as early sexual initiation, inconsistent condom use and sexual intercourse with multiple partners are relatively prevalent among youths in sub-Saharan Africa. Sexual intercourse is an important event in one’s life trajectory and the contributory factors are: proximate and distal environments. The proximate environment includes micro systemic influences such as one's attitudes and beliefs, and extends to one's family. The distal environment includes one's community and culture. However, there are core forces which influence personal choices and behaviours like the self, family and community, and networks and cultural influences. While there are a variety of factors that contribute to early sexual initiation, proper parenting behaviour has been identified as a key strategy for reducing adolescents’ risky sexual behaviours. Even though early sexual initiation process is subject to a number of barriers, there is still less focus on parenting behaviour and its relationship with early sexual initiation among adolescents. Therefore, this study applied social survey to assess sexual initiation age and its related risk-taking behaviors among the adolescents in urban secondary schools in Nairobi County. The study found the common period in which adolescents initiate sex and even befriend strangers as age (15-16years). The findings have shown that children are capable of initiating drug use at any given period. This suggests the need for parent to undertake close monitoring of their children at all ages to curb drug abuse and encourage health talk with them on the effects of drug use.

Seamless Hourly Estimation of Negative Air Ion Concentrations: Integrating Hybrid Stacked Machine Learning Models With Kriging Spatiotemporal Augmentation

AbstractNegative Air Ions (NAIs), essential for environmental and human health, facilitate air purification and offer antimicrobial benefits. Our study achieves hourly estimations of NAIs using a machine learning framework, developed from a multi‐layer selection pipeline of over 200 variables, to identify the key determinants critical for adapting to high‐resolution NAIs dynamics. Addressing site sparsity and NAIs volatility, we introduced a hybrid stacking incorporating pseudo sites generated from Kriging Spatiotemporal Augmentation (KSTA) to mitigate spatial overfitting. Our approach, validated in Zhejiang, China, demonstrates exceptional accuracy, achieving R2 values of 0.90 (sample‐based), 0.85 (temporal‐based), and 0.79 (site‐based). This work not only sheds light on NAIs behavior in relation to diurnal shifts, land use, and environmental events, but also integrates a health grading system, enhancing public health strategies through precise air quality assessment.

Using the behaviour change wheel to develop a tailored intervention to overcome general practitioners’ perceived barriers to referring insomnia patients to digital therapeutic sleepio

BackgroundDigital therapeutic Sleepio has proven effective in improving sleep quality and decreasing symptoms of anxiety. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance recommends Sleepio as an alternative treatment to usual sleep hygiene education and hypnotic medications. General practitioners (GPs) play a critical role in the adoption of digital therapeutics in patient care. Previous interventions did not adopt theoretical frameworks to systematically understand GPs behaviour toward referring patients to digital therapeutics.ObjectivesThis study aimed to report the systematic and comprehensive development of an intervention to encourage GPs to refer insomnia patients to Sleepio, using the Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW).MethodsThe eight steps outlined in the BCW were followed to develop an intervention. The Capability Opportunity Motivation-Behaviour Self-Evaluation Questionnaire (COM-B-Qv1) was adopted to understand GPs perceived facilitators and barriers to refer insomnia patients to Sleepio. The Behaviour Change Technique Taxonomy Version 1 (BCTv1) was thereafter used to identify possible strategies that could be used to facilitate changes in GPs’ behaviour in relation to Sleepio.ResultsThe BCW design process resulted in the identification of five intervention functions, three policy categories and five behaviour change techniques (BCTs) as potential active components for an intervention. The intervention includes providing GPs with an orientation about using Sleepio to improve their knowledge and confidence, sending visual reminders to GPs to recommend Sleepio to their patients, providing ongoing technical support.ConclusionThe BCW can be successfully applied through a systematic process to understand the drivers of GPs’ behaviour and to develop an intervention that can encourage them to refer insomnia patients to Sleepio.

User Engagement with the User Manuals of Smart Medical Wearable Technologies and Relevant Questions of User Behavior.

In this paper, engagement with smart medical wearables and with their user manuals, as well as related user behavior are studied. A research questionnaire containing 15 single-choice questions was completed by 1381 test participants to address relevant topics of the investigated area, including trust in measured medical data, device calibration, technical terminologies and function discovery in the documentation, information sources beyond the documentation, and wearing such devices to bed. The questionnaire particularly focused on device functionalities and characteristics that initially led to the purchase of the smart medical wearable.

Wildlife-Vehicle Collisions in Tasmania: Tourists' Attitudes and Behaviour.

The surge in wildlife-vehicle collision research has not yet translated into a substantial decrease in animal fatalities. In line with the prevailing view, we suspect that drivers' behaviour may be the most crucial element. We address a research gap in drivers' attitudes towards and behaviour in response to wildlife-vehicle collisions from a tourist perspective. We designed a questionnaire to examine tourists' attitudes and behaviour in relation to wildlife-vehicle collisions while driving in Tasmania. We found that the respondents' sociodemographic attributes had minimal effect on their practical responses to roadkill. Tourists consider wildlife-vehicle collisions a serious problem for both biodiversity loss and animal welfare reasons, and their willingness to change their behaviour was high. However, many respondents did not stop to check for surviving pouch young. This inaction resulted either from overlooking the importance of pouch checking or a lack of knowledge on what action needed to be taken. There may also be a lack of understanding that roadkill left on the road leads to secondary roadkill incidents. Even though tourist behaviour does not automatically represent residents' behaviour, these findings will help to improve and tailor educational approaches to rectify the driver awareness/behaviour gap for both tourists and residents.

Do appearance related safety behaviors contribute to distress intolerance? A Multi-method examination

Individuals elevated in distress intolerance (DI) may engage in dysfunctional behavioral strategies to cope with their distress. One behavioral strategy that may be related to DI is appearance related safety behavior (ARSB; i.e., maladaptive behavior that seeks to mitigate the feared consequences of the negative evaluation of appearance). We examined the relationship between DI and ARSBs in two separate samples of women. In Study 1 (N = 91), we found in an unselected sample that ARSBs were robustly associated with DI cross-sectionally while accounting for symptoms of depression and body dysmorphia. Further, greater ARSBs predicted increases in DI longitudinally. In Study 2, among a clinical sample of women with elevated appearance concerns (N = 94), we examined the experimental effect of reducing ARSBs compared to a self-monitoring control. Relative to control, instructions to reduce ARSBs led to lower DI, but this effect was only found for individuals low in baseline DI. Overall, we found preliminary evidence that ARSBs may be a salient factor in contributing to and maintaining DI; and SB fading may be a helpful strategy for reducing DI. We discuss these findings in the context of existing literature and provide directions for future research.

The Best of Both Worlds: Affiliation and Agency in Traditional and Gig Work Choices

The opportunity to construct a career and the prevalence of virtual work are hallmarks of the extant environment that makes career decisions and workforce recruitment increasingly complex. We seek to understand jobseekers’ choices in this context, which allows for great personal control and independence. We draw on the career self-management stream of social-cognitive career theory to inform our examination of the influences of certain applicant work preferences and individual characteristics on preferences for gig or traditional work and related job-seeking behaviors. Findings from this study indicate that a sense of agency and need for affiliation are significantly related to new and transitional job seekers’ willingness to pursue face-to-face versus gig work opportunities. Additionally, this work revealed a positive relationship between a preference for face-to-face and gig work options, indicating that incorporating a combination of the two may be optimal for employees and employers.

Falsification of financial statements in Russian manufacturing enterprises in 2012–2019

This paper considers the falsification of financial reports at Russian manufacturing enterprises in the period from 2012 to 2019. The factors are associated with the heterogeneity of estimates of falsified financial statements. We examine the evolution of corporate fraud during the period under review with a special focus on the correlation between false reporting and sanctions crisis of 2014. We identify two main lines of corporate behavior in relation to falsified corporate reporting: a consistently «honest» strategy characteristic of no more than 30–60% of enterprises, or situational behavior, when an enterprise provides either reliable or questionable data in certain years depending on the circumstances. For large and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises, the quality of reporting provided has generally improved in the sanction period of 2015–2019 compared to the pre-sanction period. Drawing on econometric calculations, we demonstrate that the main factors associated with provision of inaccurate reporting are the size of an enterprise, and the growth rate of accounts receivable in previous years.

Suicide Attempt and Suicide Death Among Spouses of Patients With Cancer

Little is known about the risk of suicidal behavior in relation to having a spouse with a cancer diagnosis. To estimate the risk of suicide attempt and suicide death among spouses of patients with cancer. This nationwide cohort study in Denmark collected registry-based data from 1986 through 2016. Analyses were performed from August 8, 2022, to October 30, 2023. Individuals who had a spouse with a cancer diagnosed during 1986 to 2015 were compared with individuals whose spouse did not have a cancer diagnosis during the same period, randomly selected from the general population and matched by birth year and sex. Having a spouse with a cancer diagnosis. Suicide attempt was identified through the Danish National Patient Register and the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Register, whereas suicide death was identified through the Danish Causes of Death Register, through 2016. Flexible parametric and Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% CIs for suicide attempt and suicide death among spouses of patients with a cancer diagnosis. The study included 409 338 exposed individuals and 2 046 682 unexposed individuals (median [IQR] age at cohort entry for both groups, 63 [54-70] years; 55.4% women). During the follow-up, 2714 incident cases of suicide attempt among exposed individuals (incidence rate [IR], 62.6 per 100 000 person-years) and 9994 among unexposed individuals (IR, 50.5 per 100 000 person-years) were identified, as well as 711 cases of suicide death among the exposed individuals (IR, 16.3 per 100 000 person-years) and 2270 among the unexposed individuals (IR, 11.4 per 100 000 person-years). An increased risk of suicide attempt (HR, 1.28; 95% CI, 1.23-1.34) and suicide death (HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.35-1.60) was observed among spouses of patients with cancer throughout the follow-up. The increased risk was particularly notable during the first year after the cancer diagnosis, with an HR of 1.45 (95% CI, 1.27-1.66) for suicide attempt and 2.56 (95% CI, 2.03-3.22) for suicide death. There was a greater risk increase for both suicide attempt and suicide death when the cancer was diagnosed at an advanced stage or when the spouse died after the cancer diagnosis. These findings suggest a need for clinical and societal awareness to prevent suicidal behaviors among spouses of patients with cancer, particularly during the first year following the cancer diagnosis.

Resveratrol by elevating the SIRT1 BDNF, GDNF and PSD95 levels reduce heroin addiction related behaviors

ObjectiveTo study the effects of resveratrol on heroin addiction-related behaviors and to preliminarily explore the possible intervention mechanism of resveratrol in heroin dependence. MethodsThe effects of resveratrol on heroin withdrawal symptoms were observed by naloxone; The effect of resveratrol on heroin reward memory acquisition was detected by CPP paradigm; The effect of resveratrol on the mental excitability of heroin was tested by open field experiment; The effect of resveratrol on heroin spatial learning and memory was tested by water maze test. Western blot was used to detect Sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) Expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), and postsynaptic density protein (PSD95). ResultsThe behavioral results showed that the withdrawal behavior of the resveratrol intervention group was reduced compared with the heroin chronic dependence group (P<0.05), and the shift score of the conditioned place preference test of the resveratrol intervention group was reduced compared with the heroin chronic dependence group (P<0.05) The spatial learning and memory ability of the water maze in the resveratrol intervention group was improved compared with the heroin chronic dependence group (P<0.05), and the mental excitability of the resveratrol intervention group was lower than that of the heroin chronic dependence group (P<0.05), but higher than that of the saline group (P<0.05); SIRT1 The expression levels of BDNF, GDNF and PSD95 protein were significantly increased (P<0.05). ConclusionThe behavioral results of this study suggest that resveratrol can be used as a potential drug to treat heroin dependence. At the same time, SIRT1 The expression of BDNF, GDNF, and PSD95 increased; SIRT1, BDNF, GDNF, and PSD95 play an essential role in heroin addiction.

Identifying college hazing precursors and related behaviors in secondary school settings

Identifying college hazing precursors and related behaviors in secondary school settings

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on self-paid vaccination intentions for children: a cross-sectional study in China

ObjectivesWhile it is widely accepted that COVID-19 has disrupted routine vaccination globally, the long-term impact of COVID-19 on parental vaccination intentions is uncertain. This study aims to estimate whether COVID-19...

An Automatic Detection and Statistical Method for Underwater Fish Based on Foreground Region Convolution Network (FR-CNN)

Computer vision in marine ranching enables real-time monitoring of underwater resources. Detecting fish presents challenges due to varying water turbidity and lighting, affecting color consistency. We propose a Foreground Region Convolutional Neural Network (FR-CNN) that combines unsupervised and supervised methods. It introduces an adaptive multiscale regression Gaussian background model to distinguish fish from noise at different scales. Probability density functions integrate spatiotemporal information for object detection, addressing illumination and water quality shifts. FR-CNN achieves 95% mAP with IoU of 0.5, reducing errors from open-source datasets. It updates anchor boxes automatically on local datasets, enhancing object detection accuracy in long-term monitoring. The results analyze fish species behaviors in relation to environmental conditions, validating the method’s practicality.

Effect of offline bullying on online unethical behavior among college students: the mediating roles of relative deprivation and anger rumination.

This research delves into the correlation between offline bullying and online unethical behavior among college students; and examines the potential mediating influences of anger rumination and perceived relative deprivation. The findings suggest that anger rumination, perceived relative deprivation, offline bullying, and online unethical behavior exhibit significant positive correlations with each other. Offline bullying is a strong predictor of online unethical behavior among college students, with the dual mediating effects of perceived relative deprivation and anger rumination on the relationship between offline bullying and online unethical behavior. This suggests that offline bullying directly influences college students' online unethical behavior and also influences it indirectly through anger rumination and perceived relative deprivation.

Healthcare workers' safety compliance behavior in times of COVID-19: The interaction model.

Strengthening safety compliance behaviour can reduce the organizations' unexpected financial losses and prevent employees from continuous COVID-19. It drives this study to create a research framework involved by organizational, individual and social factors to predict employees' safety compliance behaviour. This study examines how risk perceptions of COVID-19, employee well-being, workplace health and safety training, safety motivation and safety related stigma impact safety compliance behavior in times COVID-19 pandemic. A self-administered questionnaire was disseminated to healthcare workers. In all, 344 acceptable questionnaires were derived for further analysis. The results revealed that the risk perception of COVID-19 and employee well-being has no significant relationship with safety compliance behavior. Similarly, safety related stigma also has no moderating effect on safety motivation and safety compliance behavior. However, workplace health and safety training and safety motivation have significant relationships with safety compliance behavior. This study contributes to the literature by illuminating on the importance of organizational, individual, social factors and how they can interact with safety compliance behaviour. Additionally, knowing the unique function of safety related stigma in building safety compliance behaviour may help guide future efforts and training initiatives to enhance workplace safety.

Food waste awareness among Italian university students: results of an online survey.

Food waste (FW) represents a significant social and environmental problem, with 1.3 billion tons of food wasted yearly worldwide. Even if consumers are increasingly aware of the phenomenon, it remains relevant, and understanding the behaviors of specific target audience segments appears instrumental to the planning of effective interventions. To this end, we designed an observational study to investigate, throughout an online questionnaire, FW-related habits of university students in a Southern Italian region. A representative sample of 431 students from the University of Catanzaro Magna Graecia completed an online survey aimed at investigate FW related behaviors. A descriptive analysis was performed on the whole cohort, and a formal statistical analysis was carried out after excluding responders who had not correctly followed the survey instructions (n = 85). Differences were assessed by chi square (χ 2) tests. A food wasting score was generated, and differences in the score values were analyzed by Student T-test. Linear and multiple regression analyses were performed to identify factors contributing to the score. Overall, the results of our survey show a high prevalence of virtuous behaviors in the food purchasing phase; while, at home, less than 50% of respondents apply easy-to-implement waste prevention rules. The statistical analysis showed that the major determinants of FW were: no direct involvement in grocery shopping and male gender. Indeed, even if we observed several significant differences comparing subgroups based on established or putative determinants of FW behaviors, none survived matching for group size, gender and relevant food managing (shopping, storing, cooking) habits. The only exception was the more appropriate handling of "use by" products by respondents who received structured nutrition teaching, as opposed to students whose academic courses do not include this subject (adjusted p = 0.008). Our data suggest that young adults are trying to implement strategies to reduce FW, even if there is room for improvement, particularly in the storage phase. Extending nutrition education to all university programs may be helpful in reaching this goal.

The impact of media-based mental health campaigns on male help-seeking: a systematic review.

More than half of all men do not seek professional help for depression, suicide and anxiety. Although media-based campaigns represent a promising health promotion intervention to improve male help-seeking, it is unclear what communication strategies in extant mental health media-based campaigns are effective for men. The aim of this systematic review was to synthesize information about the effectiveness of these campaigns on male help-seeking outcomes. A search was conducted of electronic databases and gray literature. Studies were eligible if they examined the effectiveness of a media-based campaign targeting male help-seeking attitudes, beliefs, intentions or behaviors in relation to mental disorders, distress, suicide or self-harm. Twenty-two studies of varying quality met the eligibility criteria. Most studies targeting mental health or depression were found to positively influence male help-seeking. There were mixed results for suicide prevention campaigns. Some evidence suggests that overall, brochure-based campaigns impact help-seeking. The use of male or mixed-gender campaign imagery produced similar results. The choice of message framing appeared to influence help-seeking outcomes. Despite substantial heterogeneity in campaign approaches and difficulties isolating the effects of campaign delivery from messaging, the review indicates that media-based campaigns can play a role in improving male help-seeking for mental health difficulties. Mounting evidence suggests that messaging and delivery should align with male communication preferences. However, high-quality, targeted research is required to evaluate the circumstances in which various campaign delivery and messaging components are effective in improving male help-seeking for poor mental health and suicidality.

Piloting a co-created local and alternative food network involving professional buyers in Norway: Forces and tensions influencing viability

We can obtain knowledge about how sustainability transitions can take place through experimenting with niche-activities. An alternative food network (AFN) called Green Parallel was co-created through action research in an agri-food living lab and was piloted in 2019 and 2020. The purpose was to contribute to more organic produce in localized food systems and improve communication between producers and professional buyers (e.g. specialty stores, restaurants, chain retails, private and public canteens) in the Vestfold region in Norway. This paper analyses the occurring forces and tensions that support or hinder the viability of the AFN.The methods of data collection were interviews, reflection notes and participants’ notes from the participatory processes. We utilized perspectives from field theory and institutional economy to understand individual behaviors in relation to internal and external forces and tensions in a multi-level perspective (MLP).A strong supportive force was the initial motivation participants in Green Parallel had to collaborate. In addition, we identified seven forces and tensions affecting the viability of Green Parallel. These forces and tensions worked through complex interdependencies within individuals and actor types and across actor types, as well as across internal and external niche spans. The study can inform further development of organic and local agri-food systems.

Resistência de poáceas forrageiras ao Blissus pulchellus Montandon (Hemiptera: Blissidae)

ABSTRACT Chinch bugs [Blissus pulchellus Montandon (Hemiptera: Blissidae)] suck the phloem from susceptible forage grasses, injecting toxins that destroy plant vessels and compromise the flow of water and nutrients, leading to plant death. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess eight forage grasses for antixenosis resistance to B. pulchellus and compare the anatomical characteristics of leaf sheath tissue from resistant and susceptible species/cultivars. Experiments were conducted in a laboratory and greenhouse, using choice and no-choice tests with the following forage grasses: Urochloa ruziziensis, U. humidicola, U. brizantha ‘Piatã’, U. brizantha ‘Paiaguás’, U. brizantha ‘Marandu’, Panicum maximum ‘Mombaça’, P. maximum ‘Zuri’, and Andropogon gayanus. The oviposition results demonstrated that in the choice test there was a change in the stink bug’s behavior in relation to grasses four hours after infestation, with U. humidicola, P. maximum ‘Mombaça’ and ‘Zuri’, U. brizantha ‘Marandu’ and A. gayanus, proving to be less attractive to insects. It is concluded that U. humidicola, P. maximum ‘Mombaça’ and ‘Zuri’, U. brizantha ‘Marandu’, and A. gayanus are less attractive to B. pulchellus. A. gayanus and P. maximum ‘Mombaça’ and ‘Zuri’ showed non-preference resistance (antixenosis) to oviposition by B. pulchellus. The resistance of U. humidicola, P. maximum ‘Zuri’, and A. gayanus to B. pulchellus may be associated with greater compaction and lignification of the parenchyma and sclerenchyma cells of leaf sheaths.