Causal Beliefs Research Articles

Causal health attributes and beliefs of tobacco-related cancer patients in Assam, India

Purpose People with chronic illness develop their own formulations about the disease and these attributions influence their health beliefs and subsequent health practices. This study explores the causal health beliefs and practices of tobacco-related cancer patients in the state of Assam considering their unique cultural health practices. The study uses Kleinman’s Explanatory Model for an extensive understanding of the patient’s health beliefs about their illness. Methods By adopting Explanatory Sequential Mixed design, 100 participants were interviewed in the quantitative phase of the study followed by 11 in-depth interviews in the qualitative phase. Results The study reveals that, among different factors internal and/or external to an individual, the participants highly attributed their illness to accidental/chance and/or supernatural factors (52%). Also, cancer fatalism was highly prevalent among the participants. Further, the majority of the participants with wrong beliefs, misinformation, and fear of cancer were uncertain about the success of their cancer-specific treatment. These participants were highly dependent on God concerning their future health. Conclusions The study suggests the need for designing cancer-education programmes and spreading mass awareness by engaging both modern and indigenous cancer care providers in addressing the health-seeking behavior and practices of the people of Barak Valley.

Abstract P880: Assessing Measures of Patients Health Perceptions of Stroke Survivors as a Potential Tool for Health Care Disparities Research

Introduction: Patient centered research in stroke health care disparities is needed. Due to a call for the development of theory-based interventions for the reduction of stroke through behavior change, there have been new studies looking at the perception of an individual’s risk of stroke to create prevention models from those results. Leventhal’s Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation posits that individuals form beliefs about their illness and treatment that determines how they cope and their health behaviors in the future. The Illness Perceptions Questionnaire-Revised (IPQ-R) and Brief Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (BIPQ) are validated measures of these illness beliefs. Methods: A literature review was conducted with the following search criteria: (“illness perception” OR “illness belief”) AND (“stroke” OR “TIA” OR “transient ischemic attack” OR “cerebrovascular event” OR “cerebrovascular accident” OR “CVA”). MEDLINE, WorldCat, PubMed, George Smathers Library, and Google Scholar Database were searched. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were excluded. Results: The initial results had 452 articles and 21 were chosen for data analysis. These articles were grouped into four categories: IPQ-R, IPQ-R & Medication Adherence, BIPQ, and BIPQ & Medication Adherence. Patients were most concerned about having another stroke and their symptoms becoming chronic. Medication beliefs are a stronger predictor of treatment adherence. Lastly, patients with stronger illness identity, causal beliefs, negative consequences, and lower coherence leads to greater distress in patients and caregivers. Conclusions: These results demonstrate that patients overall have concerns about their treatments, chronicity of stroke symptoms, and recurrence, and these concerns may not be effectively addressed during the routine clinic care demonstrated by effects on treatment adherence and patient and caregiver distress. Thus, patient perceptions questionnaires may be in particular a useful tool for health care disparities research in stroke.

Schools in the media: framing national standardized testing in the Norwegian press, 2004–2018

ABSTRACT In the education sector, media outlets have been increasingly active in reporting on standardized testing. The purpose of this paper is to identify the most recurrent discursive frames used by the Norwegian regional and local press when informing their readers about national standardized testing, and to explore whether differences over time and across geographical localities exist in the pervasiveness of frames. Our analysis is guided by framing theory, and builds on a corpus of 3,046 articles that focus on national testing, published by 155 Norwegian regional and local newspapers between 2004 and 2018. The analysis identifies four different discursive frames within Norwegian press coverage, namely the frame of ‘performance’, ‘transparency and empowerment’, ‘misinterpretation and misuse’, and ‘criticism’. The four frames convey highly distinct causal and normative beliefs and realities about national standardized testing. While the dominance of the frames varies over time and across Norwegian counties, the frame of ‘performance’ is increasingly pervasive, something that potentially contributes to naturalize performative-oriented reporting and competition in education. The study highlights the importance of systematic media analyses to identify circulating principle beliefs on education, and of not limiting research to national newspapers in order to grasp geographical variation in media coverage.

Psychosocial influences on help-seeking behaviour for cancer in low-income and lower middle-income countries: a mixed-methods systematic review

IntroductionStarting cancer treatment early can improve outcomes. Psychosocial factors influencing patients’ medical help-seeking decisions may be particularly important in low and lower middle-income countries (LMIC) where cancer outcomes are poor....

Am I to blame? Teacher self-efficacy and attributional beliefs towards students with specific learning disabilities

ABSTRACT This study of 105 Australian in-service teachers investigated the relationship between teacher self-efficacy and teachers’ causal beliefs towards students with and without specific learning disabilities. Results found that teachers reporting higher levels of teacher self-efficacy provided more positive feedback, less frustration, and held lower expectations of future failure towards all students, regardless of students’ ability levels, effort expenditure, or the presence of a specific learning disability. Additionally, teachers reporting higher levels of teacher self-efficacy displayed greater sympathy towards students who expended low effort. The findings suggest that teachers with higher levels of teacher self-efficacy may undertake a teacher-intrapersonal causal search to explain student underachievement, in comparison to teachers with lower levels of teacher self-efficacy who may undertake an interpersonal causal search.

Students’ achievement goals and beliefs of causes of success: Temporal relations and gender differences

According to the goal orientation model, students’ achievement goals and beliefs are interrelated. Within this framework, research and theory have so far assumed that achievement goals are associated with students’ beliefs of causes of success, the latter representing students’ subjective beliefs about the factors contributing to success at school. So far, this line of research has been restricted to a few cross-sectional studies. We examined the temporal relations between achievement goals (mastery, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) and students’ beliefs of causes of success, the latter operationalized by asking the students to rate the subjective importance of diligence, effort, and ability for school success. Achievement goals and beliefs of causes of success were measured twice with a time lag of one school year with a sample of N = 2044 German secondary school students. Cross-lagged panel models were estimated to examine the temporal relations between achievement goals and beliefs of causes of success while controlling for students’ secondary school track, socio-economic status, and Grade Point Average. Former mastery goals were found to be positively related to later importance ratings of diligence for school success; former performance-approach goals were found to be positively related to later importance ratings of ability. Boys and girls were found to display similar relations among constructs but they showed differential mean levels on both the achievement goal constructs and the beliefs of causes of success. Implications for research on achievement goals and practice using intervention approaches are discussed.

Willingness to Vaccinate Against SARS-CoV-2: The Role of Reasoning Biases and Conspiracist Ideation

Background: Widespread vaccine hesitancy and refusal complicate containment of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Extant research indicates that biased reasoning and conspiracist ideation discourage vaccination. However, causal pathways from these constructs to vaccine hesitancy and refusal remain underspecified, impeding efforts to intervene and increase vaccine uptake. Method: 554 participants who denied prior SARS-CoV-2 vaccination completed self-report measures of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine intentions, conspiracist ideation, and constructs from the Health Belief Model of medical decision-making (such as perceived vaccine dangerousness) along with tasks measuring reasoning biases (such as those concerning data gathering behavior). Cutting-edge machine learning algorithms (Greedy Fast Causal Inference) and psychometric network analysis were used to elucidate causal pathways to (and from) vaccine intentions.Results: Results indicated that a bias toward reduced data gathering during reasoning may cause paranoia, increasing the perceived dangerousness of vaccines and thereby reducing willingness to vaccinate. Existing interventions that target data gathering and paranoia therefore hold promise for encouraging vaccination. Additionally, reduced willingness to vaccinate was identified as a likely cause of belief in conspiracy theories, subverting the common assumption that the opposite causal relation exists. Finally, perceived severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection and perceived vaccine dangerousness (but not effectiveness) were potential direct causes of willingness to vaccinate, providing partial support for the Health Belief Model’s applicability to SARS-CoV-2 vaccine decisions.Conclusions: These insights significantly advance our understanding of the underpinnings of vaccine intentions and should scaffold efforts to prepare more effective interventions on hesitancy for deployment during future pandemics.

Regionalism under Challenge: Ideas and Joko Widodo’s Foreign Policy towards ASEAN, 2014-2019

Indonesia’s foreign policy under Joko Widodo ‘Jokowi’ has significantly shifted compared with his predecessor’s era, especially regarding policies on regionalism. While former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono emphasises multilateralism with a particular focus on ASEAN, Jokowi’s administration tends to overlook ASEAN as a multilateral organization. The research investigates the causal root of the tendency by using the concept of ideas in foreign policy. The results argue that the diminished role of Indonesia in ASEAN, especially during the first term of Jokowi’s presidency, is strongly influenced by causal beliefs held by Indonesian political elites and presidential advisors. Despite varying from one individual to another, these ideas have similar characteristics in proposing that Indonesia should expand its concentric circle beyond ASEAN, arguing that ASEAN is intrinsically weak and thus can no longer accommodate Indonesian aspirations. This idea acts as a road map that defines Indonesia’s national interests amid international politics dynamics in the 21st century.

Genetic essentialism: The mediating role of essentialist biases on the relationship between genetic knowledge and the interpretations of genetic information

PurposeGenetic research, via the mainstream media, presents the public with novel, profound findings almost on a daily basis. However, it is not clear how much laypeople understand these presentations and how they integrate such new findings into their knowledge base. Genetic knowledge (GK), existing causal beliefs, and genetic essentialist tendencies (GET) have been implicated in such processes; the current study assesses the relationships between these elements and how brief presentations of media releases of scientific findings about genetics are consumed and affect the readers. MethodsAn Australian national survey of GK, GET, and existing causal beliefs about health phenomena (heart disease and obesity) was conducted. Participants were also exposed to news headlines that offered genetic and non-genetic partial explanations of the same health phenomena and reported their evaluations of these headlines, as well as the effects of the headlines on their personal understanding of the health phenomena. ResultsGK was negatively-associated with GET. Whereas GK did not directly predict the evaluation and effects of the genetic headlines, GET did. GK predicted the effects of the headlines indirectly via GET and via GET and existing causal beliefs. ConclusionGET seem to predict unwarranted effects of exposure to news headlines about genetic science, whereas GK seems to indirectly mitigate the same unwarranted effects.

‘Treatable and Changeable’: The Effect of Treatment and Malleability Information on Stigma Towards Children with Behavioural Problems and Their Parents

AbstractImproving knowledge about childhood mental health issues, reducing stigma, and encouraging appropriate treatment-seeking are important goals for public health. This study examined the effect of treatment and malleability information on stigmatisation towards children with Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and their parents, and on endorsements of causal beliefs. In an experimental study, university students (N = 234) were randomly allocated to receive/not receive treatment information (information on the existence and effectiveness of treatment for ODD) and to receive/not receive malleability information (information emphasising brain malleability and the potential to change). Participants then rated four measures of stigma towards a fictitious child with ODD and mother (blame, incompetence, dangerousness, and social distance), and rated their endorsements of causal explanations for ODD. Neither treatment nor malleability information had significant effects on stigmatisation towards either the child or mother. However, this information did impact upon causal beliefs about ODD as stemming from biological or mixed biological/environmental causes. Implications for the future development of public health initiatives and stigma research on childhood mental health are discussed.

EL PAPEL DE LA OCDE EN LA DIFUSIÓN INTERNACIONAL DE POLÍTICAS EDUCATIVAS: EL CASO DE LA AUTONOMÍA ESCOLAR CON RENDICIÓN DE CUENTAS

La OCDE ha desempeñado un papel activo en la construcción y la difusión de la autonomía escolar con rendición de cuentas (SAWA por sus siglas en inglés) como un modelo internacional de política educativa. Como mostramos en este artículo, lo ha hecho activando tres mecanismos de gobernanza, a saber, la recolección de datos, la evaluación de las políticas educativas y la generación de ideas sobre políticas. La OCDE ha desempeñado un papel proactivo en la teorización de las políticas SAWA, adaptando este modelo a una amplia gama de problemas y enmarcándolo de manera suficientemente flexible para acomodar diferentes preferencias políticas. En gran medida, el potencial de la OCDE para promover el cambio educativo reside, por un lado, en su capacidad de articular creencias causales y creencias normativas en la generación de políticas y, por el otro, en su capacidad de abrir ventanas de oportunidad a través de las que introducir sus recomendaciones de políticas, como las políticas SAWA, en debates educativos nacionales.

Burdens in mental health recovery: Causal beliefs and their relation to stigma and help seeking recommendations

Lay attitudes are often seen as potential barriers to mental health recovery. But apart from perceiving them as potential barriers, they can also play an important role in stimulating individuals to consult (in)formal help sources, in particular through the process of help referral. Where existing research mainly focusses on actual help seeking behaviour, this study will focus on lay publics' referral behaviour. This study analyses the relation between causal beliefs and stigmatising attitudes and social distance on the one hand, and (in)formal help seeking recommendations on the other. Data from a survey carried out in 2019, assessing the attitudes of Public Health Insurance Provider (HIP) members towards mental health problems, was used. Part of the survey questions was based on a quantitative quasi-experimental design, using hypothetical written vignettes. The weighted data represent a sample of the adult Flemish population (22-94 years, N = 5675). Multiple linear regression analysis was used to examine the relation between causal beliefs and stigma, while binominal logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the relation between causal beliefs and help seeking recommendations. The results reveal that causal beliefs significantly associate with stigma, measured by stigmatising attitudes and social distance: personal- or biogenetic beliefs associate with more stigma, where psychosocial beliefs associate with less stigma. Concerning help seeking recommendations, psychosocial beliefs associate with recommending psychological or psychotherapeutic care, biogenetic beliefs associate with advising help from general practitioners and suggesting psychiatric help, while personal beliefs negatively associate with recommending formal help. Meanwhile, biogenetic beliefs associate with less informal help seeking recommendations (e.g. family, friends and online self-help), where personal beliefs associate with more informal help seeking recommendations and psychosocial beliefs only associate with online help referral. This study highlights the importance of causal beliefs in affecting public stigma and help seeking recommendations.

Linking environmental risks and cancer risks within the framework of genetic-behavioural causal beliefs, cancer fatalism, and macrosocial worry

In this study, we investigate the relationships among worries about environmental health risks, genetic and behavioural causal beliefs about cancer prevention, perceived cancer risk, and cancer fatalism based on the concepts of macrosocial worry and affect heuristic. Nationally representative data from the National Cancer Institute’s Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) 4 Cycle 2 dataset was employed. We conducted hierarchical multiple regression analyses by employing SPSS Macro for Probing Interactions in OLS and Logistic Regression. According to the results of this study, worry about environmental risks was positively and significantly associated with both genetic and behavioural causal beliefs. The more individuals worry about environmental risks, the less fatalistic beliefs they have. Behavioural causal beliefs negatively and significantly influenced cancer risk perceptions as well as cancer fatalism, moderating the associations between genetic causal beliefs, cancer risk perceptions, and cancer fatalism. Moreover, worry about environmental risks was found to be a mediator linking cancer causal beliefs and cancer fatalism. The results of moderation tests suggest socio-economic disparities exist in cancer and environmental risk perceptions as well as causal beliefs related to cancer.

COVID-19 pandemic preventive behaviors and causal beliefs among Italian community dwelling adults.

In an online sample of 1054 Italian community-dwelling adults, we assessed the relationships between the frequency of implementation of practices intended to prevent COVID-19 infection, degree of agreement with theories about the origin of the infections, and the frequency of use of different sources of information concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. The results showed that participants' COVID-19-related preventive behaviors and causal beliefs were significantly associated with selected demographic variables and frequency of use of specific sources of information (e.g. scientific journals vs social media).

Communicating evidence about the environment’s role in obesity and support for government policies to tackle obesity: a systematic review with meta-analysis

ABSTRACT Public support for many policies that tackle obesity by changing environments is low. This may reflect commonly held causal beliefs about obesity, namely that it is due to failures of self-control rather than environmental influences. Several studies have sought to increase public support by changing these and similar causal beliefs, with mixed results. The current review is the first systematic synthesis of these studies. Searches of PsycInfo, Medline, Web of Science, Scopus, and Open Grey yielded 20 eligible studies (N = 8977) from 11,776 abstracts. Eligible studies were controlled experiments with an intervention group that communicated information about the environment’s role in obesity, and a measure of support for environment-based obesity policies. The protocol was prospectively registered on PROSPERO. Meta-analyses showed no evidence that communicating information about the environment’s influence on obesity changed policy support or the belief that the environment influences obesity. A likely explanation for this null effect is the ineffectiveness of interventions that were designed to change the belief that the environment influences obesity. The possibility remains, however, that the association observed between beliefs about the causes of obesity and attitudes towards obesity policies is correlational and not causal.

To raise a child with autism spectrum disorder: A qualitative, comparative study of parental experiences in the United States and Senegal.

Raising a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can often be a difficult and stressful process for families and caregivers. Though research on ASDs in Africa is burgeoning, very little is known about autism in francophone West Africa. Furthermore, no known ASD studies have explored parental experiences in particular from a cross-cultural perspective. This research used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to analyze in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven Senegalese and seven American families to investigate parental experiences within the Senegalese community with further illustration by cross-cultural comparison. Comparative analysis of data across the two countries was undertaken to identify cultural variables previously unreported, especially those that may affect Senegalese family experience. Analysis of interviews revealed thematic differences in social and community support. Although access to effective treatment services was low among Senegalese families compared to the American families, traditional Senegalese household structures and community relations were hypothesized to serve as protective factors against the high social isolation and resulting logistical struggles reported in the U.S. sample. Further targeted research within the Senegalese environment is recommended, particularly to explore social stigma and its possible effects on families with autism, causal beliefs and treatment practices, and parental mental health and wellbeing.

Indiscriminate, Irrelevant, and Sometimes Wrong: Causal Misconceptions about Climate Change.

Prior research demonstrates widespread persistence of beliefs about climate change causes and risks that are arguably misconceptions. They include believing pollution causes climate change, believing ozone depletion causes climate change, the combination of these two "green beliefs," referred to as environmental problems, and believing natural climate variation significantly contributes to current climate trends. Each of these causal beliefs has the potential to weaken or divert support away from effective climate change risk mitigation policies. To assess this potential, we explore the nature and prevalence of these beliefs in the United States with a national sample of interviews (N = 77) and two national surveys (N = 1,013, N = 1,820), and apply regression and mediation analyses to explore whether they explain any of the variation in individuals' concern or support for policy to mitigate climate change. Adherence to these beliefs-which reflect a variety of misconceptions illustrated in the interviews-differs by political ideology but is common, with over a third of interviewees mentioning one or more. Controlling for general knowledge, political ideology, and other factors, misconceptions about environmental problems are still associated directly with support for climate change policies. On average adherence to the belief that environmental problems cause climate change is associated with a 25% higher probability of policy support. In contrast, believing natural climate variability is a major recent cause of climate change is associated with a 7% lower probability of supporting climate policy, even after controlling for political ideology and other knowledge about climate change.

Perceptions of Responsibility for Antibiotic Resistance: Implications for Stewardship Campaigns

Widespread public engagement with antibiotic stewardship is essential to stem the rising incidence of antibiotic-resistant infections; however, campaigns that focus on increasing knowledge have not been effective. Beliefs about who is responsible for causing and solving antibiotic resistance (AR) likely influences engagement in antibiotic stewardship behaviors. This study assesses the U.S. public’s AR causal and solution responsibility attributions and the capacity for changing these attributions to inform future antibiotic stewardship campaigns. U.S. participants (N= 1,014) diverse across race, education, and geographic region were surveyed on their beliefs about responsibility for AR for themselves, the general public, healthcare providers, scientists, and drug companies. Substantial percentages of participants held causal and solution beliefs about antibiotic resistance that likely inhibit antibiotic stewardship behaviors. Participants’ beliefs that they and the general public are responsible for causing and solving AR were lower than their beliefs that healthcare providers, scientists, and drug companies are responsible. Beliefs about causal responsibility for any given person or group were significantly and positively associated with beliefs about solution responsibility for that same person or group. Responsibility beliefs differed by age, education level, and racial/ethnic background. Results highlight the need for antibiotic stewardship campaigns to incorporate responsibility attribution messaging to motivate stewardship.

Causal beliefs about hypertension and self-care behaviour in Korean patients

ABSTRACT Background Hypertension is a lifelong disease that requires a healthy lifestyle and medical treatment. Patients’ views about the causes of hypertension play a role in guiding their self-care to regulate hypertension. Aims This study aimed to examine the internal structure underlying the causal beliefs about hypertension in Korean patients and their influence on self-care intention and medication compliance. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted using a convenience sample of 145 patients. Causal beliefs about hypertension were assessed using a modified Illness Perception Questionnaire-Revised. The internal structure of causal beliefs about hypertension was extracted with an exploratory factor analysis of SPSS 22.0. The influence of causal beliefs on self-care intention and medication compliance was tested using multiple linear regression and logistic regression analyses. Findings Causal beliefs about hypertension were structured into four dimensions: psychological, fate-related, risk, and habitual factors. Attributing the causes of hypertension to risk factors (e.g., smoking, alcohol) and fate-related factors (e.g., fate, accident) was a significant predictor of lower self-care intention and poorer medication compliance, respectively. Discussion Patients’ causal beliefs about hypertension were either relevant or irrelevant to medical facts. Special attention is needed for patients who believe that risky behaviour or supernatural power causes hypertension. Understanding patients’ beliefs about hypertension should be highlighted as a primary step to develop nursing strategies corresponding to patients’ recognition about hypertension. Conclusion Careful assessment of the causal beliefs about hypertension is essential to develop nursing interventions to maintain and promote active self-care.

SME managers’ causal beliefs on HRM as success factor of the firm

ABSTRACT Human resource management (HRM) literature offers abundant theories on the ideal HRM practices leading to positive HRM outcomes and, further, to company performance. However, little is known of small and medium enterprise (SME) managers’ causal beliefs of HRM. We examine how HRM manifests itself in managerial perceptions concerning the important drivers of firm performance. A causal mapping technique was used to elicit perceptions of 37 CEOs of SMEs. The findings indicate that the role of HRM as a performance driver in managers’ causal beliefs varies substantively. The main result of this study is a typology of SME managers’ thinking on HRM as performance factor.