Daily Engagement Research Articles

Gender disparities in students’ motivational experiences in high school science classrooms

AbstractWomen remain underrepresented in physical science, engineering, and computer science college majors and careers. Prior research has suggested that motivational beliefs and experiences in high school play a critical role in girls’ persistence in science fields. We hypothesized that compared to male students, female high school students may experience less daily autonomy support from teachers and lower psychological need satisfaction in physics, chemistry, and engineering courses. In turn, we expected that these differences would explain girls’ lower daily engagement in these courses compared to boys. In line with current trends indicating gender parity in biology and biomedical fields, we did not expect to find gender differences in biology courses. Results from a six‐week intensive longitudinal study in which high school students reported their daily experiences of teacher autonomy support, need satisfaction, and engagement during science class supported our hypotheses. The implications of the results for theory and practice are discussed.

Financial literacy and the role of numeracy–How individuals’ attitude and affinity with numbers influence financial literacy

Being financially literate is an important life skill that is equally important for one's own sake as well as for society. Findings indicate that individuals are financially illiterate while interventions to increase the level of financial literacy are ineffective. The effect of financial literacy on financial behavior reported in correlation studies may be driven by some unknown third variable, such as individual cognitive ability. The current study investigated the role of cognitive and emotional factors in attaining financial literacy. In a representative sample of the general population, our regression models indicate that a central component of financial literacy can be traced to numeracy and the emotional attitude towards numbers (i.e. mathematics anxiety). Thus, a driving force behind becoming financially literate resides in the ability to understand numbers and having an emotional attitude towards numbers that does not interfere with an individual's daily engagement in activities involving mathematics and financial decisions.

When does behavior follow intent? Relationships between trait level dietary restraint and daily eating behaviors

BackgroundThe relationship between self-report trait level restriction and daily engagement in restriction behaviors is not well understood, and as a result the usefulness of such trait level measures is unclear. The present study aimed both to examine the validity of self-reported trait dietary restraint behaviors, and to examine the respective relationships among self-reported trait dietary restraint intentions and behaviors and both restrained and disinhibited eating at the daily level. MethodsA sample of 109 women (Mage = 24.72, SD = 4.15) completed a self-report trait level measure of dietary restraint before providing EMA data on their daily engagement in dietary restraint and disinhibited eating behaviors, as well as mood, over a period of 7 days. Multilevel hurdle models were used to test the relationship between trait levels of dietary restraint, and daily level reports of restraint and disinhibited eating behaviors. ResultsTrait restraint behavior was a consistent predictor of daily presence and frequency of restraint behaviors. In contrast, trait restraint intentions was not a predictor of daily restraint behaviors, however it did predict daily frequency of overeating. In addition, daily negative affect emerged as a predictor of comfort eating, but was not predictive of restraint behaviors. ConclusionsFindings confirm the usefulness of assessments of self-reported trait dietary restraint behaviors as a method of capturing dieting behaviors. In contrast, trait level dietary restraint intentions was a poor predictor of eating outcomes and more research on the way that restraint intentions affect eating behaviors is warranted.

The Role of Stone in Island Societies in Neolithic Atlantic Europe: Creating Places and Cultural Landscapes

The focus of the paper is an engagement with the significance of the exploitation of stone sources to make objects, particularly stone axe heads on islands in northwest Europe during the Neolithic period (4000 – 2500 BC). Case studies of Lambay Island in the Irish Sea, Rathlin Island off the northeast coast of Ireland, and the Shetland Islands explore the use of these three stone sources through the archaeological record, examining the biographies of objects (from quarries, through use, to discard or deposition) and applying a range of approaches to understanding material culture. What emerges is an understanding of the central role these three lithic sources played in how people engaged with and created their island places and landscapes. Through their daily engagement with different stone sources (including the ones focused on here) at a range of scales, people created and sustained social relationships and conventions. Hence it is argued that stone artefacts from local sources played a special role in shaping identities on the three islands.

Personal and situational influences on the functions of music listening

On the one hand, the majority of research on the functions of music listening focuses on individual differences; on the other hand, a growing amount of research investigates situational influences. However, the question of how much of our daily engagement with music is attributable to individual characteristics and how much it depends on the situation is still under-researched. To answer this question and to reveal the most important predictors of the two domains, participants ( n = 587) of an online study reported on questions regarding the situation, the music, and the functions of music listening for three self-selected situations. Additionally, multiple person-related variables were measured. Results revealed that the influence of individual and situational variables on the functions of music listening varied across functions. The influence of situational variables on the functions of music listening outweighed the influence of individual characteristics. On the situational level, main activity while listening to music showed the greatest impact, while on the individual level, intensity of music preference was most influential. Our findings suggest that research on music in everyday life should incorporate both – individual and situational – variables determining the complex behavior of people interacting with music in a certain situation.

724 Methods of daily student engagement in an introductory level animal science course

724 Methods of daily student engagement in an introductory level animal science course

Food Journeys: Place, Mobility, and the Everyday Food Practices of Young People

We examine the everyday food practices of a group of high school students living in an urban, multicultural, and lower income community in San Diego, California. We integrate theoretical and empirical insights from research in health, food, and youth geographies and offer a relational conceptualization and analysis of the food environment that is sensitive to young people's everyday mobilities and encounters with food. We pay particular attention to how young people journey through the local food landscape and navigate contradictions between food norms across places, including home, school, and neighborhood. Our goal is to uncover young people's personal and emotional engagements with what, how, and where they eat. Our methodology begins by recognizing young people's agency and centers on an analysis of the spatiality of their food routines. We present results of a year-long participatory study involving Global Positioning System–tagged photography, Photovoice interviews, and surveys. Our results provide a fine-grained analysis of young people's daily engagements with their food environments and reveal how their food journeys are structured and governed by social relations, physical and material constraints, biopolitics, and emotional geographies. Our approach permits a critical and dynamic understanding of the food environment and its relationship to young people's food practices, with useful insights for health research and policy.

Influence of Temperature and Humidity on the Physiological Indices of Stress in the Obudu Mountain Landscape Environment, Nigeria

Stress can be viewed in terms of the contribution of urbanization, lifestyle changes and the ameliorating potential of nature related environments. This study explored the influence of temperature and humidity of the mountain landscape environment on the physiological indices of individuals. 38 respondents formed a single within-group study sample. Measures of Physiological indices including blood pressure, pulse rate and respiratory rate as well as ambient environment conditions were carried out both at the urban and mountain landscape environments. Findings imply that temperature and humidity are aspects of the mountain landscape environment conditions that combine to influence human physiological wellbeing. Therefore, Individuals confronted with many sources of stress from daily engagements in urban environments can obtain short term relief in the mountain landscape environment.

Indigenous knowledge/s of survival: implications for lifelong learning among the Basotho herding fraternity

This article foregrounds Basotho male herders' interaction with their environment as a productive platform for informal learning activities poised to address the herders' immediate and context-specific needs. Indeed, understanding how the herders interact and learn through their daily engagements with their environments has a potential to provide substantive baseline insights that could inform Lesotho's nonformal education providers and policy-making forums. Drawing on indigenous knowledge theory, the article explicates the sociocultural perspective of indigenous knowledge with emphasis on how it is acquired and applied by male Basotho herders in order to improve their lives and address their daily herding challenges. The study adopted a qualitative research methodology with a sample of 30 snowball-selected Basotho male herders using interviews, transect walk, and photo voice as its methods of data collection. The data were analysed using the pattern coding method. The findings revealed two main forms of indigenous knowledge that the herders acquired through the herding practice namely, indigenous knowledge as local science and indigenous knowledge as local practice. The study recommends more scientific research that documents Lesotho's specific indigenous knowledge-to develop a holistic nonformal education curriculum and to nurture the rare indigenous knowledge skills of the Basotho male herders.

Exploratory Analysis of the Activity Time-Use Frontier and Its Effect on Episodic Well-Being: Data from the Disability and Use of Time Survey

The role of time (as a constrained resource) in terms of budgets and expenditures is of great importance in travel behavior analysis within the context of daily activity engagement choices, emotional well-being, and quality of life. This research investigated the behavioral links between activity time budgets and episodic well-being measures in a two-stage process, using data from the 2009 Disability and Use of Time Survey. First, with the use of the episodic-level data, time budgets were formulated with the use of a stochastic frontier modeling approach. The technical inefficiency measure that represented the degree to which an individual expended his or her time (or an upper bound of the time budget) in activity engagement was also derived. Second, with the use of this measure of technical inefficiency, the effects on reported individuals’ episodic well-being measures were further investigated. The indicators of well-being—happiness, calmness, frustration, sadness, worry, tiredness, and pain—were analyzed with a multivariate ordered probit modeling framework. The models were estimated by controlling for a broad array of covariates related to sociodemographics, activity, and travel characteristics, along with the social contexts of companionship and altruism and global well-being indicators. Empirical results suggested that individuals experienced varying levels of positive and negative emotions from their daily activity time-use patterns, in both efficient and inefficient episodes. Productive episodes (e.g., working and volunteering) with higher time budgets (or inefficiencies) increased the likelihood of individuals experiencing higher levels of negative emotions. The model findings also revealed that high-income households and individuals younger than 65 years old with inefficient time-use patterns exhibited lower levels of happiness and calmness.

Social support reduces stress hormone levels in wild chimpanzees across stressful events and everyday affiliations.

Stress is a major cause of poor health and mortality in humans and other social mammals. Close social bonds buffer stress, however much of the underlying physiological mechanism remains unknown. Here, we test two key hypotheses: bond partner effects occur only during stress (social buffering) or generally throughout daily life (main effects). We assess urinary glucocorticoids (uGC) in wild chimpanzees, with or without their bond partners, after a natural stressor, resting or everyday affiliation. Chimpanzees in the presence of, or interacting with, bond partners rather than others have lowered uGC levels across all three contexts. These results support the main effects hypothesis and indicate that hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis regulation is mediated by daily engagement with bond partners both within and out of stressful contexts. Regular social support with bond partners could lead to better health through daily ‘micro-management' of the HPA axis, a finding with potential medical implications for humans.

Palestinian Writings in the World: A Polylingual Literary Category Between Local and Transnational Realms

In this article I focus on the problems and possible consequences deriving from putting together literary productions from the Americas, Europe and Israel by Palestinian authors and authors of Palestinian descent who may write in languages other than Arabic. Due to their daily engagement in the languages of local majorities, literature from these distinct contexts is commonly characterized by the authors’ attempts at preserving cultural boundaries and exploring national identities both against the backdrop and under the influence of foreign cultural elements. I present critical readings of Anglophone, Latinate and Hebrew literary productions to facilitate my proposal for the necessity of establishing a polylingual literary category to include these texts in the national canon, and suggest a theoretical framework for reading them within both local and transnational contexts as well as alongside Palestinian literary productions composed in Arabic.

Social media as a space for support: Young adults' perspectives on producing and consuming user-generated content about diabetes and mental health

Social media offer opportunities to both produce and consume content related to health experiences. However, people's social media practices are likely to be influenced by a range of individual, social and environmental factors. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore how engagement with user-generated content can support people with long-term health conditions, and what limits users' adoption of these technologies in the everyday experience of their health condition. Forty semi-structured interviews were conducted with young adults, aged between 18 and 30 years, with experience of diabetes or a common mental health disorder (CMHD). We found that the online activities of these young adults were diverse; they ranged from regular production and consumption (‘prosumption’) of health-related user-generated content to no engagement with such content. Our analysis suggested three main types of users: ‘prosumers’; ‘tacit consumers’ and ‘non-engagers’. A key determinant of participants' engagement with resources related to diabetes and CMHDs in the online environment was their offline experiences of support. Barriers to young adults' participation in online interaction, and sharing of content related to their health experiences, included concerns about compromising their presentation of identity and adherence to conventions about what content is most appropriate for specific social media spaces. Based on our analysis, we suggest that social media do not provide an unproblematic environment for engagement with health content and the generation of supportive networks. Rather, producing and consuming user-generated content is an activity embedded within individuals' specific health experiences and is impacted by offline contexts, as well as their daily engagement with, and expectations, of different social media platforms.

Do Sensory Processing Abilities Impact Daily Occupational Engagement Among Older Adults?

Abstract Date Presented 4/7/2016 Sensory processing abilities and specifically greater sensory seeking predict better occupational engagement in older adults. Occupational therapists should refer to this relationship in research and practice to enhance meaningful engagement in real life among older adults. Primary Author and Speaker: Batya Engel-Yeger Additional Author and Speaker: Sara Rosenblum

Software Engineering Approaches for Designing Knowledge based Systems: A Survey

In our daily engagement with technology we interact with software in many aspects, rendering software engineering field a very robust area with a lot of dynamism. In this paper we have comprehensively surveyed on software engineering approaches for designing knowledge based systems. First we looked at knowledge based systems in detail, then at software engineering basics, and finally match the various software engineering approaches that have been used in the field of knowledge based systems in the current research and surveys. Some of the current approaches in knowledge approaches that we surveyed include: case-based approach, software reuse approach, Model driven software engineering approaches, ontology based approach, Open metadata approach, cloud based approach, agile approach, Traditional integration approach, Automatic software generation code approach, process based approach, and the Knowledge based system approach.

Stable or situated understandings of adolescent reading engagement across readers and raters

ABSTRACTTeachers' skill in inferring students' reading motivation influences their ability to provide responsive literacy instruction. Yet, studies show that convergence between students' and teachers' reports of students' affective experience with reading is moderate to poor. The present study, with a sample of 140 students, and 15 middle school teachers, examined the convergence across different rater reports (teachers, students, and research observers) of reading motivation and behavioral engagement in daily reading activities as well as the factors that explain teachers' perceptions of students' daily behavioral engagement with reading. Results indicate that there was no correlation between teacher or research observer reports with student ratings. However, teachers' perceptions of students' behavioral engagement in reading was explained by stable as well as situated student indicators of reading engagement. Additional measures to help teachers more easily detect shifts in motivation as a function of classroom practices are discussed.

Empowering youth sport environments: Implications for daily moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and adiposity

BackgroundEvidence suggests involvement in youth sport does not guarantee daily guidelines for moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) are met, and participation may not mitigate the risks associated with physical inactivity. The need to promote higher habitual MVPA engagement amongst children active in the youth sport context has therefore been underlined. Framed by self-determination theory, the aim of the present study was to examine the implications of the motivational climate created in youth sport, for children's daily engagement in MVPA and associated adiposity. Specifically, we sought to test a motivational sequence in which children's perceptions of an empowering coach-created motivational climate were related to autonomous and controlled motivation, which in turn predicted sport-related enjoyment. Finally, enjoyment was assumed to predict accelerometer assessed daily MVPA and, following this, adiposity. MethodsMale and female youth sport participants aged 9–16 years (n = 112) completed multi-section questionnaires assessing their perceptions of the motivational climate created in youth sport (i.e., autonomy supportive, task involving, socially supportive), autonomous and controlled motivation, and sport-related enjoyment. Daily MVPA engagement was determined via 7 days of accelerometry. Percent body fat (BF%) was estimated using bio-electrical impedance analysis. ResultsPath analysis revealed perceptions of an empowering motivational climate positively predicted players' autonomous motivation, and in turn, sport-related enjoyment. Enjoyment was also significantly negatively related to players' BF%, via a positive association with daily MVPA. ConclusionFostering more empowering youth sport environments may hold implications for the prevention of excess adiposity, through encouraging higher habitual MVPA engagement. Findings may inform the optimal design of youth sport settings for MVPA promotion, and contribute towards associated healthy weight maintenance amongst youth active in this context. Longitudinal and intervention studies are required to confirm these results.

Feasibility and Effect Sizes of the Revised Daily Engagement of Meaningful Activities Intervention for Individuals With Mild Cognitive Impairment and Their Caregivers.

A nurse-led intervention, Daily Engagement of Meaningful Activities (DEMA), was evaluated for feasibility and effect sizes in a two-group randomized pilot study with 36 patient-caregiver dyads (17 DEMA and 19 attention control). Effect sizes were estimated on 10 outcomes: dyad functional ability awareness congruence; patients' meaningful activity performance and satisfaction, confidence, depressive symptoms, communication satisfaction, physical function, and life satisfaction; and caregivers' depressive symptoms and life changes. High feasibility of DEMA was supported by the following indicators: consent (97.7%), session completion (91.7%), and Time 3 measure completion (97.2%). Compared to the attention control group, the DEMA group had higher dyad congruence in functional ability awareness and life satisfaction 3 months post-intervention and improved physical function at 2 weeks post-intervention. Although DEMA showed high feasibility and benefits on some health-related outcomes, further testing of DEMA in a larger randomized controlled clinical trial is needed.

Coming back to work in the morning: Psychological detachment and reattachment as predictors of work engagement.

Research has shown that recovery processes in general and psychological detachment in particular are important for work engagement. We argue that work engagement additionally benefits from reattachment to work in the morning (i.e., mentally reconnecting to work before actually starting to work) and that the gains derived from psychological detachment and reattachment are stronger in the morning than in the afternoon. We tested our hypotheses in a daily diary study with a sample of 167 employees who completed 2 surveys per day over the period of 2 workweeks. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that work engagement was higher in the morning than in the afternoon. Evening psychological detachment and morning reattachment positively predicted work engagement throughout the day. The association between reattachment and work engagement was stronger in the morning than in the afternoon. This study demonstrates that not only psychological detachment from work during leisure time, but also reattachment to work when coming back to work are crucial for daily engagement at work. (PsycINFO Database Record

Three Positive Parenting Practices and Their Correlation with Risk of Childhood Developmental, Social, or Behavioral Delays: An Analysis of the National Survey of Children's Health.

(1) Investigate the relationship between three specific positive parenting practices (PPP)-reading to children, engaging in storytelling or singing, and eating meals together as a family-and parent-reported risk of developmental, behavioral, or social delays among children between the ages of 1-5 years in the US. (2) Determine if a combination of these parenting practices has an effect on the outcome. Chi square and multiple logistic regression analyses were used to analyze cross-sectional data from the National Survey of Children's Health 2011/2012 in regards to the relationship between each of the three individual PPP as well as a total PPP score and the child's risk of being developmentally, socially, or behaviorally delayed (N = 21,527). Risk of delay was calculated using the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status Questionnaire, which is a parental self-report measure that has been correlated with diagnosed child delays. These analyses controlled for poverty and parental education. All analyses were completed using SAS Version 9.3. A strong correlation was found between each of the three PPP as well as the total PPP score and the child's risk of developmental, social, or behavioral delays (p < 0.05 for each test). These associations were found to have a dose-response relationship (p < 0.05 in all but one analysis). Daily engagement in PPP could possibly reduce children's risk of delay, and specifically engaging in all three PPP may have greater benefit.