Personal Contextual Factors Research Articles

The conceptualization of stigma within a rehabilitation framework using HIV as an example

Stigma theory is concerned with inclusion and opportunities that influence well-being. Rehabilitation is also concerned with social inclusion and well-being. This is a central concern in one of the leading rehabilitation theories, the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Despite these shared concerns, the relationship between the fields of stigma and rehabilitation has not been well theorized to date. Using human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as an example, this article presents an analysis of three ways that stigma may be conceptualized within the context of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health. Three broad spheres of stigma are described: enacted, self, and structural stigma. These three forms of stigma are then aligned in unique ways with three particular constructs of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: participation restrictions, environmental, and personal contextual factors. This conceptualization illustrates how rehabilitation professionals and other practitioners, policy makers and researchers can better understand the dynamic and nuanced forms of stigma and how they relate to rehabilitation.Implications for rehabilitationThis article enables rehabilitation professionals to better understand stigma as it relates to rehabilitation and human immunodeficiency virus.Rehabilitation professionals have the important job of allies and advocates for persons experiencing restrictions in these domains as a result of stigma.

Context-aware recommender systems in mobile environment: On the road of future research

Recommender systems have recently been singled out as a fascinating area of research, owing to the technological progress in mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, as well as to the rapid growth of social networking. In this respect, the main purpose of recommender systems is to suggest items that help users to make decisions from a large number of possible actions such as what place to visit, what movie to watch, or which friend to add to a social network system. In mobile environment, many personal, social and environmental contextual factors can be integrated into the recommendation process in order to provide the correct recommendation to a special user, at the perfect moment, in the appropriate location based on his/her emotional state, his/her current activity and past behavior. This paper provides an overview of context-aware recommender systems in mobile environment. The objective of this systematic review is to investigate the current state of the art in context-aware recommender systems and classify the reviewed research papers. This study aims equally to identify the possible future directions in this research area.

Beyond economics—understanding the decision-making of German small private landlords in terms of energy efficiency investment

The German government aims to achieve virtually climate-neutral building stock by 2050 to tackle climate change. To realise this goal, comprehensive policy packages based on neoclassical economic theory are in place to foster energy efficiency investment. However, in the building sector, there is increasingly a gap between this aspiration and the reality. It is claimed that one of the main reasons for this is that the existing policy framework fails to address the specific characteristics and needs of different groups of building owners. This is a particular challenge in Germany, where 80% of all dwellings are owned privately and 37% are rented out by small private landlords (SPL). Despite the significant numbers of SPL, they often follow black box decision-making processes when considering energy renovations. In this study, the author uses an explanatory model to understand the decision-making processes of SPL, combining theoretical aspects from different research disciplines. This model was applied to a low-demand housing market in a neighbourhood in the Ruhr area. Eighteen semi-structured interviews (each lasting between 37 and 115 min) were conducted, demonstrating that in addition to economic factors, the values, beliefs, norms and routines of SPL—as well as their personal capabilities and contextual factors—play an important role in their decision-making. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for enhancing the effectiveness of existing energy efficiency policies and other supporting instruments (e.g. tenancy law and social legislation), tailored to the specific needs of SPL.

A "time out consultation" in primary care for elderly patients with cancer: Better treatment decisions by structural involvement of the general practitioner.

Treatment decisions in elderly patients with cancer are complex. Not only the type and stage of the tumor, but also comorbidity, medical background and personal contextual factors need to be taken into account. The individual treatment perspective, life expectancy and quality of life are important determinants of the final treatment decision for the elderly cancer patient. Because of their longstanding relation with the elderly and their holistic approach we think that general practitioners should be involved, and we suggest that every elderly patient with cancer should have a 'time out consultation' with the general practitioner to prepare for the final treatment choice.

Incidence of workplace bullying among hospitality employees

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to the address the key factors of workplace bullying among hospitality employees, as workplace bullying results in damaging consequences on both individuals and organizations.Design/methodology/approachThis study first defines the phenomenon of workplace bullying and then reviews the related literature. Data are collected from a sample population of 238 hospitality employees obtained from the latest European Working Conditions Survey. Logistic regression analysis is used to achieve the study objectives.FindingsResults from the binary logistic regression model show the main personal and organizational factors related to the probability of workplace bullying. The logistic regression model explains 76.4 per cent of the total variations in the sample. The model correctly classifies 78.1 per cent of hospitality employees who did not feel bullied in their profession and 74.1 per cent of employees who did feel bullied.Practical implicationsThe authors’ findings imply that responsible managers in hospitality enterprises may reduce the organizational levels of workplace bullying by adjusting certain working conditions and establishing a supportive environment.Originality/valueStudies on personalities inclined to bullying are inconclusive. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to develop a comprehensive and exploratory conceptual model of workplace bullying that links personal variables, working conditions and contextual factors to the prevalence of workplace bullying within the hospitality sector in the European context.

Daily use of time, personal characteristics and experienced well-being

PurposeThis paper aims to seek to provide a more comprehensive view of the determinants of experienced well-being by incorporating personal characteristics suggested to be significant predictors of global well-being, such as income, materialism, religiosity, community mindedness and sleep quality (Diener et al., 1999; Frey and Stutzer, 2002), as well as time-use activities (Kahneman and Krueger, 2006) and contextual elements, such as day of the week (Csikszentmihalyi and Hunter, 2003; Kahneman et al., 2004a) and the presence of companions, into a single model of predictive experienced well-being using the day reconstruction method (Kahneman et al., 2004a).Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied the day reconstruction method to a sample of 1,823 episodes from 104 undergraduate students at a private university in Mexico to determine time assignment and emotional experience. Data were analyzed using a panel data regression model.FindingsIt is currently accepted that experienced well-being depends on how people assign their time; however, the results suggest marginal and interaction effects between time assignment and sharing activities with others. Individuals experience an increase in well-being when any activity is done with others, independent of the valence or the duration of the activity. Also, while money does not produce higher well-being, the share of the budget that is spent with others does cause people to experience more well-being. Finally, the results indicate that personal characteristics are equally important to experienced well-being.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample was restricted to students; thus, to achieve external validity, it is necessary to replicate this analysis within different populations as well as groups of different ages and occupations.Originality/valueThe authors provided an integrative model of experienced well-being that combines personal characteristics, time assignment and contextual factors. In addition, this model provides a more accurate gauge of the impact of personal characteristics on well-being than previous studies by controlling for time assignment and by measuring the impact on experienced, rather than global, well-being.

Determinants of quality of life outcomes for survivors of pediatric brain tumors

To describe the quality of life (QOL) of pediatric brain tumor survivors (PBTSs) prospectively and to identify potential medical, personal and family contextual factors associated with QOL. Ninety-one PBTSs (8-16 years) who were off treatment and attending a regular classroom participated. Self- and caregiver-proxy-reported on QOL at baseline, 2 and 8 months. At baseline, cognitive, executive function, attention and memory, medical and demographics information were attained. Significant improvements over time in PBTS's emotional QOL were self- and proxy-reported (P < 0.01) and global QOL proxy-reported (P = 0.04). Receiving cranial irradiation therapy (CIT) and poor behavioral regulation predicted poor global QOL scores reported by both informants (P < 0.017). Poor behavioral regulation also predicted poor self-reported school functioning, and poor proxy-reported emotional and social QOL (P < 0.037). Boys reported better emotional QOL (P = 0.029), and PBTSs over 11 years old were reported to have better emotion and school-related QOL. Finally, being non-White and having low income predicted poor self-reported global and emotional QOL (P = 0.041). Receiving CIT, having poor behavioral regulation, being a female, under 11 years old and coming from low-income, non-White families place PBTSs at risk for poor QOL.

Epidemiological Study of Patients of Road Traffic Injuries Attending Emergency Department of a Trauma Center in New Delhi.

Background and Aims:There is paucity of data regarding some of the lesser known contextual and epidemiological factors with respect to road traffic injuries (RTIs). The objective was to study the epidemiological profile of RTI victims attending an emergency department of a tertiary care trauma center.Methods:The present study was a hospital-based cross-sectional study conducted in the emergency department of a tertiary care trauma center in New Delhi. All patients of RTI attending the emergency department during the designated data collection days were included in the study. Patients brought dead were excluded from the study. A semi-structured interview schedule was developed for collecting data on various domains such as sociodemographic characteristics, vehicle-related factors, accident site-related factors, personal protection measures, contextual factors, and prehospital care-related factors.Results:A total of 984 patients and informants were approached and finally data of 900 participants were analyzed after excluding those who refused participation and those for whom incomplete data were available. Out of 900 RTI victims, 756 were male (84.0%) and 144 (16.0%) were female. Mean age of the victims was 32.7 years. Most of the victims, i.e., 377 out of 900 (41.9%) were occupants rather than drivers. Majority of victim's vehicle meeting accidents were motorized two-wheelers (53.4%), and majority of the colliding vehicle was a four-wheeler (39.3*). Helmet use was found to be low (63.3%), but seat belt use was particularly low (32.4%). Most accidents (28%) happened between midnight and 6 A.M. More than half of the victims were in a hurry on the day of the accident. An ambulance was used to transport the victims in only 14.6% cases.Conclusion:In road traffic accidents some lesser known epidemiological data were generated that may be useful in defining preventive measures.

SleepExplorer: a visualization tool to make sense of correlations between personal sleep data and contextual factors

Getting enough quality sleep is a key part of a healthy lifestyle. Many people are tracking their sleep through mobile and wearable technology, together with contextual information that may influence sleep quality, like exercise, diet, and stress. However, there is limited support to help people make sense of this wealth of data, i.e., to explore the relationship between sleep data and contextual data. We strive to bridge this gap between sleep-tracking and sense-making through the design of SleepExplorer, a web-based tool that helps individuals understand sleep quality through multi-dimensional sleep structure and explore correlations between sleep data and contextual information. Based on a two-week field study with 12 participants, this paper offers a rich understanding on how technology can support sense-making on personal sleep data: SleepExplorer organizes a flux of sleep data into sleep structure, guides sleep-tracking activities, highlights connections between sleep and contributing factors, and supports individuals in taking actions. We discuss challenges and opportunities to inform the work of researchers and designers creating data-driven health and well-being applications.

The influence of women's perceived entitlement to have postnatal depression on the disclosure process

Studies showing the impact of maternal depression on the mother, infant and wider family have highlighted the importance of mothers feeling able and entitled to disclose postnatal depression (PND) and seek support from others. This paper reports a subset of findings from an interpretative phenomenological analysis of five women interviewed about their experiences of disclosing symptoms of postnatal depression. Entitlement appeared to be influenced by the women's own personal contextual factors, including financial status and lifestyles, having children who slept well, partner support and having successful IVF treatment. The findings have clinical implications for health professionals who have regular contact with women in the antenatal and postnatal periods by creating safe contexts to address their beliefs about PND, facilitating disclosure and implementing intervention more promptly.

Health, function and disability in stroke patients in the community.

ABSTRACTBackgroundStroke patients commonly have impairments associated with reduction in functionality. Among these impairments, the motor impairments are the most prevalent. The functional profile of these patients living in the community who are users of the primary health-care services in Brazil has not yet been establishedObjectiveTo describe the functional profile of stroke patients who are users of the primary health-care services in Brazil, looking at one health-care unit in the city of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.MethodFrom medical records and home visits, data were collected regarding health status, assistance received following the stroke, personal and environmental contextual factors, function and disability, organized according to the conceptual framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Test and instruments commonly applied in the assessment of stroke patients were used.ResultsDemographic data from all stroke patients who were users of the health-care unit (n=44, age: 69.23±13.12 years and 67±66.52 months since the stroke) participated of this study. Most subjects presented with disabilities, as changes in emotional function, muscle strength, and mobility, risks of falling during functional activities, negative self-perception of quality of life, and perception of the environment factors were perceived as obstacles. The majority of the patients used the health-care unit to renew drug prescriptions, and did not receive any information on stroke from health professionals, even though patients believed it was important for patients to receive information and to provide clarifications.ConclusionStroke patients who used primary health-care services in Brazil have chronic disabilities and health needs that require continuous health attention from rehabilitation professionals. All of these health needs should be considered by health professionals to provide better management as part of the integral care of stroke patients, as recommended by the clinical practice guidelines for stroke rehabilitation.

The influence of women's perceived entitlement to have postnatal depression on the disclosure process

Studies showing the impact of maternal depression on the mother, infant and wider family have highlighted the importance of mothers feeling able and entitled to disclose postnatal depression (PND) and seek support from others. This paper reports a subset of findings from an interpretative phenomenological analysis of five women interviewed about their experiences of disclosing symptoms of postnatal depression. The findings extend the literature on in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and PND by identifying that perceived entitlement to have PND or seek support can influence the disclosure process. Entitlement appeared to be influenced by the women's own personal contextual factors, including financial status and lifestyles, having children who slept well, partner support and having successful IVF treatment. The findings have clinical implications for health professionals who have regular contact with women in the antenatal and postnatal periods by creating safe contexts to address their beliefs about PND, facilitating disclosure and implementing intervention more promptly.

Predictors of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Undergraduate Students in Vietnam: An Empirical Study

The present research aims at identifying the factors that influence the entrepreneurial intentions among undergraduate students in Vietnam. The data were collected from 180 students at several Universities in Hanoi, Vietnam. Multiple regression method was used to test the impacts of personal factors and contextual factors on the students’ entrepreneurial intentions. The results confirmed that individual difference variables such as risk-taking propensity and creativity and personality traits, such as locus of control and need for achievement had strong impacts on the intention to start a new venture. Furthermore, contextual factor such as perceived support in the entrepreneurship-related context directly influenced the entrepreneurial intentions. Discussion of the findings, recommendations and implications for policy makers both inside and outside universities were also detailed.

Preliminary psychometric analyses of two assessment measures quantifying communicative and social activities: the COMACT and SOCACT

Background: There is a need for clinical tools that capture the real-life impact of aphasia. This study reports on a psychometric investigation of two self-report tools: the Communicative Activities Checklist and the Social Activities Checklist (COMACT; SOCACT), which assess the dimensions of communication activity and social participation in aphasia.Aims: (1) To investigate internal consistency (IC), convergent, and known validity of the COMACT and SOCACT and (2) to investigate the impact of personal contextual factors: gender, age, years in education, linguistic ability, and emotional health on communicative and social activities.Methods & Procedures: Thirty participants with mild-moderate chronic aphasia (people with aphasia (PWA); mean age 71 years, mean time post onset 41 months, mean years in education 10.77) and 75 control neurologically healthy participants (NHP; mean age 74 years, mean years in education 13.18) completed the COMACT and SOCACT reporting how frequently they engaged in particular activities. The COMACT has 45 communication activities with subscales of Talking, Listening, Reading, and Writing. The SOCACT contains 20 social activities with subscales of Leisure, Informal, and Formal. IC was examined using Cronbach’s alpha (α). Correlations with published assessments, Western Aphasia Battery (WAB) and Communication Activities of Daily Living were computed for COMACT only. Multiple regression models were examined for differences in participant (PWA vs. NHP) performance on COMACT and SOCACT.Outcomes & Results: Total COMACT IC was 0.83 (PWA) and 0.84 (NHP). Following deletion of four items, to further improve subscale ICs, total COMACT IC was 0.83 (PWA) and 0.86 (NHP). COMACT total score and WAB AQ were moderately correlated (r = 0.55). Total SOCACT IC was 0.58 (PWA) and 0.63 (NHP). Following single item deletion, total IC was 0.65 (PWA) and 0.64 (NHP). Statistical analysis revealed PWA, in comparison to NHP, participated in significantly fewer communication and social activities. Personal contextual factors impacted both groups differently; particular aspects were associated with communication activity (age and language severity) and social activity (age only). For NHP, ageing, emotional health and years in education were significant predictors of social and communication activity.Conclusions: This study finds the COMACT to be a reliable, valid measure of communication activity. The SOCACT had “questionable” IC and requires further psychometric investigation. Both tools demonstrate known group validity. Relationships between impairment-level and personal contextual factors for communication activity and social participation are highlighted.

Motivational teacher strategies: the role of beliefs and contextual factors

Teachers are key actors who shape the learning environment and whose main tasks include motivating students to learn. Teachers can differ in the way in which they try to motivate students to learn and their motivational strategies can vary from autonomy-supportive to controlling. The present study explored how teachers’ personal beliefs and contextual factors relate to their self-reported autonomy-supportive or controlling motivational strategies. Nine grade six teachers at schools with varying student populations were interviewed. Based on their self-reported motivational strategies, two clusters of teachers were distinguished: teachers who mainly reported autonomy-supportive strategies and teachers who mainly reported controlling motivational strategies. The strategies of autonomy-supportive teachers aligned well with their personal beliefs and preferences, whereas some teachers in the controlling cluster would prefer more autonomy-supportive strategies. Underlying reasons for more controlling teaching strategies were mainly contextual, including ‘factors from above’ such as national standards or high-stakes testing, but mainly ‘factors from below’ referring to negative perceptions of students’ abilities, behaviour, background characteristics or motivation. Implications are drawn and suggestions for further research are provided.

Does positivity operate when the stakes are high? Health status and decision making among older adults.

Research and theory suggest that emotional goals are increasingly prioritized with age. Related empirical work has shown that, compared with younger adults, older adults attend to and remember positive information more than negative information. This age-related positivity effect has been eliminated in experiments that have explicitly demanded processing of both positive and negative information. In the present study, we explored whether a reduction of the preference for positive information over negative information appears when the material being reviewed holds personal relevance for the individual. Older participants whose health varied from poor to very good reviewed written material prior to making decisions about health related and non-health-related issues. As predicted, older adults in relatively poor health (compared with those in relatively good health) showed less positivity in review of information while making health-related decisions. In contrast, positivity emerged regardless of health status for decisions that were unrelated to health. Across decision contexts, those individuals who focused more on positive information than negative information reported better postdecisional mood and greater decision satisfaction. Results are consistent with the theoretical argument that the age-related positivity effect reflects goal-directed cognitive processing and, furthermore, suggests that personal relevance and contextual factors determine whether positivity emerges.

Precarious Employment and Bargaining Power: Results of a Factorial Survey Analysis

Summary This article deals with the role of bargaining power in shaping workers’ willingness to accept fixed-term jobs. It is assumed that workers prefer permanent contracts but may be willing to compromise on job security under certain conditions. To what extent is the willingness to accept fixed-term contracts influenced by personal characteristics and contextual factors that shape individuals’ bargaining power vis-à-vis employers? In a factorial survey implemented within the German panel study “Labour Market and Social Security” (PASS) approx. 3,700 respondents evaluated more than 18,000 short descriptions (vignettes) of hypothetical job offers with an experimental variation of job characteristics, including contract type. Results show that better labor market integration and economic resources of the respondents reduce the willingness to accept insecure jobs. The effect of a better bargaining position also shows up in the higher level of financial compensation required for fixed-term contracts.Moreover, some variation by family background and gender has been found.

ANALISIS FAKTOR-FAKTOR YANG MEMPENGARUHI KINERJA PEGAWAI PADA DINAS PENDAPATAN, PENGELOLAAN KEUANGAN DAN ASET (DPPKA) KOTA BENGKULU

Dwi Linda Yuliarti, Ida Anggriani; An Analysis Of Factors That Influence Employee Performance In Department Of Revenue , Finance And Asset Management Of Bengkulu City. The purpose of the study to determine the most dominant factor affecting the performance of employees in Department of Revenue , Finance and Asset Management (DPPKA ) Bengkulu City . Data collection method used in the study was a questionnaire method , while the method of analysis using a Likert scale , and the rating scale . By the five factors that affect the performance of employees in Department of Revenue , Finance and Asset Management ( DPPKA ) Bengkulu city , four factors are personal factors, team factors, systems factors, and contextual factors got the perception of respondents agreed criteria, means that four factors affect the performance of employees . While one factor got the strongly agree perception is leadership factors, that greatly affect employee performance leader . The most dominant factor affecting the performance of employees inDepartment of Revenue , Finance and Asset Management (DPPKA) Bengkulu is leadership factors , because they have an important role in nurturing , supportive.

Advancing research and practice in HIV and rehabilitation: a framework of research priorities in HIV, disability and rehabilitation.

BackgroundHIV increasingly is experienced as a complex chronic illness where individuals are living longer with a range of physical, cognitive, mental and social health-related challenges associated with HIV, comorbidities and aging, a concept that may be termed ‘disability’. Rehabilitation such as physical therapy and occupational therapy can help address disability and has the potential to improve quality of life in people living with HIV. Hence, the role for rehabilitation in the context of HIV, aging and comorbidities is emerging. Our aim was to establish a framework of research priorities in HIV, disability and rehabilitation.MethodsWe convened people living with HIV, clinicians, researchers, service providers, representatives from community-based organizations and policy and funding stakeholders to participate in the first International Forum on HIV and Rehabilitation Research. We conducted a multi-stakeholder consultation to identify current and emerging issues in HIV, disability and rehabilitation. Data were collated and analyzed using content analytical techniques.ResultsNinety-two participants attended the Forum from Canada, United Kingdom (UK), Ireland and the United States. Situated within three overarching themes (episodic health and disability across the life course; rehabilitation; and methodological advances), the Framework of Research Priorities in HIV, Disability and Rehabilitation includes six research priorities: 1) episodic health and disability; 2) aging with HIV across the life course; 3) concurrent health conditions; 4) access to rehabilitation and models of rehabilitation service provision; 5) effectiveness of rehabilitation interventions; and 6) enhancing outcome measurement in HIV and rehabilitation research. The Framework includes methodological considerations and environmental and personal contextual factors (or lenses) through which to approach research in the field. Knowledge translation should be implemented throughout the development and application of research knowledge to inform HIV clinical practice, programming and policy.ConclusionsThese priorities highlight the emerging priorities of living long-term with HIV and outline a plan for HIV and rehabilitation research in resource-rich countries such as the UK and Canada.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-014-0724-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Visualizing the Intersection of the Personal and the Social Context - The Use of Multi-layered Chronological Charts in Biographical Studies

This paper outlines the theoretical reasoning and technical implementation of a particular approach to creating multi-layered chronological charts in qualitative biographical studies. The discussed method elucidates the interpretation of traditional life chronologies where the individual's "objective" life facts are reconstructed free from analysis. The novelty of multi-layered chronological charts lies in their ability to enrich the visualization of a temporal connection between personal and social contextual factors based on categories determined by the researcher. In doing so, such charts make existing interview data more accessible and processable. In-depth, thematic data analysis can be supported through the visualization of prominent life aspects or the presentation of integrative perspectives of individuals' lives. Case examples are presented to demonstrate how methodological and theoretical objectives are fulfilled through the customized use of genealogy software. Based on the underlying research problem, multi-layered biographical charts can be customized for different research purposes and connected to an array of complex linkage systems.