Quasi-experimental Field Study Research Articles

The Impact of Proximity and Hierarchy on Network Dynamics: A Quasi-Experimental Field Study

The Impact of Proximity and Hierarchy on Network Dynamics: A Quasi-Experimental Field Study

The Impact of Proximity and Hierarchy on Network Dynamics: A Quasi-Experimental Field Study

The Impact of Proximity and Hierarchy on Network Dynamics: A Quasi-Experimental Field Study

Building resilience to misinformation in communities of color: Results from two studies of tailored digital media literacy interventions

Interventions to build resilience to misinformation should consider the needs of communities of color, who experience (mis)information in unique ways. We evaluated digital media literacy interventions to improve misinformation resilience among four communities of color in the United States (Black, Latino, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Native American), which were designed by the nonprofit PEN America and community partner organizations. We assessed intervention efficacy in two studies: (1) a quasi-experimental field study among diverse participants recruited via community outreach and (2) a randomized controlled trial among Latinos recruited via a survey company (total N = 370). Results indicated that participants in both studies improved their comprehension of digital media literacy skills after taking the intervention. However, only those recruited via community outreach improved their ability to accurately identify true and false online news in a behavioral detection task. Our findings highlight the need to consider heterogeneous treatment effects in misinformation interventions, particularly across different communities and intervention contexts.

Learning in hybrid classes: the role of off-task activities

Hybrid teaching (synchronous online and on-site teaching) offers many advantages (e.g., increased flexibility). However, previous research has suggested that students who join classes online suffer higher levels of distractibility, which might translate into students engaging in more off-task activities. This, in turn, can impair students’ learning performance. The following quasi-experimental field study investigated this specific link between teaching mode, engagement in off-task activities, and learning performance. We collected survey data from N = 690 students in six hybrid classes (N = 254 online, N = 436 on-site). Participants reported the amount of time they spent engaging in digital and non-digital off-task activities and responded to a quiz on the course material. Results revealed that online students spent more time engaging in off-task activities than on-site students. Further, results were consistent with our hypothesis that joining the class online is associated with lower learning performance via time spent on digital off-task activities.

The power of respect for authority and empathy – Leveraging non-cognitive theoretical constructs to trigger environmentally sustainable tourist behaviour

Behavioural change research for environmental sustainability is currently guided almost exclusively by a cognitive paradigm, which assumes that cognitive constructs drive behaviour and must be influenced to change it. This study challenges this dominant paradigm and tests two non-cognitive theoretical constructs – respect for authority and empathy – in the context of reducing buffet plate waste. Respect for authority (in contrast to empathy) passes the manipulation check and significantly reduces plate waste in a quasi-experimental field study in a Chinese hotel, providing proof of concept for a new, urgently needed, re-orientation in behavioural change intervention design. The intervention tested in this study can immediately be deployed by tourism and hospitality businesses who want to make their buffets more cost-effective and environmentally sustainable.

Enhancing moral sensitivity in the aftermath of academic misconduct: Results from a quasi-experimental field study

ABSTRACT Most secondary and postsecondary institutions take a behavioral approach in dealing with student cheating—punishing those caught with grade reductions and/or suspensions. While some form of punishment may be necessary, it is not sufficient. As an instantiation of negative morality, academic misconduct offers an opportunity for moral education. The present investigation builds on the literature related to developmental approaches in responding to academic misconduct. It does so by describing theoretical underpinnings and instructional design of a developmental approach (Intervention), as well as results from a quasi-experimental study of its effects on moral sensitivity. Participants (N = 798) included university students who had been found responsible for academic misconduct and completed the Intervention. As hypothesized, participants not only reported greater attentiveness to moral issues after completing the Intervention, they also demonstrated greater awareness of the moral values related to academic misconduct. The implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.

Effects of a digital support tool on student teachers’ knowledge about, assessment of, and feedback on self-regulated learning

In this quasi-experimental field study, we investigated the effects of a digital support tool on knowledge about, assessment of, and feedback on self-regulated learning (SRL). Student teachers (N = 119) took the roles of learners and teachers. As learners, they wrote learning journals and received feedback on the strategies they had used. As teachers, they assessed a peer’s learning strategies elicited in the learning journals and provided feedback. A digital tool supported the participants in their role as teachers by providing additional assessment support (yes/no) and feedback support (yes/no). Assessment support was realized with rubrics, feedback support was realized with sentence starters. Our results indicated that declarative and self-reported knowledge about SRL increased in all groups. Assessment support did not foster assessment skills, but feedback support fostered the quality of the peer feedback and feedback quality in a standardized posttest. High feedback quality, in turn, predicted learners’ application of organizational (but not metacognitive) strategies. We conclude that the combination of writing learning journals and providing peer feedback on SRL is a promising approach to promote future teachers’ SRL skills. Digital tools can support writing the feedback, for example, by providing sentence starters as procedural facilitators. Such support can help teachers supply high-quality feedback on SRL, which can then help learners improve their SRL.

Plagiarism awareness efforts, students’ ethical judgment and behaviors: a longitudinal experiment study on ethical nuances of plagiarism in higher education

ABSTRACT Widespread academic dishonesty among higher education (HE) students has been a concern for higher education institutes (HEIs). Ethics literature reports that unintentional plagiarism is more prevalent among HE students and the root cause is, limited or no awareness of nuances of ethics concerning plagiarism resulting in poor ethical judgments. This study attempts to examine what is students’ ethical reasoning for unintentional plagiarism and how HEIs’ ethical awareness efforts impact students’ ethical judgments which ultimately shape their ethical behavior. The study also explored whether and how individual-level factors such as intrinsic religiosity, age, gender, and work experience moderate the focal relationships. A longitudinal quasi-experimental field study was conducted. The subjects of the study were 294 postgraduate students of an internationally accredited higher education institution in India. The pretest–posttest design involved a set of experimental manipulations reflecting the HEI's endeavors to explicate the unethical implications of plagiarism.

Spillover of Social Norms at Work On Employees’ Self-Reported Private Sphere Pro-Environmental Behaviour: A Mixed Method Investigation

AbstractThis article draws on the Focus Theory of Normative Conduct to examine whether injunctive social norms relating to perceived environmental management practices shape employees’ self-reported pro-environmental behaviour in their private sphere. To test our hypotheses, we employed a mixed methods research approach that involved a cross-sectional analysis and a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental field study in the German tourist industry. Our results verify the context-bridging influence of perceived environmental management practices on employees’ self-reported private sphere pro-environmental behaviour. Further, they reveal that this relationship is partially mediated by descriptive social norms among co-workers. Thereby, our findings shed light on a thus far neglected dynamic between injunctive and descriptive social norms that constitutes a pathway for contextual spillover. Our study thus challenges the prominent proposition that the influence of injunctive social norms remains restricted to contexts in which the norm is currently salient. The results further develop existing theory by demonstrating how a dynamic interaction between injunctive and descriptive norms can support the emergence and dissemination of social norms across contexts and they reveal how businesses can shape this process.

Design Thinking’s Impact on Team Emergent States and Performance: A Quasi-experimental Field Study

Design Thinking’s Impact on Team Emergent States and Performance: A Quasi-experimental Field Study

No benefit of antidepressants in inpatient treatment of depression. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental field study

RationaleAntidepressants (AD) are mostly considered indispensable for the treatment of major depression. The vast majority of depressive inpatients are treated with AD. However, there is a growing body of studies indicating that the effectiveness of AD is greatly overestimated due to methodological issues with the AD efficacy studies (e.g., publication bias, unintentional unblinding, confusion between withdrawal symptoms and relapse).ObjectivesThe benefit of the additional use of AD in the inpatient treatment of depression with intensive cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been investigated in a naturalistic design.MethodsDepressiveness was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) during a preliminary interview (T0), at admission (T1), at discharge (T2), and at a 6-month follow-up (T3). Two study phases were compared: During Phase A, AD were recommended in accordance with the German guideline. In Phase B, AD were no longer recommended, and they were only prescribed upon explicit request from patients. In phase A (N = 574), 60.3% of all patients were taking AD at discharge. In Phase B (N = 424), 27.9% of patients were on AD at discharge. Apart from the difference in AD usage, the two treatment conditions were similar, and the samples did not significantly differ in terms of age, sex, diagnoses, history of suicide attempts, comorbid anxiety disorders, and unemployment.ResultsIn both study phases, BDI-II scores were strongly decreased at T2 and T3, respectively, compared with T1. The BDI-II scores of the two phases did not differ at any of the measurement time points. Depression changes were similar in both phases. In sequential multiple regression analyses with the total sample, AD were no significant predictors for the reduction of depression at either T2 or T3.ConclusionsThe inpatient CBT was effective in depression. The effectiveness of CBT is not improved by the additional use of AD. The current prescribing practices of AD should be questioned.

An issue public’s confirmation-biased news feeding in changing political constellations: A quasi-experimental field study in the German conflict over genome editing

Contributing to the study of curated news flows, we investigated how conflicting participants in an issue public fed mainstream news into their Twitter networks. In a quasi-experimental field study in the context of the 2018 European Court of Justice’s ruling on genome editing, we combined standardized manual content analyses of a universe of legacy media news items ( N = 165), users’ tweets (“feeds”) linking these news items ( N = 2014), and users’ profiles ( N = 1070). Confirming existing knowledge, opponents and proponents of genetically modified organisms largely fed news items confirming their issue attitudes. Extending existing knowledge, we show that counter-attitudinal news feeding became more likely when users had a political disadvantage rather than a political advantage in the controversy. However, this was only true for the more active but not for the more inactive news feeders.

Partner support and relationship quality as potential resources for childbirth and the transition to parenthood

BackgroundThe aim of the present paper was to explore the role of partners for the stressful life events of birth and the transition to parenthood.MethodsIn a first prospective longitudinal study (N = 304 dyads) we tested whether relationship quality positively predicted fewer interventions during labor and birth, a more positive birth experience, and better well-being during the first six weeks after birth. In a second study we surveyed mothers (N = 980; retrospective quasi-experimental design) who had given birth during the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020 – some in the absence of their partners – to test the assumption that regardless of relationship quality, the presence of the partner was positively related to low-intervention births and the birth experience.ResultsThe results of the longitudinal study (Study 1) could be integrated into a Single Indicator model. They revealed that a high relationship quality assessed between week 5 and week 25 of pregnancy had a positive effect on birth experience for the mother and on psychological well-being during the transition to parenthood for both mothers and fathers. Results of the retrospective quasi-experimental field study (Study 2) revealed that the continuous presence of the partner was associated with a higher probability of a low-intervention birth and a more positive birth experience. Presence of a partner for only part of the birth did not positively predict labor and birth, but did positively predict the birth experience. The effects were independent of relationship quality.ConclusionThe results of both studies highlight the importance of partners for psychological well-being during labor and birth and the transition to parenthood.

Effects of the Noise Reduction and Communication Management Headset System SLOS on Noise and Stress of Medical Laboratory Workers.

To investigate the effects of the Silent Laboratory Optimization System (SLOS), a technical-noise reduction and communication-management system, on noise load and stress among medical-laboratory workers. We conducted a quasiexperimental field study (20days with SLOS as the experimental condition, and 20days without SLOS as the control condition) in a within-subjects design. Survey data from 13 workers were collected before and after the shift. Also, a survey was conducted after the control and experimental conditions, respectively. Noise was measured in dBA and as a subjective assessment. Stress was operationalized via a stress composite score (STAI and Perkhofer Stress Scale), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), an exhaustion score (Leipziger StimmungsBogen in German [LSB]), and salivary cortisol values in µg/L. SLOS users perceived significantly less noise (V=76.5; P =.003). Multilevel models revealed a stress reduction with the SLOS on the composite score, compared with a stress increase in the control condition (F[1, 506.99]=6.00; P=.01). Alower PSS score (F[1,13]=4.67; P=.05) and a lower exhaustion level (F[1, 508.72]=9.057; P=.003) in the experimental condition were found, whereas no differences in cortisol (F[1,812.58.6]=0.093; P=.76) were revealed. The workers showed reduced noise perception and stress across all criteria except cortisol when using SLOS.

Establishment of cross-cradle hold technique combined with intensive breastfeeding counselling positively impacts the weight gain rate in early infancy.

A quasiexperimental field study was undertaken in 576 exclusively breastfed (EBF) infants from 0 to 14 weeks in Gujarat, India to assess the effect of the use of appropriate breastfeeding techniques on daily weight gain rate and on reducing the underweight rate in early infancy. The interventions were delivered through the existing health system and focused primarily on counselling pregnant women during antenatal and post-natal sessions for ensuring 'effective breastfeeding' by adoption of the technique of 'cross cradle hold', appropriate breast attachment, emptying of one breast before shifting to the other along with conducting regular monitoring of infant's weight. The intervention care group (ICG) of 300 EBF infants were compared with 276 EBF infants in the control standard care group (SCG). The findings revealed that median weight gain per day between 0 and 14 weeks was significantly higher (p = 0.000) in ICG (32.7 g) as compared with SCG (28.05 g). The median weight-for-age Z at 14 weeks of age was also significantly higher in ICG compared with SCG (p = 0.000). Underweight prevalence was three times lower in ICG (5.3%) compared with SCG (16.7%) at 14 weeks of age. Infants in the ICG were noted to be 2.65-fold more likely to achieve a weight gain of 30 g or more per day compared with infants in SCG. Nutrition interventions, therefore, must aim not only on mere promotion of EBF for up to 6 months but stress on ensuring EBF is 'effective' for optimum transfer of breastmilk through adoption of appropriate techniques, including cross-cradle hold, by mothers.

Short hydration education video and hiker fluid selection and consumption at trails, a non-randomized quasi-experimental field study.

Background: Education may improve hiker safety on trails. Aim: To investigate the impact of an educational video on hiker fluid selection and fluid consumption in a hot environment. Methods: Quasi-experimental field study at hiking trails in which the intervention group (INT) viewed a three-minute hydration education video, whereas the control group (CON) did not. Before the hike, all hikers were asked if they wanted to select extra fluid, which was provided by the research team. Results: A total of n = 97 hikers participated in the study, with n = 56 in INT (32 male) and n = 41 in CON (25 male). Despite absolute differences in environmental conditions, the differences fell within the same WBGT category. The total amount of fluid brought to the trails by participants was different between INT: 904 (503-1758) mL and CON: 1509 (880-2176) mL (P = 0.006), but participants in the INT group selected extra fluid (41%; n = 23) significantly more often when compared with participants in the CON group (7%; n = 3; P < 0.001). As a result, there was no difference in the amount of fluid brought on the trail between INT: 1047 (611-1936) mL and CON: 1509 (932-2176) mL (P = 0.069), nor for fluid consumption between INT: 433 (289-615) mL/h and CON: 489 (374-719) mL/h (P = 0.18). Conclusions and Implications: A 3-min educational video may encourage hikers to select additional fluid before the start of their hike but does not appear to increase fluid intake.

Do environmental education fieldtrips strengthen children's connection to nature and promote environmental behaviour or wellbeing?

Nature-based environmental education could be an effective way to promote children's connection to nature, every-day pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) and psychological wellbeing. We conducted a longitudinal, quasi-experimental field study with children aged 7 - 13 years from schools who attended environmental education fieldtrips in Wellington, New Zealand (N = 257). Data was collected via a self-administered questionnaire and a gifting (Token) experiment immediately before and four weeks after children attended an environmental education fieldtrip. Results indicate that environmental education was associated with a small increase in children's PEB and an increase in support for conservation relative to a control group. However, the intervention had little effect on children's connection to nature, vitality or life satisfaction. The effect of the intervention on connection to nature was moderated by children's pre-existing levels of connection to nature. Fieldtrips only increased connection to nature for those children who had higher levels of connection to nature before the intervention.Reconnecting people to nature is considered a deep leverage point to promote individual PEB and co-benefits such as individual wellbeing. Our results provide modest and nuanced support for its influence on PEB but not wellbeing.

A behaviorally informed financial education program for the financially vulnerable: Design and effectiveness.

Financially vulnerable consumers are often associated with suboptimal financial behaviors. Evaluated financial education programs so far show difficulties to effectively reach this target population. In our attempt to solve this problem, we built a behaviorally informed financial education program incorporating insights from both motivational and behavioral change theories. In a quasi-experimental field study among Dutch financially vulnerable people, we compared this program with both a control group and a traditional program group. In comparison with the control group, we found robust positive effects of the behaviorally informed program on financial skills and knowledge and self-reported financial behavior, but not on other outcomes. Additionally, we did not find evidence that the behaviorally informed program performed better than the traditional program. Finally, we discuss the findings and limitations of this study in light of the financial education literature and provide implications for policymaking and directions for future research.

Influence of course content on preschool teacher candidates’ classroom management strategies, professional beliefs and emotion regulation skills

It is strongly needed to enhance teacher training programs via extensive course content more specifically to improve classroom management skills of teacher candidates. In the current study, we aimed to evaluate effectiveness of an elective course grounded on various strategies and vital aspects of preventive interventions about classroom management competencies, professional beliefs, and emotion regulation skills of preschool teacher candidates. The research is a quasi-experimental field study with pretest–posttest, intervention-comparison groups design including combination of qualitative and quantitative datasets. The participant group consisted of 76 females and 4 males registered in a 4-year university degree preschool teacher training program. The intervention group received training including key aspects of social and emotional intervention programs widely used in preschool settings while the comparison group received training covering inclusive education principles and relevant practices. Findings showed a significant increase in proactive approaches and positive behavioral support rates in the intervention group, while the frequency of reactive approaches was lower than the comparison group. Contrary to expectations, we could not find any influence of the content on emotion regulation skills and teaching beliefs of the intervention group. Results show clear influence of elective course content on improved skills of preschool teacher candidates about classroom management approaches.

Improving Early Optics Instruction Using a Phenomenological Approach: A Field Study

Previous research has shown that phenomenological approaches in early optics education might be superior to traditional model-based instruction based on the light ray realm with regards to fostering students’ conceptual understanding of basic optics topics. However, it remains open to date which learning difficulties students encounter when being introduced to optics following a phenomenological approach—in particular, in comparison to the learning difficulties that are widespread among students introduced to optics via traditional model-based instruction. With this article, we contribute to closing this gap: We report the results of a quasi-experimental field study with N=189 secondary school students. We used ten items adapted from the literature in a pre-posttest design for an in-depth exploration of the conceptions of introductory optics topics acquired by N=89 students introduced to optics following a phenomenological teaching-learning sequence and compare these students’ conceptions to the ones acquired by N=100 peers who participated in traditional model-based instruction covering the same content topics. The results of this study substantiate earlier findings according to which phenomenological teaching might be a fruitful endeavour for early optics education, in particular, when it comes to teaching and learning about image formation by converging lenses.