Background Characteristics Of Respondents Research Articles

Patterns of Socio-Political Participation in Nepal and Implications for Social Inclusion

This article sets out to examine patterns of participation in civil society organisations and political activities in Nepal based on a survey in four districts of Nepal, with respondents drawn from 2,890 households. After examining bivariate relationships between different forms of participation and a variety of background characteristics of respondents and households, we construct an index for socio-political participation at the household level with a distinction between non-participation, moderate participation and high participation. According to this classification 33 per cent of the households are non-participants, 52 per cent participate moderately, and 15 per cent show high participation by at least one of its members. The subsequent analysis challenges the notion that participation is determined by ethnic and caste background. Rather, it is district and cultural values that explain moderate participation whilst level of education explains high rates of participation. These variables cut across caste and ethnic groups, which are the factors commonly offered as explanations for differences in participation. The data show that empowerment has taken place and inclusion in civil society and political activities is widespread among all segments of the population. The present challenge for social exclusion is to translate the high activity levels in the population into effective policies and non-discriminatory institutional practices.

Ranked motives of long‐term care providing family caregivers

Family caregivers provide long-term care to their chronically ill loved ones and as a consequence they experience physical, relational and financial problems. This study investigates how long-term family caregivers rank 12 motives for caregiving. Motives are derived from the views of four philosophical anthropologists and are related to self-reported stress and joy and to several different background characteristics of respondents. Motives that focus on feelings concerning the relationship between caregiver and care recipient are more popular as a first choice than motives stemming from feelings of obligation or a general feeling of happiness and are also more popular than more self-directed motives. An analysis of full ranking data shows that two groups can be distinguished, one group of family caregivers with mixed motives and one group of family caregivers with motives that focus on reciprocal mutually equal relationships. The latter are mainly women taking care for a partner or a child, the former report high levels of stress. Implications for intervention programmes and health policy are being discussed.

Popular Attitudes toward Distributive Injustice: Beijing and Warsaw Compared

Popular reactions to the transition from centrally planned socialism to a market-based economy are explored through an examination of survey data on distributive justice and injustice attitudes in Beijing, China, in 2000, and in Warsaw, Poland, in 2001. In both capitals objective socioeconomic status characteristics of respondents have weaker and less consistent associations with distributive injustice attitudes than measures of subjective social status and self-reported trends in family standards of living. When objective and subjective respondent background characteristics are controlled for statistically, residents of democratic and enthusiastically capitalist Warsaw have stronger feelings of distributive injustice than respondents in undemocratic and only partially reformed Beijing. However, one exception to this pattern is that Beijing residents favor government redistribution to reduce income differences more than their Warsaw counterparts. Conjectures about the sources of these differences in distributive injustice attitudes are offered.

The use of library and information services by Ghanaian nuclear scientists

The use of library and information services by nuclear scientists in Ghana was explored with the aim of making suggestions that would help to improve nuclear information service delivery in the country. Among the variables analysed were the background characteristics of respondents, reasons for use and non-use of library services, awareness and frequency of use of existing library and information services. The methodology employed was the cross-sectional survey involving 100 nuclear scientists drawn from some research institutions, universities and government ministries in the country. The results indicate that majority of them are young, male, well-educated, affiliated to research institutions and currently engaged in the agricultural sector of the economy. The nuclear scientists use libraries mainly to fulfil their research, publication and teaching needs. Some of the nuclear scientists were found to use their organisational libraries, but the frequency of use of the libraries and other local information services were found to be low. The awareness of all library services by the scientists was not universal. The study suggests the need for a deliberate campaign by information workers in the nuclear sector to encourage the use of their resources and services.

The influence of abuse situation and respondent background characteristics on Korean nurses’ perceptions of child sexual abuse: A fractional factorial design

Objective This study was designed to identify characteristics of Korean nurses’ perceptions about child sexual abuse. More specifically, it was designed to examine to what extent various child sexual abuse incident characteristics and respondent background characteristics affect Korean nurses’ perceptions of the seriousness of child sexual abuse incidents. Methods A vignette design was used to assess 1029 Korean registered nurses’ perceptions of child sexual abuse. Seven abuse situation variables were organized into 64 vignettes in a one-fourth fractional factorial design. Respondents were given randomly selected and ordered samples of 16 of the vignettes and asked to indicate the degree of seriousness of the sexual abuse incidents portrayed in the vignettes. Information was also gathered about respondent demographics and personal history of child sexual abuse. Results Logistic regression analyses showed intrusiveness of the sexual act had the greatest impact on Korean nurses’ perceptions of the seriousness of child sexual abuse, followed by victim resistance, cross-gender combinations of victim and perpetrator, frequency of sexual acts, and age of perpetrator, all of which were abuse situational characteristics. With the exception of media exposure to sexual abuse, background characteristics and sexual abuse history had negligible effect on perceived seriousness. Conclusions Situational characteristics, not respondent characteristics, influence the perceived seriousness of child sexual abuse for Korean nurses. These findings are similar to those obtained previously with US samples.

What citizens think about the police: assessing actual and wished‐for frequency of police activities in one's neighbourhood

AbstractThe aim of the study was to find out what were citizens' assessments of actual and wished‐for frequencies of 12 police activities in two typical Finnish neighbourhoods. Data were collected from 3271 adults and 986 young people with a mail questionnaire. Actual and wished‐for frequencies were separately analysed using Homals. Both analyses produced a dimension indicating the assessed (actual or wished‐for) frequency of police work, disregarding the content of the 12 police activities. In addition, each analysis produced a dimension describing the tendency to give a ‘don't‐know’ answer. The latter two non‐substantive dimensions were interpreted as indicating that the general level of knowledge of police activities was not high among the citizens. When comparing the frequency assessments of ongoing police activities and the wishes concerning these activities, it was found that citizens wished the police to increase all cited activities, particularly foot patrolling, helping and supporting victims and giving crime prevention advice. Citizens appeared to be responsive to the activities related to community policing and preventive police work. All four dimensions were related with background characteristics of respondents (age, gender, city and living conditions), but these relations were not strong. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reasons Girls Choose Agriculture or Other Science and Technology Programs in Swaziland

A descriptive-correlational study explored reasons for girls to choose agriculture or other science and technology programs at high school and tertiary levels. Findings revealed respondents’ reasons were: economic, personal, educational, family, and social. Negligible to low associations were found between background characteristics of respondents and their reasons to enroll in scientific programs. However, three background characteristics showed influence in the domain reasons for choice: place of birth, location of high school attended, and, type of school attended. A t-test analysis procedure of high school and tertiary girls’ reasons showed no significant differences. Additional information provided revealed girls aspired for careers in health fields and, applied sciences, including agriculture. Among the recommendations made were that, career guidance teachers should play a major role in showing girls how to choose subjects combination in high school which suits their aptitudes and, family members should encourage girls to take up scientific programs.

Context Effects in Attitude Surveys

The authors present the results from parallel experiments in two surveys about privacy attitudes. Concerned that the order of the questions might affect the answers, they systematically varied the order of some of the key questions in the questionnaire. In both surveys, four of five question order experiments produced significant effects on responses to the items involved, but the question order variables did not affect responses to attitude items that came later in the questionnaire or relations between the attitude items whose order the authors varied and background characteristics of the respondents. They were also able to determine for most respondents whether their household had mailed back its census questionnaire. Question order did not have a consistent impact on the correlations between the survey responses and actual census returns. These results suggest that question order effects may be common with conceptually related items but that their impact is generally local, affecting answers to the items themselves but not answers to later questions, correlations with respondent background characteristics, or relations to subsequent behaviors.

Ecological and aesthetic values in urban forest management

In the planning processes of urban forests there are frequent conflicting opinions about the extent to which forests should be managed. On the one hand, management is needed to deal with the intensive use of forests, as well as unfavourable growing conditions, security factors and aesthetic variables. On the other hand, there is an increasing demand for unmanaged areas which is based primarily on ecological arguments. This paper presents research that was conducted in connection with the participatory planning process of Helsinki City forests. The main aim of this research was to study whether aesthetic and ecological values can be combined in the management of urban forests. Furthermore, the stability of forest landscape preferences during the participatory planning process was studied, along with the representativeness of planning groups compared to larger user groups. The data was collected in planning group meetings and public hearings in Helsinki during 1998–2000. Respondents evaluated a set of photographs designed to cover the main conflict situations in urban forest management: Thinnings, understorey management, the leaving of dead snags and decaying ground-wood. These results show that the majority of residents in Helsinki prefer managed forests. The preferences are, however, closely connected to the background characteristics of respondents. Younger residents with a higher education and active urban forest users prefer more ecologically-oriented management when compared to older residents with less education, or less active users. The individuals had a rather clear and relatively stable opinion of what constitutes suitable management in urban forests, but the views differed considerably as a whole. This means that a participatory planning process will typically lead to some type of compromise. Moreover, the planning groups in Helsinki reflected the opinions of the larger user groups rather well. This indicates that the currently used participatory planning approach sufficiently integrates public values into its planning process.

An Empirical Test of a Limited Model for Panel Refusals

In this article a limited model for panel refusals is presented and tested. The model contains only respondent characteristics: respondent's background characteristics, interest in the topic of the questionnaire and the respondent's difficulties to perform his or her role adequately. Data from an election panel survey are used to test the model. The results make clear that poorly educated women are more likely to refuse the second interview of an election panel survey. The results also support the basic idea of the model that refusals in a second wave of a panel are more likely to be found among those with low ability to perform the task of a respondent and among those who experienced difficulties in fulfilling their role during the first interview.

Beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about homelessness: a survey of the general public.

Obtained measures of policy-related beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge about homelessness through a telephone survey of a representative sample of 240 persons conducted over nearly a full year in a medium-size northeastern metropolitan area. The study's data were compared to a national poll and to a local study documenting the actual characteristics of homeless persons. The results suggest that citizens are both supportive of and well informed about homelessness. For instance, 58% were willing to pay more taxes to help homeless persons and the mean estimate for the extent of mental illness among the homeless was within the range of estimates found in the local interview study. Few respondent background characteristics predicted belief, attitude, and knowledge variables. The main exceptions were gender and age. Women and younger respondents thought homelessness a more serious problem, saw fewer personal deficits among homeless persons, and perceived employment as more critical in the cause and solution of the problem.

Risk Communication, Knowledge, and Attitudes: Explaining Reactions to a Technology Perceived as Risky

Several factors influence peoples’decisions about food irradiation, a technology perceived as risky. Responses to questions about three dimensions of acceptability of food irradiation provide the dependent variables. Risk message characteristics, respondent background characteristics, knowledge, and attitudes form the independent variables. Multiple regression is used to assess relative effects. Levels of acceptability of food irradiation varied somewhat as the focus of the question changed: negative reactions were more likely if the question mentioned serving it to family members than it it stressed self use. The only message manipulation that had a significant impact was information about irradiated food users (e.g., astronauts) and prestigious national and international organizations that endorse food irradiation.Support for a normative/value type of decision‐making is more substantial than for a rational/technical type of decision‐making. Although knowledge of food irradiation correlates with support for the technology, trust factors are much more powerful predictors. The implications for effective risk communications are discussed.

Lottery play and problem gambling

This study sought to determine if lottery play along with other possible causes engenders problem gambling. Problem gambling was defined as a progression and measured by three scales: Gambling behavior, loss of control over gambling and gambling consequences. Possible causes of problem gambling included lottery play, personality traits, exposure to gambling, leisure pursuits, marital status, residence, and other background characteristics of respondents. Respondents are a stratified random sample of adult residents of Iowa contacted by telephone in May-June, 1989. It was found that lottery play is a predictor of gambling behavior, as well as loss of control and gambling consequences when previous stages of problem gambling were deleted from the analysis as predictor variables. Other predictors of the latter stages of problem gambling include its earlier stages, as well as personality traits and various background characteristics of respondents. The relevance of the findings for theory and future research on gambling are discussed.

The onset of a fertility decline in Nepal?

The Nepal Fertility and Family Planning Survey (NFFS) 1986 is the most recent nationally representative demographic sample survey of Nepal. It collected information on all births and pregnancies; demographic and socio-economic background characteristics of respondents and their spouses; knowledge, availability, accessibility and use of contraceptives; and fertility motivation and breast-feeding. The NFFS was conducted for assessing the current status of the family planning programme and to monitor changes since the 1976 Nepal Fertility Survey (NFS) and the 1981 Nepal Contraceptive Prevalence Survey (NCPS).

Measuring and Explaining Legislator Crime Control Ideology

Despite the key role of state legislators in the formation of criminal justice policy, little is known about the beliefs and ideologies of legislators on issues of crime causation and control. This research, following the work of Bynum, Greene, and Cullen (1986) in Illinois, is based on a survey of New York State legislators. Using factor analytic techniques, scales representing basic dimensions of legislator crime and justice ideology were developed and then related to a number of demographic, political, and related background characteristics of respondents. The findings indicated that legislator attitudes toward crime and criminal justice issues are complex and diverse. Further, several variables, particularly political party and race, were strong predictors of these crime and justice ideology scales.

Estimating illicit drug use through telephone interviews and the randomized response technique

To determine whether or not telephone interviewing could be a viable alternative to field interviewing as a method for eliciting drug use information, a variation of Warner's randomized response technique (RRT) was developed. Comparisons were made between the telephone responses obtained through use of the RRT and those obtained through direct questioning. Although none of the comparisons showed a statistically significant difference, three out of four favored the RRT. Background characteristics of respondents were examined to identify those individuals who might be most receptive to the RRT. Major implications of the findings are discussed.

Mental health implications of sexual orientation

Abstract The findings of a study designed to examine relationships among four measures of clinical psychopathology (depression, self‐esteem, marital discord, sexual discord), a measure of sexual attitudes, and measures of both sexual activities and sexual preferences are reported. These relationships are examined in relation to a four‐group typology of sexual orientation based on self‐report preference measures. Individuals are categorized as either predominantly heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual in their preferred sexual orientation. The sample (N = 689) consists largely of younger, well‐educated individuals who are predominantly single and come from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Analysis of variance and both simple and multiple regression analyses were used to control for the effects of background characteristics of respondents. Significant mean differences among sexual orientation groups were obtained, but the prediction or explanation of clinical psychopathology based on these differences proved to be very limited. After controlling for background characteristics of the subjects, sexual orientation differences maintained significance only for depression, uniquely accounting for less than 2% of its total variance. Implications of the findings for practice by the mental health practitioner are discussed.

A Note on Accounting for Sources of Variation in Perceptual Maps

Recently interest has centered on extending decompositional methods for modeling consumer preferences to include group-level effects. The motivation for this effort is the general belief that respondent background characteristics and situation variables frequently interact with product attributes in jointly influencing preferences over a set of multiattribute alternatives. In much the same way, respondent and situation factors can interact with product attribute perceptions in perceptual mapping applications to influence the respondent's ratings of the brands. The authors describe how respondent background characteristics and situation variables can be accounted for as sources of variation which can potentially influence the reduced space configuration of brands. Essentially the approach can be viewed as chaining multivariate analysis of variance and standard perceptual mapping techniques. Two illustrative examples are provided. In one example the results show that the uncovered spatial configuration of brands was influenced not only by the perceptual differences between the brands, but also by a respondent-related factor.

Confidence in selected institutions in 1975: An attempt at replication across two national surveys

A comparison of responses to four attitudinal items included in two national surveys reveals significant differences between surveys in the marginal distributions of all four items. These discrepancies are attributed to differences in survey ‘context’ (i.e., the nature of the questions which preceded the items of interest in the interview schedules). Despite the differences in marginal distributions, however, the four items showed identical relationships in both surveys to five background characteristics of respondents in 18 of 20 tests. Although the generalizability of these findings to other attitudinal items is an open question, they do suggest the inadvisability of combining data collected in surveys using markedly different interview schedules into a time series of subjective social indicators. Contextual effects are apparently less critical in cross-sectional analyses of survey data.

Political Orientation and Music Preferences Among College Students

The socio-political implications of contemporary music are investigated using survey data pertaining to the political orientations, music involvement, and musical preferences of college students. The analysis indicates that political orientation is associated with amount of music involvement and with preferences for particular musical styles. Zero-order relationships are not substantially altered by controls for demographic background characteristics of respondents. William S. Fox is Assistant Professor of Sociology at The University of Iowa and James D. Williams is a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at Ball State University.