Sociocultural Variables Research Articles

The “Bossman” Factor Influence on Family Communication: The Perception of Married Women

The “bossman” factor, the “headship role of men” in Africa, is entrenched in the social fabric of Africa. Nonetheless, there is little attention to how this headship role of men in the family influences family communication. The present study explored the influence of the headship role of men in family communication. The researchers selected 10 participants from the Cape Coast Metropolis and elicited data through interviews. Using family communication theory as a guide, the researchers analyzed the transcribed data and came out with the following findings. Firstly, the headship role of men serves as a barrier to family communication because men serve as the final authority in decision-making, conflict resolution, and children’s openness. Secondly, the researchers discovered that married women adopt coping strategies such as effective listening, sex appeals, and third-party counselling. Finally, the study revealed that sociocultural variables such as ethnicity, religion, and gender greatly influence the perpetuation of men’s headship role, thus the’ bossman role’ in family communication. The researchers recommend that counsellors should consider guiding husbands to be considerate in dealing with family communication issues because men overstretching their headship role affect effective family communication.

Formative evaluation of school children in times of pandemics

The state of emergency around the world has caused different consequences (economic, political, and socio-cultural variations) unusual, as in the educational environment where teachers must cope with the situation with the technological tools available to develop a formative assessment in a context of confinement, which limits their teaching work. This article focuses on the strategies used by teachers in the development of formative evaluation, the construction of evaluation criteria, and feedback used during virtual work. The qualitative method is applied with a phenomenological approach (ethnographic) in which 4 teachers participate in an interview in order to obtain results that can demonstrate the different evaluation methods based on educational issues. In synthesis, the study is complemented in three stages: (a) Descriptive, (b) Structural, and (c) Discussion. Finally, the formative evaluation in a sustained and personalized way, using different means of communication, makes a follow-up according to what each student needs and allows to know what each student has managed to develop during the confinement period, which will allow to propose teaching strategies and to better adapt the teachers' practice when returning to the face-to-face modality.

Factors Determining the Involvement of Women in Income Generating Activities: A Case Study in Pokhara Metropolitan City, Nepal

Women’s participation in income-generating activities (IGAs) appears to be limited in communities of Nepal owing to a variety of socio-cultural and socio-economic variables. Despite the deliberative efforts by governmental and different developmental agencies for the empowerment of women to be participated actively in income generating activities (IGAs), it is unclear yet what factors stimulate Nepalese women’s engagement in various earning activities. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this study was to investigate the variables that stimulate the participation of Nepalese women in IGAs in the Pokhara Metropolis. For this purpose, a systematic survey form was used to gather data. A total of 130 individuals were interrogated, comprising 65 women engaged in IGAs (selected purposively) and 65 women, who are not involved in IGAs (selected conveniently and purposively) for making the study more comprehensive. A Binary logistic regression model was applied for finding the factors determining the involvement of women in IGAs. The result of the analysis revealed that literacy status, occupational status and monthly income of family affect the women’s involvement in IGAs significantly while age, marital status, caste, family type, number of a family member and age at first marriage do not have any effect on it. The study suggests that it is imperative to make women aware about the importance of involvement in IGAs as this will help them to be self-dependent. The Government of Nepal should focus on women’s education to ensure the necessary knowledge and entrepreneurial skills needed for their effective participation in income-generating activities.

Created Environment: Evolution of a Neuman Systems Model Concept.

In this essay, we trace the evolution of the definition of the Neuman systems model concept of created environment from its inception in 1989. The created environment is one of three categories of environment in the Neuman systems model; the other two are the internal environment and the external environment. The most recent definition of created environment is offered in this essay as the following: The created environment is a synthesis of the internal and external environments that encompasses the client system's ever-changing awareness of the physiological, psychological, sociocultural, developmental, and spiritual variables, and the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and extrapersonal stressors as beneficial or noxious. As a protective shield, the created environment represents the client system's perceptions and understanding of what is real and what is safe, as discussed with the nurse.

A corpus-based pragmatic analysis of Jordanians Facebook status updates during COVID-19

This study investigates the communicative functions of status updates on Facebook during COVID-19. For this purpose, a corpus of 500 status updates was collected from 100 Facebook users for 90 consecutive days. Subsequently, the data were characterized into five speech acts drawing heavily on Searle's speech act framework, prominent among which are expressives and assertives. Data analysis revealed that status updates could be considered a substantial medium for understanding intended human communication. Various types of speech acts were used with different frequencies and percentages, although people were inclined mostly to use expressive speech acts. The sociocultural variations in conjunction with forming and constructing identities were reflected in the status updates manifested in the current situation of the pandemic, which makes Jordanians appear more humorous than before. This research is significant because studying aspects of a language helps in understanding the hidden motivations, beliefs, ideas, attitudes and identities along with the social, cultural, and political factors, which in turn provides logical solutions for certain problems.

Local tourists' perceptions of tourist destinations' competitiveness: a comparative study of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Oman

PurposeDestination competitiveness is a significant contributor to tourism growth, performance and development. The current research intends to test the effect of the dimensions of the Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Index (TTCI) on destination competitiveness in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Oman and how competitiveness influences tourism performance and development.Design/methodology/approachThe perspectives of 460 responses were collected from the UAE, 457 from Egypt and 301 responses from Oman. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was utilised to measure the research model relationships.FindingsThe results showed that the competitiveness index components are significantly contributing to destination competitiveness and that this competitiveness is predicting both tourism performance and development.Originality/valueThis study developed and empirically tested the effect of an integrative model of the competitiveness index on destination competitiveness from the perspective of local visitors in three Muslim and Arab nations. This study gives scholars valuable perceptions into how socio-cultural variations between residents and locals in various nations might result in significantly diverse behaviours.

Violence Against Physicians in the Workplace: Trends, Causes, Consequences, and Strategies for Intervention.

Violence against healthcare professionals has become an emergency in many countries. Literature in this area has mainly focused on nurses while there are less studies on physicians, whose alterations in mental health and burnout have been linked to higher rates of medical errors and poorer quality of care. We summarized peer-reviewed literature and examined the epidemiology, main causes, consequences, and areas of intervention associated with workplace violence perpetrated against physicians. We performed a review utilizing several databases, by including the most relevant studies in full journal articles investigating the problem. Workplace violence against doctors is a widespread phenomenon, present all over the world and related to a number of variables, including individual, socio-cultural, and contextual variables. During the COVID-19 pandemic, incidence of violence has increased. Data also show the possible consequences in physicians' deterioration of quality of life, burnout, and traumatic stress which are linked to physical and mental health problems, which, in a domino effect, fall on patients' quality of care. Violence against doctors is an urgent global problem with consequences on an individual and societal level. This review highlights the need to undertake initiatives aimed at enhancing understanding, prevention, and management of workplace violence in healthcare settings.

Point pattern and spatial analyses using archaeological and environmental data – A case study from the Neolithic Carpathian Basin

Computational methods recently gained momentum in archaeological science, particularly affecting large site distribution samples and environmental explanatory parameters. However, quantitative and environmental archaeology are still considered to be limited to a small number of experts and thus less ready to use in general research. Here, we present a case study that integrates computational methods and environmental data into archaeological spatial analyses using Point Pattern Analysis (PPA). We introduce a basic approach to model, visualise, and interpret archaeological site distributions as functions of explanatory covariates in a regional setting of the Neolithic period in the Carpathian Basin. The integration of environmental and socio-cultural variables in a multicomponent analysis allows to distinguish site location parameters and preferences across different chronological periods. Using the code to this article and open-access spatial data, the workflow can be adapted to different regional contexts and chronological periods, making it particularly suitable for spatial pattern comparison.

Parent Emotion Talk with Preschoolers from Low-Income Mexican American and Chinese American Families: Links to Sociocultural Factors.

Emotion talk (ET), an emotion socialization practice theorized to promote children's emotion understanding and emotion regulation, has been linked to better socioemotional adjustment in diverse samples. Immigrant children face developmentally unique challenges and opportunities related to their multi-lingual and multi-cultural experiences. The present study aimed to identify sociocultural correlates of parent ET in two groups of low-income immigrant families with preschool-age children: Mexican American (MA) and Chinese American (CA) families. In 90 parent-child dyads (child age = 38 to 70 months, 59% girls; 46 Mexican American and 44 Chinese American) recruited from Head Start programs, parents' (mostly mothers') ET quality and quantity (i.e., use of emotion words, emotion questions and explanations, and overall elaborateness of ET) were coded from verbal transcripts of a shared picture book reading task. First, we found similarities and differences in ET across the two groups. Both MA and CA parents used emotion words, emotion questions, and emotion reasoning, whereas linking the story to personal emotion experience was infrequent. MA parents used more negative emotion words, emotion reasoning, and engaged in more elaborate ET than CA parents. Second, we examined the unique relations of multiple socio-cultural factors (SES, cultural orientations, parent and child demographics) to parent ET. Parent education and child age were associated positively with emotion questions, income was associated positively with emotion reasoning, and parents' heritage culture orientation was associated positively with the elaborateness of ET. The findings highlight the need to consider socio-cultural variations in emotion socialization practices when adapting and disseminating socioemotional learning interventions.

Sociocultural drivers of mycological knowledge: insights from Wixarika and Mestizo groups in western Mexico

BackgroundTraditional mycological knowledge (TMK) is complex, not distributed equally among the entire population, and constantly adapting to current social situations. There are sociocultural factors that could influence the fact that some people retain a greater wealth of knowledge, for instance, cultural affiliation, migration, occupation, level of schooling, and person's age. MethodsWe analyze the distribution of the TMK based on sociocultural variables and 12 indicators to quantify the TMK based on a literature review. We chose two sites where there was a Wixarika and Mestizo population with records of use and consumption of wild mushrooms. In each site, 150 semi-structured interviews were conducted. The format of the semi-structured interviews was made up of sociocultural questions plus 12 questions corresponding to each of the indicators. With the data obtained, we performed linear regression tests and principal components analysis (PCA); furthermore, the significance of the groupings obtained by PCA was tested with a discriminant function analysis.ResultsWe find that TMK was determined by the cultural group to which a person belongs. Contrary to what was expected, age and formal schooling did not influence people's level of knowledge. Likewise, migration and occupation were not determining factors either, although in some specific cases they did influence the differences in knowledge about mushrooms between people. The indicators that most helped to differentiate between the Wixarika people, and the Mestizos were knowledge of the nutritional contribution, propagation methods, and knowledge about toxic mushrooms.ConclusionsIn general, sociocultural differences did not affect the transmission of the TMK due to the valorization of this knowledge among the young generations and the maintenance of the use of wild resources. Specifically, the Wixaritari had and preserved a greater TMK thanks to their pride in their cultural identity, which had allowed them to adapt to modernity while preserving their traditions and knowledge. On the other hand, the Mestizos increasingly disused wild resources due to urbanization. The indicators proposed here provided a good tool to quantify TMK; however, to replicate the study in other sites it is necessary to adapt the indicators to the context of the place.

Proctoclysis for rehydration in children – A scoping review and a pilot survey among medical doctors

Although proctoclysis (enema) is a historically proven, safe and cost-effective rehydration method that needs little training for users and can effectively replace intravenous hydration in different care settings, it is an uncommon choice for hydration in children with fever and is often missing in official guidelines. To evaluate the usefulness of proctoclysis, this study provides a scoping review of the existing literature. The matched literature was labelled in 5 categories, identifying 6 indication fields that are emphasized in the literature on rectal rehydration. The analysis showed that proctoclysis is mostly used in the context of diagnostic procedures, constipation or in the treatment of a gastrointestinal disease. It is also described as a quick, safe and cost-effective intervention for fluid replacement in emergency, critical care or resource-scarce settings. There are also socio-cultural variations in its use Additionally, we performed a survey on attitudes and experience of medical doctors towards proctoclysis based on a semi-structured questionnaire. In the survey, we analysed the experience of 35 medical doctors from 8 countries. Although we found a general acceptance of enema as beneficial in both hospitalized patients and in home care, doctors expressed the need for more experience with enema and the need for more education materials in order to effectively perform the procedure. Based on our findings, we suggest that further research is necessary examining the attitude towards proctoclysis among parents, nurses and doctors. Enema can have a considerable clinical advantage during home care for gastroenteritis or other infectious diseases with fever to prevent insufficient oral fluid intake resulting in a negative fluid balance. Risks and safety issues are rare and should be considered. However, due to its low level of social acceptability in order to reduce refusal rate, more education is necessary for both medical providers and parents.

Multiplying Faces and Amplifying Voices: Do Women’s Lives Matter in Local Governance Politics in Gwanda, Zimbabwe?

Women’s invisibility in political spaces is a glaring reality, particularly in patriarchal polities characterized by misogynistic attitudes towards feminine leadership. This article unpacks the socio-cultural variables that hinder women’s participation in politics and other masculinized spheres of influence. The article focuses on the advocacy efforts of Women’s Institute for Leadership Development in Gwanda, Zimbabwe. The article also details the successes and challenges scored by the lobbying effort. The article uses a qualitative research approach. It discusses the extent and effectiveness of women’s involvement in local governance and how their participation relates to Sustainable Development Goal 5. It was established that the project has greatly improved ordinary women’s participation in local governance in Gwanda Central. Capacity-building strategies implemented improved participation, competence, confidence, and effectiveness of women’s local governance processes. Women are increasingly participating in leadership at various levels. The training and mentorship programmes inspired some women to contest in the 2018 elections. We recommend the government of Zimbabwe and civil society organizations facilitate the implementation of structural reforms that address systemic and institutionalized gender-based discrimination.00263

Distance Education for children with a disability and/or from vulnerable families.

Different reasons may hinder the right to education of children with a disability and/or from vulnerable families; for example, living in rural areas where they do not have access to public transport, restriction of opportunities to access schools, precarious economic situations, lack of minimum services that meet the needs of hygiene and personal care, among other reasons. This has made it necessary to implement changes in traditional education systems. For this reason, the objective of this study is to build a theoretical base that facilitates the understanding of the requirements of these children in terms of distance education. To do this, the authors interviewed primary education teachers who work with children with a disability and/or from vulnerable families. A qualitative research methodology was used with the focus group as a technique for collecting information. Ten primary school teachers participated in an interview made up of a set of open-ended questions that facilitated their narratives regarding education strategies used for students with a disability and/or those living in vulnerable families, which were later grouped into categories. As a result of this research, the following strategies used by the participating teachers were collected: recreating the feeling of the physical classroom in the virtual classroom, fostering friendship and companionship among students, designing engagement strategies, and considering the socio-cultural variables that influence learning. The teachers assured that distance education is a perfectly viable alternative for children with a disability and/or from vulnerable families.

Female Portrayal in Disclosure of the Emotional Spectrum of Wartime Experiences

Purpose of the article. The purpose of the research is to reveal the artistic and psychological patterns that are inherent in female portrayals in visual communications nowadays, to compare the differences between visual feminine images in peacetime and wartime. Research methodology. Among the scientific methods of research, the following methods were used in this work: the methods of empirical research, namely analysis and synthesis, the historical method and the method of structural-semiotic analysis. Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of this article lies in the identification of typological features of the feminine image in modern Ukrainian graphic design, the identification of visual trends in the representation of various images of women during the period of active military conflict. Conclusions. Feminine portrayal in various examples of visual communications can differ significantly, in recent years it is characterized by the presence of deviations from the idealized image, which corresponds to the minimization of the stereotypical female gender role. In today’s manifestations of communicative design, a woman gains the freedom to make her own choices, what life guidelines to follow, how to look and how to reveal her feminine beginning. On the examples of Ukrainian realities, in contrast to the socio-cultural variability of female images in peacetime, archetypal female images are revealed in the information field of the visual mode during the period of military operations. For modern Ukrainian graphic design of the war period, the symbiosis of national-ethnic identifiers as additional attributes to feminine figures is innovative, that is harmoniously combined with the postmodern international style of graphic performance. However, as shown by the socio-cultural trends in countries where there was a military conflict, gender equality may be violated in the post-war period, so there is a risk of a return to gender stereotypes, which may also manifest in the field of visual communications.

Political Psychological and Sociocultural Determinants of Compliance with COVID-19 Emergency Measures Among Waste Pickers in an Iranian Sub-urban Slum Community.

In the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, compliance with government regulations is a tremendous challenge in the effort to curb the viral transmission. The fact that specific communities and people across the world continue to ignore government regulations of COVID-19 is a crucial issue to address. Researchers sought to examine the political psychological and sociocultural determinants of adherence to COVID-19-related law and policy measures among waste pickers in a sub-urban slum community in Iran. A cross-sectional survey of 362 waste pickers from two municipalities in the countryside of Tehran, Iran, was conducted between January and May 2022. Multiple regression analysis was used to predict the significant difference between the direct or indirect effects of political psychological and sociocultural variables on compliance with COVID-19 emergency measures. Confidence intervals were estimated using the bootstrap method. The findings supported the proposed model. The results indicated that political ideology (β = - 0.13, 95% CI - 0.29 to 0.02), individualism worldview (β = - 0.14, 95% CI - 0.32 to 0.07), fatalism (β = - 0.18, 95% CI - 0.40 to 0.04), health literacy (β = 0.16, 95%CI - 0.05 to 0.37) and prosociality (β = 0.09, 95%CI 0.03-0.13) exert an indirect effect on compliance with the COVID-19 emergency measures through both trust in government and trust in science and scientific community. This study has implications for authorities in ensuring adherence to governmental orders for COVID-19 outbreak. A democracy-based and human rights-based approach and a flexible framework for proceeding more equitable COVID-19 legal and government regulations is critical to an effective and acceptable health response to COVID-19. Instituting slum emergency planning committees, incorporating the informal providers into all pandemic response plans in every urban informal settlement and providing an immediate guarantee of payments to waste packers will be indispensable.

Evaluation of an Educational Reform in the Context of Equal Opportunities in Turkey: Policy Recommendations with Evidence from PISA

The purpose of this research is to identify the current situation regarding equality of educational opportunity after the implementation of 12-year compulsory education which serves as a reform in Turkey on the basis of key indicators and to suggest policy recommendations to provide equality of educational opportunity. The research, aiming to define some variables of student academic success in science, reading and mathematics literacy levels according to PISA 2012 and 2015 panel data for ensuring equality of educational opportunity in Turkey, is in survey model. The research revealed that the extension of the compulsory education period in the context of equal opportunities hadn’t increased student success. Delivery of opportunities to the home environment affects the family’s socio-economic and socio-cultural variables, which themselves affect student academic success. In this context, supportive policy proposals such as an independent budget, regional economic index creation and direct assistance to the child were presented to the relevant parties and stakeholders.

Psychometric validation of the Brazilian Version of the Pet Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ): An examination of predictors of attachment styles among cat owners

It is important for researchers of human-animal relationships to have access to research instruments validated in their original languages, as sociocultural and linguistic semantic variations can interfere with the answers. Our objectives were to: (i) validate the Brazilian version of the Pet Attachment Questionnaire (PAQ) among cat owners; (ii) study individual differences in avoidant and anxious attachment as a function of respondents’ sociodemographic characteristics and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS); (iii) investigate relationships between PAQ dimensions and attachment intensity using the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS). Information from 301 Brazilian cat owners was collected. After evaluating internal consistency, a principal component analysis was conducted to examine the factorial structure of scale. In addition, we conducted multiple linear model (MLM) and hierarchical cluster analysis to further explore attachment patterns. Three items were excluded. After exclusion, results presented better indicators. The Brazilian 23-items PAQ version showed adequate psychometric properties and the same two-dimensional structure (avoidance and anxiety) as the English version. MLM indicated that male gender, having children, younger age, and lower LAPS scores were significant predictors of higher avoidant attachment; while not having children and higher LAPS were significant predictors of higher anxious attachment. The dendrogram of hierarchical clustering revealed three distinguishable groups of human-pet attachment: avoidant profile, anxious profile, and secure profile. The Brazilian 23-items PAQ version is recommended for use in the Brazilian population both for research purposes and for applied purposes considering its internal consistency, structure, validity, simplicity, and practicality.

Cultural differences in the parents & children interaction in Kuwait society

The aim of this study to examine the interaction between parents and children in Kuwait. It examines gender, home types, number of wives, and child age order differences in father and mother dialogue scales. The study also examines the association between the father and mother dialogue scale with some social variables. A sample of 725 Kuwaiti aged 17‒19 years was selected. Respondents’ GPA, some household information, father’s and mother’s Educational levels were collected were used. Father/Mother Dialogue Scale. Significant differences were found between males and females, types of home, have only one wife and those who have more than one wife, the son/daughter order among siblings in the family, the fathers and mothers’ age in both father and mother dialogue scales. Relationship was found between father and mother dialogue and many sociocultural variables. The dialogue between children and their parents is considered to be weak, especially in regard to the father’s side.

Reviewing the influence of sociocultural, environmental and economic variables to forecast municipal solid waste (MSW) generation

Municipal solid waste (MSW) generation forecasting has become an important tool for decision-making in urban environments, not only due to its essential role in effective waste management, but also because it provides an understanding of the complexity of the factors that govern it. Current research bases its forecast models (e.g., artificial neural networks, regression methods, three decision methods…) on predictive variables supported by pre-existing government information or, alternatively, on related studies with different site characteristics due to the lack of primary data from the specific sector. These assumptions and generalizations generate a different representation of the area of interest, raising the level of uncertainty of the results and reducing their level of reliability. The current review focuses on exploring the influence, relevance and opportunities for improvement when it comes to including or excluding sociocultural, environmental and/or economic variables in the solid waste forecasting process. Relevant information has been provided regarding the predictor variables considered to have better predictive power and, at the same time, limitations in data availability have been highlighted. Finally, it is concluded that the adoption of case study-specific predictor variables collected through primary data (e.g., questionnaires or surveys) would improve the predictive performance of the models providing a robust and effective tool for waste management. In addition, it is expected that the recommendations provided will be useful for future research related to MSW prediction and, thus, contribute to obtaining more representative results.

Orang Asli Health and Lifeways Project (OA HeLP): a cross-sectional cohort study protocol

IntroductionNon-communicable disease (NCD) risk is influenced by environmental factors that are highly variable worldwide, yet prior research has focused mainly on high-income countries where most people are exposed to relatively...