Theory Of Effect Research Articles

Co-parenting, parental competence and problem behaviours in children: examining differential parental roles

In recent years, the increase in child problem behaviours has become a significant public health concern. It is crucial to understand the complex dynamics between parental co-parenting, parenting competence, and child problem behaviours to develop effective interventions. This study explored the intricate relationship between parental co-parenting, parenting sense of competence, and child problem behaviours in a sample of 407 parent-child pairs from Shanghai, China. Findings indicated that neither maternal nor paternal perceived co-parenting significantly predicts child problem behaviours directly. However, maternal parenting sense of competence emerges as a significant mediator between maternal perceived co-parenting (both supportive and non-supportive) and child problem behaviours. This highlights the pivotal role of mothers as primary caregivers in shaping parenting dynamics and child outcomes. Conversely, paternal parenting sense of competence does not mediate the relationship between paternal perceived co-parenting and child behaviours, suggesting a nuanced dynamic within paternal care-giving roles. The study underscores theoretical contributions, validating the theory of inconsistent compensation effect and emphasizing the primary caregiver effect within the Chinese family context.

Influence of applying VARK learning styles on enhancing teaching skills: application of learning theories

BackgroundSocial media in our networks have been exploited as dynamic learning tools and free platforms.AimsThe main objective of this study is to determine the impact of VARK learning styles (visual (V), aural (A), read/write (R), and kinesthetic (K)) in enhancing parasitological laboratory skills using social media and various learning theories.MethodsA research sample of 100 chemists working in Mega Alfa labs underwent online learning of laboratory parasitology skills via Facebook posts and WhatsApp dictated messages for an average of 7 weeks. All posts served various VARK learning styles and were designed based on Zeigarnik’s effect (conducting information with tactical breaks), memory storage and retrieval strength theories (repetition of information). Trainees were classified according to their VARK learning style preferences and were evaluated through pre/post-tests. Data on VARK learning styles were summarized using frequency (count) and relative frequency (percentage). Data of pre-test and post-test scores were summarized using mean and standard deviation. T-test was used to compare pre-test and post-test scores. The difference between the pre-test results, the post-test results and the preferred learning style was analyzed using ANOVA with Tukey’s post-hoc testing. P-values less than 0.05 were considered statistically significant.ResultsIn a total of 100 trainees, tri-modal and multimodal learning styles were preferred by 40% and 30% of the trainees respectively; on the contrary, the unimodal and bimodal learning styles were the least preferred. In the trimodal and multimodal groups, the post-test results showed significant increase when compared with the pre-test results. Also, using the ANOVA test and a Tukey’s post-hoc comparison, the assemblage of multiple learning styles (tri-modal and multimodal) appeared to significantly improve the learning performance in the post-test results when compared with the unimodal and bimodal groups.ConclusionThe tri-modal and multimodal learning styles were found to influence the acquirement of the laboratory parasitology skills much better than the unimodal and bimodal learning styles. Kinesthetic learning should have a special emphasis in training.

Involving women with limited English proficiency in group antenatal care: Findings from the integrated process evaluation of the Pregnancy Circles pilot trial

Problem In the United Kingdom, poor experiences and outcomes of antenatal care among women with limited English proficiency (LEP) are widely documented. BackgroundGroup antenatal care aims to address some limitations of traditional care by combining health assessment, information sharing and peer support, but the inclusion of women with LEP in mixed-language groups has not been explored. AimThis qualitative study used observations and interviews to explore whether linguistic diversity could be incorporated into group antenatal care (Pregnancy Circles). Women with LEP were invited to take part in mixed-language groups in a large urban NHS trust as part of the Pregnancy Circles pilot trial (ISRCTN66925258 Retrospectively registered 03 April 2017; North of Scotland Research Ethics Service 16/NS/0090). FindingsThree Pregnancy Circles including women with LEP were implemented. Linguistically integrated groups required additional resources (time, interpreters, midwifery skills). Four themes emerged: ‘Interpreting as helping’, ‘Enhanced learning’, ‘Satisfaction and belonging’ and ‘Complex lives’. DiscussionWomen with LEP accessing interpreting in Pregnancy Circles reported high levels of satisfaction, contrasting with reported experiences in traditional care. Three theories of effect emerged as relevant for women with LEP: social support.

Beyond Verbatim: Embodied Truth and the Limits of Language in House Arrest

In an era marked by the proliferation of media images and the blurring of fact and fabrication, Anna Deavere Smith’s House Arrest (1999) offers a compelling exploration of truth, language and the pervasive influence of media in shaping public perception. Through verbatim text, minimalist staging and emotionally resonant performance, Smith highlights how individuals, particularly those from marginalised groups, are vulnerable to having their narratives distorted or controlled by those in power. In light of media effects theories, including framing, agenda-setting and Marshall McLuhan’s concepts of the ‘global village’ and ‘the medium is the message,’ this article analyses how the play compels a critical examination of media manipulation and the subtle ways language constructs individuals’ understanding of truth. Transcending its historical context, House Arrest emerges as a timely call for heightened media literacy and a discerning approach to information consumption in a world increasingly characterised by political polarisation and misinformation. Ultimately, Smith advocates for an active engagement with diverse perspectives and a recognition of the limitations of language by encouraging the audience to cultivate a more conscious and critical relationship with the information that surrounds them.

From ratings to resilience: The role and implications of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance in corporate solvency

In an era marked by growing global turmoil, the strategic role of environmental finance and green investment in fostering sustainable development has never been more crucial. Particularly in regions beset by crises, enterprises find themselves at the forefront of efforts to develop resilience and stability. Leveraging insights from information effect theory and stakeholder theory, this study delves into an intricate interplay to unveil the impact of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance on corporate solvency. In particular, the study investigates how ESG considerations influence short-term and long-term solvency metrics. Utilizing data from the listed constituent enterprises of the Stock Exchange of Thailand Sustainability Index (SETTHSI) during 2015 – 2023, the findings reveal a positive correlation between ESG performance and solvency at current levels, with no significant lag effect. Further analysis suggests that higher-polluting firms exhibit a stronger correlation between ESG performance and solvency compared to their non or lower-polluting counterparts. The findings remain robust across various assessments encompassing heterogeneity analysis by implementing group regressions and testing for endogeneity using the Propensity Score Matching approach, ensuring the reliability and applicability of the results which underscores the practical significance and theoretical relevance of the study, with profound implications for long-term enterprise resilience and broader social advancement.

The role of the water contact layer on hydration and transport at solid/liquid interfaces

Understanding the structure in the nanoscopic region of water that is in direct contact with solid surfaces, so-called contact layer, is key to quantifying macroscopic properties that are of interest to e.g. catalysis, ice nucleation, nanofluidics, gas adsorption, and sensing. We explore the structure of the water contact layer on various technologically relevant solid surfaces, namely graphene, MoS[Formula: see text], Au(111), Au(100), Pt(111), and Pt(100), which have been previously hampered by time and length scale limitations of ab initio approaches or force field inaccuracies, by means of molecular dynamics simulations based on ab initio machine learning potentials built using an active learning scheme. Our results reveal that the in-plane intermolecular correlations of the water contact layer vary greatly among different systems: Whereas the contact layer on graphene and on Au(111) is predominantly homogeneous and isotropic, it is inhomogeneous and anisotropic on MoS[Formula: see text], on Au(100), and on the Pt surfaces, where it additionally forms two distinct sublayers. We apply hydrodynamics and the theory of the hydrophobic effect, to relate the energy corrugation and the characteristic length-scales of the contact layer with wetting, slippage, the hydration of small hydrophobic solutes and diffusio-osmotic transport. Thus, this work provides a microscopic picture of the water contact layer and links it to macroscopic properties of liquid/solid interfaces that are measured experimentally and that are relevant to wetting, hydrophobic solvation, nanofluidics, and osmotic transport.

Origin of anticlastic curvature in a cellular metaplate

Generating a three-dimensional curved surface from flat sheets using simple mechanical actuation is a crucial step in developing functional shape-shifting materials. Among the methodologies relying on emergent concepts, the traditional cellular solid-based plate, with its highly porous structures, provides a versatile tool for creating doubly curved surfaces through planar bending actuation. Leveraging a combination of digital fabrication, physical experiments, finite element simulation (FES), and linear elasticity theory, we demonstrate how such a cellular metaplate can exhibit doubly curved shapes. By extending Lamb's classical theory of the anticlastic effect in thin elastic plates to our cellular metaplate, we develop a scaling law for the crossover length below which the doubly curved surface appears as bc∼bLamb/ρ, where bLamb∼Rw, with R being the externally imposed radius of curvature, w being the plate thickness, and ρ being the relative density of a given cellular geometry. The prediction is validated by our experiment and FES. The proposed framework is versatile and emphasizes the fundamental physical principles governing the mechanics of shape-morphing surfaces. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Aetiological Naturalism in the Philosophy of Medicine: A Shaky Project

Griffiths and Matthewson (2018) employ the selected effects theory to contend that disease involves the impairment of the normal functioning of biological items. Since the selected effects theory focuses on the past effects of those items, I refer to their proposal as “aetiological naturalism”. In this paper, I argue that aetiological naturalism cannot constitute an adequate theory of disease. This is due to the fact that the selected effects theory, which lies at the heart of aetiological naturalism, is flawed. One promise of the selected effects theory is indeed that it is able to account for our normative intuitions about dysfunctional biological items by grounding them on the concept of natural selection incorporated in the selected effects theory itself, where this promise rests upon its claim that appealing to the fitness-enhancing effect of biological items can always explain why they persisted in a population. However, I contend that the naturalisation of normativity cannot be cashed out in terms of biological items’ past effects by discussing two biological phenomena: phenotypic plasticity and negative frequency-dependent selection. I illustrate that in both cases the selected effects theory cannot recognise adaptive items as having a selected effects function, therefore preventing the possibility to assign them any dysfunction. The normative force of the selected effects theory is consequently much diminished, leading in turn to a weakening of aetiological naturalism, given that such project actually relies on the assumed normative force of the selected effects theory itself.

The Third-Person Effect and Islamic Religiosity: Perceptions of Moral and Non-Moral Issues on Social Networking Sites among IIUM Students

Third-Person Effect theory (TPE) postulates that audiences deny the media's direct impact on themselves but perceive the same media as having a larger impact on others. This study examines TPE and its relationship with Islamic religiosity in shaping perceptions of moral and non-moral issues on social networking sites (SNS) among students at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). Another objective of this study is to determine how students perceive the effect of moral and non-moral issues in SNS on themselves compared to others. This study employed a quantitative design, with 357 students from the IIUM serving as respondents. The findings indicate that participants perceive moral issues as affecting others more than themselves, which is consistent with TPE. However, non-moral issues are perceived as influencing both the self and others. The results also indicate that Islamic religiosity positively affects the perceived impact of moral issues on others and non-moral issues on oneself in SNS. The data were analyzed using SPSS, with paired t-tests comparing self versus others' perceptions of moral and non-moral issues on SNS. The findings confirm that students perceive moral issues as having a greater impact on others than on themselves, aligning with TPE. Conversely, non-moral issues are perceived as influencing both the self and others, demonstrating SPE. The study also reveals that Islamic religiosity positively influences the perceived effect of moral issues on others and non-moral issues on oneself in SNS.

Privacy concerns in mobile technology: Can interactivity reduce friction?

Many, if not most, mobile applications tend to elicit personal information from users to offer personalized services. However, users may not be comfortable with such intrusiveness and therefore hesitate to download or adopt a new app even when its use could be beneficial to their health and well-being. To overcome this friction and help users make informed decisions, we propose message interactivity as a solution. Guided by privacy calculus, the theory of interactive media effects (TIME), and the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we conducted a 4-condition, pre-registered online between-subjects experiment (N = 305) to assess the effect of message interactivity on attitudes and behavioral intentions pertaining to information disclosure in mobile health apps. Data indicate a significant positive effect via three serial mediators, including perceived contingency, elaboration, and perceived benefits. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Effect of Culinary Tourism on Local Economic Development in South Africa

Purpose: The aim of the study was to assess the effect of culinary tourism on local economic development in South Africa. Methodology: This study adopted a desk methodology. A desk study research design is commonly known as secondary data collection. This is basically collecting data from existing resources preferably because of its low cost advantage as compared to a field research. Our current study looked into already published studies and reports as the data was easily accessed through online journals and libraries. Findings: The study revealed this form of tourism, centered around experiencing local cuisine and food-related activities, contributes to the economic vitality of a region by attracting visitors who spend on dining, food tours, cooking classes, and local food markets. These expenditures generate revenue for local businesses, including restaurants, farmers, food producers, and hospitality services, thereby creating job opportunities and stimulating economic growth. Additionally, culinary tourism fosters the preservation and promotion of local food culture and heritage, which can enhance a destination's unique appeal and competitiveness. This tourism niche often leads to increased demand for local ingredients, thereby supporting agricultural sectors and encouraging sustainable farming practices. Furthermore, the development of food festivals and culinary events can boost off-season tourism, providing a steadier stream of income for local economies. Overall, culinary tourism not only enhances the economic landscape but also reinforces community identity and pride, making it a valuable component of regional development strategies. Implications to Theory, Practice and Policy: Social exchange theory, multiplier effect theory and sustainable tourism development theory may be used to anchor future studies on assessing the effect of culinary tourism on local economic development in South Africa. To mitigate local governments, businesses, and community organizations should work together to create cohesive culinary tourism strategies. Policymakers should create frameworks that encourage sustainable culinary tourism practices.

Constructing vaccination slogans in the late stage of vaccine launch: an experimental study based on the framing effect theory.

Vaccination is an important strategy for overcoming public health crises. Considerable studies have analyzed strategies to promote people's willingness to vaccinate, but few have explored effective strategies based on the stage of vaccine launch. This study considered the framing effect theory to explore whether egoism, altruism and loss frames can boost vaccination willingness when people feel the vaccine is effective in the late stage of vaccine launch. This study designed a scenario experiment consisting of three experimental groups (egoism, altruism and loss frames) and one control group (non-framed). Participants (N=1085) from China were randomly assigned to any of the four groups. Vaccination willingness, perceived vaccine effectiveness and control variables included perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, worry about the side effects of vaccination and socio-demographics were collected. Perceived vaccine effectiveness and message frames can increase people's willingness to be vaccinated. Message frames can amplify the positive impact of perceived effectiveness on vaccination willingness. Moreover, loss-framed messages had a stronger amplification effect than egoistic- and altruistic-framed messages. Governments and other health authorities should prioritize the loss-framed approach when constructing vaccination slogans to maximize vaccination willingness when vaccines are considered effective at the late implementation stage of the vaccine strategy.

Recognition of Emotional Prosody in Mandarin-Speaking Children: Effects of Age, Noise, and Working Memory.

Age, babble noise, and working memory have been found to affect the recognition of emotional prosody based on non-tonal languages, yet little is known about how exactly they influence tone-language-speaking children's recognition of emotional prosody. In virtue of the tectonic theory of Stroop effects and the Ease of Language Understanding (ELU) model, this study aimed to explore the effects of age, babble noise, and working memory on Mandarin-speaking children's understanding of emotional prosody. Sixty Mandarin-speaking children aged three to eight years and 20 Mandarin-speaking adults participated in this study. They were asked to recognize the happy or sad prosody of short sentences with different semantics (negative, neutral, or positive) produced by a male speaker. The results revealed that the prosody-semantics congruity played a bigger role in children than in adults for accurate recognition of emotional prosody in quiet, but a less important role in children compared with adults in noise. Furthermore, concerning the recognition accuracy of emotional prosody, the effect of working memory on children was trivial despite the listening conditions. But for adults, it was very prominent in babble noise. The findings partially supported the tectonic theory of Stroop effects which highlights the perceptual enhancement generated by cross-channel congruity, and the ELU model which underlines the importance of working memory in speech processing in noise. These results suggested that the development of emotional prosody recognition is a complex process influenced by the interplay among age, background noise, and working memory.

Slip Opacity and Fast Osmotic Transport of Hydrophobes at Aqueous Interfaces with Two-Dimensional Materials.

We investigate the interfacial transport of water and hydrophobic solutes on van der Waals bilayers and heterostructures formed by stacking graphene, hBN, and MoS2 using extensive ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. We compute water slippage and the diffusio-osmotic transport coefficient of hydrophobic particles at the interface by combining hydrodynamics and the theory of the hydrophobic effect. We find that slippage is dominated by the layer that is in direct contact with water and only marginally altered by the second layer, leading to a so-called "slip opacity". The screening of the lateral forces, where the liquid does not feel the forces coming from the second nearest layer, is one of the factors leading to the "slip opacity" in our systems. The diffusio-osmotic transport of small hydrophobes (with a radius below 2.5 Å) is also affected by the slip opacity, being dramatically enhanced by slippage. Furthermore, the direction of diffusio-osmotic flow is controlled by the solute size, with the flow in the opposite direction of the concentration gradient for smaller hydrophobes, and vice versa for larger ones. We connect our findings to the wetting properties of two-dimensional materials, and we propose that slippage and wetting can be controlled separately: whereas the slippage is mostly determined by the layer in closer proximity to water, wetting can be finely tuned by stacking different two-dimensional materials. Our study advances the computational design of two-dimensional materials and van der Waals heterostructures, enabling precise control over wetting and slippage properties for applications in coatings and water purification membranes.

Direct and indirect pathways linking gentrification to adolescent reading and math achievement via educational aspirations and psychological distress.

This study examined how living in a gentrifying neighborhood may impact adolescents' reading and math achievement via educational aspirations and psychological distress and asked whether these pathways differ according to socioeconomic status and race. A framework combining theories of adolescent development and neighborhood effects was empirically tested using a racially diverse sample of adolescents living in urban neighborhoods in North Carolina matched to administrative school records and census data (N = 1,045, Mage = 12, 8% American Indian, 4% Asian, 32% Black, 62% White, 15% multiracial, 16% Latinx, categories not mutually exclusive). At the population level, structural equation models found no relation between the extent of gentrification occurring in youths' neighborhood of residence and reading and math achievement, educational aspirations, or psychological distress. However, moderated mediation models revealed a positive association between gentrification and psychological distress among youth with low (but not high) subjective family economic status, leading to a small negative indirect effect of gentrification on math achievement. The link between gentrification and increased psychological distress was largest among Black youth with low subjective family economic status, who may face both heightened racism and classism-related social stressors as their neighborhood gentrifies. Findings have theoretical and policy implications, as they challenge the assumption that living in proximity to higher income, higher educated peers will benefit youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

U.S. Males and Pornography: Replication and Experimental Extension

ABSTRACT Communication scientists have published pornography research in the communication discipline’s central journals for decades. Health communication scholars have become particularly interested in pornography in recent years, given increasing evidence of its likely impact on critical sexual health outcomes. An important resource for scholarship on pornography use is the General Social Survey (GSS). The first major article on pornography use and potential effects using the GSS was published only a decade ago and in a sexological journal, however. The present study provides a replication of this original article within the context of a GSS methodological experiment designed to provide pornography scholars with the first opportunity in 50 years to test a potential new pornography use measure. Results are interpreted in terms of their implications for the GSS, the pornography literature in general, and multiple theories of media use, processes, and effects.

Assessing the Reach and Engagement Effectiveness of Disseminating Food and Nutrition Information on Social Media Channels.

This study utilized Facebook and Instagram as communication channels for disseminating evidence-based food and nutrition information to low-income adults. From February 2021 to October 2022, 442 identical posts were shared across both platforms for audience reach and engagement. Posts were categorized in two ways: hedonic and three levels of utilitarian (informative, convenience, utility), based on widely applied social media uses and effects theory (Uses and Gratifications Perspective); and food/nutrition topics (dietary guidance, mealtime behaviors, recipes, food resource management, health behaviors, and community building). From predominantly image-based posts (82.6%), reach and engagement for Instagram (136,621 versus 6096, respectively) outperformed Facebook (83,275 versus 1276, respectively). Analysis of covariance of rank-order reach and engagement metrics (likes, replies, shares) showed Facebook engagement was consistent across hedonic and utilitarian categories while Instagram showed highest reach and engagement for utilitarian posts, especially those emphasizing food affordability. Facebook and Instagram differed in which food/nutrition topics achieved maximal reach and engagement. Fifteen posts were randomly selected for qualitative analysis to identify features reflecting engagement levels. Low-engagement posts featured low-color-contrast or less-appealing images, especially on Instagram. This study offers insights for practitioners and researchers aiming to use social media to promote healthy food and nutrition.

New theory to explain the effect of lactose fines on the performance of adhesive mixtures for inhalation

A new theory for the dispersibility enhancing effect of excipient fines for adhesive mixtures for inhalation is presented in this paper, while at the same time the shortcomings of current hypotheses are discussed. The proposed mechanism, denoted the ‘viscoelastic damping effect’, states that the presence of fines particles acts to dampen the collisions between carrier particles during mixing. As a consequence, fewer fine particles are ‘irreversibly’ pressed into the carriers, which in turn entails a higher fine particle fraction. The mechanism was demonstrated experimentally at different levels of added lactose fines by studying the influence of processing on fine particle fraction. This approach furthermore enabled quantification of the effect. All fine particles present in the blend (APIs and excipient fines) act together to exert the damping effect. The proposed mechanism is able to explain the main body of published data, including the effect of added excipient fines, the effect of an increased drug load, and the effect of removal of carrier fines. The viscoelastic damping mechanism is general in nature and conveys a broader and more general understanding of the behavior of adhesive mixtures for inhalation.

Theory of piezotronic and piezo-phototronic effects on high performance perovskite solar cells

Piezotronic and piezo-phototronic effects can effectively modulate the Schottky barrier height (SBH) of the metal-semiconductor contact and the built-in electric field. Most models focus on the built-in electric field of perovskite solar cells, and polarization-modulated SBH is missing. We investigated piezotronic and piezo-phototronic effects on the Schottky barrier and built-in electric field of perovskite solar cells. A model of the surface potential induced by polarization was developed. The analytical and numerical results are calculated for perovskite solar cells. We found that the piezo-phototronic effect can significantly increase the performance of perovskite solar cells by reducing the height of the Schottky barrier. This model not only provides a fundamental physical picture of the piezotronic and piezo-phototronic effect on perovskite solar cells, but also paves a new path to develop high-efficiency perovskite solar cells.

Theory of universal diode effect in three-terminal Josephson junctions

We theoretically study the superconducting diode effect in a three-terminal Josephson junction. The diode effect in superconducting systems is typically related to the presence of a difference in the critical currents for currents flowing in the opposite direction. We show that in multi-terminal systems this effect occurs naturally without the need of the presence of any spin interactions and is a result of the presence of a relative shift between the Andreev bound states carrying the supercurrent. On an example of a three-terminal junction, we demonstrate that the non-reciprocal current in one of the superconducting contacts can be induced by proper phase biasing of the other contacts, provided that there are at least two Andreev bound states in the system and the symmetry of the system is broken. This result is confirmed in numerical models describing the junctions in both the short- and long-regime. By optimizing the geometry of the junction, we show that the efficiency of the realized superconducting diode exceeds 35%. We relate our predictions to recent experiments on multi-terminal junctions, in which non-reciprocal supercurrents were observed.