Browsing by Subject "Behaviors"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A cross-cultural comparison of predictors of achievement amongst Caribbean students: attitudes and behaviors that may explain the achievement gap between girls and boys in the English-speaking Caribbean.
    (2012-08) Bowe, Anica Gwenell
    Presently in the English-speaking Caribbean, boys' underachievement at the K-12 level is a topic of great concern. Qualitative studies focusing on boys' underachievement have raised the question as to whether this issue is situational and due to short-comings in Caribbean education systems or whether it is actually endemic to Caribbean culture. Quantitative studies addressing these cultural attitudes and behaviors have been limited; therefore this study sought to address that gap and provide quantitative evidence that might explain the girl advantage amongst Caribbean students. This study utilized the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England database which contains a nationally representative sample of English youth that began in 2004 when the young people were about age 14 and in the 9th grade. This database was chosen because it contained a sample of students of Caribbean descent and it had also collected information regarding attitudinal and behavioral variables of interest that have been highlighted in Caribbean studies. In particular, by using data outside the Caribbean, this study lent itself to addressing the question of whether Caribbean boys' underachievement is situational or cultural. First, Caribbean students were compared to those from other ethnic groups on nine attitudes and behaviors of interest. Second, evidence for a girl advantage between boys and girls of Caribbean descent in Math, English and Science at the 6th and 9th grade levels was also explored. Third, the relationship between school type and the girl advantage was examined. Fourth, interaction terms between gender and attitudes/behaviors were examined to determine whether any were important in explaining the Caribbean girl advantage. Finally, it was determined whether attitudes and behaviors were still important even after controlling for the school environment. This study employed confirmatory analyses, independent samples t-tests, growth curve analyses, hierarchical linear model analyses, and multiple regression when appropriate to address the questions understudy. The results demonstrated that Caribbean students generally displayed less positive attitude towards school, had more risky behavior, and had lower academic self-concept, but had parents who perceived themselves has being more involved with their child's school life. Secondly, Caribbean girls displayed an academic advantage over their male counterparts in at least 2 out of 3 subject areas at both time points. Third, no mixed-gender school appeared to attenuate the girl advantage. Fourth, by modeling certain demographic and attitudinal/behavioral variables, the Caribbean girl advantage at Key Stage 3 was accounted for in Math and Science but not English. Lastly, the importance of certain attitudes and behaviors in predicting achievement remained robust even after controlling for school environment. Overall, these results demonstrated that the Caribbean girl advantage is perhaps innate to Caribbean culture. Thus, Caribbean researchers ought to make headways in developing psychological and psycho-social instruments that can measure constructs that may perhaps explain this advantage.
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    Culturally Responsive School Leadership: Educational Leaders' Reflections on Equity Behaviors in Predominantly White Schools
    (2022-04) Krebs, Joshua
    The purpose of this study was to explore school leaders’ perceptions regarding behaviors need to lead change for equity in predominantly White suburban schools. The study was carried out by interviewing 14 school leaders in predominantly White suburban schools with public statements in support of equity. The semi-structured interviews were created using the framework of Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) behaviors identified by Khalifa, Gooden, and Davis (2016) in their synthesis of the literature. Five themes emerged: (1) Communities Divided, (2) Inappropriate and Ineffective use of Data & Feedback, (3) Structural Barriers to Equity, (4) Staff Resistance, and (5) Whiteness Protecting the Status Quo. The author recommends that school leaders focus on three areas to lead toward a more equitable learning environment: (1) Improving community relations by embracing their role as a public intellectual (Khalifa, 2018), countering false narratives, information sharing, and understanding Whiteness, (2) Using data, community feedback, and student voice more effectively by investing in training, countering deficit ideologies with a focus on cultural strengths, taking direction on needed change from historically marginalized groups, equity audits, and tracking racial harm, and (3) Creating more inclusive policies and practices through professional development that is consistent and comprehensive, proactive messaging, CRSL teams for collaborative walkthroughs, and moving away from traditional grading practices to minimize or eliminate subjectivity.
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    The economics of a new health technology: an evaluation of the impact of statins on lifestyle behaviors
    (2012-04) Dehmer, Steven Patrick
    Background: Heart disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States since 1921, and although death rates have declined since their peak in the 1960s, it remains a significant burden to the population's health. For most of the second half of the 20th century, changes in lifestyle--such as in diet and exercise--have been the most salient intervention to prevent cardiovascular disease. However, pharmaceutical interventions have gained significant traction in recent decades and may now be supplanting lifestyle change therapies. This study presents a theoretical framework for conceptualizing behavioral feedbacks from new medical technologies, and conducts an empirical case study to investigate whether the introduction of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs can be associated with changes in diet and exercise behavior. Although statins are highly effective in reducing cardiovascular disease risk, lifestyle improvements can garner significant health benefits in addition to lowering cholesterol. Methods: Grossman's model for the demand of health is applied to inform theoretical predictions on health behaviors with the introduction of a new medical technology such as statins. An extension incorporating uncertainty in one's own health status is introduced to motivate the demand for prevention. This extension also allows for the possibility that prevention screening services may send signals of varying quality to an individual regarding one's true health status. If a prescription for a statin sends a stronger informational signal than a high cholesterol diagnosis alone, this could lead to an association of statin use with improved health behaviors. An empirical investigation to test the theoretical predictions is conducted through a causal inference analysis of the introduction of statins on therapeutic lifestyle behaviors (i.e., improved diet and exercise). Longitudinal survey data on a panel of 8,000 individuals from 1995-1998 is linked with statin prescription (claims) data for analysis. Key to causal inference, the timing of this survey coincides with a rapid secular trends in statin adoption. This corresponds with considerable intrapersonal heterogeneity in observed treatment (i.e., statin use) and allows for multiple analytical strategies to account for potential endogeneity bias--namely, panel data and physician/clinic-based instrumental variable methods. To test the practical implications of behavioral changes associated with statin use, multiple simulations are conducted to estimate the economic and health impacts on a U.S.-representative birth cohort, as well as the surveyed cohort from which the empirical results are drawn. An evidence-based Markov microsimulation model is presented for the conduct of this simulation analysis. Results: Preliminary results show an effect that is ostensibly counter-intuitive: a new statin prescription tends to improve health behaviors. Physical activity, in particular, is shown to increase by as much as 30 to 50 percent with statin use. The available data limits inference to short-run impacts (i.e., within four years), but simulations are used to test a range of potential short- and long-term consequences. Short-run impact on health and costs is negligible; however, the predicted long-term impact of improved behaviors on health outcomes can reach 5 to 10 percent reductions in events. For most scenarios, predicted changes in costs are negligible, in part due to their general inverse relationship with longevity. Conclusions: When faced with a newly introduced technology, people are anticipated to respond to any altered incentives. However, if a new technology also serves as a conduit for improved health information, people should be expected to respond to that new information as well. With the introduction of statins, this study shows that a new prescription caused people to choose to exercise more. This result suggests that although both potential modes of action may be in effect, the response to new information may dominate--at least in the short-run. Further empirical and theoretical study will be needed to fully understand the long-term response to statins or similar "new" health technologies.
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    School Social Workers' Relationships with parents: A critical incident field study
    (2008-12) Hansen, Eric Wayne
    School social workers engage parents in helping relationships which benefit children's learning. The extant literature has been focused on school social worker-parent interventions, not on the relationship. This qualitative study uses the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) to focus on the school social worker-parent relationship, and thereby begin to address this void in the literature. The study examined the experiences of school social workers and identified specific school social worker behaviors determined to be effective in building and sustaining relationships with parents. Data collection involved 18 one-to-one audio taped interviews with school social workers which were transcribed into texts. During analysis, critical incidents were identified which contained (a) a situation, (b) a behavior, and (c) an outcome. From the critical incidents, 38 school social worker behaviors were identified to be effective in building and maintaining relationships with parents. From these behaviors, three behavioral themes were identified that were present in at least 50% of the interviews. The three behavioral themes are: (a) communication behaviors, (b) showing care and concern behaviors, and (c) working within the school system. Based on the identified behavioral themes, competency standards for school social workers that may enhance their interactions with parents are suggested.