Browsing by Subject "Behaviors"

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Behavior change interventions: the potential of ontologies for advancing science and practice
    (Springer Nature, 2017-02) Larsen, Kai R.; Michie, Susan; Hekler, Eric B.; Gibson, Bryan; Spruijt-Metz, Donna; Ahern, David; Cole-Lewis, Heather; Bartlett Ellis, Rebecca J.; Hesse, Bradford; Moser, Richard P.; Yi, Jean; School of Nursing
    A central goal of behavioral medicine is the creation of evidence-based interventions for promoting behavior change. Scientific knowledge about behavior change could be more effectively accumulated using "ontologies." In information science, an ontology is a systematic method for articulating a "controlled vocabulary" of agreed-upon terms and their inter-relationships. It involves three core elements: (1) a controlled vocabulary specifying and defining existing classes; (2) specification of the inter-relationships between classes; and (3) codification in a computer-readable format to enable knowledge generation, organization, reuse, integration, and analysis. This paper introduces ontologies, provides a review of current efforts to create ontologies related to behavior change interventions and suggests future work. This paper was written by behavioral medicine and information science experts and was developed in partnership between the Society of Behavioral Medicine's Technology Special Interest Group (SIG) and the Theories and Techniques of Behavior Change Interventions SIG. In recent years significant progress has been made in the foundational work needed to develop ontologies of behavior change. Ontologies of behavior change could facilitate a transformation of behavioral science from a field in which data from different experiments are siloed into one in which data across experiments could be compared and/or integrated. This could facilitate new approaches to hypothesis generation and knowledge discovery in behavioral science.
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    Cancer‐related knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors among Hispanic/Latino residents of Indiana
    (Wiley, 2023) Espinoza-Gutarra, Manuel R.; Rawl, Susan M.; Maupome, Gerardo; O'Leary, Heather A.; Valenzuela, Robin E.; Malloy, Caeli; Golzarri-Arroyo, Lilian; Parker, Erik; Haunert, Laura; Haggstrom, David A.
    Background: Cancer is the leading cause of death for Hispanics in the USA. Screening and prevention reduce cancer morbidity and mortality. Methods: This study administered a cross‐sectional web‐based survey to self‐identified Hispanic residents in the state of Indiana to assess their cancer‐related knowledge, beliefs, and behaviors, as well as to identify what factors might be associated with cancer screening and prevention. Chi‐square and Fisher's exact test were used to compare associations and logistic regression used to develop both univariate and multivariate regression models. Results: A total of 1520 surveys were completed, median age of respondents was 53, 52% identified as men, 50.9% completed the survey in Spanish, and 60.4% identified the USA as their country of birth. Most were not able to accurately identify ages to begin screening for breast, colorectal, or lung cancer, and there were significant differences in cancer knowledge by education level. US‐born individuals with higher income and education more often believed they were likely to develop cancer and worry about getting cancer. Sixty eight percent of respondents were up‐to‐date with colorectal, 44% with breast, and 61% with cervical cancer screening. Multivariate models showed that higher education, lack of fatalism, older age, lower household income, and unmarried status were associated with cervical cancer screening adherence. Conclusions: Among a Hispanic population in the state of Indiana, factors associated with cervical cancer screening adherence were similar to the general population, with the exceptions of income and marital status. Younger Hispanic individuals were more likely to be adherent with breast and colorectal cancer screening, and given the higher incidence of cancer among older individuals, these results should guide future research and targeted outreach.
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    Drinking and driving: a pilot study of subjective norms, attitudes and behaviors of German and American students
    (2014-11-13) Slagle, Bianca Annaliese; Goering, Elizabeth M.; Rhodes, Nancy; Shin, YoungJu
    Drinking and driving is increasingly becoming a detrimental behavior, especially amongst college-aged students in the U.S. and other countries. Additionally, research shows that college-age students in the U.S. are more likely to drink and drive, than college-age students in Germany. Fishbein and Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action asserts that subjective norms and attitudes signify behavioral intentions. In order to test the TRA and understand the drinking and driving differences and similarities in the U.S. and Germany, focus groups of German and American college-age students were conducted to discuss subjective norms and attitudes surrounding drinking and driving behaviors, followed up by an electronic pilot study survey regarding same. The data collected illustrated that college-age drinking and driving is occurs more frequently in the U.S., and that American and German students differ in their attitudes and subjective norms surrounding drinking and driving. Future research would benefit the continued use and circulation of the electronic surveys for larger cross-cultural samples of college-age students to more effectively and quantitatively assess actual drinking and driving behaviors as it relates to subjective norms and attitudes, as suggested in the TRA.
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    What about the Supervisor? The Role of Supervisor Implicit Person Theory and Behaviors in Appraisal Interviews
    (2019-05) Drawbaugh, Montana L.; Williams, Jane R.; Stockdale, Margaret S.; Porter, Christopher O. L. H.
    Supervisors are the primary drivers of performance management; however, little is known about factors that influence their implementation of these systems. The purpose of this study was to investigate how a supervisor individual difference—implicit person theory (IPT)—differentially predicts supervisor behaviors during, as well as both supervisor and employee reactions to appraisal interviews. In Study 1, MBA students reported their supervisors’ behaviors during their most recent performance appraisal interview (Time 1) as well as their subsequent reactions (i.e., perceived satisfaction, utility, success, supervisor support; Time 2). Their supervisors completed a measure assessing their own IPT (Time 3). Findings suggest that supervisors’ task-oriented behaviors predicted perceived satisfaction, utility, and success of the appraisal interviews, while supervisor’ relational-oriented behaviors predicted perceived supervisor support. In Study 2, supervisors recruited via MTurk completed all measures from Study 1 except perceived success. Results suggest that IPT was positively related to task-oriented behaviors and perceived utility, task-oriented behaviors mediated the relationship between IPT and all three reaction measures (i.e., perceived satisfaction, utility, and supervisor support), and relational-oriented behaviors significantly predicted supervisors’ perceived support. Overall, findings suggest that supervisors who believe people can change (hold a more incremental IPT) display more task-oriented behaviors during and see more utility in appraisal interviews. Additionally, task-oriented behaviors emerged as the key mechanism linking supervisors’ IPT and reactions to appraisal interviews. These findings demonstrate that supervisor individual differences, such as IPT, can influence performance appraisal and management outcomes.
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    Women’s Individual and Relationship-Level Attitudes and Behaviors Regarding Solo Masturbation and Vibrator Use
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Sherrow, Ashley R.; Hensel, Devon J.
    Background: Both public health and developmental literature emphasize the importance of solo masturbation as one component in healthy sexuality, particularly for women. However, few studies have examined how the context of a woman’s sexual/romantic relationship may impact both her attitudes towards and her frequency of solo masturbation, particularly in terms of vibrator use. Better understanding of this context has important implications for sexual health education and intervention efforts. Methods: Data were drawn from a larger internet-based, cross-sectional survey examining adult men’s and women’s health and life experiences. For the current study, we retained all female participants (N=113; Mean Age=29.37 years [SD=9.91]). Outcome measures included solo masturbation and vibrator use attitudes and behaviors; independent variables were perception of partner's knowledge of and comfort with participant’s masturbation and vibrator use, sexual entitlement, and sexual openness. Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations, were utilized to describe and understand the relationships among variables of interest (SPSS, v.22.0 (all p<.05). Results: Of the 113 participants, 76.0% (n=85) identified as being in some form of established sexual/romantic relationship. 54.7% (n=52) of participants had ever used a vibrator, while 38.9% (n=37) described themselves as current vibrator users. A majority of participants (62.3%, n=66) indicated that they masturbate a few times per month or more, with 50.0% (n=26) of vibratorusers indicating that they use a vibrator almost every time or every time they masturbate. 42.9% (n=39) of participants described themselves as being completely comfortable with their partner’s masturbation habits, and 59.8% (n=52) described their partner as either somewhat or completely comfortable with the participant’s masturbation. 60.5% (n=55) of participants indicated that they felt either somewhat or completely comfortable discussing masturbation with their partner. 85.7% (n=42) of vibrator-users indicated that their partner knew about their vibrator use, and 66.0% (n=33) felt their partner was either somewhat or completely comfortable with their vibrator use. Considering participants both with and without current partners, greater sense of sexual entitlement was associated with more positive attitudes about masturbation and vibrator use (R=0.758), as well as greater frequency of masturbation (R=0.455). Higher frequency of masturbation also correlated with more positive attitudes about masturbation and vibrator use (R=.381) and greater sexual openness (R=.266). Regarding the relationship context, partner knowledge of vibrator use was positively associated with greater frequency of vibrator use for solo masturbation (R=.361). Greater comfort discussing masturbation with a partner was correlated with more positive perception of partner’s comfort with the participant’s masturbation (R=.389), which in turn was positively associated with greater participant comfort with their partner’s masturbation habits (R=.300). Conclusion: Solo masturbation and vibrator use for masturbation are common among adult women, even when they are in established sexual/romantic relationships. Positive perceptions of a partner’s comfort with masturbation and vibrator use, as well as open sexual communication, may contribute to developing a sex-positive relationship environment that is supportive of women’s solo sex activities. Our findings provide potential avenues for revising existing sexual health and therapeutic interventions for women (with or without a partner).