Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Profiling The Silver Surfers: Which Older Australians Are Using The Internet?, Pippa Burns, Sandra C. Jones, Donald C. Iverson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at the 10th national emerging researchers in ageing conference, 24-25 November 2011

The Impact Of Self-Efficacy On Asthma Management Amongst Older Australian Adults, Pippa Burns, Sandra C. Jones, Donald C. Iverson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Rationale: Australian asthma rates are high by international standards causing greatest mortality amongst older adults.

This paper looks at the relationships between perceived self-efficacy (belief in oneself) to manage the physical discomfort or pain caused by asthma and also the emotional distress caused by asthma and: reported health status; asthma quality of life for both mood and breathlessness; asthma management practices; and emergency health care use for asthma in adults aged 55 years and over.

Methods: A 20 page survey exploring the health beliefs, behaviours and attitudes of older Australians, was mailed to 9,000 people, (response rate = 46.8%). Participants …

Examining Brain-Cognition Effects Of Ginkgo Biloba Extract: Brain Activation In The Left Temporal And Left Prefrontal Cortex In An Object Working Memory Task, R B. Silberstein, A Pipingas, J Song, David Camfield, P J. Nathan, C Stough

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Ginkgo Biloba extract (GBE) is increasingly used to alleviate symptoms of age related cognitive impairment, with preclinical evidence pointing to a pro-cholinergic effect. While a number of behavioral studies have reported improvements to working memory (WM) associated with GBE, electrophysiological studies of GBE have typically been limited to recordings during a resting state. The current study investigated the chronic effects of GBE on steady state visually evoked potential (SSVEP) topography in nineteen healthy middle-aged (50-61 year old) male participants whilst completing an object WM task. A randomized double-blind crossover design was employed in which participants were allocated to receive 14 …

Neoliberalism And The Biophysical Environment 3: Putting Theory Into Practice, Noel Castree

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

There now exists a significant body of theoretically informed empirical research into 'neoliberal environments'. It comprises numerous studies which together explore the connections between neoliberal principles and policies, on the one side, and the biophysical world on the other. However, making sense of them is by no means straightforward, despite their common focus on neoliberal environments. It is currently left to readers of these studies to synthesize them into a wider, joined-up account of neoliberal environments. This and two companion articles aim for precisely this sort of broad and coherent understanding. The contribution of this third instalment is twofold. First, …

Association Between Physical Activity And Motor Skills And Coordination In Portuguese Children, Luis Lopes, Vitor Pires Lopes, Rute Santos, Beatriz Pereira

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Nowadays, there is growing evidence in literature that Health benefits from regular physical activity (PA). The variance in PA among children is caused by a number of factors including their motor abilities and coordination. The aim of the study was to analyse the relation between usual PA and gross motor abilities and motor coordination in children aged 6 to 7 years. The sample comprised 21 children, aged in average 6,38±0,50 years. Physical activity was accessed by accelerometry, gross motor abilities by using the Test of Gross Motor Development (TGMD-2) and motor coordination by using the Körperkoordination Test für Kinder (KTK). …

Seasonal Differences In Physical Activity And Sedentary Patterns: The Relevance Of The Pa Context, Pedro Silva, Rute Santos, Gregory Welk, Jorge Mota

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The aim of this pilot study was to characterize seasonal variationin the moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and sedentarybehavior of Portuguese school youth, and understand theinfluence of activity choices and settings. The participants inthis study were 24 students, aged 10-13 years. Accelerometersmeasured daily PA over 7 consecutive days, in different seasonsMay - June and January - February. In summer, boys accumulatedmore minutes in MVPA (928 minutes/week) than girls(793 minutes/week). In winter the pattern was reversed withgirls accumulating more activity than boys (736 minutes/weekvs. 598 minutes/week). The repeated measures ANOVA revealedsignificant effects for season (F = 5.98, p = 0.023) …

Parent-School Engagement: Exploring The Concept Of 'Invisible' Indigenous Parents In Three North Australian School Communities, Richard D. Chenhall, Catherine Holmes, Tess Lea, Kate Senior, Aggie Wegner

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This report explores school-­‐parent engagement in three town-­‐based schools in the Northern Territory of Australia. Undertaken over a three year period between 2008 and 2010, the research team worked in partnership with The Smith Family and participating schools— Karama Primary School in Darwin; Moulden Park Primary School in Palmerston; and MacFarlane Primary School in Katherine-to explore what parents have to say about the schools that their Indigenous children attend and about education more broadly.

The research applied an exploratory case study approach using a mix of ethnographic and interview techniques. We observed children, parents and school environments; interviewed parents, teachers, …

The Promise And Potential Of Botulinum Toxin-A: National Survey Of Therapy Practices, Bianca Kinnear, N Lannin, Anne Cusick

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract from the 22nd Stroke Society of Australasia Annual Scientific Meeting, 14-16 September 2011, Adelaide, Australia.

Research Round-Up 1981-2011, Anne Cusick

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Closing keynote address from the Occupational Therapy Australia 24th National Conference and Exhibition, 29 June - 1 July 2011, Gold Coast, Australia

Cold Pressor Stimulation Diminishes P50 Amplitude In Normal Subjects, Adam J. Woods, John W. Philbeck, Kenneth Chelette, Robert D. Skinner, Edgar Garcia-Rill, Mark Mennemeier

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The present study examined how cold pressor stimulation influences electrophysiological correlates of arousal. We measured the P50 auditory evoked response potential in two groups of subjects who immersed their foot in either cold (0-2 degreees Celsius) or room temperature (22-24 degreees Celsius) water for 50 seconds. The P50, which was recorded before and after stimulation, is sleep-state dependent and sensitive to states of arousal in clinical populations. We found a significant reduction in P50 amplitude after exposure to cold, but not room temperature water. In comparison with other studies, these results indicate that cold pressor stimulation in normal subjects may …

Phon: Free Software For Phonological Transcription And Analysis, Heather Buchan

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Software review - Phon is an open-source program for the transcription and analysis of phonological and phonetic data. It was designed to help systematize research in children’s phonological development, but many functions in Phon, particularly the powerful search function, can be used for a wide range of investigations in phonetics and phonology. Phon is compatible with other language processing programs and is not just limited to English, making it a useful tool for documenting and analyzing the phonological system of any spoken language.

The Type And Prevalence Of Activities Performed By Australian Children During The Lunchtime And After School Periods, Rebecca M. Stanley, Kate Ridley, Timothy Olds

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the most prevalent reported activities performed by Australian children during the lunchtime and after school periods; and estimate the mean duration of a typical bout of the most prevalent activities performed during the lunchtime and after school periods. Design: This study was a secondary data analysis of the 2007 Australian National Children's Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey. Method: Use of time data were collected from Australian children aged 10.0-13.9 years (n = 794) using the Multimedia Activity Recall for Children and Adults (MARCA). The most prevalent self-reported activities for the lunchtime …

It’S Time For Ronald Mcdonald To Hang Up The Red Wig, Sandra C. Jones

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

More than 550 international health professionals and organisations have signed a letter to McDonald’s calling for the Ronald McDonald icon to be shelved.

A Climate Of Ill Health, Noel Castree

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Book review of: CHANGING PLANET, CHANGING HEALTH: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do about It. Paul R. Epstein and Dan Ferber. xii + 355 pp. University of California Press, 2011. $29.95.

Shared Health Governance: The Potential Danger Of Oppressive "Healthism", Stacy M. Carter, Vikki A. Entwistle, Kirsten Mccaffery, Lucie Rychetnik

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

We share an interest in public health and in the capabilities approach developed by Amartya Sen, Martha Nussbaum, and others (Comim, Qizilbash, and Alkire 2008; Sen 2009; Nussbaum 1999), so were curious to see how Jennifer Prah Ruger would apply her "health capability paradigm" to health governance. The resulting model-shared health governance (SHG)-has real potential to promote justice in health in some contexts. However, based on the description provided in this issue (Ruger 2011), aspects of SHG seem at odds with important features of the capabilities approach. We suggest that SHG will better safeguard the freedoms of individuals-including their health …

Balance, Balancing And Health, Wendy Lipworth, Claire Hooker, Stacy M. Carter

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this article we explore the concept of balance in the context of health. We became interested in balance during a grounded theory study of lay conceptualizations of cancer risk in which participants were concerned with having a good life, which relied heavily on balancing processes. This led us to the qualitative literature about balance in the context of health, which was large and in need of synthesis. We identified 170 relevant studies and used Thomas and Harden's technique of thematic synthesis to identify key balance-related themes and develop these into more abstract analytic categories. We found that balance and …

Journal Peer Review In Context: A Qualitative Study Of The Social And Subjective Dimensions Of Manuscript Review In Biomedical Publishing, Wendy Lipworth, Ian Kerridge, Stacy M. Carter, Miles Little

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Peer- and editorial review of research submitted to biomedical journals ('manuscript review') is frequently argued to be essential for ensuring scientific quality and the dissemination of important ideas, but there is also broad agreement that manuscript review is often unsuccessful in achieving its goals. Problems with manuscript review are frequently attributed to the social and subjective dimensions of the process (e.g. bias and conflict of interest). While there have been numerous efforts to improve the process, these have had limited success. This may be because these efforts do not account sufficiently for all of the social and subjective dimensions of …

How To Do A Grounded Theory Study: A Worked Example Of A Study Of Dental Practices, Alexandra Sbaraini, Stacy M. Carter, R Wendell Evans, Anthony Blinkhorn

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Qualitative methodologies are increasingly popular in medical research. Grounded theory is the methodology most-often cited by authors of qualitative studies in medicine, but it has been suggested that many 'grounded theory' studies are not concordant with the methodology. In this paper we provide a worked example of a grounded theory project. Our aim is to provide a model for practice, to connect medical researchers with a useful methodology, and to increase the quality of 'grounded theory' research published in the medical literature.

Should Biomedical Publishing Be 'Opened-Up'? Towards A Values-Based Peer-Review Process, Wendy Lipworth, Ian Kerridge, Stacy M. Carter, Miles Little

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Peer review of manuscripts for biomedical journals has become a subject of intense ethical debate. One of the most contentious issues is whether or not peer review should be anonymous. This study aimed to generate a rich, empirically-grounded understanding of the values held by journal editors and peer reviewers with a view to informing journal policy. Qualitative methods were used to carry out an inductive analysis of biomedical reviewers' and editors' values. Data was derived from in-depth, open-ended interviews with journal editors and peer reviewers. Data was "read for" themes relevant to reviewer anonymisation and interactions among editors, reviewers, and …

Policy Research As Critical Praxis, Pauline M. Mcguirk

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In responding to Woods and Gardner's (2011) article, this piece positions policy research as a potentially rich site for critical praxis. It works through the possibilities around (i) negotiating the politics of policy research; (ii) the iterative and hybrid nature of policy research; and (iii) the internally differentiated nature of states. While remaining clear-eyed around the limits Woods and Gardner point to that shape collaborative work around policy, the article argues that policy research can be a site where the ethical and normative commitments of a critical agenda can be pursued. This requires that we recognise, first, policy research as …

Governing Social Reproduction In Masterplanned Estates: Urban Politics And Everyday Life In Sydney, Pauline M. Mcguirk, Robyn Dowling

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Critical urban research arising from the 'new urban politics' rich heritage has conventionally privileged the politics of accumulation and the city's downtown over the politics of social reproduction and everyday, residential spaces. This paper focuses on residential spaces and the politics involved in recasting everyday practices of social reproduction through private neighbourhood governance. Focusing on the masterplanned estates increasingly prevalent across Sydney's residential landscape, it explores the material practices and subjectivities shaped by these estates' contractual governance and the contours and limits to the formation of self-governing middle-class consumer citizens. The paper highlights a granular fabric to urban politics produced …

Infant Imitation From Televised Peer And Adult Models, Sabine Seehagen, Jane S. Herbert

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Developmental changes in learning from peers and adults during the second year of life were assessed using an imitation paradigm. Independent groups of 15- and 24-month-old infants watched a prerecorded video of an unfamiliar child or adult model demonstrating a series of actions with objects. When learning was assessed immediately, 15-month-old infants imitated the target actions from the adult, but not the peer whereas 24-month-old infants imitated the target actions from both models. When infants' retention was assessed after a 10-min delay, only 24-month-old infants who had observed the peer model exhibited imitation. Across both ages, there was a significant …

The Waitangi Tribunal And The Regulation Of Maori Protest, Juan M. Tauri, Robert Webb

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Much of the current academic and political discourse related the development and operations of the Waitangi Tribunal over its first twenty years portray it as a forum that provided Maori with a meaningful avenue for settling Treaty grievances compared to the formal legal systems performance in the preceding 100 years. In contrast, we argue that from its inception and throughout much of the 1980s, the Waitangi Tribunal functioned primarily as an informal justice forum that assisted the New Zealand state's regulation of Maori Treaty activism during the transition from a Fordist to a Post-Fordist mode of capital accumulation.

Validity And Reliability Of Farsi Version Of Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (Cmdq), H Afifehzadeh-Kashani, A Choobineh, Shahnaz Bakand, M R. Gohari, H Abbastabar, P Moshtaghi

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background and Aims Tools for evaluation of code discomfort are tools that can be used for the prevention of musculoskeletal discomfort in industrial settings. Musculoskeletal disorders are serious health cancern in the developed world. The Cornell Musculoskeletal Discomfort Questionnaire (CMDQ) that are designed to evaluate the musculoskeletal disorders by the time being, are translate in diverse languages and being implemented in many coun tries. However, CMDQ is not translated into Persian language in Iran. The aim of this study was to translate, accridate and validated the CMDQ in Persian version in order to implementation of this tool in Iran and …

Adolescent Sun Protection: An Examination Of The Prevalence Of Uv Exposure Indicators Among Brand Loyalty Segments, Melinda Williams, Sandra C. Jones, Donald C. Iverson, Peter Caputi

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

Increasing Awareness Of Sun Protection Among Australian Adolescents: Results Of A Community-Based Intervention, Sandra C. Jones, Melinda Williams, Peter Caputi, Donald C. Iverson

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

No abstract provided.

The Sydney Playground Project: Popping The Bubblewrap - Unleashing The Power Of Play: A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial Of A Primary School Playground-Based Intervention Aiming To Increase Children's Physical Activity And Social Skills, Anita C. Bundy, Geraldine A. Naughton, Paul Tranter, Shirley Wyver, Louise A. Baur, Wendy Schiller, Adrian E. Bauman, Lina Engelen, Jo Ragen, Tim Luckett, Anita Niehues, Gabrielle Stewart, Glenda Jessup, Jennie Brentnall

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Background In the Westernised world, numerous children are overweight and have problems with bullying and mental health. One of the underlying causes for all three is postulated to be a decrease in outdoor free play. The aim of the Sydney Playground Project is to demonstrate the effectiveness of two simple interventions aimed to increase children's physical activity and social skills. Methods/Design This study protocol describes the design of a 3-year cluster randomised controlled trial (CRCT), in which schools are the clusters. The study consists of a 13-week intervention and 1 week each of pre-and post-testing. We are recruiting 12 schools …

What Knowledge Exists In Nsw Schools Of Students With Learning Difficulties Who Are Also Academically Gifted?, Catherine Wormald

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Little or no empirical research on students who are gifted with learning difficulties has been conducted in Australia. This research investigated the knowledge teachers in New South Wales, Australia had of these students. A mixed methods approach was adopted involving surveys and interviews of teachers from primary and secondary schools across all education sectors. The study focussed on two issues: the teachers' knowledge of, and attitudes towards these students; and, the educational programs they implemented for these students. Demographics from the survey highlighted the lack of post-graduate training by teachers in both gifted education and learning difficulties. The findings showed …

A Tale Of Two Countries: Rethinking Sexual Risk For Hiv Among Young People In South Africa And The United States, Audrey Pettifor, Brooke Levandowski, Catherine L. Mac Phail, William Miller, Joyce Tabor, Carol Ford, Cheryl Stein, Helen Rees, Myron Cohen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Purpose

To compare the sexual behaviors of young people in South Africa (SA) and the United States (US) with the aim to better understand the potential role of sexual behavior in HIV transmission in these two countries that have strikingly different HIV epidemics.

Methods

Nationally representative, population-based surveys of young people aged 18–24 years from SA (n = 7,548) and the US (n = 13,451) were used for the present study.

Results

The prevalence of HIV was 10.2% in SA and <1% in the US. Young women and men in the US reported an earlier age of first sex than those in SA (mean age of coital debut for women: US [16.5], SA [17.4]; for men: US [16.4], SA [16.7]). The median number of lifetime partners is higher in the US than in SA: women: US (4), SA (2); men: US (4), SA (3). The use of condom at last sex is reported to be lower in the US than in SA: women: US (36.1%), SA (45.4%); men: US (48%), SA (58%). On average, young women in SA report greater age differences with their sex partners than young women in the US.

Conclusion

Young people in the US report riskier sexual behaviors than young people in SA, despite the much higher …

Continued High Risk Sexual Behavior Following Diagnosis With Acute Hiv Infection In South Africa And Malawi: Implications For Prevention, Audrey Pettifor, Catherine L. Mac Phail, Amy Corneli, Jabu Sibeko, Gift Kamanga, Nora Rosenberg, William Miller, Irving Hoffman, Helen Rees, Myron Cohen

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Understanding sexual behavior following diagnosis of acute HIV infection (AHI) is key to developing prevention programs targeting individuals diagnosed with AHI. We conducted separate qualitative and quantitative interviews with individuals newly diagnosed (n = 19) with AHI at 1-, 4- and 12-weeks post-diagnosis and one qualitative interview with individuals who had previously been diagnosed with AHI (n = 18) in Lilongwe, Malawi and Johannesburg, South Africa between October 2007 and June 2008. The majority of participants reported engaging in sexual activity following diagnosis with AHI with a significant minority reporting unprotected sex during this time. Most participants perceived to have …