Eur. J. Investig. Health Psychol. Educ., Volume 10, Issue 4 (December 2020) – 18 articles

Accurate assessment of pain by health-care professionals is essential to ensure optimal management of pain. An under-researched area is whether personality characteristics affect perception of pain in others. The aims were (a) to determine whether individual differences are associated with participants’ ability to assess pain, and (b) to determine facial cues used in the assessment of pain. One hundred and twenty-eight undergraduate students participated. They completed questionnaire assessments of empathy, pain catastrophizing, sensory sensitivity and emotional intelligence. They then viewed and rated four adult facial images (no, medium, and high pain—12 images total) using a 0–10 numerical rating scale, and noted the reasons for their ratings. (a) Empathy was the only characteristic associated with accuracy of pain assessment. (b) Descriptions of eyes and mouth, and eyes alone were most commonly associated with assessment accuracy. This was the case despite variations in the expression of pain in the four faces. Future studies could evaluate the effect on accuracy of pain assessment of (a) training empathic skills for pain assessment, and (b) emphasizing attention to the eyes, and eyes and mouth. Full article

The attention to pupil diversity is still considered one of the main issues to solve in the current educational system. The objective of the study was to establish and analyze the differences between the knowledge and the use of ordinary and extraordinary measures in the attention to diversity from the point of view of compulsory secondary education teachers. A descriptive study was performed with a quantitative methodology, making use of a 452-teacher sample (Mean: 47, Standard Deviation: 8.42) using a survey. The results show a better understanding and frequency of use of the ordinary measures compared to the extraordinary ones. Results also maintain that among the most used we found the adequacy of the didactic planning as well as the support of the therapeutic pedagogy and language and auditory specialist. Moreover, the analysis reveals that the CMOEAD (ordinary and extraordinary measures for the attention to diversity) survey possesses psychometric properties which support its use in further studies. In conclusion, a better knowledge and use of ordinary and extraordinary measures in attention to diversity enables a forward leap in the quality and equity for pupils. Full article

(1) Background: The last few decades have seen researchers giving considerable attention to the physical context of early childhood care and development (ECCD) centers because many of the underlying processes that link physical context are quite similar to psychosocial environmental factors regarding child development. However, research on the physical environments, and the employees’ understanding of the importance of physical environments, is often underestimated. The purpose of this study was to assess the quality of the physical environments of ECCD centers in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana, and ascertain whether being a private or public center (center auspices) would be associated with the quality of its physical environment. A further inquiry into the educators’ understanding of the importance of physical environment on children’s developmental outcomes was made. (2) Methods: Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design, all 160 ECCD centers in the Cape Coast Metropolis were assessed using a modified version of the Children’s Physical Environment Rating Scale (CPERS) and a semi-structured interview guide. (3) Results: Descriptive statistics indicated that more than half of the ECCD centers, 56%, rated “fair” on the quality of their physical environment. Although the locations and sites of these centers were of good quality, other physical environmental characteristics (i.e., “Planning of the Centre”, “Building as a Whole” and “Outdoor Space”) of ECCD centers were also rated to be fair. A Chi-square test showed that center auspices (i.e., being private or public) were not significantly associated with the quality of the physical environments of the centers [χ²₍₂₎ = 2.490, p > 0.05], suggesting no significant difference between private and public ECCD centers in terms of the quality of their physical environment. A follow-up qualitative inquiry identified two themes as reasons why play yards in early years’ schools were not good: a ‘‘lack of funding” and “governmental support”. (4) Conclusions: Our findings suggest that the physical environments of ECCD centers are, to some extent, compromised. Stakeholders (e.g., Ghana Education Service, non-governmental/religious organizations, and private entrepreneurs) should help improve the quality of physical environments and also provide financial assistance for the provision of basic equipment (e.g., learning materials) for private and public ECCD centers in the Cape Coast Metropolis. Educators require in-service training to boost their in-depth understanding of the importance of physical environments on children’s developmental outcomes. Future studies could target children’s perceptions of their preschools’ physical environments as useful empirical information to help guide appropriate policy interventions. Full article

Future teachers will have to develop the reading habit in their students, as this is an essential factor in schoolchildren. The lack of reading motivation among young people and the need to have it in order to transmit it has been evidenced. Young people often prefer to spend their leisure time using alcohol and other drugs rather than reading books for pleasure. The factors that influence reading motivation are varied, but the objective of this research work focuses on establishing the relationship between reading motivation and the problematic use of alcohol and other drugs in future teachers of Preschool and Primary Education. A total of 178 subjects among university students were recruited (56.6% girls). The ages ranged from 18 to 34 (M = 21.59, SD = 3.52). The first scale used was the MULTICAGE CAD-4 for behavioral addiction together with a Scale for Characterizing Motivation for Academic Reading (EMLA). The results of the study indicate that those young people who were more involved in the consumption of alcohol and drugs had a lower reading habit. Likewise, the study also reveals significant mean differences in reading motivation based on gender and age. This shows the need to enact healthy habits from the university related to increasing reading motivation and promoting the reading habit in future teachers. Full article

The present study aimed to describe the predictive role of personality dimensions, learning approaches, and well-being in the academic performance of students. In total, 602 students participated in this cross-sectional study and completed a set of questionnaires assessing personality, learning approach, and well-being. Two indexes were calculated to assess affective and non-affective well-being. The results partially support the hypotheses formulated. Results revealed that personality temperament and character dimensions, deep learning approach, and affective well-being were significant predictors of academic performance. A deep approach to learning was a full and partial mediator of the relationship between personality and academic performance. The results improve the understanding of the differential contribution of personality, type of learning approach, and type of well-being to academic performance. Comprehending that personality is the strongest predictor of academic performance, after controlling the type of learning approach and the type of well-being, informs school policies and decision-makers that it is essential to encourage personality development in adolescents to improve academic performance. These results also have implications for educational policies and practices at various levels, including an emphasis on the role of well-being as an educational asset. Understanding the links between personality, well-being, and education is essential to conceptualize education as a vital societal resource for facing current and future challenges, such as sustainable development. Full article

Applying geographical knowledge in new contexts is a creative and difficult task for school pupils. However, creating text adventures with the open-source tool Twine may be one way to apply geographic knowledge, but there is currently no research that confirms this. We attempted to determine how pupils in small groups constructed text adventures in geography lessons, focused on the topic “Tourism in Myanmar: threat or opportunity”. We recorded the construction processes of 14 pupils audibly, organized into six teams, and analyzed their games. We found that the different text adventure construction activities between the groups had minimal differences. The groups predominantly asked questions and expressed ideas that used meta-conversation for organization and used agreements. These and other text adventure construction activities can help to specify a model of collaborative creativity. In addition, successful groups wrote geographical narratives with adverbs to emphasize the psychological proximity, rhetorical questions and feelings in their stories, and used more words than the others. The results suggest a focus of future research should be on developing a model for integrating geographical narrative skills into geography lessons and intensifying research about collaborative creativity. Full article

This study responds to the need to explore the individual characteristics that may help us to understand the levels of stress involved in the significant COVID-19-related restrictions to people’s daily lives. In order to understand levels of stress and stress control during the COVID-19 confinement, 1269 people from Spain (17.5% men) aged between 18 and 70 completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14). The results indicated that people aged under 40, and especially those under 25, women, and those on low incomes reported higher rates of confinement stress. The nature of where people live, and their working situation during confinement also contributed to people’s stress response, although with lower levels of impact. In this context, our study suggests that the levels of stress in those who combine remote working with in situ working were lower than those who had other working conditions. Our study contributes significant information to understanding the effects of confinement, and its results may be used to inform intervention tools and programs. Full article

Students with psychosis in school within the ordinary education system are a reality in the classroom. To study their correct adaptation at school, it is necessary to consider numerous factors such as the personal characteristics of the student, environmental variables, educational measures put in place as well as emotional and cognitive aspects. The aim of this research was to monitor the teaching–learning process of a student diagnosed with psychosis and enrolled in a public school at the secondary level in the ordinary modality with support during an academic year, with the usual resources provided by a guidance department to assess the impact of the educational measures and plans on his emotional and academic fields. This was a single case study in which both qualitative and quantitative information was collected (N = 1). The participant was a student with special needs at the secondary level. An analysis of the results of psychometric tests, plan for diversity, observational analysis, academic file, scholastic history, and multiple interviews were carried out. The findings show how the educational curriculum can be adapted to improve the competences of a student with psychosis by encouraging an increase in social abilities and potential cognitive abilities through the counseling department. The conclusions of this research can provide a guideline for comparison of different educational systems, paying greater attention to the development of emotional aspects, and opting for inclusive measures. In this line, this study shows that students with psychosis can share classrooms and studies with their peers, thus fulfilling the principle of educational inclusion. Full article

Communication is a crucial component in all steps of the health care process. Therefore, it is important to have knowledge about the communication skills of the whole health organization. From the socio-cognitive perspective, collective efficacy beliefs are the main indicators of the capacity of functioning of the system. This work aimed to contribute to the validation of the English version of Health Profession Communication Collective Efficacy Scale (HPCCE scale) a self-report questionnaire measuring hospital doctors’ beliefs to succeed as a group to meet the needs of internal and external communication and of communication with patients, examining the structure, reliability and convergent validity. This study was a cross-sectional investigation conducted using snowball sampling. The participants were 287 doctors working at different hospitals in UK. Explorative factor analyses and Rasch analysis confirmed the one-factor solution. Results revealed high internal reliability. The HPCCE scale correlated positively with Social Self-Efficacy. The English version of HPCCE is a valid instrument to measure communication efficacy beliefs in hospital, involving different type of doctors. It can contribute to the implementation and evaluation of management interventions in a health organization aimed at its optimization. Full article

In a social environment that requires young people to adapt to increasingly demanding situations, emotional education and creativity training may be key for both personal development and academic performance. Given that there are currently no known interventions that develop emotional and creative skills simultaneously in a youth population, the main objective of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate the Emotional Divergent–Convergent Thinking Program (EDICOP). The study design was quasi-experimental with a non-equivalent control group and pretest–posttest measures. The participants included 196 students between 16 and 24 years of age belonging to two centers of higher education. Our results showed that the EDICOP contributed to the improvement of the participants’ divergent-proactive style, positive affectivity, emotional predisposition, and attention, as well as to their preference for cognition. Overall, the EDICOP is, therefore, both relevant and useful, and further research on the mood–creativity link is merited to generate new contexts in higher education for the promotion of both the emotional and creativity dispositions and self-awareness, by combining three basic psychological processes (emotion, cognition, and motivation). Full article

(1) Background: Occupational stress is high in academia, and is partly related to time pressure. Mindfulness-based programs are known to be effective in reducing stress and increasing well-being. Recent work suggested that these programs may also improve time management. This study tested the effects of a mindfulness-based program on academics’ psychological flexibility, mental health, well-being, and time management. (2) Methods: The study was conducted in a French research department. Participants were offered to join a mindfulness-based program (n = 21) or to be on a wait-list control group (n = 22). Self-reported measures of psychological flexibility, mental health (stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms), well-being, and time use were collected before and after the eight week program. (3) Results: Results showed that psychological flexibility, mental health, well-being, and efficient time use significantly increased in the intervention group compared to the control condition. (4) Conclusions: The results suggested that the mindfulness-based programs were effective in improving adaptive functioning, well-being, and optimal time use in academia, thus underlining potential useful perspectives to help academics improve mental health and time management. Full article

Depression is a recognized mental health problem in adolescence and body dissatisfaction is an important risk factor. The main goal of this study is to examine the relationship between body dissatisfaction and depressive symptoms, and whether it depends on adolescents’ weight status, an issue that remains understudied. Two hundred and fourteen adolescents (12–16 years) completed self-report measures of depressive symptoms, body dissatisfaction and weight status (i.e., current body weight and height, to compute body mass index z-scores, BMIz). Hierarchical multiple regression and moderation analyses were conducted, accounting for gender and age effects on depressive symptoms. Body dissatisfaction was found to be a predictor of depressive symptoms for the low and median BMIz adolescents, but not for those with high BMIz. In addition, this interaction of body dissatisfaction and BMIz improved the ability of the regression model to explain depressive symptoms´ variance beyond the effect of gender and age. The high-BMIz adolescents presented higher body dissatisfaction but similar levels of depressive symptoms, compared to the lower BMIz adolescents. These findings suggest the influence of body dissatisfaction in the emergence of depressive symptoms in the first half of adolescence, and the importance of weight status throughout this path. Full article

Objective: To study the effect of check width size of the stimuli on the amplitude and latency of the P100 component of visual evoked potentials recorded in patients with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Methods: Pattern reversal visual evoked potentials (PVEPs) were recorded in 16 RP patients and 20 visually normal subjects. Pattern reversal stimuli with five different check widths and 100% of contrast were projected in the right eye of both patients and control subjects. PVEPs induced by stimuli with 78%, 16%, and 6% of contrast were also recorded in 10 of the control subjects. Results: In RP patients, the amplitude of P100 was smaller than controls in all check sized used and the peak P100 amplitude was obtained with a larger check width than in controls. P100 was also delayed in RP patients in all check sizes studied. The P100 amplitude- and latency-check size functions of RP patients were like those found in control subjects with low contrast stimuli of 16% and 6%. Conclusion: The PVEPs spatial functions of RP patients show quantitative and qualitative changes, suggesting disease induced alteration in the neural processing of stimulus contrast. Full article

The objective of this study was to review the existing international literature on research and programs for the reduction of disruptive behavior in primary school students. For this purpose, according to PRISMA-ScR, a mixed systematic review was performed in six databases in order to obtain wide and extensive information related to the subject under study. The studies obtained were analyzed through a table which emphasized the data related to: Author(s), year, educational stage, location, objectives, instruments, and results. As for the selection of studies, the UNESCO Thesaurus and the ERIC Thesaurus terminology was used. In addition to specifying the search for studies performed between 2004 and 2020 (both inclusive), articles written in Spanish and English were selected. Furthermore, in a final phase among the articles analyzed, those that were not or did not contain intervention programs were discarded. Therefore, a total of thirty-five articles out of more than twenty thousand were analyzed in depth. The results showed that a majority of programs were implemented in the primary education stage, as well as a predominance of the use of instruments, such as questionnaires and observation charts. In addition, it is important to underline that 77.14% of the programs analyzed were effective, hence, they met the proposed objectives. In summary, although the number of intervention programs for the reduction of disruptive behavior that can be found in the international scientific literature is growing, there is still a long way to go in order to create a large network that can serve as a foundation for interventions in primary education students. Full article

Nowadays, audiovisual media technologies and audiovisual content (audiovisual media communications) play an important role in our physical/psychological health, education, and lifelong learning, causing the redefinition of the teaching methodology. As presented in the literature, the use of audiovisual media communications presuppose a new way of approaching effective teaching, which requires the educators on all educational levels and disciplines to display with competence many advanced skills and abilities. The aim of this research is to provide data that will contribute to the effective teaching utilizing audiovisual media communications in adult education. This research is a secondary research from two researches, which are qualitative and based on a quantitative method of analyzing. The primary data were collected through experiment method from adults (18 years and older), in Cyprus and Greece. The results confirm the current debate of using audiovisual media technologies within the educational process in technology-enhanced learning in education, both from the literature, and from the findings and results of various researches. This research is part of a larger, ongoing research that explores the multidisciplinary field that incorporates media, audiovisual content, and education (MACE), information and communications technologies (ICTs) in adult education (in Greece and Cyprus). Full article

Cyberbullying is a significant problem among school-aged youth. Cyberbullying peaks in middle school with 33% of middle school students reporting cyberbullying victimization and more than 50% reporting witnessing cyberbullying as bystanders. Although the association between cyberbullying victimization and internalizing symptoms is well documented, there is limited research examining the impact of witnessing cyberbullying on bystanders. To assess differences in internalizing symptoms between cyberbullying bystanders and non-bystanders, a school-based cross-sectional study was conducted among middle school students (6th–8th grade) in the United States (N = 130; 57.4% female; 42.6% male). Questionnaire data were analyzed using multivariate analysis of co-variance (MANCOVA) with three outcome variables (depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms) and the between-subject factor bystander status (bystander, non-bystander). We controlled for witnessing school bullying to examine the unique effect of witnessing cyberbullying on internalizing symptoms. Results of the MANCOVA indicated a significant effect for cyberbullying bystander status (p < 0.04). Post hoc analyses demonstrated that bystanders reported significantly higher levels of depression (p < 0.05), anxiety (p < 0.02), and somatic symptoms (p < 0.01) than non-bystanders. Findings suggest that programs to support students who witness cyberbullying are needed to reduce the mental health risks associated with being a cyberbullying bystander. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the lives of people worldwide. In this study, we assessed the burden of stress during the pandemic and its relationship with eating practices in a national random sample of American adults. Data were collected using an online survey and the participants were asked about their demographic characteristics, perceived stress, and eating practices in April 2020. Compared to their counterparts, average stress scores were statistically significantly higher for racial and ethnic minority individuals, those who were employed part-time, were single, lived in the Midwest, and were ≤35 years of age. More than one-tenth of the participants reported practicing more unhealthy eating practices during the pandemic lockdowns: fasting (16%), restricting eating (20%), skipping meals (25%), and overeating (39%). Concerning the overall perception of diet, nearly a third reported that their diet had worsened during the pandemic (31%). In adjusted and unadjusted analyses after controlling for demographic characteristics, stress scores were statistically significantly higher for those engaging in unhealthy eating practices and those who reported that their diet had worsened. Policymakers and public health practitioners should redouble their efforts in preventing morbidity and premature mortality by implementing interventions that address the multiple detrimental stressors of the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

Malnutrition poses a significant problem for oncology patients, resulting in fatalities within this population. Patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) are at high risk, with up to 90% developing malnutrition. Common treatments used for HNC can often lead to adverse side effects, including oral health conditions, gastrointestinal upsets, and several metabolic changes. Consequently, treatments can cause inadequate nutritional intake, resulting in a reduction in energy consumption, and alterations in energy utilization, contributing to the development of malnutrition. Furthermore, the presence of these treatment toxicities, and the related malnutrition can lead to reduced quality of life, weight loss, and psychological distress. There are interventions available (nutritional, medicinal, and physical therapies) that have demonstrated potential effectiveness in reducing the severity of symptomatic toxicities, reducing the risk of malnutrition, and improving survival outcomes of patients with HNC. Based on the findings of this review, there is an urgent need for the implementation or continuation of multi-disciplinary strategies, as well as updated and improved guidelines to assist in the prevention and treatment of malnutrition caused by treatment-related toxicities in patients with HNC. Full article