International note: Prediction of mathematics work ethic and performance from behavioral,normative, and control beliefs among Qatari adolescents

Over half-a-million adolescents take part in each cycle of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Yet often, researchers and policy makers across the globe tend to focus their attention primarily on the academic trajectories of adolescents hailing from highly successful education systems. Hence, a vast majority of the adolescent population who regionally and globally constitute the ‘long tail of underachievement’ often remain unnoticed and underrepresented in the growing literature on adolescents' academic trajectories. The present study, therefore, explored the relations of dispositions toward mathematics, subjective norms in mathematics, and perceived control of success in mathematics to mathematics work ethic as well as mathematics performance; and the mediational role of mathematics work ethic in the association between dispositional, normative, and control beliefs and mathematics performance among adolescents in one of the lowest performing education systems, Qatar. Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that Qatari adolescents' dispositional, normative, and control beliefs about mathematics were significantly associated with their mathematics work ethic and mathematics performance, and mathematics work ethic significantly mediated the relationship between dispositional, normative, and control beliefs about mathematics and mathematics performance. However, multi-group SEM analyses indicated that these relationships were not invariant across the gender and the SES groups.     

Curbing the urge to care: A Bourdieusian analysis of the effect of the caring disposition on nurse middle managers’ clinical leadership in patient safety practices

BackgroundNurse managers play an important role in implementing patient safety practices in hospitals. However, the influence of their professional background on their clinical leadership behaviour remains unclear. Research has demonstrated that concepts of Bourdieu (dispositions of habitus, capital and field) help to describe this influence. It revealed various configurations of dispositions of the habitus in which a caring disposition plays a crucial role.ObjectivesWe explore how the caring disposition of nurse middle managers’ habitus influences their clinical leadership behaviour in patient safety practices.DesignOur paper reports the findings of a Bourdieusian, multi-site, ethnographic case study.SettingsTwo Dutch and two American acute care, mid-sized, non-profit hospitals.ParticipantsA total of 16 nurse middle managers of adult care units.MethodsObservations were made over 560 h of shadowing nurse middle managers, semi-structured interviews and member check meetings with the participants.ResultsWe observed three distinct configurations of dispositions of the habitus which influenced the clinical leadership of nurse middle managers in patient safety practices; they all include a caring disposition: (1) a configuration with a dominant caring disposition that was helpful (via solving urgent matters) and hindering (via ad hoc and reactive actions, leading to quick fixes and ‘compensatory modes’); (2) a configuration with an interaction of caring and collegial dispositions that led to an absence of clinical involvement and discouraged patient safety practices; and (3) a configuration with a dominant scientific disposition showing an investigative, non-judging, analytic stance, a focus on evidence-based practice that curbs the ad hoc repertoire of the caring disposition.ConclusionsThe dispositions of the nurse middle managers’ habitus influenced their clinical leadership in patient safety practices. A dominance of the caring disposition, which meant ‘always’ answering calls for help and reactive and ad hoc reactions, did not support the clinical leadership role of nurse middle managers. By perceiving the team of staff nurses as pseudo-patients, patient safety practice was jeopardized because of erosion of the clinical disposition. The nurse middle managers’ clinical leadership was enhanced by leadership behaviour based on the clinical and scientific dispositions that was manifested through an investigative, non-judging, analytic stance, a focus on evidence-based practice and a curbed caring disposition.     

Current practices of oocyte donation in France and Europe

This review aims to evaluate, in France, oocyte donation, an assisted reproductive technique (ART), for which 25 years of experience have shown its efficacy for the palliative treatment of infertility caused by ovarian exocrine failure. Its indications have since been expanded to cover certain genetic diseases and document failures of other ART attempts. Oocyte donation is performed within the framework of French legislation - bioethics laws 94-653 and 94-654 of 29 July 1994, and the revised bioethics law 2004-800 of 6 August 2004. Its main fundamental principles are: voluntary, free, anonymous donation, for which regulated confidentiality is assured and now - judicial decree 2004-606 of 24 June 2004 - and the synchronization of donor-recipient cycles with fresh embryo transfer in accordance with established safety procedures. According to the 2004 results of the French Group for the Study of Oocyte Donation (GEDO) for French centers actively involved in ART, the chance of pregnancy was increased to 43.4% for synchronized cycles with fresh embryo transfers versus 18.7% for deferred cycles with frozen-thawed embryos (P<0.01). In addition, follow-up studies reported the excellent family relationships and physical and psychological development of these children. The major difficulties encountered in the daily practice of oocyte donation concern the recruitment and management of donors, but also, and above all, the lack of optimal means to exercise this medical specialty, due to the lack of recognition of the organizational duties incurred, which are the cornerstone of the character-specific functioning of this type of ART. In comparison, we foresee that the discrepancies of this ART practice in Europe, with it differential facets, will lead to medical nomadism for those couples financially able to do so, when national conditions of access fail because of prohibitions but also as a consequence of insufficient means to perform the inherent tasks. Today, it seems essential to provide information on the particularity and practice of oocyte donation required for the comprehension of its obligations for the different players with the aim of obtaining the means necessary for the perpetuation of its practice.     

Commentaire épistémologique à propos d’une approche interdisciplinaire du corps amputé appareillé

This comment of Valentine Gourinat's research note “From the reconstituted body to the reconfigured body. For an ethical understanding of prosthetics in the age of techno-enchantment” addresses the specific issues of interdisciplinary research, particularly in the field of disability. The aim will be to examine the links between the academic space of knowledge and the researcher's relationship to “his” object in research on disability.     

Assessing the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory.

The purpose of this study was to: (1) translate the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) from English to Chinese; (2) ascertain the reliability and validity of Chinese CCTDI; and (3) assess the psychometric equivalencies across Chinese and English versions of the CCTDI. The CCTDI was designed to measure critical thinking dispositions of truth-seeking, open-mindedness, analyticity, systematicity, inquisitiveness, self-confidence and maturity, which has been approved with a significant difference from prior conceptualizations of critical thinking dispositions. It is the only measurement that has been validated to measure critical thinking disposition and is appropriate for use in nursing. Based on translation theory, the comparative study goal precisely matched with the strategy of decentered translation. The CCTDI was translated in multiple stages and back translated by a panel of bilingual experts. Content validity index (CVI) ranged from 0.50 to 0.80, with an overall CVI of 0.85. Pearson r ranged from 0.33 to 0.79, with an overall correlation of 0.79, indicating that evidence for stability in truth-seeking, open-mindedness and self-confidence existed. To ascertain internal consistency reliability and construct validity, monolingual samples were obtained from 214 and 196 undergraduate nursing students from Taiwan and the USA, respectively. For the Chinese CCTDI, subscale alphas ranged from 0.34 to 0.73, with an overall alpha of 0.71. For the English CCTDI, subscale alphas ranging from 0.52 to 0.73 and an overall alpha of 0.71 were obtained. In terms of a confirmatory factor analysis with LInear Structural RELationships (LISREL), the results indicate that evidence for construct validity existed for truth-seeking, open-mindedness, systematicity, and maturity for the Chinese CCTDI. After allowing some error to exist and deleting three items, evidence for construct validity existed for the remaining subscales. The results of the psychometric equivalencies across Chinese and English CCTDI showed similarity for content validity and reliability for inquisitiveness. In terms of multisample analysis, there were equal forms across all subscales of the two versions. Consequently, although the translation adequacy of the Chinese CCTDI needs to be improved, there is evidence that it is useful for evaluating critical thinking dispositions.     

Substance use, injury, and risk-taking dispositions in the general population

Alcohol consumption has been found to be associated with injury occurrence and with risk-taking dispositions, and these dispositions, themselves, have been found to be associated with injury. Few studies have analyzed both alcohol consumption and risk-taking dispositions, or illicit drug use, on risk of injury across all types of injuries. Data on risk perception, risk-taking/impulsivity, sensation seeking, alcohol and drug use, demographic characteristics, and injury in the last year are reported from the 1995 National Alcohol Survey of 4925 respondents living in households in the 48 contiguous states. Moderate drinking, alcohol treatment, drug use, simultaneous use of alcohol and drugs, and risk-taking dispositions were all positively associated with reporting an injury. In multiple logistic regression, only risk-taking dispositions maintained significance when other variables were controlled. In separate regressions by ethnicity, risk-taking dispositions were significant predictors of injury for whites, whereas none of the variables were significant for blacks or Hispanics. Data suggest that risk-taking dispositions may be more important predictors of injury than either drinking or drug use variables, but this may vary by ethnicity. Risk-taking disposition may influence the effectiveness of strategies to reduce alcohol-related injuries; future research is important, therefore, for informing intervention and prevention efforts.