Motivation,opportunity, and ability: Understanding new habits and changes adopted for weight management

As obesity rates continue to rise, both effective prevention and treatment programs are urgently required. Combating obesity requires weight management programs that are accessible and scalable to large numbers of people. There is growing evidence that commercial programs, which combine behavior change techniques with the key motivators for changing habits, are effective as the first line in helping people adopt healthier dietary and activity patterns. In particular, digital programs have the potential to provide a service to large numbers of people, be widely accessible and cost effective for the individual. However, to date, digital programs have been relatively under‐utilized and under‐evaluated. There is little published evidence on the performance of programs on a large scale, outside of partnerships with primary care, where participants self‐refer and pay a nominal fee. The purpose of the following study was to examine the interrelated effect of motivation, opportunity, and ability on the behavioral outcomes of a digital commercial weight management program. To address this aim, a thematic content analysis of participants' qualitative responses to habits learned and changes adopted was conducted. Findings reveal that habits learned and changes adopted as a result of participating in the program influence not only weight loss outcomes but other health and well‐being outcomes as well.     

Economic equity and people with disabilities: Development and characterization of a novel index

Here, we develop two new social indices: the ADA PARC Absolute Economic Opportunity Index and the ADA PARC Relative Economic Opportunity Index. These indices allow us novel examinations of economic equity between people with and without disabilities within a U.S. state and between people with disabilities in different states using aggregations of multiple component economic indicators. These represent the first efforts to offer U.S. indices of this focus, an important development given the distinct economic needs of people with disabilities and the value in accounting for distinct national policies. The indices rely on U.S. Census and other data on economic opportunity by population. These indices provide comprehensive insight into economic disparities between people with and without disabilities and among people with disabilities in the United States. We find that state/territory values for the two indices are moderately positively correlated, suggesting that relative and absolute economic opportunity for people with disabilities arise from both common and distinct processes. Policy implications for low economic opportunity states are discussed.     

Barriers to Banking: A Mixed‐Methods Investigation of Previously Incarcerated Individuals' Banking Perceptions and Financial Knowledge

Minimal research currently exists on the financial aspects, including financial knowledge and capability, that impact previously incarcerated individuals. However, the reality is that many currently and previously incarcerated individuals have never interacted with financial services and, if they have, they had limited exposure. The focus of the current research study was to examine previously incarcerated individuals' banking perceptions, banking behaviors, and financial knowledge by employing a mixed methodology using a sequential explanatory design. Across case analyses discovered three themes of (a) barriers to banking, (b) prudency of banking, and (c) confidence versus trepidation. The findings in this study provide implications for financial institutions and policymakers and suggested solutions are addressed.     

When less is more: the impact of macro and micro social media influencers’ disclosure

ABSTRACT

There are growing discussions of social media influencers and their effectiveness in endorsing products. Further, recent policy regulations are requiring social media influencers to disclose sponsored content when using a form of native advertising. This research examined the effect of macro-influencers (high likes) and micro-influencers (low likes) and their disclosure of native advertising sponsorship on consumer evaluations of products. Results from a 2 × 2 experiment first show that consumers exposed to the micro-influencer condition report higher levels of product knowledge, and consumers exposed to the disclosure condition reported the products endorsed by social media influencers to be more attractive. The results also show that when exposed to micro-influencers who disclose, consumers have higher levels of purchase intentions than when exposed to macro-influencers who do not disclose, as well as higher purchase intentions than for posts where sponsorship is not disclosed by influencers. The important findings of this research for theory, practice and policy are discussed.     

A document analysis of drowning prevention education resources in the United States

There have been long-standing calls to better educate the public at large on risks of drowning; yet limited evaluation has taken place on current resources in circulation. The purpose of this qualitative research is to develop an understanding of the content in currently circulated drowning prevention resources in the United States. Data points (n = 451) consisting of specific content within 25 different drowning prevention educational resources were analyzed using document analysis methods; a grounded theory approach was employed to allow for categorical development and indexing of the data. Results revealed six emerging categories, including safety precautions (n = 152), supervision (n = 109), preventing access (n = 57), safety equipment (n = 46), emergency procedures (n = 46), and aquatic education (n = 41). Results provide an initial insight into the composition of drowning prevention resources in the United States and provide a foundation for future research.     

Farmers,institutions and technology in agricultural change processes: outcomes from Adaptive Research on rice production in Sulawesi,Indonesia

International agricultural research centres use approaches which aim to create effective linkages between the practices of farmers, introduced technologies and the wider environment that affects farming. This paper argues that such new approaches require a different type of monitoring as a complement to conventional approaches that tend to favour a quantitative assessment of adoption and impact at the farm level. In this context, we examined monitoring data from an Adaptive Research (AR) project highlighting complementary qualitative analysis. Our emphasis is to capture the improvisational capacities of farmers and to reveal social and institutional constraints and opportunities in a broader innovation system. Our approach provided clear insights into how rice farmers adjusted their practices and how actors involved linked (or not) with others in the innovation system. We also demonstrated how institutions such as policies, religious rituals or service provider arrangements pose conditions that establish or constrain practices aligned with introduced technologies. A broader perspective in monitoring AR therefore provides important additional insights into the factors which shape outcomes in farming communities. To expand outcomes, AR projects should also pay attention to designing and testing new institutional arrangements that create enabling conditions for agricultural innovation.     

Judith Butler on performativity and precarity: exploratory thoughts on gender and violence in India

Abstract

We turn to the philosopher and gender theorist Judith Butler for insight into how gender performativity (acting and actions restricted by gender norms) affects identity and thus individual agency. Gender performativity underlies the prevailing conceptualisation of women in India as being lesser. We anticipated that the extreme divide between wealth and poverty and higher and lower castes would affect women’s vulnerability. Yet, while lower class/caste women are undeniably at greater risk of sexual assault, even women of higher social status similarly embody ‘precarity’: a life lived without predictability, and thus without security. While structural changes have encouraged increased agentic performativity among women in India, a culture of condoned sexual violence is nonetheless an ongoing and horrifying reality.     

Conceptual blending in advertising

Conceptual blending occurs at the moment of perception and creates new meanings out of existing ways of thinking. Analysis of data collected in phenomenological interviews reveals the blending processes consumers use to “make sense” of advertisements. We recognize subtle similarities and differences between metaphor and blending, and examine their occurrence in three types of blending networks in ads.