Investigating the role of fan club membership on perceptions of team brand equity in football

Researchers have suggested that brand equity is vital for professional sport teams by focusing on the examination of sport fans in general. The current study aims to examine the differences in team brand equity perceptions between fan club members and nonmembers, and the predictive role of brand equity dimensions on behavioral intentions. Data were collected from fans of a professional football league (n = 2287) with an adapted version of the spectator-based brand equity scale. The results gathered through a confirmatory factor analysis provide evidence of fair psychometric properties of the measurement scale. A multi-group CFA analysis showed factorial stability of the model in both groups, while the latent mean comparisons revealed significant differences in the dimensions of brand mark, social interaction, commitment, team history, organizational attributes, team success, head coach, management, stadium, and internalization. In addition, a multi-group SEM analysis revealed that the relationships between brand equity dimensions and behavioral intentions are not significantly different among the groups. Social interaction, team success and internalization were the significant positive predictors of behavioral intentions among the overall sample. These findings highlight the importance of studying different types of consumers and suggest managerial implications, such as the need for clubs to establish reciprocal relationships with fans in order to increase their levels of internalization and contribute to increased behavioral intentions.

How teachers' perceptions affect the academic and language assessment of immigrant children

Recent research evidences inconsistencies in teachers' practice regarding skills assessment of L2 students. Scientific evidence supports that less experienced teachers have lower orientation toward multiple task-tests for non-native students. Research questions: Whether school teachers as having different teaching training and unequal teaching experience with non-native students perceive differently a four-skills scale. Purpose of the study: This study intends to analyse the importance degree between the four skills/tasks: reading, writing, speaking and listening, in the perspective of school teachers. Method: 77 teachers, aged 32-62, with (and without) experience in teaching and adapting materials for immigrant students, divided into six groups according to their scientific domain. Assessment tools included a scale for judgement of four academic tasks adapted from the original “Inventory of Undergraduate and Graduate Level: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening Tasks (Rosenfeld, Leung & Ottman, 2001). Main Findings: 1) different degrees of importance attributed by teachers on tasks that should be included in academic and language test for immigrant students; 2) perceptions of teachers are determined by predictors in this order: scientific domain, experience with multicultural classes and lower prediction from teaching service and age; 3) different results between american and portuguese samples answering the same questionnaire.

Adolescent’s subjective perceptions of chronic disease and related psychosocial factors: Highlights from an outpatient context study

Background: Adolescents with chronic disease (CD) can be more vulnerable to adverse psychosocial outcomes. This study aims: 1) to identify differences in psychosocial variables (health-related quality of life, psychosomatic complaints, resilience, self-regulation and social support) among adolescents who feel that CD affects or does not affect school/peers connectedness (measured by self-reported participation in school and social activities); and 2) to assess the extent to which psychosocial variables are associated with connectedness in school and peer domains. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 135 adolescents with CD (51.9% boys), average age of 14 ± 1. 5 years old (SD = 1.5). Socio-demographic, clinical, and psychosocial variables were assessed, using a self-reported questionnaire, which included the Chronic Conditions Short Questionnaire, KIDSCREEN-10 Index, Symptoms Check-List, Healthy Kids Resilience Assessment Module Scale, Adolescent Self-Regulatory Inventory, and Satisfaction with Social Support Scale. Descriptive statistics, GLM-Univariate ANCOVA and Logistic Regression were performed using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), version 22.0. The significance level was set at p < 0.05. Results: Thirteen to eighteen percent of the adolescents felt that CD affected participation at school (PSCH) and participation in leisure time with friends (PLTF). These adolescents presented lower results for all psychosocial study variables, when compared with adolescents who did not feel affected in both areas of participation. From the studied psychosocial variables, the most important ones associated with PSCH (after controlling for age, gender, diagnosis, and education level of father/mother) were self-regulation and psychosomatic health. Concerning the PLTF, social support was the sole variable explaining such association. Conclusions: The present study pointed out the association between psychosocial variables; and living with a CD and school/peers connectedness. The need to focus on the assessment of the effects of a CD on adolescents’ lives and contexts is suggested, as well as on the identification of vulnerable adolescents. Such identification could help to facilitate the maximization of social participation of adolescents with CD, and to plan interventions centered on providing support and opportunities for a healthy youth development. For that purpose, a complex and multifactorial approach that includes clinicians, schools, family, and peers may be proposed.