Feasibility trial of a film-based educational intervention for increasing boy's and girl's intentions to avoid teenage pregnancy: study protocol

The World Health Organisation, amongst others, recognises that adolescent men have a vital yet neglected role in reducing teenage pregnancies and that there is a pressing need for educational interventions designed especially for them. This study seeks to fill this gap by determining the feasibility of conducting an effectiveness trial of the If I Were Jack intervention in post-primary schools. This 4-week intervention aims to increase teenagers' intentions to avoid unintended pregnancy and addresses gender inequalities in sex education by explicitly focusing on young men. A cluster randomised feasibility trial with embedded process evaluation will determine: recruitment, participation and retention rates; quality of implementation; acceptability and feasibility of the intervention and trial procedures; and costs. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Young people, crime and justice in Northern Ireland

Many children and young people in conflict with the law in Northern Ireland have experienced living in poverty, truancy or exclusion from school, limited educational attainment, neglect or abuse within their families, placement in alternative care, drug or alcohol misuse, physical and mental ill-health. However, their lives are also affected by the legacy and particular circumstances of a society in transition from conflict. In addition to historical under-investment in services for children and their families, this includes discriminatory policing alongside informal regulation by ‘paramilitaries’ or members of ‘the community’ and community-based restorative justice schemes as an alternative way of dealing with low-level crime and ‘anti-social’ behaviour.

Following a Criminal Justice Review, the 2002 Justice (Northern Ireland) Act affirmed that the principal aim of the youth justice system is to protect the public by preventing offending by children’. Youth justice initiatives therefore encompass a range of responses: early intervention to prevent offending and the application of civil Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, diversionary measures (including community-based restorative justice schemes), non-custodial disposals for those found guilty of offences, and custodial sentences. While ‘policy transfer’ prevailed during periods of ‘direct rule’ from Westminster, the punitive responses to ‘sub-criminal’ and ‘anti-social’ behaviour introduced by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act in England and Wales were resisted or not implemented in the same way in Northern Ireland.

This Chapter will critically analyse the debates informing recent developments, noting key issues raised by the 2011 review of youth justice initiated as a priority following the devolution of justice and policing to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It will focus on promotion and protection of the rights of children and young people in conflict with the law.

Multimedia psycho-educational interventions to support patient self-care in degenerative conditions: a realist review

Objective: Multimedia interventions are increasingly used to deliver information in order to promote self-care among patients with degenerative conditions. We carried out a realist review of the literature to investigate how the characteristics of multimedia psychoeducational interventions combine with the contexts in which they are introduced to help or hinder their effectiveness in supporting self-care for patients with degenerative conditions.

Method: Electronic databases (Medline, Science Direct, PSYCHinfo, EBSCO, and Embase) were searched in order to identify papers containing information on multimedia psychoeducational interventions. Using a realist review approach, we reviewed all relevant studies to identify theories that explained how the interventions work.

Results: Ten papers were included in the review. All interventions sought to promote self-care behaviors among participants. We examined the development and content of the multimedia interventions and the impact of patient motivation and of the organizational context of implementation. We judged seven studies to be methodologically weak. All completed studies showed small effects in favor of the intervention.

Significance of Results: Multimedia interventions may provide high-quality information in an accessible format, with the potential to promote self-care among patients with degenerative conditions, if the patient perceives the information as important and develops confidence about self-care. The evidence base is weak, so that research is needed to investigate effective modes of delivery at different resource levels. We recommend that developers consider how an intervention will reduce uncertainty and increase confidence in self-care, as well as the impact of the context in which it will be employed.

How secure is a Newtonian paradigm for psychological and educational measurement?

From the early 1900s, some psychologists have attempted to establish their discipline as a quantitative science. In using quantitative methods to investigate their theories, they adopted their own special definition of measurement of attributes such as cognitive abilities, as though they were quantities of the type encountered in Newtonian science. Joel Michell has presented a carefully reasoned argument that psychological attributes lack additivity, and therefore cannot be quantities in the same way as the attributes of classical Newtonian physics. In the early decades of the 20th century, quantum theory superseded Newtonian mechanics as the best model of physical reality. This paper gives a brief, critical overview of the evolution of current measurement practices in psychology, and suggests the need for a transition from a Newtonian to a quantum theoretical paradigm for psychological measurement. Finally, a case study is presented that considers the implications of a quantum theoretical model for educational measurement. In particular, it is argued that, since the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is predicated on a Newtonian conception of measurement, this may constrain the extent to which it can make accurate comparisons of the achievements of different education systems.

Poverty Trap and Educational Shock: Evidence from Missionary Fields

Low growth equilibria with low investment in human capital generally tend to
persist till an external shock affects the economy. In this paper we use data on
Christian missions to proxy a long-lasting educational shock in Africa. We estimate
the effect of this shock on the quality of children which we proxy using the rate of
underweight children. Consistent with the economic theory we find that the quality
of children significantly rises with the exposure to this shock and this indirect effect
accounts to almost 4 percent in terms of GDP for districts with the maximal exposure

Positioning Clinical Nurse Specialists and Nurse Practitioners as Change Champions to Implement a Pain Protocol in Long-Term Care

Pain management for older adults in long-term care (LTC) has been recognized as a problem internationally. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of a clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and nurse practitioner (NP) as change champions during the implementation of an evidence-based pain protocol in LTC. In this exploratory, multiple-case design study, we collected data from two LTC homes in Ontario, Canada. Three data sources were used: participant observation of an NP and a CNS for 18 hours each over a 3-week period; CNS and NP diaries recording strategies, barriers, and facilitators to the implementation process; and interviews with members of the interdisciplinary team to explore perceptions about the NP and CNS role in implementing the pain protocol. Data were analyzed using thematic content analysis. The NP and CNS used a variety of effective strategies to promote pain management changes in practice including educational outreach with team members, reminders to nursing staff to highlight the pain protocol and educate about practice changes, chart audits and feedback to the nursing staff, interdisciplinary working group meetings, ad hoc meetings with nursing staff, and resident assessment using advanced skills. The CNS and NP are ideal champions to implement pain management protocols and likely other quality improvement initiatives.