Exploring self-rated health among adolescents : a think-aloud study

BACKGROUND: Despite extensive use of self-rated health questions in youth studies, little is known about what such questions capture among adolescents. Hence, the aim of this study was to explore how adolescents interpret and reason when answering a question about self-rated health. METHODS: A qualitative study using think-aloud interviews explored the question, "How do you feel most of the time?", using five response options ("Very good", "Rather good", "Neither good, nor bad", "Rather bad", and "Very bad"). The study involved 58 adolescents (29 boys and 29 girls) in lower secondary school (7th grade) and upper secondary school (12th grade) in Sweden. RESULTS: Respondents' interpretations of the question about how they felt included social, mental, and physical aspects. Gender differences were found primarily in that girls emphasized stressors, while age differences were reflected mainly in the older respondents' inclusion of a wider variety of influences on their assessments. The five response options all demonstrated differences in self-rated health, and the respondents' understanding of the middle option, "Neither good, nor bad", varied widely. In the answering of potential sensitive survey questions, rationales for providing honest or biased answers were described. CONCLUSIONS: The use of a self-rated health question including the word 'feel' captured a holistic view of health among adolescents. Differences amongst response options should be acknowledged when analyzing self-rated health questions. If anonymity is not feasible when answering questions on self-rated health, a high level of privacy is recommended to increase the likelihood of reliability.

Är explicit undervisning nyckeln till ökad läsförståelse? : En kvalitativ intervjustudie om hur fem lärare i F–3 beskriver sin undervisning i läsförståelse och lässtrategier

Resultaten av de senaste PIRLS-undersökningarna visar att svenska elevers läsförståelse har försämrats under senare år. Enligt forskning bör undervisningen vara inriktad på lässtrategier för att elever ska utveckla läsförståelse. För att eleverna ska lära sig använda olika lässtrategier självständigt när de tolkar text och skapar mening behöver de undervisas explicit. Undervisningen bör vara strukturerad och varierad samtidigt som läraren stöttar eleverna och anpassar undervisningen efter deras individuella behov. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur lärare i F–3 undervisar i läsförståelse och lässtrategier för att se vilka förtjänster och brister som finns. Studiens metod är kvalitativ och för att samla in material har fem halvstrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med fem verksamma lärare, fyra klasslärare och en specialpedagog, fördelade på fyra olika skolor. Resultaten visar att lärare använder sig av olika undervisningsmetoder när de undervisar i läsförståelse, såsom en läsande klass, think-aloud, cirkelmodellen och Chambers modell för boksamtal. Det som tycks genomsyra lärarnas undervisning i läsförståelse är kommunikation, vilket är nära sammankopplat med studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt, det sociokulturella perspektivet. Enligt lärarna samtalar de mycket med eleverna om texter, och de verkar försöka anpassa undervisningen efter elevernas individuella behov genom att välja texter som eleverna har förkunskaper i och om. När de undervisar explicit tycks lärarna diskutera olika lässtrategiers nyttoanvändning genom att samtala om hur och varför olika lässtrategier är lämpliga att använda i olika sammanhang. Enligt lärarna erbjuds eleverna undervisning i olika gruppkonstellationer såsom arbete i helklass, halvklass, mindre grupper, parvis och enskilt. Lärarna tycks vara tydliga i sin undervisning för att eleverna ska bli medvetna om i vilket syfte de ska läsa.

Response process and test-retest reliability of the Context Assessment for Community Health tool in Vietnam

BACKGROUND: The recently developed Context Assessment for Community Health (COACH) tool aims to measure aspects of the local healthcare context perceived to influence knowledge translation in low- and middle-income countries. The tool measures eight dimensions (organizational resources, community engagement, monitoring services for action, sources of knowledge, commitment to work, work culture, leadership, and informal payment) through 49 items. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to explore the understanding and stability of the COACH tool among health providers in Vietnam. DESIGNS: To investigate the response process, think-aloud interviews were undertaken with five community health workers, six nurses and midwives, and five physicians. Identified problems were classified according to Conrad and Blair's taxonomy and grouped according to an estimation of the magnitude of the problem's effect on the response data. Further, the stability of the tool was examined using a test-retest survey among 77 respondents. The reliability was analyzed for items (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and percent agreement) and dimensions (ICC and Bland-Altman plots). RESULTS: In general, the think-aloud interviews revealed that the COACH tool was perceived as clear, well organized, and easy to answer. Most items were understood as intended. However, seven prominent problems in the items were identified and the content of three dimensions was perceived to be of a sensitive nature. In the test-retest survey, two-thirds of the items and seven of eight dimensions were found to have an ICC agreement ranging from moderate to substantial (0.5-0.7), demonstrating that the instrument has an acceptable level of stability. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides evidence that the Vietnamese translation of the COACH tool is generally perceived to be clear and easy to understand and has acceptable stability. There is, however, a need to rephrase and add generic examples to clarify some items and to further review items with low ICC.

Why Critical Whiteness Studies needs to think about warfare

Sociologisk Forsknings digitala arkiv