"Deporte inclusivo en la escuela": diseño y análisis de un programa de intervencion para promover la inclusión del alumnado con discapacidad en Educación Física

La Educación Física se muestra, a priori, como un área idónea para trabajar intervenciones educativas para facilitar la inclusión de alumnos con discapacidad. Sin embargo, poco se conoce sobre el potencial que presentan los deportes adaptados y paralímpicos como contenido para fomentar la sensibilización y concienciación del alumnado sin discapacidad, especialmente en situaciones inclusivas de práctica. Por otro lado, la actitud del docente y su formación se presentan como claves en este contexto, ya que es quien en última instancia selecciona los contenidos a trabajar. Entendemos que en EF disponemos de una ocasión única en el curriculum para fomentar la participación activa y efectiva del alumno con discapacidad en clase (especialmente a nivel de desarrollo de la competencia motriz, entre otras), si bien esto depende de factores relacionados con los dos agentes anteriores. Es por todo ello que la Educación Física, como protagonista y como contenido, se muestra como un contexto adecuado para la investigación de los procesos de inclusión de alumnos con discapacidad en el ámbito educativo. Este trabajo de investigación pretende arrojar luz a los interrogantes que condicionan y limitan este contexto, desde una perspectiva multidisciplinar, con distintas metodologías, sobre los tres agentes indicados. La falta de consenso en la literatura en cuanto a las características y tipo de intervenciones eficaces para facilitar esta sensibilización del alumnado, unido a que es un ámbito relativamente reciente como tema de investigación, nos ha impulsado a trabajar en esta línea. El primer objetivo de este trabajo de investigación fue diseñar e implementar un programa de sensibilización y concienciación hacia la discapacidad basado en los deportes adaptados en el área de Educación Física para alumnos de secundaria y bachillerato. Inicialmente, se realizó una búsqueda bibliográfica tanto a nivel nacional como internacional, con el fin de definir las características principales que aporta la literatura científica en este aspecto. Apoyándonos por un lado, en el programa educativo Paralympic School Day (CPI, 2004) y por otro, en la citada revisión, desarrollamos un planteamiento inicial de estructura y fases. Dicho proyecto, fue presentado al Comité Paralímpico Español y a las federaciones deportivas españolas para personas con discapacidad, con la finalidad de recabar su apoyo institucional en forma de aval y recursos no solo a nivel económico sino también como apoyo logístico y de difusión. Tras su aprobación y gracias también al apoyo de la UPM, la Fundación Sanitas y Liberty Seguros, se procedió a diseñar el programa. Para el desarrollo de los materiales didácticos se contactó con expertos en la materia de EF y Actividad Física Adaptada tanto del ámbito educativo (profesores de educación secundaria y profesorado universitario) como del deportivo a nivel nacional. A su vez, se comenzó a difundir entre el profesorado de los centros con el fin de detectar su interés en participar durante el curso académico (2012-2013) en el programa “Deporte Inclusivo en la Escuela”. Con la finalización del desarrollo de los materiales didácticos, se visitó a los centros educativos para presentar el dossier informativo donde se explicaba el programa, así como las características y fases para su implementación. El programa está fundamentado en la Teoría del Contacto (Allport, 1954) y basado en los deportes adaptados y paralímpicos, planteado con una metodología inclusiva, seleccionando la información, la simulación y el contacto directo como estrategias para el fomento de la sensibilización y concienciación hacia la inclusión. En la reunión celebrada en la Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte (INEF-UPM) en febrero de 2013, se coordinó junto con el profesorado la implementación del programa en cada uno de los 13 centros educativos, con acciones concretas como la adecuación de la propuesta didáctica en la planificación anual del profesor, el préstamo de material o la ponencia del deportista paralímpico entre otras cuestiones. Para la consecución del objetivo 2 de este trabajo, analizar el efecto del programa en los distintos agentes implicados en el mismo, alumnos sin discapacidad, profesorado de EF y alumnos con discapacidad, se calendarizó la toma de datos y la administración de las diferentes herramientas metodológicas para antes (pretest) como después de la intervención (posttets). En el caso de los alumnos sin discapacidad (N= 1068), se analizó el efecto de la intervención sobre la actitud hacia la inclusión, utilizando el cuestionario “Children Attitude Integrated Physical Education-Revised” (CAIPE-R; Block, 1995) de carácter cuantitativo tras su validación y adaptación al contexto español. Los resultados mostraron cambios significativos positivos en la actitud el grupo que mantuvo un contacto no estructurado con alumnos con discapacidad. En esta muestra también se midió la actitud hacia el juego cooperativo con compañeros con discapacidad en clases de EF usando el cuestionario “Children's Beliefs Toward Cooperative Playing With Peers With Disabilities in Physical Education” (CBIPPD-MPE; Obrusnikova, Block, y Dillon, 2010). El desarrollo de un sistema de categorías fundamentado en la Teoría del Comportamiento Planificado (Azjen, 1991) sirvió como base para el análisis de las creencias del alumnado sin discapacidad. Tras la intervención, las creencias conductuales emergentes se mantuvieron, excepto en el caso de los factores identificados como obstáculos de la inclusión. En el caso de las creencias normativas también se mantuvieron tras la intervención y respecto a las creencias de control, los alumnos identificaron al profesor como principal agente facilitador de la inclusión. En el caso de los profesores de EF participantes en el programa (N=18), se analizó el efecto del programa en su actitud hacia la inclusión de alumnos con discapacidad en EF con el cuestionario “Attitud toward inclusion of individual with physical disabilities in Physical Education” (ATISDPE-R; Kudláèek, Válková, Sherrill, Myers, y French, 2002). Los resultados mostraron que no se produjeron diferencias significativas tras la intervención en la actitud general, encontrando algunas diferencias en determinados ítems relacionados con los beneficios de la inclusión en los alumnos sin discapacidad relacionados con los docentes con experiencia previa con discapacidad y en EF antes de la intervención. La otra dimensión analizada fue el efecto de la intervención en la autoeficacia del profesor en la enseñanza de la EF en condiciones inclusivas, habiendo utilizado el cuestionario "Self-efficacy in teaching PE under inclusive conditions" (SEIPE; Hutzler, Zach, y Gafni, 2005). Los resultados en este caso muestran diferencias significativas positivas en cuestiones relacionadas como sentirse capaces de mejorar las condiciones óptimas de enseñanza con alumnos con discapacidad física como movilidad reducida severa y amputación y discapacidad visual tanto en situaciones deportivas, como juegos o actividades fuera del centro educativo a favor de los docentes. En cuanto al género, los hombres obtuvieron valores superiores a las mujeres en relación a sentirse más capaces de incluir a alumnos con discapacidad física tanto en juegos durante el recreo como en la enseñanza de técnica deportiva. Los profesores con menos de 10 años de docencia mostraron valores más positivos en cuanto a sentirse capaces de incluir a un alumno con discapacidad fisica en deportes durante su tiempo libre. El análisis del diario del profesor muestra por un lado, las tendencias emergentes como principales elementos facilitadores u obstaculizadores de la inclusión en EF, identificando al propio alumno sin discapacidad, el propio profesor, los contenidos, los materiales y la organización. Por otro lado, el análisis de los contenidos propuestos en el programa. En el caso de los alumnos con discapacidad (N=22), se analizó el impacto del programa de intervención en el autoconcepto, con el cuestionario "Autoconcepto forma 5" (AF5; F. García y Musitu, 2001). Se encontraron diferencias significativas a favor de las mujeres antes de la intervención en la dimensión familiar, mientras que los hombres obtuvieron valores más altos en las dimensiones social y físico. En cuanto a la edad, se encontraron diferencias significativas antes de la intervención, con valores superiores en los alumnos más jóvenes (12-14 años) en la dimensión físico, mientras que los alumnos mayores (15-17 años) mostraron valores más altos en la dimensión social del cuestionario. Respeto al tipo de discapacidad, los alumnos con discapacidad motórica mostraron mejores valores que los que tienen discapacidad auditiva para la dimensión físico antes de la intervención. En cuanto al autoconcepto general, las diferencias significativas positivas se producen en la dimensión académica. En cuanto al efecto del programa en la autoestima de los alumnos con discapacidad, se utilizó la Escala de "Autoestima de Rosenberg" (Rosenberg, 1989), no obteniendo diferencias significativas en cuanto el género. Apareciendo diferencias significativas antes de la intervención en el caso de la variable edad en los alumnos más jóvenes, en cuanto a que desearían valorarse más, y en los alumnos con discapacidad auditiva en que no se sienten muy orgullosos de ellos mismos. Se produce una mejora en la autoestima general en cuanto a que se sienten menos inútiles tras la intervención. En relación al objetivo 3 de este trabajo, tras el análisis de los resultados y haber discutido los mismos con los autores de referencia, emergió la propuesta de orientaciones tanto para los programa de intervención en EF para la sensibilización y concienciación del alumnado hacia la inclusión como de cara a la formación específica del profesorado, como clave en este tipo de intervenciones. Creemos que el programa “Deporte Inclusivo Escuela” se convierte en un elemento transformador de la realidad, ya que responde a las necesidades detectadas a la luz de esta investigación y que vienen a dar respuesta a los distintos agentes implicados en su desarrollo. Por un lado, atiende la demanda del ámbito educativo en cuanto a las necesidades de formación del profesorado, sensibilización y concienciación del alumnado sin discapacidad, además de facilitar oportunidades de participación activa al alumno con discapacidad en las sesiones de EF. Por otro lado, satisface la demanda por parte de las instituciones deportivas del ámbito de la discapacidad en cuanto a la promoción y difusión de los deportes adaptados y paralímpicos. Por último, desde el ámbito universitario, se muestra como un recurso en la formación del alumnado del grado en Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, por su participación directa con la discapacidad. Por estos motivos, este trabajo se muestra como un punto de partida adecuado para seguir avanzando en la investigación en esta área. ABSTRACT Physical Education (PE) seems a priori, as a suitable area to work educational interventions to facilitate the inclusion of students with disabilities. However, little is known about the potential that have adapted and Paralympic sports as content to raise awareness of students without disabilities, especially in inclusive practice context. On the other hand, teachers’ attitude and their training are presented as key in this context because it is who selects the content to work. We understand that PE have a unique opportunity in the curriculum to encourage active and effective participation of students with disabilities in class (especially at motor competence development, etc.), although this depends on factors related to the two agents. For these reasons that the PE, as actors and as content is displayed as a context for investigating the processes of inclusion of students with disabilities in education. This research aims to shed light on the questions that condition and limit this context, from a multidisciplinary perspective, with different methodologies on the three agents mentioned. The lack of accord in the literature regarding the characteristics and type of effective facilitators of awareness of students, and that is a new area as a research topic, has prompted us to work in this topic research. The first aim of this research was to design and implement a program of awareness towards disability based on adapted sports in the area of physical education for middle and high school students. Initially, a literature search was performed both nationally and internationally, in order to define the main features that brings the scientific literature in this area. On the one hand, we supported in the Paralympic School Day (IPC, 2004) educative program and on the other hand, in that review, we developed an initial approach to structure and phases. The project was presented to the Spanish Paralympic Committee and the Spanish Sports Federations for people with disabilities, in order to obtain institutional support in the form of guarantees and resources not only in economic terms but also as logistical support and dissemination. Thanks to the support of Fundación Sanitas, Liberty Seguros and Politechnical University of Madrid, we proceeded to design the program. For the development of teaching resources it was contacted experts in the field of Adapted Physical Activity and physical education and both the field of education (high school teachers and university professors) as the adapted sport national. In turn, it began to spread among the teachers of the schools in order to identify their interest in participating in the academic year (2012-2013) in the "Inclusive Sport in School" program. With the completion of the development of educational materials to schools he was visited to present the briefing where the program, as well as features and steps for its implementation are explained. The program is based on the Contact Theory (Allport, 1954) and based on adapted and Paralympic sports, raised with an inclusive approach, selecting strategies for promoting awareness and awareness to inclusion like information, contact and simulation of disability. At the meeting held at the Faculty of Sciences of Physical Activity and Sport (INEF-UPM) in February 2013, it was coordinated with the teachers implementing the program in each of the 13 schools with concrete actions such as adequacy of methodological approach in the annual planning of the teacher, the loan or the presentation of materials Paralympian among other issues. To achieve the objective 2 of this paper, to analyze the effect of the program on the various actions involved it, students without disabilities, PE teachers and students with disabilities, the date for management of the different methodological tools for before (pretest) and after the intervention (posttets). For students without disabilities (N= 1068), the effect of the intervention on the attitude towards inclusion was analyzed, using the quantitative questionnaire "Integrated Physical Education Attitude Children-Revised" (CAIPE-R; Block, 1995), after validation and adaptation to the Spanish context. The results showed significant positive changes in the attitude of the group with no structured contact with students with disabilities. This shows the beliefs towards the cooperative play was with peers with disabilities in PE classes also measured, using the questionnaire "Children's Beliefs Toward Cooperative Playing With Peers With Disabilities in Physical Education" (CBIPPD-MPE; Obrusnikova, Block, and Dillon, 2010). The development of a system of categories based on the Theory of Planned Behavior (Azjen, 1991) served as the basis for analysis of the beliefs of students without disabilities. After surgery, emerging behavioral beliefs remained, except in the case of the factors identified as barriers to inclusion. In the case of normative beliefs also they remained after surgery and regarding control beliefs, students identified the teacher as the main facilitator of inclusion. Regarding PE teachers participating in the program (N = 18), the effect of the program was analyzed their attitude toward inclusion of students with disability in PE with the questionnaire "Toward Attitude inclusion of Individual with in Physical Education "(ATISDPE-R; Kudláèek, Válková, Sherrill, Myers, and French, 2002). The results showed no significant difference occurred after surgery in the general attitude, finding some differences in certain related benefits of inclusion in students without disability relating to teachers with previous experience with disability in PE before intervention. The other dimension was analyzed the effect of the intervention on self-efficacy of teachers in the teaching of PE in inclusive terms, having used the questionnaire "Self-efficacy in PE teaching even under conditions" (SEIPE; Hutzler, Zach, and Gafni, 2005). The results showed significant differences positive in issues like being able to enhance the optimal conditions for teaching students with physical disabilities as amputation and severe visual impairment in both sports situations, such as games or activities outside the school to for teachers. Regard to gender, men earned higher values regarding women about feel more able to include students with physical disabilities in both games during recess and teaching sports technique. Teachers with less than 10 years of teaching showed more positive values as you feel able to include a student with physical disabilities in sports during their leisure time. The analysis of daily teacher shows on the one hand, emerging trends as key facilitators or barrier of the inclusion elements in PE, identifying the students without disabilities themselves, the professor, contents, materials and organization. Furthermore, the analysis of daily teacher about the contents proposed in the program. In the case of students with disabilities (N=22), the impact of the intervention program on self-concept was analyzed, with the questionnaire "Self-concept form 5" (AF5, F. Garcia and Musitu, 2001). The women showed significant differences before the intervention in family dimension, while men scored higher values in the social and physical dimensions were found. In terms of age, significant differences were found before the intervention, with higher values in younger students (12-14 years) in the physical dimension, while older children (15-17 years) showed higher values the social dimension of the questionnaire. Respect disabilities, students with motor disabilities showed better values than those with hearing impairment to the physical dimension before surgery. As for the general self-concept, positive significant differences occur in the academic dimension. As for the effect of the program on self-esteem of students with disabilities Scale "Rosenberg Self-Esteem" (Rosenberg, 1989) was used, not getting significant differences in gender. Only appear significant difference before the intervention in the case of younger students as they wish to be valued more, and students with hearing disabilities who do not feel very proud of themselves. Improved self-esteem generally occurs in that they feel less useless after surgery. With regard to the aim 3 of this research, after analyzing the results and have discussed them with the authors, it emerged the proposal of guidelines for both intervention program EF for sensitization and awareness of students towards inclusion as in the face of specific training for teachers, as key in such interventions. We believe that "Inclusive Sport Schools" program becomes a transforming element of reality, as it responds to the needs identified in the light of this research and come to respond to the various elements involved in its development. On the one hand, it meets the demand of the education sector in terms of the needs of teacher training, awareness of students without disability, and facilitates opportunities for students with disabilities for active participation in PE class. On the other hand, it meets the demand of sports institutions in the field of disability regarding the promotion and dissemination of adapted and Paralympic sports. Finally, it is shown as a resource from the university level for the training of degree in Physical Activity and Sport Science students, by its direct involvement with disability. For these reasons, this work is shown as a good starting point to further advance research in this area.

VIOLÊNCIA PSICOLÓGICA CONJUGAL EM UNIVERSITÁRIOS: ESTUDO DE FATORES DE RISCO

A pesquisa aborda a violência psicológica tal como é definida pela Organização Mundial de Saúde (KRUG, 2002) Usamos também a definição de violência psicológica utilizada por Straus e Sweet (1992). Nosso objetivo geral foi identificar a ocorrência de violência psicológica conjugal entre estudantes universitários, e a correlação desta com fatores de risco. E os específicos foram verificar sua correlação com a auto-estima, a ingestão de álcool, a faixa etária, o número de filhos e o rendimento familiar dos participantes. Tivemos respondentes de ambos os gêneros, casados ou em união estável, com idades entre 16 e 60 anos e alunos da Universidade Metodista de São Paulo. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada na Universidade Metodista de São Paulo e abordou universitários da graduação, graduação tecnológica e cursos seqüenciais. Esta pesquisa é uma pesquisa descritiva e sua amostragem foi não-probabilística de conveniência, responderam ao instrumento 246 pessoas, que foram escolhidas com base nos critérios de inclusão e na sua disponibilidade imediata para responder à pesquisa. Obtivemos mais respondentes do gênero feminino (145) do que do masculino (100). O instrumento foi composto por: Escala de Táticas de Conflito (CTS1), Escala de Auto-Estima e Autoconceito de Rosenberg e um Questionário Sócio-demográfico Adaptado. A CTS 1 foi usada para medir a violência familiar, a escala de auto-estima foi usada para verificar a atitude positiva ou negativa das pessoas e o questionário foi usado para complementar dados sobre a história pessoal e conjugal dos respondentes. Foram analisados 246 instrumentos através do Estatístico SPSS 13,0 for Windows. Os resultados demonstraram que aproximadamente 30% das pessoas de ambos os gêneros e da amostra total apresentaram alto grau de violência psicológica. Verificamos que existe uma tendência de que quanto menor a auto-estima dos respondentes maior o grau de violência psicológica. Constatamos também a inexistência de correlação linear entre violência psicológica, costume de ingerir bebida alcoólica e quantidade de bebida alcoólica ingerida pelos respondentes. Este dado não é corroborado pela literatura pesquisada. Portanto, percebemos que o álcool em si diz pouco enquanto fator de risco para a ocorrência da violência psicológica. Sua articulação merece ser mais investigada e melhor delineada por meio da busca de conhecimentos e práticas que contribuam para a saúde da população. Concluímos que a violência psicológica conjugal muitas vezes é banalizada e tida como natural

VIOLÊNCIA PSICOLÓGICA CONJUGAL EM UNIVERSITÁRIOS: ESTUDO DE FATORES DE RISCO

A pesquisa aborda a violência psicológica tal como é definida pela Organização Mundial de Saúde (KRUG, 2002) Usamos também a definição de violência psicológica utilizada por Straus e Sweet (1992). Nosso objetivo geral foi identificar a ocorrência de violência psicológica conjugal entre estudantes universitários, e a correlação desta com fatores de risco. E os específicos foram verificar sua correlação com a auto-estima, a ingestão de álcool, a faixa etária, o número de filhos e o rendimento familiar dos participantes. Tivemos respondentes de ambos os gêneros, casados ou em união estável, com idades entre 16 e 60 anos e alunos da Universidade Metodista de São Paulo. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada na Universidade Metodista de São Paulo e abordou universitários da graduação, graduação tecnológica e cursos seqüenciais. Esta pesquisa é uma pesquisa descritiva e sua amostragem foi não-probabilística de conveniência, responderam ao instrumento 246 pessoas, que foram escolhidas com base nos critérios de inclusão e na sua disponibilidade imediata para responder à pesquisa. Obtivemos mais respondentes do gênero feminino (145) do que do masculino (100). O instrumento foi composto por: Escala de Táticas de Conflito (CTS1), Escala de Auto-Estima e Autoconceito de Rosenberg e um Questionário Sócio-demográfico Adaptado. A CTS 1 foi usada para medir a violência familiar, a escala de auto-estima foi usada para verificar a atitude positiva ou negativa das pessoas e o questionário foi usado para complementar dados sobre a história pessoal e conjugal dos respondentes. Foram analisados 246 instrumentos através do Estatístico SPSS 13,0 for Windows. Os resultados demonstraram que aproximadamente 30% das pessoas de ambos os gêneros e da amostra total apresentaram alto grau de violência psicológica. Verificamos que existe uma tendência de que quanto menor a auto-estima dos respondentes maior o grau de violência psicológica. Constatamos também a inexistência de correlação linear entre violência psicológica, costume de ingerir bebida alcoólica e quantidade de bebida alcoólica ingerida pelos respondentes. Este dado não é corroborado pela literatura pesquisada. Portanto, percebemos que o álcool em si diz pouco enquanto fator de risco para a ocorrência da violência psicológica. Sua articulação merece ser mais investigada e melhor delineada por meio da busca de conhecimentos e práticas que contribuam para a saúde da população. Concluímos que a violência psicológica conjugal muitas vezes é banalizada e tida como natural

The Spanish version of the Prenatal Breast-feeding Self-efficacy Scale: Reliability and validity assessment

Background: Only a minority of infants are exclusively breastfed for the recommended 6 months postpartum. Breast-feeding self-efficacy is a mother's confidence in her ability to breastfeed and is predictive of breastfeeding behaviors. The Prenatal Breast-feeding Self-efficacy Scale (PBSES) was developed among English-speaking mothers to measure breastfeeding self-efficacy before delivery. Objectives: To translate the PBSES into Spanish and assess its psychometric properties. Design: Reliability and validity assessment. Setting: A public hospital in Yecla, Spain. Participants: A convenience sample of 234 pregnant women in their third trimester of pregnancy. Methods: The PBSES was translated into Spanish using forward and back translation. A battery of self-administered questionnaires was completed by participants, including a questionnaire on sociodemographic variables, breastfeeding experience and intention, as well as the Spanish version of the PBSES. Also, data on exclusive breastfeeding at discharge were collected from hospital database. Dimensional structure, internal consistency and construct validity of the Spanish version of PBSES were assessed. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis suggested the presence of one construct, self-efficacy, with four dimensions or latent variables. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for internal consistency was 0.91. Response patterns based on decision to breastfeed during pregnancy provided evidence of construct validity. In addition, the scores of the Spanish version of the PBSES significantly predicted exclusive breastfeeding at discharge. Conclusions: The Spanish version of PBSES shows evidences of reliability, and contrasting group and predictive validity. Confirmatory factor analysis indicated marginal fit and further studies are needed to provide new evidence on the structure of the scale. The Spanish version of the PBSES can be considered a reliable measure and shows validity evidences.

Social approval and trait self-esteem

Interpersonal theories of self-esteem that tie self-esteem to perceptions of ones acceptability to other people suggest that self-evaluations should predict global self-esteem to the degree to which an individual believes that a particular attribute is important for social approval. In the present study, participants completed a measure of global self-esteem, rated themselves in five domains, and indicated how important those domains were for approval or disapproval. The results showed that, in four of five domains, the interaction between self-evaluations and the perceived approval-value of that domain aided in the prediction of global self-esteem. Generally, for participants who rated themselves positively in a domain, those who believed that the domain was important in affecting social approval or disapproval had higher self-esteem than those who did not believe it would influence acceptability.

Development of a controlled drinking self-efficacy scale and appraising its relation to alcohol dependence

There is no specific self-efficacy measure that has been developed primarily for problem drinkers seeking a moderation drinking goal. In this article, we report the factor structure of a 20-item Controlled Drinking Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSES Sitharthan et al., 1996; Sitharthan et al., 1997). The results indicate that the CDSES is highly reliable, and the factor analysis using the full sample identified four factors: negative affect, positive mood/social context, frequency of drinking, and consumption quantity. A similar factor structure was obtained for the subsample of men. In contrast, only three factors emerged in the analysis of data on female participants. Compared to women, men had low self-efficacy to control their drinking in situations relating to positive mood/social context, and subjects with high alcohol dependence had low self-efficacy for situations relating to negative affect, social situations, and drinking less frequently. The CDSES can be a useful measure in treatment programs providing a moderation drinking goal. (C) 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Subordinate-manager gender combination and perceived leadership style influence on emotions, self-esteem and organizational commitment

A theoretical model was developed to investigate the relationships among subordinate-manager gender combinations, perceived leadership style, experienced frustration and optimism, organization-based self-esteem and organizational commitment. The model was tested within the context of a probabilistic structural model, a discrete Bayesian network, using cross-sectional data from a global pharmaceutical company. The Bayesian network allowed forward inference to assess the relative influence of gender combination and leadership style on the emotions, self-esteem and commitment consequence variables. Further, diagnostics from backward inference were used to assess the relative influence of variables antecedent to organizational commitment. The results showed that gender combination was independent of leadership style and had a direct impact on subordinates' levels of frustration and optimism. Female manager-female subordinate had the largest probability of optimism, while male manager teamed with a male subordinate had the largest probability of frustration. Furthermore, having a female manager teamed up with a male subordinate resulted in the lowest possibility of frustration. However, the findings show that the gender issue is not simply female managers versus male managers, but is concerned with the interaction of the subordinate-manager gender combination and leadership style in a nonlinear manner. (C) 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Short-EMBU in Australia, Spain, and Venezuela - Factorial invariance, and associations with sex roles, self-esteem, and Eysenckian personality dimensions

The short(s)-EMBU (Swedish acronym for Egna Minnen Betraffande Uppfostran [My memories of upbringing]) consists of 23 items, is based on the early 81-item EMBU, and was developed out of the necessity of having a brief measure of perceived parental rearing practices when the clinical and/or research context does not adequately permit application of time-consuming test batteries. The s-EMBU comprises three subscales: Rejection., Emotional Warmth, and (Over)Protection. The factorial and/or construct validity and reliability of the s-EMBU were examined in samples comprising a total of 1950 students from Australia, Spain, and Venezuela. The data were presented for the three national groups separately. Findings confirmed the cross-national validity of the factorial structure underlying the s-EMBU. Rejection by fathers and mothers was consistently associated with high trait-neuroticism and low self-esteem in recipients of both sexes in each nation, as was high parental emotional warmth with high femininity (humility). The findings on factorial validity are in keeping with previous ones obtained in East Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, and Sweden. The s-EMBU is again recommended for use in several different countries as. a reliable, functional equivalent to the original 81-item EMBU.

Perceived academic performance, self-esteem and locus of control as indicators of need for assessment of adolescent suicide risk: implications for teachers

Introduction: There is currently a need for research into indicators that could be used by non-clinical professionals working with young people, to inform the need for referral for further clinical assessment of those at risk of suicide. Method: Participants of this repeated measures longitudinal study, were 2603, 2485, and 2246 school students aged 13, 14, and 15, respectively, from 27 South Australian Schools. Results: Perceived academic performance, self-esteem and locus of control are significantly associated with suicidality. Further, logistic regression of longitudinal results suggests that perceived academic performance, over and above self-esteem and locus of control, in some instances, is a good long-term predictor of suicidality. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.

Evaluating the properties of a stage-specific self-efficacy scale for physical activity using classical test theory, confirmatory factor analysis and item response modeling

The purpose of this paper was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a stage-specific selfefficacy scale for physical activity with classical test theory (CTT), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and item response modeling (IRM). Women who enrolled in the Women On The Move study completed a 20-item stage-specific self-efficacy scale developed for this study [n = 226, 51.1% African-American and 48.9% Hispanic women, mean age = 49.2 (67.0) years, mean body mass index = 29.7 (66.4)]. Three analyses were conducted: (i) a CTT item analysis, (ii) a CFA to validate the factor structure and (iii) an IRM analysis. The CTT item analysis and the CFA results showed that the scale had high internal consistency (ranging from 0.76 to 0.93) and a strong factor structure. Results also showed that the scale could be improved by modifying or eliminating some of the existing items without significantly altering the content of the scale. The IRM results also showed that the scale had few items that targeted high self-efficacy and the stage-specific assumption underlying the scale was rejected. In addition, the IRM analyses found that the five-point response format functioned more like a four-point response format. Overall, employing multiple methods to assess the psychometric properties of the stage-specific self-efficacy scale demonstrated the complimentary nature of these methods and it highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of this scale.

VIOLÊNCIA PSICOLÓGICA CONJUGAL EM UNIVERSITÁRIOS: ESTUDO DE FATORES DE RISCO

A pesquisa aborda a violência psicológica tal como é definida pela Organização Mundial de Saúde (KRUG, 2002) Usamos também a definição de violência psicológica utilizada por Straus e Sweet (1992). Nosso objetivo geral foi identificar a ocorrência de violência psicológica conjugal entre estudantes universitários, e a correlação desta com fatores de risco. E os específicos foram verificar sua correlação com a auto-estima, a ingestão de álcool, a faixa etária, o número de filhos e o rendimento familiar dos participantes. Tivemos respondentes de ambos os gêneros, casados ou em união estável, com idades entre 16 e 60 anos e alunos da Universidade Metodista de São Paulo. A pesquisa de campo foi realizada na Universidade Metodista de São Paulo e abordou universitários da graduação, graduação tecnológica e cursos seqüenciais. Esta pesquisa é uma pesquisa descritiva e sua amostragem foi não-probabilística de conveniência, responderam ao instrumento 246 pessoas, que foram escolhidas com base nos critérios de inclusão e na sua disponibilidade imediata para responder à pesquisa. Obtivemos mais respondentes do gênero feminino (145) do que do masculino (100). O instrumento foi composto por: Escala de Táticas de Conflito (CTS1), Escala de Auto-Estima e Autoconceito de Rosenberg e um Questionário Sócio-demográfico Adaptado. A CTS 1 foi usada para medir a violência familiar, a escala de auto-estima foi usada para verificar a atitude positiva ou negativa das pessoas e o questionário foi usado para complementar dados sobre a história pessoal e conjugal dos respondentes. Foram analisados 246 instrumentos através do Estatístico SPSS 13,0 for Windows. Os resultados demonstraram que aproximadamente 30% das pessoas de ambos os gêneros e da amostra total apresentaram alto grau de violência psicológica. Verificamos que existe uma tendência de que quanto menor a auto-estima dos respondentes maior o grau de violência psicológica. Constatamos também a inexistência de correlação linear entre violência psicológica, costume de ingerir bebida alcoólica e quantidade de bebida alcoólica ingerida pelos respondentes. Este dado não é corroborado pela literatura pesquisada. Portanto, percebemos que o álcool em si diz pouco enquanto fator de risco para a ocorrência da violência psicológica. Sua articulação merece ser mais investigada e melhor delineada por meio da busca de conhecimentos e práticas que contribuam para a saúde da população. Concluímos que a violência psicológica conjugal muitas vezes é banalizada e tida como natural