Relational and reproductive trajectories leading to adolescent pregnancy in Portugal: a national and regional characterization

INTRODUCTION: The current study aimed to describe the relational and reproductive trajectories leading to adolescent pregnancy in Portugal, and to explore whether there were differences in this process according to adolescents' place of residence. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Data were collected between 2008 and 2013 in 42 public health services using a self-report questionnaire developed by the researchers. The sample consisted of a nationally representative group of pregnant adolescents (n = 459). RESULTS: Regardless of having had one (59.91%) or multiple sexual partners (40.09%), the majority of adolescents became pregnant in a romantic relationship, using contraception at the time of the conception and knowing the contraceptive failure which led to pregnancy (39.22%). In some regions other trajectories were highly prevalent, reflecting options such as planning the pregnancy (Alentejo Region/ Azores Islands), not using contraception (Centro Region/Madeira Islands) or using it incorrectly, without identifying the contraceptive failure (Madeira Islands). On average, romantic relationships were longer than 19 months and adolescents' partners were older than themselves (> 4 years) and no longer in school (75.16%); these results were particularly significant when the pregnancy was planned. DISCUSSION: The knowledge gained in this study shows that prevention efforts must be targeted according to the adolescents' needs in each region and should include high-risk male groups. CONCLUSION: Our results may enable more efficient health policies to prevent adolescent pregnancy in different country regions and support educators and health care providers on sexual education and family planning efforts.

SEEKING CULTURAL FAIRNESS IN A MEASURE OF RELATIONAL REASONING

Relational reasoning, or the ability to identify meaningful patterns within any stream of information, is a fundamental cognitive ability associated with academic success across a variety of domains of learning and levels of schooling. However, the measurement of this construct has been historically problematic. For example, while the construct is typically described as multidimensional—including the identification of multiple types of higher-order patterns—it is most often measured in terms of a single type of pattern: analogy. For that reason, the Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR) was conceived and developed to include three other types of patterns that appear to be meaningful in the educational context: anomaly, antinomy, and antithesis. Moreover, as a way to focus on fluid relational reasoning ability, the TORR was developed to include, except for the directions, entirely visuo-spatial stimuli, which were designed to be as novel as possible for the participant. By focusing on fluid intellectual processing, the TORR was also developed to be fairly administered to undergraduate students—regardless of the particular gender, language, and ethnic groups they belong to. However, although some psychometric investigations of the TORR have been conducted, its actual fairness across those demographic groups has yet to be empirically demonstrated. Therefore, a systematic investigation of differential-item-functioning (DIF) across demographic groups on TORR items was conducted. A large (N = 1,379) sample, representative of the University of Maryland on key demographic variables, was collected, and the resulting data was analyzed using a multi-group, multidimensional item-response theory model comparison procedure. Using this procedure, no significant DIF was found on any of the TORR items across any of the demographic groups of interest. This null finding is interpreted as evidence of the cultural-fairness of the TORR, and potential test-development choices that may have contributed to that cultural-fairness are discussed. For example, the choice to make the TORR an untimed measure, to use novel stimuli, and to avoid stereotype threat in test administration, may have contributed to its cultural-fairness. Future steps for psychometric research on the TORR, and substantive research utilizing the TORR, are also presented and discussed.

Closing Pandora's box: a defence of Alvin Plantinga's epistemology of religious belief

I argue (1) that Alvin Plantinga’s theory of warrant is plausible and (2) that, contrary to the Pandora’s Box objection, there are certain serious world religions that cannot successfully use Plantinga’s epistemology to demonstrate that their beliefs could be warranted in the same way that Christian belief can be warranted. In arguing for (1), I deploy Ernest Sosa’s Swampman case to show that Plantinga’s proper function condition is a necessary condition for warrant. I then engage three objections to Plantinga’s theory of warrant, each of which attempts to demonstrate that his conditions for warrant are neither necessary nor sufficient. Having defended the plausibility of Plantinga’s theory of warrant, I present and expand his key arguments to the effect that naturalism cannot make use of it. These arguments provide the conceptual tools that are needed to argue for (2): that there are certain world religions that cannot legitimately use Plantinga’s theory of warrant to demonstrate that their beliefs could be warranted in the same way that Christian belief can be warranted.

Relations among Topic Knowledge, Individual Interest, and Relational Reasoning, and Critical Thinking in Maternity Nursing

Critical thinking in learners is a goal of educators and professional organizations in nursing as well as other professions. However, few studies in nursing have examined the role of the important individual difference factors topic knowledge, individual interest, and general relational reasoning strategies in predicting critical thinking. In addition, most previous studies have used domain-general, standardized measures, with inconsistent results. Moreover, few studies have investigated critical thinking across multiple levels of experience. The major purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which topic knowledge, individual interest, and relational reasoning predict critical thinking in maternity nurses. For this study, 182 maternity nurses were recruited from national nursing listservs explicitly chosen to capture multiple levels of experience from prelicensure to very experienced nurses. The three independent measures included a domain-specific Topic Knowledge Assessment (TKA), consisting of 24 short-answer questions, a Professed and Engaged Interest Measure (PEIM), with 20 questions indicating level of interest and engagement in maternity nursing topics and activities, and the Test of Relational Reasoning (TORR), a graphical selected response measure with 32 items organized in scales corresponding to four forms of relational reasoning: analogy, anomaly, antithesis, and antinomy. The dependent measure was the Critical Thinking Task in Maternity Nursing (CT2MN), composed of a clinical case study providing cues with follow-up questions relating to nursing care. These questions align with the cognitive processes identified in a commonly-used definition of critical thinking in nursing. Reliable coding schemes for the measures were developed for this study. Key findings included a significant correlation between topic knowledge and individual interest. Further, the three individual difference factors explained a significant proportion of the variance in critical thinking with a large effect size. While topic knowledge was the strongest predictor of critical thinking performance, individual interest had a moderate significant effect, and relational reasoning had a small but significant effect. The findings suggest that these individual difference factors should be included in future studies of critical thinking in nursing. Implications for nursing education, research, and practice are discussed.

Counseling Self-Efficacy and the Relational Efficacy Model

Relation-inferred self-efficacy (RISE), a relatively new concept, is defined as a target individual’s beliefs about how an observer, often a relationship partner, perceives the target’s ability to perform certain actions successfully. Along with self-efficacy (i.e., one’s beliefs about his or her own ability) and other-efficacy (i.e., one’s beliefs about his or her partner’s ability), RISE makes up a three part system of interrelated efficacy beliefs known as the relational efficacy model (Lent & Lopez, 2002). Previous research has shown this model to be helpful in understanding how relational dyads, including coach-athlete, advisor-advisee, and romantic partners, contribute to the development of self-efficacy beliefs. The clinical supervision dyad (i.e., supervisor-supervisee), is another context in which relational efficacy beliefs may play an important role. This study investigated the relationship between counseling self-efficacy, RISE, and other-efficacy within the context of clinical supervision. Specifically, it examined whether supervisee perceptions about how their supervisor sees their counseling ability (RISE) related to how supervisees see their own counseling ability (counseling self-efficacy), and what moderates this relationship. The study also sought to discover the degree to which RISE mediated the relationship between supervisor working alliance and counseling self-efficacy. Data were collected from 240 graduate students who were currently enrolled in counseling related fields, working with at least one client, and receiving regular supervision. Results demonstrated that years of experience and RISE predicted counseling self-efficacy and that the relationship between RISE and counseling self-efficacy was, as expected, moderated by other-efficacy. Contrary to expectations, however, counseling experience and level of client difficulty did not moderate the relationship between RISE and counseling self-efficacy. These findings suggest that the relationship between RISE and counseling self-efficacy was stronger when supervisees saw their supervisors as capable therapists. Furthermore, RISE was found to fully mediate the relationship between supervisor working alliance and counseling self-efficacy. Future research directions and implications for training and supervision are discussed.

Developmental, relational and situational characteristics of maritally abusive men

Rapport de stage présenté à la Faculté des Arts et Sciences en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maître des Sciences (M. Sc.) en Criminologie, Option Stage en Intervention

Developmental, relational and situational characteristics of maritally abusive men

Rapport de stage présenté à la Faculté des Arts et Sciences en vue de l’obtention du grade de Maître des Sciences (M. Sc.) en Criminologie, Option Stage en Intervention

Epistemology, Theory, and Methodology in Knowledge Organization: Toward a Classification, Metatheory, and Research Framework

This paper proposes a preliminary classification of knowledge organization research, divided among epistemology, theory, and methodology plus three spheres of research: design, study, and critique. This work is situated in a metatheoretical framework, drawn from sociological thought. Example works are presented along with preliminary classification. The classification is then briefly described as a comparison tool which can be used to demonstrate overlap and divergence in cognate discourses of knowledge organization (such as ontology engineering).

Experientialist Epistemology and Classification Theory: Embodied and Dimensional Classification

What theoretical framework can help in building, maintaining and evaluating networked knowledge organization resources? Specifically, what theoretical framework makes sense of the semantic prowess of ontologies and peer-to-peer sys- tems, and by extension aids in their building, maintenance, and evaluation? I posit that a theoretical work that weds both for- mal and associative (structural and interpretive) aspects of knowledge organization systems provides that framework. Here I lay out the terms and the intellectual constructs that serve as the foundation for investigative work into experientialist classifi- cation theory, a theoretical framework of embodied, infrastructural, and reified knowledge organization. I build on the inter- pretive work of scholars in information studies, cognitive semantics, sociology, and science studies. With the terms and the framework in place, I then outline classification theory s critiques of classificatory structures. In order to address these cri- tiques with an experientialist approach an experientialist semantics is offered as a design commitment for an example: metadata in peer-to-peer network knowledge organization structures.

Forms, Foundations, and the Ethos of Foremost: Zen Practice, Epistemology, and Ontology in Reflective Knowledge Organization

In reflecting on the practice of knowledge organization, we tacitly or explicitly root our conceptions of work and its value in some epistemic and ontological foundation. Zen Buddhist philosophy offers a unique set of conceptions vis-à-vis organizing, indexing, and describing documents.When we engage in knowledge organization, we are setting our mind to work with an intention. We intend to make some sort of intervention. We then create a form a realization of an abstraction (like classes or terms) [1], we do this from a foundation of some set of beliefs (epistemology, ontology, and ethics), and because we have to make decisions about what to privilege, we need to decide what is foremost in our minds. We must ask what is the most important thing?Form, foundation, and the ethos of foremost require evoke in our reflection on work number of ethical, epistemic, and ontological concerns that ripple throughout our conceptions of space, “good work”, aesthetics, and moral mandate [2,3]. We reflect on this.

The difference of Being in the early modern world: a relational-material approach to life in Scotland in the period of the witch trials

This thesis investigates how ways of being in different ontologies emerge from material and embodied practice. This general concern is explored through the particular case study of Scotland in the period of the witch trials (the 16th and 17th centuries C.E.). The field of early modern Scottish witchcraft studies has been active and dynamic over the past 15 years but its prioritisation of what people said over what they did leaves a clear gap for a situated and relational approach focusing upon materiality. Such an approach requires a move away from the Cartesian dichotomies of modern ontology to recognise past beliefs as real to those who experienced them, coconstitutive of embodiment and of the material worlds people inhabited. In theory, method and practice, this demands a different way of exploring past worlds to avoid flattening strange data. To this end, the study incorporates narratives and ‘disruptions’ – unique engagements with Contemporary Art which facilitate understanding by enabling the temporary suspension of disbelief. The methodology is iterative, tacking between material and written sources in order to better understand the heterogeneous assemblages of early modern (counter-) witchcraft. Previously separate areas of discourse are (re-)constituted into alternative ontic categories of newly-parallel materials. New interpretations of things, places, bodies and personhoods emerge, raising questions about early modern experiences of the world. Three thematic chapters explore different sets of collaborative agencies as they entwine into new things, co-fabricating a very different world. Moving between witch trial accounts, healing wells, infant burial grounds, animals, discipline artefacts and charms, the boundaries of all prove highly permeable. People, cloth and place bleed into one another through contact; trees and water emerge as powerful agents of magical-place-making; and people and animals meet to become single, hybrid-persons spread over two bodies. Life and death consistently emerge as protracted processes with the capacity to overlap and occur simultaneously in problematic ways. The research presented in this thesis establishes a new way of looking at the nature of Being as experienced by early modern Scots. This provides a foundation for further studies, which can draw in other materials not explored here such as communion wares and metal charms. Comparison with other early modern Western societies may also prove fruitful. Furthermore, the methodology may be suitable for application to other interdisciplinary projects incorporating historical and material evidence.

Learning from errors: Psychological, relational, and cultural aspects

Although errors might foster learning, they can also be perceived as something to avoid if they are associated with negative consequences (e.g., receiving a bad grade or being mocked by classmates). Such adverse perceptions may trigger negative emotions and error-avoidance attitudes, limiting the possibility to use errors for learning. These students’ reactions may be influenced by relational and cultural aspects of errors that characterise the learning environment. Accordingly, the main aim of this research was to investigate whether relational and cultural characteristics associated with errors affect psychological mechanisms triggered by making mistakes. In the theoretical part, we described the role of errors in learning using an integrated multilevel (i.e., psychological, relational, and cultural levels of analysis) approach. Then, we presented three studies that analysed how cultural and relational error-related variables affect psychological aspects. The studies adopted a specific empirical methodology (i.e., qualitative, experimental, and correlational) and investigated different samples (i.e., teachers, primary school pupils and middle school students). Findings of study one (cultural level) highlighted errors acquire different meanings that are associated with different teachers’ error-handling strategies (e.g., supporting or penalising errors). Study two (relational level) demonstrated that teachers’ supportive error-handling strategies promote students’ perceptions of being in a positive error climate. Findings of study three (relational and psychological level) showed that positive error climate foster students’ adaptive reactions towards errors and learning outcomes. Overall, our findings indicated that different variables influence students’ learning from errors process and teachers play an important role in conveying specific meanings of errors during learning activities, dealing with students’ mistakes supportively, and establishing an error-friendly classroom environment.