Assessing students’ attitudes toward forensic science: collecting an expert consensus

We report the development of an affective domain instrument for the assessment of undergraduate students’ attitudes toward forensic science. Assessment of attitudes of the respondents is important to understand mediating factors in student motivation and ultimately success in the discipline. The instrument was developed using an iterative process based on responses from an expert panel of Australian forensic science educators to an array of forensic science and teaching related topics, and refined using further feedback from the panel on more specific items. The layout of the instrument, with regard to both the wording and placement of items, was developed with regular test takers (i.e., students) in mind and through the application of basic psychometric principles. The engagement of forensic science colleagues across Australia has resulted in an outcome that could provide a source of credible and relevant evidence of student attitudes toward forensic science.

Knowledge, attitudes and practices of clinicians in promoting physical activity to prostate cancer survivors

Objectives: 

'Against the tide': Australian government attitudes to decolonisation in the South Pacific, 1962-1972

This article is a study of the attitudes of Australian government ministers and officials towards the decolonisation of the Pacific island colonial territories in the decade from 1962 to 1972. It argues that the Australian state was very slow to recognise and understand that the winds of change would also sweep through the South Pacific and see the emergence of many new island nations by 1980.

Reconciling custom, citizenship and colonial legacies: Ni-Vanuatu tertiary student attitudes to national identity

Nation-building remains a key challenge in Vanuatu. From the origins of this new nation in 1980, it was clear that creating a unifying sense of national identity and political community from multiple languages and diverse traditional cultures would be difficult. This paper presents new survey and focus group data on attitudes to national identity among tertiary students in Vanuatu. The survey identifies areas of common attitudes towards nationalism and national identity, shared by both Anglophone and Francophone Ni-Vanuatu. However, despite the weakening ties between language of education and political affiliation over recent years, the findings suggest that there remain some key areas of strong association between socio-linguistic background, and attitudes to the nation, and national identity. These findings cast new light on the attitudes of likely future elites towards regional, ethnic, intergenerational and linguistic fault lines in Vanuatu and the challenges of building a cohesive sense of political community and national identity.

Severe obesity and diabetes self-care attitudes, behaviours and burden: implications for weight management from a matched case-controlled study.

Aims
To investigate whether diabetes self-care attitudes, behaviours and perceived burden, particularly related to weight management, diet and physical activity, differ between adults with Type 2 diabetes who are severely obese and matched non-severely obese control subjects.

Methods
The 1795 respondents to the Diabetes MILES—Australia national survey had Type 2 diabetes and reported height and weight data, enabling BMI calculation: 530 (30%) were severely obese (BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2; median BMI = 41.6 kg/m2) and these were matched with 530 control subjects (BMI < 35 kg/m2; median BMI = 28.2 kg/m2). Diabetes self-care behaviours, attitudes and burden were measured with the Diabetes Self-Care Inventory—Revised. Within-group and between-group trends were examined.

Results
The group with BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2 was less likely to achieve healthy diet and exercise targets, placed less importance on diet and exercise recommendations, and found the burden of diet and exercise recommendations to be greater than the group with BMI < 35 kg/m2. The group with BMI ≥ 35 kg/m2 was more likely to be actively trying to lose weight, but found weight control a greater burden. These issues accentuated with increasing obesity and were greatest in those with BMI > 45 kg/m2. There were no between-group differences in other aspects of diabetes self-care: self-monitoring of blood glucose, use of medications and smoking. Moderate-to-severe symptoms of depression were independently associated with reduced likelihood of healthy diet and physical activity, and with greater burden associated with diet, physical activity and weight management.

Conclusions
Severely obese people with diabetes demonstrated self-care attitudes, behaviours and burdens that infer barriers to weight loss. However, other important diabetes self-care behaviours are supported equally by severely obese and non-severely obese individuals.