<p>Background: In Namibia, studies showed that HIV/AIDS affects youth, especially the under 24 years age group. At the same time the pregnancy rate is also high by age 19. Interestingly, in&nbsp / Andara district several reports from staff working in the reproductive services have indicated that adolescent girls, who would seem to be taking responsibility in one sphere of their sexual lives&nbsp / by protecting themselves against unwanted pregnancy, were however not using condoms to protect themselves from HIV infection. Study Aim and Objectives: To describe the knowledge, attitude and behaviour related to HIV/AIDS amongst female adolescents who are accessing the primary health care (PHC) services for contraception. Specific objectives were to describe the&nbsp / knowledge of female adolescents who are accessing the PHC services for contraception about the modes of transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS, to assess their attitude with regards to&nbsp / condom use, abstinence and being faithful to one uninfected partner, also to determine the significance of association between age and knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, between their&nbsp / education level and knowledge, attitudes and behaviour and the significance of association between knowledge of HIV prevention strategies and&nbsp / behaviour of female adolescents accessing&nbsp / &nbsp / PHC services for contraception in the district. Setting: The study was conducted in Andara district, North East of Namibia. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional KAB study. Sample: All female&nbsp / adolescents who are accessing PHC services for contraception selected from multistage simple random sampling in 5 facilities and systematic sampling at facility level in Andara. All married&nbsp / women within this age range were excluded in the study. Data collection tool: An interviewer-administered standardised questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data analysis and&nbsp / Interpretations: Epi Info software 2002 was used for data analysis. The results were presented using descriptive statistics including means, 95% confidence intervals and percentages and&nbsp / this information was shown in tables, bar and pie charts. Cross-tabulations of knowledge, attitude and behaviour scores against demographic variables were performed. P-values &lt / 0.05 were&nbsp / &nbsp / considered statistically significant. Results: 76.5% knew that unprotected sexual intercourse was the main way of getting HIV/AIDS, 77.3% knew that people could protect themselves by&nbsp / abstaining from sexual intercourse and 64.5% knew that people could protect themselves by having one uninfected faithful sexual partner. Out of 192 respondents who stated that unprotected&nbsp / sexual intercourse was the main way of HIV/AIDS transmission, 25.5% used condom every time they had sexual intercourse, 10.9% used condom almost every time they had sex, 41.1% used&nbsp / condom sometimes and 22.4% never used condom. Older girls and those who were in higher grades at school had more knowledge that could protect them from HIV infection. Later sexual&nbsp / debut is associated with increased&nbsp / condom usage at sexual debut. Conclusions: The general HIV knowledge of respondents and their knowledge of how to&nbsp / protect themselves from HIV infection were disappointing given that this&nbsp / study was conducted in health facilities. In this study we also see that knowledge does not always translate into the appropriate behaviour. The health services need to evaluate the targeting and&nbsp / effectiveness of their HIV educational messages and develop skills that will support behaviour change.&nbsp / </p>

How companies in the apparel industry produce their products is receiving increasingly more attention, both in the society and marketplace, as well as by consumers. Despite the increasing amount of corporate scandals and corporate irresponsibility within the apparel industry, the previous research conducted within this field has mainly focused on how positive CSR affects consumers. This thesis aims to investigate how Swedish consumers’ attitude and behaviour are affected by negative CSR in the apparel industry. In order to fulfil the purpose of this thesis, a mix of quantitative and qualitative research was used to conduct an abductive study. The data was gathered through a survey posted on social media and by performing semi-structured interviews with participants consisting of Swedish consumers. The authors of this thesis have identified that Swedish consumer’s attitude is affected by negative CSR performed by apparel companies. However, the change in consumer attitude did not necessarily transfer into a change in behaviour, which generates an attitude-behaviour gap. The key barriers identified contributing to this gap are Swedish consumers’ lack of knowledge, and that they generally value personal needs and wants such as price, quality, and style greater than social responsibility.

Magister Public Health - MPH / Background: In Namibia, studies showed that HIV/AIDS affects youth, especially the under 24 years age group. At the same time the pregnancy rate is also high by age 19. Interestingly, in Andara district several reports from staff working in the reproductive services have indicated that adolescent girls, who would seem to be taking responsibility in one sphere of their sexual lives by protecting themselves against unwanted pregnancy, were however not using condoms to protect themselves from HIV infection. Study Aim and Objectives: To describe the knowledge, attitude and behaviour related to HIV/AIDS amongst female adolescents who are accessing the primary health care (PHC) services for contraception. Specific objectives were to describe the knowledge of female adolescents who are accessing the PHC services for contraception about the modes of transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS, to assess their attitude with regards to condom use, abstinence and being faithful to one uninfected partner, also to determine the significance of association between age and knowledge, attitudes and behaviour, between their education level and knowledge, attitudes and behaviour and the significance of association between knowledge of HIV prevention strategies and behaviour of female adolescents accessing PHC services for contraception in the district. Setting: The study was conducted in Andara district, North East of Namibia. Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional KAB study. Sample: All female adolescents who are accessing PHC services for contraception selected from multistage simple random sampling in 5 facilities and systematic sampling at facility level in Andara. All married women within this age range were excluded in the study. Data collection tool: An interviewer-administered standardised questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data analysis and Interpretations: Epi Info software 2002 was used for data analysis. The results were presented using descriptive statistics including means, 95% confidence intervals and percentages and this information was shown in tables, bar and pie charts. Cross-tabulations of knowledge, attitude and behaviour scores against demographic variables were performed. P-values <0.05 were considered statistically significant. Results: 76.5% knew that unprotected sexual intercourse was the main way of getting HIV/AIDS, 77.3% knew that people could protect themselves by abstaining from sexual intercourse and 64.5% knew that people could protect themselves by having one uninfected faithful sexual partner. Out of 192 respondents who stated that unprotected sexual intercourse was the main way of HIV/AIDS transmission, 25.5% used condom every time they had sexual intercourse, 10.9% used condom almost every time they had sex, 41.1% used condom sometimes and 22.4% never used condom. Older girls and those who were in higher grades at school had more knowledge that could protect them from HIV infection. Later sexual debut is associated with increased condom usage at sexual debut. Conclusions: The general HIV knowledge of respondents and their knowledge of how to protect themselves from HIV infection were disappointing given that this study was conducted in health facilities. In this study we also see that knowledge does not always translate into the appropriate behaviour. The health services need to evaluate the targeting and effectiveness of their HIV educational messages and develop skills that will support behaviour change. / South Africa

Heat pumps are a key technology for decarbonising residential buildings, yet their current market share in Canada remains very low at approximately 5%. To promote heat pump adoption, governments in Canada have introduced supportive policies such as purchase subsidies, and it is often assumed that increasing consumer awareness of such policies increases heat pump adoption. Using a survey of Canadian homeowners who do not own heat pumps (n=3,138), this study assesses: (1) levels of willingness to adopt air source and ground source heat pumps across Canada; (2) the effect of information provision on willingness to adopt heat pumps, (3) levels of heat pump policy awareness across Canada; (4) whether perceived technical characteristics of heat pumps can be categorized as functional or symbolic, and as private or societal, and (5) the role of policy awareness and other drivers in explaining willingness to adopt heat pumps. The study finds that a third of Canadian homeowners are willing to adopt heat pumps. These homeowners are found predominantly within the Atlantic region and show higher levels of adoption willingness for air source rather than ground source heat pumps. Awareness of existing heat pump supportive policy is low, with only 5% of respondents able to name any policies from memory. Awareness tends to be higher in British Columbia, and for heat pump subsidies and carbon taxes. Policy awareness without cues is a predictor of willingness to adopt air source heat pumps only. When provided with a list of policies to aid reporting, policy awareness is not associated with heat pump adoption. Other significant predictors include perceptions of heat pumps’ functionality and their environmental benefits, having a technology-oriented lifestyle, being a younger homeowner, and the financial and inconvenience costs during installation. Based on findings, insights into targeted policy designs to accelerate residential building decarbonisation are provided. / Graduate

Within western societies the act of consumption is not merely concerned with satisfying basic human needs. Rather, consumption has become a source of leisure and self expression for the masses (Belk, 1988). This has meant that humankind’s wants have tended to outstrip the world’s finite resources available, leading to environmental damage, questionable farming practice and the widespread abuse of human labour. In response to these issues the phenomena of ethical consumption was born. Ethical consumption attempts to limit the environmental, human and animal costs of our spending via the favouring of products that are deemed to be for the betterment of wider society. At face value ethical consumption has been hugely successful in terms of market share, with sales of products stressing their ethical credentials having grown rapidly in recent years (Cooperative Bank 2011). However, despite this success, ethically branded products still represent a minority of purchases (Thøgersen, 2006). Psychological research exploring the reasons why consumers purchase ethically is dominated by papers focusing upon consumers’ attitudes, values and intentions (Andorfer & Liebe, 2012, Milfont & Duckitt, 2004). However, consumers’ attitudes do not always mirror actual spending (Auger, Burke, Devinney & Louviere., 2003; Auger & Devinney, 2007). Whilst one third of consumers describe themselves as being ethical spenders, only 1-3% of products purchased are Fair Trade certified (Cowe & Williams, 2000). The divergence between attitude and behaviour has been referred to as the ‘ethical purchasing gap’ (Andorfer & Liebe, 2012, Clayton & Brook, 2005). One factor that may be partially responsible for the divergence between purchase intention and actual behaviours is self-regulatory fatigue (ego depletion). Chapter one of the thesis presents the argument for ethical spending being affected by, amongst other things, our ability to suppress our impulsive desires via a process known as self-regulation (Bagozzi, 1992; Baumeister, 2002; Baumeister & Vohs, 2007). According to the self-regulatory fatigue literature, self-control requires the expenditure of blood glucose (Gailliot, 2008, Inzlicht & Gutsell, 2007). However, the available level of blood glucose temporarily diminishes with continued use of the self-regulatory system. In response to the lower availability of blood glucose, individuals begin to limit all non-essential cognitive expenditure, including further acts of self-regulation. Individuals who have exhausted their capacity for self control are said to be ego depleted or in a state of self-regulatory fatigue (Baumeister & Heatherton, 1996; Hofmann. Friese & Strack, 2009; Muraven & Baumeister, 2000) Chapter one argues that self-regulatory fatigue may restrict an individual’s capacity to consider the social and long-term impacts of their spending to resist the temptation of cheap consumer goods. As a result, it is predicted that ethical spending may be negatively affected by self-regulation fatigue. Following this theoretical foundation, Chapter two presents the methodological rationale for the research project that set out to test various aspects of this foundational hypothesis. Chapter three presents the findings of the first empirical study. The purpose of the study was to use open-ended questionnaires to explore the principles that guided participants’ spending, as well gaining an insight into instances where there was a discrepancy between spending and principle. The study is included within the thesis primarily to show the genesis of the research agenda. The study indicated that consumers within the sample were primarily concerned with traditional forms of ethical consumption, namely environmental, human and animal welfare concerns. Participants justified non-principled purchasing as being a result of financial consideration or impulsive urge. It was thus decided to explore the possibility that self-regulation fatigue may have a potentially negative impact upon ethical spending, due to its known relationship with impulsive spending (Vohs & Faber, 2007). Chapter four explores the effects of self-regulation fatigue upon socially-minded economic behaviour within the controlled setting of a social dilemma game. Ethical consumption can be considered to be a prime example of a ‘social dilemma’ in the sense that decisions relating to whether or not to consume ethically involve a direct conflict between an individual’s short term interests (e.g. to save money) and the collective interests of wider society (Gattig & Hendrickx, 2007; Milfont & Gouveiac, 2006). Therefore it was decided to measure the effects of self-regulatory fatigue within an experimental social dilemma task. The task used was based upon the forest game, which was first outlined by Sheldon and McGregor (2000), with the white bear thought suppression task (Wegner, Schneider, Carter, & White, 1987) being utilised to manipulate self-regulatory fatigue. The results revealed a clear divergence in behaviour within the game as a function of the manipulation of self-regulatory fatigue, with non-depleted groups sustaining the central resource longer than their depleted counterparts. Chapter five builds on the findings of chapter four through an exploration of the relationship between ego depletion and participants’ willingness to pay for ethical goods. The study utilised a discrete choice measure in order to measure participant’s willingness to pay for ethical goods. The findings did not show a significant effect of self-regulatory fatigue on the willingness to pay for ethical goods. However a potential explanation for this result was the fact that the decision-making processes involved in this study were less arduous than those required within a real-life shopping environment (or, for that matter, than the decisions required in the forest game reported in chapter four). It is possible that the complexity of the choice presented may have been insufficient for the decision to be negatively affected by self-regulatory fatigue. The study is thus included in order to illustrate the importance of utilising more realistic measures of spending that incorporate more of the complexity of decision-making required in real-world contexts. Chapter six presents four separate experiments exploring the relationship between self-regulatory fatigue and ethical spending. The first study utilised an online supermarket simulation and asked participants to go shopping for one week’s worth of groceries after either completing, or not completing, the white bear thought suppression task. The simulated supermarket allowed participants to select from a range of over 1900 products. The pattern of results indicated that participants in a state of self-regulatory fatigue spent significantly less on ethically branded products than their non-depleted counterparts. However, this was only true for individuals with a high food budget. Those with a low budget were not significantly affected, presumably due to having relatively little flexibility in terms of product choice and/or having established shopping habits focusing upon value. The second study in chapter six explored the ways in which social appeals interact with self-regulatory fatigue. Participants were presented with an attention control task before reading either an article praising students for their ethical behaviours or a control article. Participants were then asked to “go shopping” within the online store. Results once again indicated that self-regulatory fatigue reduced spending on ethically branded goods. However, contrary to predictions, the social appeal had no significant effect on levels of ethical spending either as a main effect or in interaction with self-regulatory fatigue.

No description available.

Sustainability, and especially sustainable consumption, has become more important throughout the years in line with the challenges of climate change. A large majority of Swedish consumers have a positive attitude towards sustainable consumption. However, their actions do not speak louder than words. Many have the intention of buying sustainable products, but fewer actually buy sustainable products causing an attitude behaviour gap. This study aims to investigate the relation between green marketing and consumer decision making. Diving deeper into the grocery sector as well as the clothing sector the study examines the differences regarding the matter of green marketing and consumer decision-making.  With a theoretical starting point in the Theory of Planned Behaviour as well as green marketing, this quantitative study shows that green marketing has an effect on a consumer’s perceived behavioural control which in turn has an effect on the intention. However, the study also states that there is a gap between the intention of buying sustainable products, influenced by attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioural control, and the actual behaviour to buy sustainably. The study finds a moderately strong correlation between perceived behavioural control and green marketing. Further on, the study also notices a difference between the two sectors, where consumers are reached as well as affected by green marketing to a higher extent within the grocery sector than in the clothing sector.

Planned Obsolescence is a threat to sustainability and is a practice that has increased in recent years. Manufacturers and companies are often blamed, but recent research has shown that consumers play a significant role and thus hold considerable responsibility for Planned Obsolescence practices. This thesis explores the effect that Planned Obsolescence in smartphones has on sustainable consumers who reside in Sweden. Focus groups and individual interviews were carried out with sixteen participants who were identified as sustainable consumers. The results were diverse and related to different situational, social, and psychological aspects classified into four categories: social elements, implied premature upgrading, psychological elements, and misalignment in sustainable values and behaviour. The study concludes that Planned Obsolescence in smartphones creates a social barrier that does not allow sustainable consumers to maintain their sustainable consuming habits within this sector and provokes negative feelings within them, which interlink with social circumstances. Moreover, this phenomenon affects consumers by implying that they constantly should replace their devices even though they are rather satisfied with their current ones. Finally, Planned Obsolescence in smartphones broadens the gap between consumers’ sustainable values and behaviours, and this inconsistency seems to be more significant for smartphones than in other sectors.

Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CCBT) has been recommended for patients in the National Health Service (NHS) Primary Care across the United Kingdom for management of mild to moderate anxiety and depression. This approach also promises financial savings, and may fill the gap between demand and supply of face-to-face therapy. Studies have shown that CCBT is feasible and effective. However, dropout rates can be as high as 86%, but the reasons remain unclear and the information available is limited. This thesis explores factors that may impact on the usability and user experience of this computer-mediated therapy. Espousing the “real world” research philosophy and widely used methods in the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) field for usability evaluations, four studies using a mixed-methods design were conducted. Study I was an online usability survey, which investigated if usability evaluations had been conducted for CCBT applications. Two versions of questionnaires were sent to four CCBT software developers and ten authors of randomised controlled trials. The categories and responses of the questionnaires gathered from five respondents were reviewed and summarised. The findings suggested that usability evaluations for CCBT were still in their infancy when compared to other healthcare interventions to which HCI approaches have been widely applied. Study II was a usability Heuristic Evaluation (HE) conducted with four expert evaluators to assess two different CCBT applications’ interfaces (MoodGYM and Living Life to the Full) against the self-designed usability heuristics for their compliance. The findings revealed numerous usability issues. Major problems related to navigation and inconsistency of the interfaces were identified. These could be rectified to enhance the user experience. Study III focused on other factors besides usability that might have an influence on the effective use of CCBT. Perceptions of service providers who were involved in both decision-making about CCBT availability and supporting its use were gathered. Nine service providers at different NHS organisations were interviewed. The interviews were analysed using techniques from Grounded Theory (GT). The findings suggested that the practitioners’ attitudes towards CCBT might have affected its service delivery. Four categories from the data analysis were identified: (1) shaping behaviour, (2) implementing and delivering, (3) making an appropriate referral, and (4) technology/CCBT packages - advancing with time. A conceptual model was also generated, “building support around CCBT”: a road-map that could address some of these issues. Study IV examined patients’ perceptions and acceptance of a CCBT application (Beating the Blues), its usability and the user experience, and also whether the user characteristics (e.g. computer experience (CE) and computer self-efficacy (CSE)) had any influence on patients’ use of this technology. A mixed-methods approach was utilised with a sample of 33 participants. Face-to-face and email interviews were conducted. Feedback was also gathered from a usability questionnaire and think-aloud protocol with seven participants selected from the sample. The data were analysed using Thematic and Saliency Analysis to uncover themes. Descriptive statistics were used to describe data from questionnaires. Two overarching themes from the interviews were identified: (1) access to CCBT services, and (2) perceptions and attitudes towards CCBT. Both themes revealed issues which might have significantly impacted on patients’ engagement with CCBT. Numerous flaws were also discovered in the application’s design and functionality (e.g. navigation, aesthetics, relevance of content, and inflexibility). However, the results from CE and CSE questionnaires suggested that participants were confident in using this technology. The four studies provided an in-depth understanding of factors that affect the usability and user experience of CCBT and possible reasons for the high attrition rates. The implications of this research point to the need for health policymakers to focus on the current implementation issues and on how best to deploy this treatment therapy to patients. Further development of CCBT is pivotal to its success, in particular, expanding contexts of use and increasing usability evaluations. Keeping users interested and engaged will improve treatment efficiency, completion rates and will achieve better clinical outcomes.

Ständig förändring är strakt förknippat med modeindustrin, då nya trender och stilar tenderar att förändras kontinuerligt. I västvärlden konsumerar människor betydligt mer modeprodukter än vad naturens resurser tillåter. Modekonsumenterna fick dock en insyn av textilbranschens negativa miljöpåverkan år 2017. Det skrevs då en ny lag som föreskriver att modeföretag måste informera sina modekonsumenter om bärkassarnas, speciellt plastbärkassens, negativa påverkan. I samband med att lagen stiftades, skapades organisationen One Bag Habit som fick modekonsumenterna att tänka en extra gång innan de konsumerar bärkassar i modebutikerna. På grund av bland annat One Bag Habit avstår modekonsumenter numera att konsumera bärkassar på grund av miljöaspekter, dock fortsätter de att konsumera mängder av modeprodukter utan att blicka. Modekonsumenter har sedan år 2017 blivit medvetna om de problem som bärkassen medför och väljer då att avstå dessa, men när det kommer till modeprodukter finns troligtvis en medvetenhet om problemet där också men konsumtionen fortsätter ändå. Detta har lett till att denna uppsats belyser hur denna kontrast bildas mellan att konsumera modeprodukter och att avstå från bärkassen på grund av miljöskäl. Denna studie undersöker detta gap genom att fokusera på hur modekonsumenter förhåller sig till konsumtion av bärkassar i förhållande till modeprodukter. Resultatet ger en förståelse för varför det blir en kontrast mellan konsumtion av bärkassar och modeprodukter. Därav kommer resultatet resultera i en djupare förståelse kring varför ett attityd-beteende gap skapas och en stadig grund för vidare forskning. För att förstå och tolka det empiriska materialet modifierades en modell av attityd-beteende gapet. Utöver det kommer behovsidentifikation att ligga till grund för den teoretiska referensramen. En kvalitativ intervju, tre fokusgruppsintervjuer och en observation utgör det empiriska materialet. Urvalet bestod av studenter från tre olika högskolor i Sverige (Textilhögskolan i Borås, Göteborgs Universitet och Mälardalens högskola i Västerås). Slutsatserna av studien är att modeföretagen måste börja informera modekonsumenterna varför och hur de kan agera hållbart, istället för att informera att de ska agera hållbart. Utöver det måste de hållbara modeprodukterna vara prismässigt jämförbart med inte hållbara modeprodukter, för att modekonsumenterna ska agera hållbar. Slutligen krävs det att de hållbara modeprodukterna har tillräckligt attraktiv design för att modekonsumenterna ska investera i hållbara modeprodukter. / Constant change is closely associated with the fashion industry, as new trends and styles tent to change continuously. In the Western world, people consume considerably more fashion products than what the natural resources allow. The fashion consumers, however, gained an insight into the fashion industry´s negative environmental impact in 2017. A new law was founded to alert the fashion consumers of the negative effect of the shopping bags, especially made with plastic. In association with the new law, an organization, naming One Bag Habit was created. This led the fashion consumers to think extra before deciding to consume a shopping bag when they made a purchase of fashion item. Due to One Bag habit, fashion consumers now avoid from consuming shopping bags because of environmental aspects. The reluctance to consuming a shopping bag in addition to the fashion purchase has decreased yet impacts on the actual fashion consumption have not changed. Previous research has identified an attitude-behaviour gap between how fashion consumers value sustainable products and their actual behaviour in accordance with these values. This has led to this paper highlighting how this contrast is formed between consuming fashion products and refraining from the shopping bags because of environmental reasons. This study has a textile management approach, which means that the study is primarily aimed at companies in order to help them understand how fashion consumers value and act in different purchasing situations. This study will examine how fashion consumers consume shopping bags in relation to fashion products. The findings will contribute to creating an understanding of the created contrast between sustainable consumption regarding shopping bags and non-sustainable one regarding fashion consumption itself. Moreover, the findings will contribute to a deeper understanding of why the attitude-behaviour gap has created such a contrast among the fashion consumer. In order to understand and interpret the empirical material of this study, a theoretical model of attitude-behaviour gap was created. In addition, an understanding of how needs are created among consumers will be contributing to the formation of the theoretical framework. Furthermore, data was collected through qualitative interviews, three focus groups, and an observation. The data sample frame consisted of students from three different universities in Sweden (the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås, University of Gothenburg and Mälardalens University in Västerås). The findings of the study show that fashion companies need to be more specific when informing the fashion consumers on why and how they can act more sustainably when consuming fashion and shopping bags. In addition, the sustainable fashion products should be comparable in prices terms to non-sustainable fashion products in order for fashion consumers to act sustainable. Finally, it is suggested that the sustainable fashion products have an appealing designs in order for the fashion consumers to invest in sustainable fashion products.