The present study examined the state of healthy sexuality among college students and the influence of a psychoeducational group on related constructs. Healthy sexuality is comprised of multiple constructs, including accurate knowledge, positive attitudes, risk reducing behaviors, open communication among partners, and self-efficacy for creating desired experiences and preventing unwanted experiences. Sexuality-related knowledge, attitudes and values, and behaviors were measured prior to and following the four-session intervention. Additionally, prior sexuality education at the familial and school-based levels was assessed and compared to the designed intervention. Fifty-six young adults participated in the groups, with topics covering sexual anatomy and response, communication, safer sex practices, and preventing unwanted experiences. Assessment prior to the designed intervention exemplified the wide variety of educational experiences and sources that young adults have, contributing to great variation in sexual knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy. Participants reported varying levels of satisfaction with their sexuality education prior to the intervention, but satisfaction was unrelated to knowledge accuracy. Attitudes, values, and behaviors were similar to national samples. Assessment following the intervention demonstrated significant improvement in many of these areas, indicating that college students are likely to benefit from continued sexuality education. The level of interest for participation in the study indicates young people's interest in increasing healthy sexuality in their lives. It is hoped that the designed intervention may continue to be made available to young adults and tailored to meet their needs and desires as appropriate.

Childhood obesity rates are on the rise. There are detrimental physical and psychological health effects associated with childhood obesity. Society needs proven methods of delivering nutrition and physical activity education to children. The Teens Reaching Youth (TRY) 4-H model has been shown to be effective at delivering curriculum in a variety of topics. To assess the effectiveness of the TRY 4-H model at delivering nutrition and physical activity education to youth, grades third through sixth. The program's objectives were to increase youth participants' nutritional knowledge, improve youth participants' eating and fitness habits, and improve leadership and life skills of the teens involved in the TRY 4-H program. We compared three groups of youth grades third through sixth in Northern Utah. We looked at the youth's nutrition knowledge and food preferences as well as their parents/guardians' behaviors. Then two of the groups participated in a nutrition and physical activity education program. One group was taught by TRY 4-H teams and the other group was taught by adult volunteers from the community. After participating in the program, the youth's nutrition knowledge and food preferences and their parents/guardians' behaviors were re-assessed. The control group was unavailable for re-assessment due to limited access. Teen leadership was assessed using a teen leadership and life skills assessment tool. At baseline, the three samples had no statistical differences. The TRY 4-H treatment and Adult Volunteer treatment were found to produce statistically similar nutrition knowledge out-comes. Parents/guardians reported improvements in youth participant nutrition and physical activity habits. Teen members of the TRY teams experienced an increase in leadership and life skills. Teens from the TRY 4-H program are as effective as adult volunteers at teaching younger youth about nutrition. This education delivery method should be utilized in additional communities to aid in the fight against childhood obesity.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Families with serious and/or chronic child protection risks often have complex personal and social issues. Statutory child protection services must manage escalating child protection reports with limited resources. Addressing families at immediate risk often takes precedence over comprehensive family assessment and planned intervention, so the child protection issues in the lower priority families persist, and child protection reports continue. The Montrose Home-Based Family Assessment Program assesses Department of Community Services registered families who are at risk of child removal because of chronic and/or severe child protection issues. Using an ecological perspective, the Montrose team conducts a five day comprehensive assessment in the family's home and community, and develops a caseplan to address child protection risks and family support needs. The assessment is voluntary, and the family is encouraged to participate in identifying the child protection issues and developing solutions. The primary goal of this study is to compare child protection outcomes, three years after referral, for 100 families who participated in a Montrose Assessment, and 100 Comparison Group families. The research questions also explore the relationship between demographic, family, parent, child and child protection service factors and child protection outcome. Outcome is measured by Family Outcome, Children's Outcome, Legal Status, Children's Placement, subsequent Child Protection Reports and Substantiated Child Protection Reports, and Type of Abuse. The results suggest that home-based family assessment is a cost-effective model that can measurably reduce the likelihood of further abuse, court intervention and out of home care even for complex, high risk families. The study also identifies specific child, parent and child protection service related variables that are significantly associated with child protection outcome. These findings have major relevance for current child protection policy and practice, and also for broader social policy that impacts on high risk families.

The Australian Federal government has well-defined guidelines for undertaking program evaluations. Advertising and Public Relations campaigns support program aims, and are subject to the same guidelines. However, an examination of actual practice in the Australian Federal government, as observed by the Office of Government Information and Advertising in Canberra, suggests that there are significant differences in the extent to which Public Relations campaigns, as opposed to advertising campaigns, are systematically evaluated. Evaluation theory, Public Relations theory, strategic planning theory, and public administration theory provide insights into methods of managing and reporting on communication campaigns designed to forward government objectives. A literature review and an assessment of existing models of Public Relations evaluation were undertaken, and a synthesis of several theoretical and practical approaches led to the construction of a model of Public Relations evaluation which could be applied to Australian government communication campaigns.

High-quality preschool education produces substantial long-term educational, social, and economic benefits, but large benefits occur only when teachers are professionally prepared and adequately compensated. Qualifying the teacher candidates depends on many interrelated components of a teacher education. The aim of this study is to evaluate the student selection policy, decision-making policy, recruitment policy, teacher candidates&rsquo / educational profiles, faculty development and assignment policy, curriculum and instruction, and the graduates&rsquo / competences from the perspectives of the faculty members in the preschool teacher education program. For this purpose, decision-oriented program evaluation CIPP model is taken as a framework. In order to reach in-depth and detailed information from the participants, study is designed as a qualitative phenomenological research. Participants are selected through purposeful sampling strategies that include criterion sampling and snowball sampling procedures from the population of 150 academicians in the 55 preschool teacher education program in Turkey. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires from 58 participants. According to the content analysis, findings indicated that there is need for the additional tests in the student selection, improvement in the faculty development policy, accreditation, faculty initiative in curriculum planning and implementing, alternative strategies in practicum, and collaboration of the local authorities and the faculties in the recruitment policy of the graduates. In this respect, it is believed that the findings will pave the way for the program developers to reform the program accordingly, will give further insights about the real experiences of the academicians and take their suggestions to improve the program and will help the researchers to raise some new questions about the preschool teacher education program to investigate.

High-quality preschool education produces substantial long-term educational,social, and economic benefits, but large benefits occur only when teachers are professionally prepared and adequately compensated. Qualifying the teacher candidates depends on many interrelated components of a teacher education. The aim of this study is to evaluate the student selection policy, decision-making policy, recruitment policy, teacher candidates&rsquo / educational profiles, faculty development and assignment policy, curriculum and instruction, and the graduates&rsquo / competences from the perspectives of the faculty members in the preschool teacher education program. For this purpose, decision-oriented program evaluation CIPP model is taken as a framework. In order to reach in-depth and detailed information from the participants, study is designed as a qualitative phenomenological research. Participants are selected through purposeful sampling strategies that include criterion sampling and snowball sampling procedures from the population of 150 academicians in the 55 preschool teacher education program in Turkey. Data is collected through semi-structured interviews and open-ended questionnaires from 58 participants. According to the content analysis, findings indicated that there is need for the additional tests in the student selection, improvement in the faculty development policy, accreditation, faculty initiative in curriculum planning and implementing, alternative strategies in practicum, and collaboration of the local authorities and the faculties in the recruitment policy of the graduates. In this respect, it is believed that the findings will pave the way for the program developers to reform the program accordingly, will give further insights about the real experiences of the academicians and take their suggestions to improve the program and will help the researchers to raise some new questions about the preschool teacher education program to investigate.

The present study examined the state of healthy sexuality among college students and the influence of a psychoeducational group on related constructs. Healthy sexuality is comprised of multiple constructs, including accurate knowledge, positive attitudes, risk reducing behaviors, open communication among partners, and self-efficacy for creating desired experiences and preventing unwanted experiences. Sexuality-related knowledge, attitudes and values, and behaviors were measured prior to and following the four-session intervention. Additionally, prior sexuality education at the familial and school-based levels was assessed and compared to the designed intervention. Fifty-six young adults participated in the groups, with topics covering sexual anatomy and response, communication, safer sex practices, and preventing unwanted experiences. Assessment prior to the designed intervention exemplified the wide variety of educational experiences and sources that young adults have, contributing to great variation in sexual knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and self-efficacy. Participants reported varying levels of satisfaction with their sexuality education prior to the intervention, but satisfaction was unrelated to knowledge accuracy. Attitudes, values, and behaviors were similar to national samples. Assessment following the intervention demonstrated significant improvement in many of these areas, indicating that college students are likely to benefit from continued sexuality education. The level of interest for participation in the study indicates young people's interest in increasing healthy sexuality in their lives. It is hoped that the designed intervention may continue to be made available to young adults and tailored to meet their needs and desires as appropriate.

The purpose of this study was to examine the English language needs of Tour Guidance students of Faculty of Applied Sciences at BaSkent University by referring to the perceptions of students, English instructors and curriculum coordinators and to see whether there was a relationship between students&amp / #8217 / attitude towards English language and their self ratings of learning and target needs. The data collection instruments used for the study were the attitude scale and student needs assessment questionnaire administered to forty-five students, ESP Identification Form administered to two curriculum coordinators and English Instructor Questionnaire administered to both of the curriculum coordinators and the three English instructors. The descriptive analysis of the data revealed that there were both similarities and differences among the perceptions of students, English instructors and curriculum coordinators with respect to the learning needs and target needs of students. Paired-Samples T Test results indicated need for most of the skills referring to learning and target needs. The relationship between students&amp / #8217 / attitude towards English language and their self ratings of learning and target needs came up to be of different values for the seven subdimensions of attitude. On the basis of the results of the study, it is suggested that speaking, listening and specialist vocabulary be emphasised more in order to fulfill the ESP needs of Tour Guidance students. Applying skill based syllabus as primary and situational and content approaches to syllabus design as subordinate is suggested to be effective as well. Using instructional materials appealing to the subdimensions of attitude is another suggestion presented.

Innovation policy (science & technology policy/program) aims to stimulate industrial innovation and address the gap between ideas and the market for new products/process. Hence, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are an important target group for innovation policy. While SMEs play important economic role in Taiwan, it is more meaningful to evaluate related innovation policies, to understand the impact of polices as well as test theoretical models of interactions between the public and private sectors. This topic is significant but little studied or investigated with the chance of bias. From the perspective of program evaluation, the thesis evaluated the effect of government subsidies on SMEs¡¦ innovation including impact assessment and efficiency assessment and took the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Program as an example. The target population for evaluation covered three groups: SBIR awardees, firms with rejected applications, general SME manufacturers. Questionnaires were delivered to 942 firms with SBIR Phase I or Phase II awards and 222 firms with rejected applications between 1999 and 2004; 374 and 36 valid questionnaires were returned separately. The Department of Statistics of the Ministry of Economic Affairs provided the data of general SMEs. This thesis evaluated the impact of SBIR by a quasi-experimental design and examines the efficiency by an econometric model. Main findings are as follows: A. The impact of government R&D subsidies on SMEs: 1. Innovative activity (R&D spending): Compared to other SMEs (firms with rejected applications or general SME manufacturers), the growth of SBIR awardees¡¦ R&D spending is significant. 2. Productivity (employment or sales): Compared to other SMEs (firms with rejected applications or general SME manufacturers), the growth of SBIR awardees¡¦ employment is significant. Compared to general SME manufacturers, the growth of SBIR awardees¡¦ sales is significant; but compared to firms with rejected applications, the growth of SBIR awardees¡¦ sales is not significant. B. The efficiency of government R&D subsidies on SMEs: 1. Innovative activity (R&D spending): On average, 0.28 percentage change in SBIR awardees¡¦ R&D spending is correlated with 1 percent change in subsidies (elasticity relationship). 2. Productivity (employment or sales): On average, 0.08 percentage change in SBIR awardees¡¦ employment and 0.25 percentage change in SBIR awardees sales is separately correlated with 1 percent change in subsidies (elasticity relationship).

Government support for applied Research and Development (R&D) persisted in the US despite evidence to the contrary. Many provide government R&D funding for enterprises of particular interest and a number of countries have substantially increased their expenditure on R&D. SBIR as a means of funding high-risk R&D with broad commercial and societal benefits that would not be undertaken by a single company, either because the risk was too high or because a large enough share of the benefits of success would not accrue to the company for it to make the investment. Therefore, the program¡¦s goal is to the development and application of new, enabling technologies that individual firms would not or pursue on their own and thereby encourage the economic growth that comes from the commercialization and use of new technologies in the private sector. However, very few studies of R&D policy toward innovative subsidy program in developing country. Public programs to subsidize high-technology firms have represented a significant but little-studied area of public expenditures. This article assesses the long-run success of firms participating in the SBIR program in Taiwan. The plan of this research is as follows. The purpose of this search in Taiwan is to study the impact of government-industry R&D programs on private R&D. The research has 3 important aspects. First, using a questionnaire to understand the enterprises intention and behavior which have participated in the ¡§Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)¡¨ this paper first examines whether government R&D subsidies influence firm¡¦s innovative activities. Second, this paper examines what the correlation is between government funding and private R&D expenditures. Finally, this research conducted 67 important interviews from enterprises. Not only the multi-methodology comparisons, the empirical results aimed at: 1) Examine the role of public/private partnerships (PP/Ps) as an instrument to leverage public investment in strategy technology and innovation and to achieve other goals of technology and innovation policy; 2) Identify the critical factors determining the success of R&D subsidy program for innovation, with an emphasis on programme design, financial arrangement, and evaluation 3) Government R&D subsidies have a significant positive effect or not on firm¡¦s R&D expenditure / employment / firm-financed R&D spending.