The purpose of this study was to determine whether coaching behavior preferences of NCAA Division I athletes differ as a function of gender and type of sport. The Coaching Behavior Questionnare (CBQ; Martin & Barnes, 1999) was administered to 195 NCAA Division I athletes. Gender and sport type were the independent variables and the participant's mean scores for the subscales on the CBQ were the dependent variables. Descriptive statistics revealed that, overall, NCAA Division I athletes prefer positive and instructional behaviors more than non-responses or negative behaviors. A 2 (gender) x 3 (type of sport) MANOVA and follow-up discriminant function analysis indicated that coaching behavior preferences differed as a function of gender and type of sport played. Thus, NCAA Division I coaches should consider both individual and situational characteristics when working with their athletes to achieve the desired outcome.

A literature study was undertaken to investigate the experience of loss and grief in the different developmental stages, as well as to identify characteristics of loss and grief in the young child. Guidelines have been compiled on how to handle loss and grief in young children. The empirical study comprised of workshop presentations. Through these presentations it was also determined as to whether parents and children would benefit from such workshops, as well as if the information regarding loss and grief addressed the parents’ needs. The empirical study found that parents are ignorant about loss and grief in the young child. However, all the parents had questions about loss and grief. After the workshops parents indicated that they became aware of positive changes in their own behaviour towards their children, and also in that of their children. One of the biggest problems in handling loss and grief in the young child seemed to be open and honest communication. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Guidance and Counseling)

I den här undersökningen översätts den internationellt använda studien QTI till svenska och delas ut till svenska gymnasieungdomar. Enkäten är tänkt att undersöka hur eleverna ser på sina lärare och relationen till dem. Enkäten utvärderas i uppsatsen och förslag på förbättringar ges. En genomsnittslärare tas fram utifrån resultaten, som visar på att svenska gymnasielärare är duktiga på att skapa fungerande klassrumsrelationer med sina elever, men då enkätens teman inte korrelerar fullständigt är det resultatet något osäkert.

Au Québec, près de 120,000 personnes âgées vivent dans plus de 2,000 résidences privées avec services. Ces milieux de vie substituts se présentent sous plusieurs formes, car ils se sont développés, jusqu'à tout récemment, sans aucun contrôle étatique. Il en résulte une importante variabilité dans, par exemple, les services offerts, les ratios de personnel, l'aménagement physique, les critères d'admission et les capacités d'accueil. L'hétérogénéité de ces milieux rend leur représentation et leur comparaison laborieuses, autant pour les professionnels de la santé que pour les personnes âgées et leur famille. Le développement de classifcation est particulièrement utile lorsqu'on souhaite se représenter un ensemble hétérogène, comme c'est le cas des résidences privées avec services accueillant des personnes âgées (RPA). L'objectif général de l'étude est de développer et de valider, à l'aide d'analyses de classification automatisée (ACA), une classification des RPA basée sur des caractéristiques de leur environnement physique et organisationnel. La présente thèse intègre trois articles scientifiques, en lien avec chacun des trois objectifs spécifiques de l'étude. Le premier article détaille la méthodologie et les résultats liés à l'identification des caractéristiques nécessaires à la représentation d'une RPA. Cent soixante-quinze variables ont été identifiées. Le deuxième article décrit le développement d'un questionnaire pour mesurer ces variables, l'étude de la fidélité test-retest du questionnaire ainsi que l'appréciation de sa cohérence interne. Somme toute, le questionnaire de l'environnement physique et organisationnel (EPO) présente de bonnes propriétés métrologiques. Enfin, le troisième article présente de manière détaillée le développement et la validation de la classification. À cet effet, 552 des 1,928 propriétaires de RPA admissibles ont complété le questionnaire EPO afin de fournir les informations nécessaires à la création de la classification. Différentes méthodes d'ACA ont été employées. Trois classifications plausibles ont été soumises à un groupe d'experts composé de huit intervenants cliniques. La classification retenue par ce comité est issue de la méthode hiérarchique de Ward combinée à la méthode non hiérarchique k-means. La classification est composée de cinq groupes de RPA qui se distinguent, entre autres, par les services offerts, la clientèle accueillie et le niveau de support à l'autonomie fonctionnelle. Ces travaux de recherche sont les premiers à regrouper les RPA du Québec en groupes homogènes mutuellement exclusifs sur la base de leur environnement physique et organisationnel. Une fois implantée, cette classification fournira des informations précieuses aux intervenants, aux gestionnaires ainsi qu'aux personnes âgées et leur famille. Elle favorisera davantage de congruence entre les besoins cliniques identifiés, les préférences de la personne âgée et le choix d'une RPA optimale.

A dissertation completed in partial compliance with the requirements for a Master's Degree in Technology Chiropractic, Durban Institute of Technology, 2006. / Neck pain is a common problem, globally, as well as in South Africa. Zulu is the first language of a very large proportion of the South African population, and as such, addressing the needs of this population group with respect to neck pain is a priority. Many reliable pain indexes exist in English to record the degree of disability with regards to neck pain. These are invaluable tools in aiding the health practitioner to assess the progress of treatment and the severity of the patient's disability. Two of the most credible and frequently used indexes are the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College Neck Disability Index (CMCC NDl) and the Short Form McGill Pain Questionnaire (SFMPQ). However, no such scale exists in Zulu. The purpose of this pilot investigation was, firstly, to analyze and critique the Zulu translations of the CMCC NDl and the SFMPQ in order to establish their face validity. Secondly, to establish their concurrent validity ensuring that the translated questionnaires are specific and sensitive enough to use as tools in data collection when compared to their English counterparts. Thirdly, to make recommendations for further improvement in terms of the Zulu questionnaires and lastly, to make recommendations for further studies for improvement in terms of the use of these questionnaires as research tools amongst the Zulu speaking population of South Africa. Firstly, the CMCC NDl and the SFMP questionnaires were translated into Zulu by means of a focus group. These versions were then assessed by means of a focus (or discussion) group, to assess their face validity. Changes were made to the original translations according to the recommendations of this group. These versions were then assessed with regards to their concurrent validity with the original English versions. Fifty volunteers, who were literate in both English and Zulu and who have suffered with neck pain, filled in both the Zulu and English versions of both questionnaires. / M

Ungdomar spenderar stor del av sin tid i skolan och upplever en minskad tid till fritid på grund av skolarbete. Tiden utanför skoltid är viktig för återhämtning och för att upprätthålla aktivitetsbalansen samt motverka stressrelaterad ohälsa. Syftet med studien är att beskriva aktivitetsbalans i relation till den tid eleven spenderar på skolarbete utanför skoltid och stress. Studien har en kvantitativ design, 46 deltagare rekryterades genom ett icke-slumpmässigt bekvämlighetsurval. Deltagarna besvarade påståenden kring aktivitetsbalans med Occupational Balance Questionnaire (OBQ) och kompletterande frågor om tid spenderad på skolarbete utanför skoltid och stress. Deskriptiv statistik, Spearman´s rank correlation och Mann-Whitney U-Test användes för att sammanställa data. Resultatet visar att deltagargruppen uppnår generellt låga totalpoäng i OBQ. Kvinnor skattar betydligt lägre aktivitetsbalans än män. Generellt anger hela deltagargruppen många studietimmar/vecka, och kvinnor anger fler studietimmar/veckan än män. Majoriteten av deltagarna upplever stress. Deltagare som inte upplever stress anger alla höga poäng på påståendet balans mellan vila, återhämtning och sömn. Slutsatsen för studien är att flertalet av deltagarna upplever låg aktivitetsbalans. Det är inte troligt att det finns en relation mellan skolarbete utanför skoltid och ungdomars aktivitetsbalans.

Background: Recently, health plans have initiated pay-for-performance (P4P) programs to incentivize pharmacies to focus on medication-related quality measures. Little research exists as to what attributes help a pharmacy to perform well in a P4P program. Objectives: This study aimed to: (1) propose a conceptual framework evolved from theories pertaining to economic, psychology, and organizational behavior disciplines that may contribute to a pharmacy's performance in a financial incentive program; (2) develop theoretically-derived questionnaires designed to elicit from pharmacists and pharmacy management pharmacy characteristics and pharmacy personnel factors thought to be associated with achieving quality measures specified for a pharmacy P4P program; (3) psychometrically assess these two newly developed questionnaires designed to collect information from community pharmacies eligible to participate in a pharmacy P4P program; (4) assess the magnitude of the relationship between pharmacy-related and construct redundancy of latent variables identified in objective 3; and (5) examine pharmacy factors' association with community pharmacies achieving quality measures in a pharmacy P4P program. Methods: Two survey instruments were created from a theoretically-derived conceptual framework to measure pertinent pharmacy characteristics and pharmacy personnel factors using a multi-step, mixed-methods process. Questionnaire development entailed semi-structured interviews, item generation, expert content validation, and cognitive debriefings. Developed questionnaires were evaluated in a non-experimental, cross-sectional survey of pharmacists and pharmacy management. Pharmacy personnel surveyed for this study were affiliated with pharmacies in Inland Empire Health Plan's (IEHP's) community pharmacy network. Using items measured in each questionnaire, specified groups of items were hypothesized to have a certain underlying latent variable. Latent variables hypothesized for items measured in the pharmacist questionnaire included: (1)"adherence management -services," (2)"adherence management-counseling," (3) "asthma management," (4) "pharmacist-prescriber relationship," (5) "chronic disease management," (6) "non-dispensing ability," and (7) "workload impact". For items measured in the pharmacy management questionnaire, eight latent variables were hypothesized: (1) "program understanding," (2) "program financial salience," (3) "program involvement," (4) "organization's adaptability," (5) "organization's innovativeness," (6) "organization's proactiveness," (7) "organization's risk-taking." and (8) "organization's focal emphasis." For hypothesized latent variables with four or more items, the value thresholds of three assessment indexes were employed as criteria to evaluate each measurement model's goodness-of-fit. Indexes included: (1) 2 test statistic (i.e.,>0.05), (2) root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) (i.e., 0.05), and (3) comparative fit index (CFI) (i.e.,>0.95). The statistical significance of item factor loadings was assessed for latent variables with (1) four or more items deemed to have adequate model fit per index criteria and (2) only three items, for which goodness-of-fit may not be assessed. Structural modeling was used to explore associations between (1) pairs of latent variables with adequate model fit and/or statistically significant factor loadings; and (2) latent variables with medication-related quality measures. The strength of associations among latent variable pairs was measured with correlation coefficients. Latent variable pairs with significant correlations greater than 0.50 were evaluated for construct redundancy, for which a change in CFI was used as the comparison criteria to determine whether the latent variables are better represented as one (i.e., (CFI<-0.01) or two constructs (i.e., (CFI ≥ -0.01). Mediation-related quality measures specified as dependent variables in structural models included: diabetes medication adherence, hypertension medication adherence, hypercholesterolemia medication adherence, absence of controller therapy in patients with asthma, use of high-risk medications in elderly, and generic dispensing rate. Results: The empirically derived conceptual framework outlined four major domains proposed for consideration when evaluating pharmacy P4P programs: (1) incentive; (2) pharmacy; (3) other influencing factors; and (4) P4P program measures. From this framework, two questionnaires were developed with the aim of measuring pharmacists' and pharmacy management's pharmacy attitudes and perspectives of a community pharmacy P4P program. The pharmacist survey instrument consisted of five sections: (i) community pharmacy P4P program; (ii) pharmacy services; (iii) pharmacist workload; (iv) pharmacy practice site; and (v) pharmacist's background. The pharmacy management questionnaire consisted of four sections: (i) pharmacy P4P program; (ii) pharmacy organization's characteristics; (iii) pharmacy practice site; and (iv) respondent's background information. Among the 604 pharmacies invited to participate, pharmacists from 114 unique pharmacies (19%) and pharmacy management from 100 unique pharmacies (17%) participated in the survey. This study identified psychometrically validated measurement models for latent constructs with items measured in the pharmacist ("adherence management-counseling," "asthma management," "workload impact" ) and pharmacy management ("program involvement," "organization's innovativeness," "organization's proactiveness," "organization's risk-taking" ) questionnaires). With the exception of "program involvement," the latent constructs measured in the pharmacy management questionnaire were identified to be significantly correlated (𝛹>0.50, p<0.001) and more parsimoniously represented as one factor rather than two (∆CFI<-0.01). No significant associations were identified in exploratory analyses of validated measurement models from the pharmacist questionnaire with targeted medication-related quality measures in IEHP's community pharmacy P4P program. Conclusion: This study collected data for two questionnaires evaluating (1) pharmaceutical care services conceptualized to be associated with targeting medication-related quality measures and (2) pharmacy management's attitudes toward a pharmacy P4P program. Furthermore, psychometric assessment of each questionnaire supplied initial validity evidence for three constructs for the pharmacist questionnaire ("adherence management-counseling," "asthma management," and "workload impact" ) and four constructs for the pharmacy management questionnaire ("program involvement," "organization's innovativeness," "organization's proactiveness," and "organization's risk-taking" ). Subsequent validation of these latent constructs in larger sample sizes is required. Continued study of pharmacy factors and their association with medication-related quality measures is needed to improve our understanding of pharmacies' performance in financial incentive programs. As pharmacy organizations are increasingly integrated into more financial incentive programs aimed at targeting process- and outcomes-related quality measures, it is essential to be able to measure pharmacy and management factors in order to determine which factor(s) impact pharmacy performance.

The concept of Lean Construction has been introduced successfully into the Construction Industry to increase efficiency and profit by elimination of non-value adding activities or ‘Waste’. Lean Construction is an adaptation of Lean manufacturing principles and is the future of the Construction Industry in developing as well as developed countries. There has been much study and documentation conducted on ‘Lean Construction’ in USA. Even though people have started practicing Lean in India, there is lack of documented information available about it. Professionals within the Industry could already be minimizing ‘Waste’ and/or following Lean principles without the knowledge of the term ‘Lean Construction’. This thesis has reviewed and compared Lean Construction practices and awareness in India and USA. A questionnaire based study was used to examine practices and collect data about Construction for analysis. Descriptive statistics was primarily used to make inferences from the data. The Lean Construction characteristics of the construction professionals from both the countries were discussed and analyzed. It was inferred that the Construction Industry in both the countries could benefit further from the Lean practices and increase profitability by up to 25%. In general, personnel in the Construction Industry from both the countries need to receive regular knowledge and updates about Lean principles in order to optimize resources effectively.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between early perceptions of parent-child relations, as measured by the Roe and Siegelman Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire (PCR), and the occupational orientation of the child, as measured by the Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB).

The present study investigated the relationship of 16 Personality Factor (16 PF) Scores to institutional adjustment, educational level, recidivism, and escapism of 665 prisoners in a maximum security prison. Two phases of data analysis were conducted. Multiple two-tailed Students' t tests resulted in significant differences on all 16 PF Factor Scores between prisoners and Cattell adult norm group. Significant differences were also found between prisoners and Cattell prisoner norms. In phase two, four multiple linear regression models were constructed. Significant 16 PF scales, age, and educational differences were found within the prisoner sample. Possible implications of the use of the 16 PF in regression models in paramorphic clinical prediction programs are discussed.