No / The objective of this study was to design, implement and evaluate an intervention based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to enhance young peoples' motivations to breastfeed/support a partner to breastfeed. Six semi-structured focus groups were first conducted with 48 13–14-year-olds from two schools in Northern Ireland. The salient beliefs elicited were subsequently used to design a TPB-based questionnaire that was then administered to 2021 13–14-year-old pupils (852 males; 1169 females) from 36 post-primary schools to identify the most important determinants of breastfeeding. The results were used to inform the design and implementation of an intervention package that was subsequently evaluated using a cluster randomised controlled trial involving 44 randomly selected schools across Northern Ireland. Questionnaires were administered to 18 intervention and 26 control schools at baseline and again at 1 and 6 months post-intervention to evaluate its effectiveness. Multi-level modelling was employed to analyse the data. The results revealed significant effects on women's intention to breastfeed, β = 0.208, t(1275) = 2.715, P = 0.007; attitudes, β = 0.223, t(1275) = 4.655, P < 0.001; moral attitudes, β = 0.231, t(1275) = 4.211, P < 0.001; subjective norm, β = 0.118, t(1275) = 2.521, P = 0.012; and knowledge, β = 0.109, d.f. (1275) = 7.843, P < 0.001. However, for men, the results revealed significant effects on only the construct of knowledge, β = 0.104, t(541) = 4.345, P < 0.001.The research has provided evidence to support the need for breastfeeding education in schools and has shown how a theoretical framework may be used to inform the design and evaluation of a health behaviour intervention. / Research and Development Office of Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Research and Development Office. Grant Number: RSG/2584/03RRG3.33

This quantitative study investigates on how the attitudes amongst people in Tampa are towards the use of public transportation and also analyse which factors they consider vital for its development. The data is collected with the help of an online questionnaire and later compared with the current comprehensive plan and transportation plan in Tampa, after a qualitative literature review, in order to analyse and compare if there are any differences between the respondents and the planners. In other word’s compare theory to what is happening in reality. The results show that both the planners and the respondents acknowledge the dominance and negative effects of car use and that an expansion of public transportation is necessary in order to enhance the overall quality of life but also sustainability. The biggest difference was the attitude toward and belief in Mobility Management and soft measures. As the plan documents do not put any emphasis on the importance of changing attitudes with the help of soft measures, the respondents showed that Mobility Management and services linked to it could be a vital factor to change overall attitude towards public transportation if it were implemented.

Knowledge levels of issues related to fertility, reproduction, and assisted reproductive technology (ART) are low among the general population. There have also been increasing trends for women to delay childbearing and for many individuals to turn to various forms of ART to aid reproduction. Many commentators assume the provision of information targeting fertility related issues and ART will be influential in altering women’s intentions related to delay childbearing, but there is a lack of both empirical and theoretical evidence to support this assumption. Further, suggestions for how to provide education related to fertility and ART have not yet been examined. The present study examined the applicability of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) for predicting women’s intentions to delay childbearing and whether the provision of detailed, accurate, and accessible information regarding reproduction, factors influencing fertility, and the limitations of fertility treatments would alter individual attitudes and levels of perceived control surrounding delayed childbearing. Participants received one of two informational interventions (i.e., fertility-related or alcohol-related information) then completed a questionnaire measuring the constructs of the theory of planned behavior. It was predicted that the theory of planned behavior would provide an adequate framework for examining women’s intentions to delay childbearing in that attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control would all emerge as significant predictors of these intentions (hypothesis 1). It was also predicted that the provision of detailed, accurate and accessible information regarding reproduction, factors influencing fertility, and the limitations of fertility treatment would alter young women’s intentions to delay childbearing (hypothesis 2). Multiple regression analyses provided support for Hypothesis 1 and substantiated that TPB provides an adequate framework for examining women’s intentions to delay childbearing. Hypothesis 2 was partially supported such that the intervention groups significantly differed with respect to their delayed childbearing intentions. However, most of the women in this sample did not evidence intentions to delay childbearing into critical fertile periods. Future research is warranted to examine the theory of planned behavior’s ability to predict delayed childbearing over time, across cohorts, and amongst men, as well as the impact of improved reproductive technologies and media reports of fertility on intentions to delay childbearing.

The physical and psychological health enhancing benefits of physical activity have been well established (US Department of Health & Human Services, 1996; Warburton, Nicol & Bredin, 2006) and reviews support the anxiolytic, antidepressant and stress reducing effects of physical activity, but it is unclear if group or solo physical activity is more effective in the reduction of these forms of psychological distress. A recent survey found that approximately a third of adults in Scotland do not engage in sufficient levels of physical activity recommended to achieve these benefits. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the effectiveness of group versus solo physical activity in the reduction of psychological distress (including stress, depression and anxiety) and factors involved in participation to promote greater engagement in physical activity. The first study issued questionnaires to members of the general population and university students. Inverse correlations were found between group physical activity and psychological distress in both samples. However a single positive correlation was found between anxiety and solo physical activity in the student sample, which suggests that group physical activity may be more effective in the reduction of psychological distress than solo physical activity. Low active individuals appeared to prefer solo physical activity to group, which may be due to lower perceived barriers. More active participants either preferred group activity or had no preferences between group or solo activity, despite also perceiving greater barriers to group than solo activity. The second study allocated university students to a group versus solo jogging condition intervention and found that psychological distress increased for those allocated to solo jogging, but did not increase amongst those allocated to group jogging, suggesting that group physical activity may protect against university related distress. Those allocated to group jogging engaged in (non-significantly) more jogging and engaged in significantly more moderately intensive physical activity throughout the intervention than those allocated to solo jogging. The final study compared group and solo physical activity using the Theory of Planned Behaviour and structural equation modelling. The model explained more variance in group physical activity than variance in solo physical activity. When the model was expanded, self-efficacy made a significantly greater contribution to intention in the solo physical activity model than it did in the group activity model, therefore promotion of group physical activity may not be as dependent on self-efficacy as solo physical activity. Perceived autonomy support (PAS) was included in the model, as guided by modification indexes, but only the group physical activity model was significantly improved by the addition of PAS; this may be useful for the development of group physical activity promotion. This thesis finds some support that group physical activity may be associated with reduced psychological distress and be more beneficial in protecting against psychological distress than solo physical activity. Promotion of group physical activity may benefit from reducing perceived barriers, developing PAS, and having less reliance on self-efficacy than required for the promotion of solo physical activity.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how organisations can identify the untapped potential of intrapreneurial intention amongst employees to increase its competitive advantage. Competitive advantage was therefore seen as an outcome of entrepreneurial actions, which, i.e. can be used for more effective and novel marketing strategies. To reach enhanced competitiveness, many firms make use of the concept of corporate entrepreneurship to boost innovation and firm performance. To measure an employee’s intrapreneurial intention, this thesis deploys an exploratory approach by developing a research model that immerses organisational factors – an employee’s perception of the company’s Entrepreneurial Orientation, with behavioural attributes, as designed by Ajzen’s Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). The model includes five dimensions of a firm’s Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), including autonomy, innovativeness, risk-taking, proactiveness, and competitive aggressiveness. Behavioural attributes proposed by Ajzen consist of the personal attitude towards intrapreneurship, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. The quantitative study generated a sample of 394 employees working in different organisations, industries, and on distinct hierarchical levels. Based on the findings, the authors propose a new framework, in which intrapreneurial intentions are directly influenced by someone’s attitude towards intrapreneurship, and indirectly influenced by an employee’s positive perception of the organisation’s EO. As a result, a company should focus on individual attitudes first to discover a potential for intrapreneurial interests. As a support, a firm’s positive perception of its EO can influence the employee’s attitude towards intrapreneurship, but cannot solely boost intrapreneurial intentions amongst workers.

Organizations struggle to comply with legal requirements as well as customers' calls for better data protection. On the implementation level, incorporation of privacy protections in products and services depends on the commitment of the engineers who design them. We interviewed six senior engineers, who work for globally leading IT corporations and research institutions, to inves- tigate their motivation and ability to comply with privacy regulations. Our findings point to a lack of perceived responsibility, control, autonomy, and frustrations with interactions with the legal world. While we increasingly call on engineers to go beyond functional requirements and be responsive to human values in our increasingly technological society, we may be facing the dilemma of asking engineers to live up to a challenge they are currently not ready to embrace.

The Canadian C-Spine (CS) and CT-Head (CT) Rules are tools aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of radiography use in emergency departments. This study evaluated whether the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) could explain the inconsistent results from implementation studies of these two rules at 12 Canadian hospitals, where the same intervention resulted in a significant reduction in CS radiography but not CT radiography. It was demonstrated that the TPB model’s proposed relationships between constructs and behaviour could explain the ordering of CS but not CT radiography. However, after examining longitudinal changes of the TPB constructs, it was clear that these changes could not explain the changes in CS radiography ordering. Overall, TPB is unlikely to suggest important ways by which to improve radiography use, for CT because its constructs are not related to radiography ordering, and for CS because of high baseline levels of intention to clinically clear.

The Canadian C-Spine (CS) and CT-Head (CT) Rules are tools aimed at improving the accuracy and efficiency of radiography use in emergency departments. This study evaluated whether the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) could explain the inconsistent results from implementation studies of these two rules at 12 Canadian hospitals, where the same intervention resulted in a significant reduction in CS radiography but not CT radiography. It was demonstrated that the TPB model’s proposed relationships between constructs and behaviour could explain the ordering of CS but not CT radiography. However, after examining longitudinal changes of the TPB constructs, it was clear that these changes could not explain the changes in CS radiography ordering. Overall, TPB is unlikely to suggest important ways by which to improve radiography use, for CT because its constructs are not related to radiography ordering, and for CS because of high baseline levels of intention to clinically clear.

Consumers today are becoming more aware of how their behavior and use of resources affect the environment. It is becoming increasingly important for companies to understand consumer’s attitudes in order to predict their behavior. Extensive research has been conducted on the attitude-behavioral relationship in various fields of study. However, no research has been made on the attitude towards environmentally friendly automobiles and how it affects purchase intentions. Our research has been made in collaboration with Volvo Car Corporation, which in 2010 was acquired by Geely Automobile. The acquisition meant that an opportunity presented itself on the Chinese market, which today is the largest automobile market in the world. The thesis will focus on young Chinese consumer’s attitude toward the environment and how this may affect their purchase intentions towards environmentally friendly automobiles. The basis for our reasoning is that the factors environmental values, environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings make up an individual’s environmental attitude. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how environmental values, environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings affect purchase intentions towards environmentally friendly automobiles among young Chinese consumers. We have used a quantitative approach in our collection of empirical data. With the help of a web-based self-completions survey we managed to send out the questionnaire to all Chinese students studying at Jönköping University and received a high response rate of 65%. We based the design of the survey on a model from Kaiser, Ranney, Hartig and Bowler (1999). The major findings from our research conclude that the used model does not substantially explain purchase intentions of environmentally friendly automobiles. Our research suggests that the factors environmental knowledge and responsibility feelings are not significant when predicting intentions to purchase environmentally friendly automobiles. However, the factor environmental values proved to be strongly correlated when predicting intentions to purchase environmentally friendly automobiles.

An understanding of individual cognitions that influence both behavioural intentions and the enactment of actual behaviours is provided by the conceptual model of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). This study used the Theory of Planned Behaviour, with the added variable of perceived risk, to predict Kenyan students’ intention to use HIV voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) centres within the country. We conducted a survey questionnaire with 200 students, aged 13-15 years, within high schools in the Nairobi and Nakuru districts in May 2009. Chi-squared analysis showed no relationships between age, school, school level, knowledge of a VCT centre, or past sexual experience with intention to uptake HIV counselling and testing. Pearson product-moment analysis revealed a small positive correlation between attitude and subjective norm and a medium negative correlation between perceived behavioural control and perceived risk. One-way analysis of variance showed a relationship between perceived behavioural control and intention. Results of block entry logistic regression analysis indicate that perceived behavioural control and perceived risk were significant predictors of intention to use VCT services in the TPB model. The present study suggests that Kenyan teens’ perceived ease/difficulty in performing a specific behaviour is the most influential aspect in predicting their subsequent intention to carry through the behaviour. A theory-based intervention program should focus on reducing practical barriers related to the use of VCT services. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2009-12-04 10:06:25.104