Title: Helping or Hovering: Examining Social Loafing and the Free-Rider Effect in Youth’s Transition Readiness
Author: Mekyala Williams, East Tennessee State University
Co-author(s): Kiana Johnson, MS, PhD
Department of Pediatrics
Quillen College of Medicine
East Tennessee State University
Lindsay Ellis Lee, PhD
Department of Pediatrics
Quillen College of Medicine
East Tennessee State University
Introduction
Transition readiness in youth has been hard to study because parents and providers have served as managers rather than coaches hindering the process. Social loafing is a phenomenon that explains why people are more prone to exert less effort in group settings. We decided to observe the prevalence of social loafing in youth we examined if students knew how to perform specific transition readiness skills but allowed their support systems to do the task for them. This would be measured in opposition to them performing the tasks themselves since they do have the necessary skillset. The present study aims to validate the 4 domain subscales (i.e., managing medications, keeping appointments, tracking health issues, and talking with providers) found in the revised 20-item Transition Readiness Assessment Questionnaire (TRAQ). Additionally, the study will evaluate youth reliance on familial support systems for healthcare through the lens of the social loafing phenomenon.
Methods
To obtain demographic information, participants were asked on the survey to report their sex, age, ethnicity, and race (i.e., White, Black or African American, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, or Alaska Native, or other). Once all the surveys were completed, participants were categorized into white and non-white. We surveyed 161 youth from two different schools in South Central Appalachia about their transition readiness using anchors from the TRAQ with revised response categories. The response categories were whether they know how to do the specific task or not and whether youth perform the task themselves or if someone else does the task for them. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the revised 20-item version of the TRAQ will validate with the present sample. All statistical analyses will be conducted in R.
Anticipatory Results and Conclusions
Preliminary results based on the 161 participants found that youth can perform these tasks but very frequently allow someone else to do them. Out of the 20 items listed on the TRAQ, the endorsement rate of social loafing response varied between 10% and 52%. Fifteen out of the 20 items had a 30% response rate for social loafing. For the transition to adulthood to be successful for youth, they have to learn to accept different roles and responsibilities without the help of anyone else. This emphasizes the importance of shifting parents and providers to a coaching role rather than a managing role. Doing so will help enhance the youths’ ability and independence as they get older. This can also be applied to healthcare settings as using a coaching approach will minimize social loafing and allow more competence in managing their health.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:asrf-2000 |
| Date | 07 April 2022 |
| Creators | Williams, Mekyala, Johnson, Kiana, Lee, Lindsay Ellis |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Appalachian Student Research Forum & Jay S. Boland Undergraduate Research Symposium |
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