Grenville Rose

Implicit attitudes, emotions, and helping intentions of mental health workers toward their clients.

Abstract The attitudes of mental health care workers toward their clients may influence the quality of care they provide. There is growing recognition of the role of implicit attitudes in behavior toward people with stigmatized illnesses, such as mental illness, and of the need to measure these separately from explicit attitudes. Seventy-four mental health workers completed implicit and explicit measure of attitudes toward people with mental illness. The participants were also asked about their intention to help people with mental illness and their emotional reactions toward people with a mental illness. The findings show that the implicit attitudes of the health workers toward clients with a mental illness are somewhat negative despite the fact that their explicit attitudes are somewhat positive. Although both implicit and explicit attitudes predicted negative emotions, only implicit attitudes were related to helping intentions. This study highlights the association between implicit attitudes and behavioral intentions and confirms the importance of addressing implicit attitudes in mental health research.

The development of meat-eating habits during childhood in Australia.

The development of meat-eating habits of 999 Australian children between 1 and 16 years of age stratified across socioeconomic groups, was determined using a 4-day diary and measurement procedures to document intake. The results indicated that a stable pattern of meat-eating behaviour, as regards the frequency and type of meat eaten was established during the period 1-4 years of age and remained until 10-12 years for males and until at least 14-16 years for females. In contrast, the amount of meat consumed increased with age, the greatest increases occurring with adolescent males who ate the largest amounts of beef, chicken and pork. It is suggested that the early establishment of meat-eating habits may reflect a more general effect that may occur with other types of food.

Identifying achievement goals and their relationship to academic achievement in undergraduate pharmacy students.

Objectives. To compare the achievement goal orientations of first-year with those of third-year undergraduate Australian pharmacy students and to examine the relationship of goal orientations to academic achievement. Methods. The Achievement Goal Questionnaire was administered to first-year and third-year students during class time. Students’ grades were obtained from course coordinators. Results. More first-year students adopted performance-approach and mastery-approach goals than did third-year students. Performance-approach goals were positively correlated with academic achievement in the first year. Chinese Australian students scored the highest in adopting performance-approach goals. Vietnamese Australian students adopted mastery-avoidance goals more than other ethnicities. First-year students were more strongly performance approach goal-oriented than third-year students. Conclusion. Adopting performance-approach goals was positively correlated with academic achievement, while adopting avoidance goals was not. Ethnicity has an effect on the adoption of achievement goals and academic achievement.

An international validation study of two achievement goal measures in a pharmacy education context.

Background Achievement goal theory helps us understand what motivates students to participate in educational activities. However, measuring achievement goals in a precise manner is problematic. Elliot and McGregor’s Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ) and Elliot and Murayama’s revised Achievement Goal Questionnaire (AGQ-R) are widely used to assess students’ achievement goals. Both instruments were developed and validated using undergraduate psychology students in the USA. Methods In this study, our aims were to first of all, assess the construct validity of both questionnaires using a cohort of Australian pharmacy students and, subsequently, to test the generalizability and replicability of these tools more widely in schools of pharmacy in other English-speaking countries. The AGQ and the AGQ-R were administered during tutorial class time. Confirmatory factor analysis procedures, using AMOS 19 software, were performed to determine model fit. Results In contrast to the scale developers’ findings, confirmatory factor analysis supported a superior model fit for the AGQ compared with the AGQ-R, in all countries under study. Conclusion Validating measures of achievement goal motivation for use in pharmacy education is necessary and has implications for future research. Based on these results, the AGQ will be used to conduct future cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of the achievement goals of undergraduate pharmacy students from these countries.

Investigating the Relationship Between Pharmacy Students’ Achievement Goal Orientations and Preferred Teacher Qualities

Objective. To investigate the relationships between pharmacy students’ preferred teacher qualities and their academic achievement goal orientations. Methods. Participants completed an achievement goal questionnaire and a build-a-teacher task. For the latter, students were given a

Knowledge and attitudes towards hepatitis C and injecting drug use among mental-health support workers of a community managed organisation

20 hypothetical budget to purchase amounts of 9 widely valued teachers’ qualities. Results. Three hundred sixty-six students participated. Students spent most of their budget on the traits of enthusiasm, expertise, and clear presentation style, and the least amount of money on interactive teaching, reasonable workload, warm personality, and intellectually challenging. In relation to achievement goals, negative associations were found between avoidance goals and preferences for teachers who encourage rigorous thinking and self-direction. Conclusion. These novel findings provide a richer profile of the ways students respond to their learning environment. Understanding the relationships between teachers’ characteristics and pharmacy students’ achievement goal orientations will contribute to improving the quality of pharmacy learning and teaching environments.

Mental health recovery, goal setting and working alliance in an Australian community-managed organisation

OBJECTIVES People with mental illness are at significantly higher risk of acquiring hepatitis C virus (HCV) compared with the general population. This study assessed knowledge of and attitudes towards people with HCV and people who inject drugs (PWID) among support workers of clients with mental illness. METHODS Support workers from a community managed organisation (CMO) in Australia were recruited to complete an online cross-sectional survey. The survey collected data about their knowledge of HCV and attitudes towards PWID and people with HCV. RESULTS Valid responses were received from 117 support workers. Although HCV knowledge was moderate, there were significant knowledge gaps around transmission and treatment of HCV. Higher HCV knowledge was significantly associated with more positive attitudes towards PWID, but not with attitudes towards people with HCV. Participants had more positive attitudes towards people with HCV than towards PWID. Additionally, those with more positive attitudes towards HCV tended to also have more positive attitudes towards PWID. CONCLUSIONS Given that people with mental illness are at higher risk of acquiring HCV, these results point to the need for education targeted at support workers of clients with mental illness to increase HCV knowledge and promote positive attitudes towards PWID and people with HCV.

Attitudes of people working in mental health non-governmental organisations in Australia: A comparison with other mental health professionals

This article examines the relationships between goal setting and achievement, working alliance and recovery in an Australian mental health community-managed organisation. The study gathered data over a 14-month period after the introduction of routine outcome measures. Both goal achievement and the strength of the working alliance were shown to have a positive effect on the personal recovery of the clients in the study. Both working alliance and goal achievement are robustly supportive at whatever point a person is on in the recovery journey. The brief goals card used is a useful adjunct to other tools.

An International Comparison Study of Pharmacy Students' Achievement Goals and Their Relationship to Assessment Type and Scores

Research suggests that stigma impacts help-seeking behaviour and health outcomes for people affected by mental illness. This study compared the attitudes of Australian non-governmental organisation support workers towards people with mental illness with those of other health professionals. Three hundred and seventy four support workers were randomly allocated to answer questions about one of the six vignettes. Results indicated that non-governmental organisation support workers held more positive attitudes towards people with mental illness than those of general practitioners, psychiatrists and psychologists measured in prior research. These results suggest that non-governmental organisations may be a more positive and comfortable entry and referral point for mental health clients.

Problematic substance use in two mental health NGOs, and staff, client and general public attitudes towards problematic substance use amongst people with mental illness

Objective: To identify pharmacy students’ preferred achievement goals in a multi-national undergraduate population, to investigate achievement goal preferences across comparable degree programs, and to identify relationships between achievement goals, academic performance, and assessment type. Methods: The Achievement Goal Questionnaire was administered to second year students in 4 universities in Australia, New Zealand, England, and Wales. Academic performance was measured using total scores, multiple-choice questions, and written answers (short essay). Results: Four hundred eighty-six second year students participated. Students showed an overall preference for the mastery-approach goal orientation across all sites. The predicted relationships between goal orientation and multiple-choice questions, and written answers scores, were significant. Conclusion: This study is the first of its kind to examine pharmacy students’ achievement goals at a multi-national level and to differentiate between assessment type and measures of achievement motivation. Students adopting a mastery-approach goal are more likely to gain high scores in assessments that measure understanding and depth of knowledge.