Sérgio Moreira

“Una casa en el bosque”: valores, actitudes y comportamientos frente a los bosques

Resumen Los bosques son una importante fuente de recursos, pero rara vez se estudian las actitudes de la gente hacia ellos. Este artículo se centra sobre este tema y persigue: a) describir la actitud hacia los bosques y sus correlatos; b) indagar sobre la relación jerárquica entre los valores y actitudes ecológicos y uso de los bosques; y c) estudiar el rol moderador de la ambivalencia actitudinal respecto a la asociación entre actitudes y comportamientos relacionados con los bosques. Se empleó una muestra de personas que residen en zonas cercanas a bosques (N = 1206). Los resultados muestran que la actitud hacia los bosques es bastante favorable. Se encontraron actitudes más positivas en el norte, entre aquellos con trabajos relacionados con el bosque, y entre aquellos que viven más cerca del bosque. Los valores universales se asocian con el uso del bosque, pero esta relación estaba en parte mediada por la actitud hacia el bosque. Por último, la ambivalencia actitudinal apareció como un predictor del comportamiento, pero no como un moderador de la asociación entre actitud y comportamiento.

A House in the Woods: Values, attitudes and behaviours towards Forests

Abstract Forests are an important source of resources, but public attitudes towards the forests have rarely been studied. This paper focus on this topic aiming at: (a) describing the attitude towards the forest and its correlates; (b) testing the hierarchic relationship between ecologic values, attitudes and use of the forest; and (c) testing the moderating role of attitudinal ambivalence in the association between attitudes and forest related behaviours. A sample of residents living close to forests was collected (N = 1206). Results show that the attitude towards the forest is quite favourable. More positive attitudes were found in the North, among those working in the forestry and those who live close. Universalistic values are associated with the use of the forest but this relationship was partially mediated by the attitude towards the forest. Finally, attitudinal ambivalence was a predictor of the behaviour, but not a moderator of the attitude behaviour association.

Understanding how and why people participate in crowd events

The participation and collective effervescence in crowd events is a perennial issue in social sciences, however it has scarcely been researched from the point of view of the attendees. This article helps to fill the gap with an exploratory descriptive study based on a sample of 1,553 respondents from 40 countries. The authors analyse seven different types of events and also describe the various participation levels, whether people go there alone or in company, and their reasons for attending. Globally, the results show several specific patterns: (a) the majority of the participants often go to collective events, but different events have different levels of participation; (b) people rarely go alone to collective events, but the company depends on the type of event; (c) although the results show it is not necessary to like the event to trigger participation, people have different reasons for going to different events. The article concludes with a cluster analysis that details the links between attendance, company, and reasons to attend, according to the socio-demographic factors.

Portuguese version of a stress and well-being evaluation tool (ASSET)at the workplace: validation of the psychometric properties

Objective The main objective of this work was to translate the English version of ASSET (A Shortened Stress Evaluation Tool) into the Portuguese version and to validate its psychometric properties. Additionally, this work tested the convergent validity of the instrument. Methods The translation and retroversion were conducted by experts and submitted to the authors for approval. Within an observational, cross-sectional study, regarding mental health at the workplace, ASSET together with other scales was applied to a sample of 405 participants. The psychometric validity of the subscales was studied using confirmatory factorial analysis. Results The factorial structure of ASSET is globally supported by the results, with the Perceptions of Your Job and Attitudes Towards your Organisation subscales requiring slight adjustments in the item structure and the Your Health subscales replicating the original structure. The convergent validity also supports the ASSET, showing that all subscales are significantly correlated with variables used to test convergence. Conclusions Globally, the results constitute an important contribution to ASSET and open the possibility of its usage among Portuguese-speaking countries. The results provide an evidence on the validity of the instrument and, in particular, of the mental and physical health subscales.