Sophie Recchia

Measuring school climate: an overview of measurement scales

Background: School climate is a heterogeneous concept with a multitude of standardised and validated instruments available to measure it.Purpose: This overview of measurement scales aims to provide researchers with short summaries of some of the self-report instruments in existence, especially in relation to the link between school climate and aggression, within the context of Bronfenbrenner’s model. A secondary aim of this article is to show how the same instrument can sometimes be adapted to fit different theoretical approaches or to focus on different dimensions of school climate.Design and methods: After database consultation and literature hand searching, the resulting literature was screened for a statistical analysis of school climate and aggression. Those studies that had unclear operationalisations of the main variables or used qualitative methods were excluded. The resulting selection of studies were further scanned for common instruments used to evaluate school climate.Conclusions: This article will show how the California School Climate Survey (CSCS), the Psychological Sense of School Membership Scale (PSSM), the School Climate Survey (SCS) and the Effective School Battery (ESB) as well as different versions of self-created scales on school connectedness, school climate and school culture have been adapted by different researchers in different contexts. Finally, the necessity of adapting a pre-existing instrument or creating a new one will be discussed.

Yes I can: The Role of self-efficacy in diabetes care

Research suggests that men may experience distress in ways that go undetected. Many commentators argue that hegemonic forms of masculinity can render men unable or unwilling to deal constructively with distress, leading to maladaptive responses including avoidant behaviour and emotional numbing. However, there are indications in the research that men are also able to constructively engage with their well-being, although little research exists exploring how they do so. The present study sought to find men who currently appear to self-manage their well-being in order to examine issues around how men adopt a constructive approach. In-depth narrative interviews were conducted with 30 male meditators in the UK, selected using principles of maximum variation sampling. Using a modified grounded theory approach, the analysis suggests that while these men took up meditation for varying reasons, they have discovered strategies to better manage their wellbeing. However, the journey towards meditation was fraught with difficulties. Men described crossing a threshold from boyhood into ‘manhood’, and most had tried in the past to be emotionally tough and/or disconnect from difficult emotions. Many had experienced internal conflict, and sought relief in a variety of ineffectual coping responses. Exploring varying pathways toward meditation, this study sheds light on the ways men deal with distress and find constructive ways of coping. Here, resisting dominant norms of masculinity is a difficult struggle for men. Moving away from the ‘masculinity as deficit’ model, we discuss implications for helping men to better understand, engage with, and manage their feelings of distress.Objectives: Treatment choice can be particularly difficult in localised prostate cancer because of the uncertainty involved. Indeed, some men prefer maintaining their masculine identity and quality of life to potentially securing longer-term survival through surgery or radiotherapy. UK health services are now obliged to leave the choice of treatment to the patient and the aim of this study is to improve understanding of patients’ experiences of choosing treatment. Methods: A one-day participative workshop where men of six months post-diagnosis design and conduct audio and video interviews on each other about their experiences of choosing treatment. Results: The findings show that treatment choice is a complex process combining emotional and rational elements. Information gathering and delegation to professional expertise were two key themes that emerged. Conclusions: The findings emphasise that treatment choice for localised prostate cancer is little like the traditional notions of consumerism from which it is derived. Importantly, the results illustrate, from a patient perspective, how health professionals can engage in their roles as information providers and as experts.Poster presentations (In alphabetical order by first author) Lifestyle and cognitive characteristics of foster parents Adam, C.,* Boldis, I., & Soanca, C.; *Child Protection, Romania The foster home care system is the most commonly used alternative for the care of children in Romania. Literature directly pertaining to the ongoing professional development of foster parent is reduced; most research on health problems has been on children in foster care. The objectives of this study were to examine lifestyle and cognitive characteristics of 165 foster parents. Little is known about foster families concerning this dimensions and this limits the understandings of foster care. The majority of participants (90%) evaluated themselves as being healthy, although half of them (49.9%) had at least one complaint (medical condition). A pattern of these families was: regular meals, coffee consumption and moderate-low physical activities. About a third of foster parents had cognitive vulnerability by schema domain (Young, 2003), but their social and professional functioning was good. Implications of these results for the assessement, training and support of foster parents are discussed. Limitations within the existing research on lifestyle and cognitive characteristics of foster families are noted and suggestions for future research are provided. The impact of exposure to work-related traumatic incidents on physical and psychological health in emergency nurses Adriaenssens, J.,* De Gucht, V., & Maes, S.; *Leiden University, The Netherlands Objectives: This study investigated (a) the nature of traumatic events experienced by emergency (ER) nurses and (b) the impact of traumatic events, coping and social support on the development of post-traumatic stress reactions (PTSR), psychosomatic distress, fatigue and sleep problems. Methods: Self-report data were collected from 308 nurses, using the Leiden Quality of Work Questionnaire for Nurses (LQWQ-N), the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Checklist Individual Strength, the Impact of Event Scale and the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were also conducted. Results: The regression model consisting of frequency of exposure to traumatic incidents, coping and social support explained 17%, 26%, 23% and 13% of the variance in PTSR, psychosomatic distress, fatigue and sleep problems. Sudden death and serious physical trauma/mutilation were perceived as the most traumatising events. Emotional coping was a strong predictor of all outcome variables ( p50.001). Frequency of exposure to traumatic incidents significantly predicted PTSR ( p50.001), psychosomatic distress ( p50.01) and sleep problems ( p50.05). Lack of social support was predictive of all outcomes with the exception of sleep problems. Conclusion: Attention should be paid to the physical and psychological impact of ISSN 0887–0446 print/ISSN 1476–8321 online 2010 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/08870446.2010.502762 http://www.informaworld.com traumatic events in ER-nurses, as well as to the potential buffering effect of social support at work. The attitudes of mental health professionals towards mentally ill patients and mental illness in an inpatient setting in palestine Ahmead, M.K.,* Rahhal, A.A., & Baker, J.A.; *Al-Quds University, Occupied Palestinian Territory Background: Culture plays a vital role in shaping public and health professional attitudes towards mental illness. In Arab cultures negative attitudes towards patients experiencing mental illnesses is common. However, there is a lack of studies that investigate the attitudes of mental health professionals towards patients in inpatient mental health settings. Aim: To assess the attitudes of mental health professionals towards patients with mental illnesses in the only psychiatric hospital in Palestine. Methods: A survey was undertaken using the Attitudes Toward Acute Mental Health Scale (ATAMHS 33). The scale was distributed to mental health professionals including nurses, psychiatrists, social workers, psychologists and occupational therapists at the only psychiatric hospital in Bethlehem city. Data was managed and analysed by using SPSS, a Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. Results: The majority of the participants expressed both negative and positive attitudes towards patients in inpatients mental health settings, however, results revealed more negative than positive attitudes particularly in relation to alcohol abuse, medication, patients’ ability to control their emotions, and genetic predisposing of mental disorders. Conclusions: This article provides baseline data about the attitude of mental health professionals towards patients experiencing mental illnesses. In accordance with the findings of the current study education and direct contact with mentally ill patients may not be enough to foster positive attitudes towards them. This may indicate the need to revise educational curriculum at the faculties of health sciences at the Palestinian universities and more training workshops and short courses for mental health professionals in order to change their attitudes. The psychological impact of prenatal test procedures Al Ghazi, L.; Universitatea de Vest, Romania Our study aim is to examine the relationship between the mother’s attachment to her foetus, beliefs about health locus of control, and the prenatal testing. Ninety-eight pregnant women at risk for foetal abnormalities (i.e., 35 years of age or older and at least 20 weeks as gestational age) participated in the study, of whom 29 (32%) had not undergone prenatal testing procedures. We used The Foetal Health Locus of Control (Labs & Wurtele, 1986) to investigate the beliefs of pregnant women about the role they play in their foetus/future child health; The Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale (J.T. Condon, 1993) to investigate the emotional relationship between the mother and her unborn child; Health Practices in Pregnancy Questionnaire-II (Lindgren, 2005) to investigate the good or bad practices related to health and life style. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression partially supported the hypothesis that internal placed locus of control and prenatal testing status would be predictive of attachment (MAAS, Condon 1993) over and above the effects of maternal demographics characteristics. As predicted, women who had not used prenatal testing or who underwent amniocentesis tended to have stronger prenatal attachment than those who underwent others procedures like ultrasounds or serum screening only. Taming the black god: A double hermeneutic on revenge and mercy Alapack, R.J.; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway 138 Abstracts