Investigating the Factors Related to Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) on Undergraduate Students’ Interests in Coursework

Today the world is suffering from coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic illness, and people all around the world stay at home due to its rapid spread. People including students gather information and government instructions through TVs, social media and others around them. Since the classes were canceled in many countries, the novel coronavirus affects students’ interest in coursework. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of TV news, social media and communication with people on interest in coursework, and mediating roles of fear of contamination, depression, and anxiety on these effects. A path analysis was carried out with the data collected from 773 college students. The results showed that interest in coursework was most strongly affected by communication with people. This was due to its direct and indirect effects. Social media and TV News did not directly affect interest in coursework, but indirectly affected. The study also found that among the three mediator variables, the mediator roles of anxiety was bigger than the others. Understanding the findings of this research has become very important to us, especially at a time when face-to-face lessons have been canceled all over the world and transitioned to online education. Specific recommendations for practitioners and limitations for future research were also provided in the study

Investigating the relationship between social support and school burnout in Turkish middle school students: The mediating role of hope

gungor, abdi/0000-0002-7945-0906WOS: 000483329600001The literature has documented the relationships between school burnout and mental health, academic achievement, and overall quality of life. Furthermore, hope and social support have been identified as important factors for coping with stress and have been found to be negatively related to undesirable emotional states. The present study aimed to examine the effects of demographic variables, social support, and hope on school burnout in Turkish middle school students. More importantly, hope was investigated as a possible mediator of the relationship between social support and school burnout. Hierarchical regression analyses were performed to investigate the effects of social support and hope on school burnout. Additionally, a bootstrapping procedure was employed to test mediational effects of hope on the effects of social support. The results revealed that, after controlling demographic variables, social support and hope negatively predicted school burnout. Mediation analyses showed that hope significantly and partially mediated the link between social support and school burnout. Specifically, students with higher levels of social support reported having higher levels of hope, which in turn was associated with lower levels of school burnout. The results and limitations are discussed along with implications for future research and educational planning

Üniversite Öğrencilerinin Yaşam Doyumları Üzerinde YetersizlikDuygusunun Yordayıcı Etkisi: Sosyal İlginin Aracı Rolü

Yaşam doyumu, sağlığın ve ruh sağlığının önemli göstergelerinden biridir. Üniversitedönemi, hem öğrencilerin içinde bulundukları gelişim dönemi hem de sonraki dönemlereolan etkisi bakımından zor ve önemli bir süreçtir. Dolayısıyla üniversite öğrencilerininyaşam doyumlarını etkileyen faktörlerin araştırılması, onların yaşam kalitesini arttırmakaçısından önem arz etmektedir. Bu araştırmanın amacı üniversite öğrencilerinin yaşamdoyumları üzerinde Bireysel Psikoloji kuramında özellikle vurgulanan yetersizlikduygusunun ve sosyal ilginin yordayıcı etkisi incelemektir. Ayrıca bu araştırmada sosyalilginin yetersizlik duygusu ve yaşam doyumu arasındaki aracı rolü de incelenmiştir.Araştırmanın çalışma grubunu toplam 371 gönüllü üniversite öğrencisi oluşturmaktadır.Araştırmada veri toplamak amacıyla Demografik Bilgi Formu, Toplumsal İlgi Ölçeği,Yetersizlik Duygusu Ölçeği ve Yaşam Doyumu Ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Araştırmada önesürülen hipotezleri test etmek için Pearson momentler çarpım korelasyon katsayısı,hiyerarşik regresyon analizi ve yeniden örnekleme yöntemi (bootstrapping) yapılmıştır.Hiyerarşik regresyon analizi sonuçlarına göre yetersizlik duygusu negatif ve sosyal ilgipozitif yönde yaşam doyumunu anlamlı şekilde yordamıştır. Yeniden örnekleme yöntemi ileyapılan analizlerin sonucuna göre ise sosyal ilginin kısmi bir aracı rol oynadığıbulunmuştur. Araştırma soncunda elde edilen bulgular kuramsal ve alanyazındakiçalışmalar açısından tartışılmış ve gelecekte yapılacak araştırmalara yönelik önerilersunulmuştur

Depression and hopelessness in Turkish healthcare workers: The moderating and mediating roles of meaning in life

gungor, abdi/0000-0002-7945-0906WOS: 000481956300001PubMed: 31429360Healthcare workers who served in southern cities of Turkey have been directly and indirectly affected by the civil war in Syria due to stress and trauma. Hopelessness in these healthcare workers can be a potential contributor to their levels of depression. On the other hand, meaning in life, as both moderating and mediating variable, can serve to counteract depression. This is a study of 286 Turkish healthcare workers who served in a southern border city of Turkey and Syria in February and March of 2018. The study examined the effects of hopelessness and meaning in life on depression level including the moderating and mediating effects of meaning in life on the relationship between hopelessness and depression. A hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping procedure were employed to test the research questions. This study found that hopelessness positively predicted depression and meaning in life negatively predicted depression. Meaning in life significantly moderated and partially mediated the association between hopelessness and depression. Healthcare workers who served in a conflict area experienced more depression when they had more hopelessness and less meaning in life. Moreover, meaning in life played a central role as both moderator and mediator. Results are discussed with implications and limitations

A Multicriteria Decision-Making Application to the Conceptual Design of Mechanical Components

Early design is crucial for the success of the final product. In the conceptual design phase, several constraints, criteria, objectives and disciplines have to be considered. To this aim, multidisciplinary optimization has proven effective for the solution of engineering design problems, even in the industrial every-day practice, to improve and simplify the work of designers in a successful quest of the best compromise solution. In this paper, a multicriteria decision-making (MCDM)-based design platform for early optimal design of industrial components is proposed. In a group decision-making context, the selection of the most suitable component among several possible layouts is performed by means of a group Fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution approach. Hence, a multi-objective optimization is performed on the selected component by applying a multi-objective particle swarm optimization for finding optimal component dimensions. An industrial case study is presented for showing the efficiency of the multicriteria decision-making-based design platform, regarding an innovative and low-cost solution to increase the duration of heel tips in women’s shoes