EDRMS Users' Information-Seeking Behaviour: Managerial and Training Challenges For Records Managers

Drawing on findings of their field study on the information-seeking behaviour of 40 Electronic Document & Records Management System (EDRMS) users in 4 organisations using different EDRMS – published in the last 3 issues of IQ – the authors here set out to alert records managers to the managerial and training challenges they need to consider to better serve their EDRMS users

Now or later? The theory of planned behaviour and fertility intentions

We use the theory of planned behavior to investigate the role of attitudes, norms and perceived behavioural control on short-term and long-term fertility intentions, using data from Norway (N = 1,307). There is some evidence that, net of other background variables, positive scores on these factors makes it easier to establish concrete childbearing plans, especially among parents. Subjective norms are particularly important among both parents and childless adults, while perceptions of behavioural control have no additional effect once the actual life situation is taken into account. Attitudes are not important in decisions about the timing of becoming a parent, probably because the main issue for childless adults is not the timing, but the decision to have a child or not

Information seeking behaviour of electronic document and records management systems (EDRMS) users: implications for records management practices. Part 2

In the first article in this series, in the November 2007 issue of IQ, the authors described how they approached their study on whether the way RM professionals manage records in accordance with the ISO 15489 standard is consistent with the information seeking behaviour (ISB) of EDRMS users. Here, they continue their report by discussing their methodology

Social psychological influences on fertility intentions: A study of eight countries in different social, economic and policy contexts

This research is written within the framework of the European Commission project “Reproductive decision-making in a macro-micro perspective” (REPRO). It describes work completed within REPRO Work Package 3 on micro-level modelling of social psychological influences on reproductive decision making by individuals, specifically, the formation of intention to have a first or second child. The report introduces the macro level context within which the work was conducted and the theory of planned behavior (TPB), the social psychological model of human behaviour that guided the work, linking the TPB to other work in demography on psychological influences on the formation of intention to have a child. After identifying parity and age as the contexts across which intention to have a child differ most, structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to permit comparisons of both differences in the relevance of individual attitudinal beliefs, normative referents and control factors in eight countries (Bulgaria, Russia, Georgia, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy and Romania), and differences in the relative influence of attitudes, perceived norms and perceived behavioural control on the intentions of females aged 25 to 34 year old to have their first or second child in these countries. A comparison of the relative influence of attitudes, norms and perceived control among childless Bulgarian females under 25 and between 25 to 34 years old demonstrates how influences on fertility decision making differ by age. Exploration of the potential of three macro level contexts (wealth, employment stability and family- and child-friendly policy) to explain differences in intention to have a second child showed that policy context provided a more satisfactory explanation overall than national wealth or employment stability, although employment stability provided an explanation of differences in material control and none of these contexts adequately explained the observed patterns of the country level differences in influences on intention to have a second child. The formation of intention to have a child appears to differ in quite complex ways across different individual and national contexts. An implication for development of policy to enable and encourage Europeans to have more children is that policies may need to be more closely targeted to the needs of individuals in quite specific individual contexts. This work has taken some initial steps toward uncovering the complexity, but more needs to be done and the report includes some considerations about directions for future research

Social psychological modelling of fertility intentions

Oral Presentatio

They all wanted one but who did get one: The theory of planned behaviour and the realisation of fertility intentions

No abstract availabl

Realization of fertility intentions by different time frames

This paper focuses on the realization of positive fertility intentions with different time frames. The analyses are based on a unique combination of survey data and information from Norwegian administrative registers on childbearing in the years following the complete selected sample. Guided by the theoretical and empirical framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), the results suggest that a fertility intention's time frame is relevant for childbearing behaviour, but the patterns are somewhat different for respondents who were childless at the time of the interview compared to those who already had children. Overall, childless were less likely to realize their fertility intentions than parents. Following the TPB, childless may underestimate the difficulty of acting on their intentions and therefore have more difficulty realizing their intentions, versus parents who take into account their ability to manage another child. The results also show that childless with an immediate fertility intention are more likely to succeed than those with a longer-term intention. Likewise, parents with an immediate fertility intention are more likely to realize their intention during the two first years after the interview, but after four years the childbearing rate was higher among those with longer-term fertility intentions

A network for learning about networks: A model and an innovative approach to teaching network engineering

We propose a model for design of courses in which students need to develop understanding not just of theory, but also of what happens in complex, distributed real world environments. Advances in network technologies (e.g., Grid technologies, and “the Cloud”) provide opportunities to simulate complex models and to use real, large-scale data sets in learning activities. We apply our model to design of Network Engineering courses in a way that provides different sequences of study for students from different backgrounds, interests, and learning styles, but which enables all students to complete a course of study that balances understanding of theory of how networks work with what happens when a network is implemented in a real operational context. We consider how such a model might be implemented by a network of learning institutions, organizations, educators and learners

Childbearing intentions in a low fertility context: the case of Romania

This paper applies the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to find out the predictors of fertility intentions in Romania, a low-fertility country. We analyse how attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control relate to the intention to have a child among childless individuals and one-child parents. Principal axis factor analysis confirms which items proposed by the Generation and Gender Survey (GGS 2005) act as valid and reliable measures of the suggested theoretical socio-psychological factors. Four parity-specific logistic regression models are applied to evaluate the relationship between the socio-psychological factors and childbearing intentions. Social pressure emerges as the most important aspect in fertility decision-making among childless individuals and one-child parents, and positive attitudes towards childbearing are a strong component in planning for a child. This paper also underlines the importance of the region-specific factors when studying childbearing intentions: planning for the second child significantly differs among the development regions, representing the cultural and socio-economic divisions of the Romanian territory

Fertility Ideals of Women and Men Across the Life Course

This paper explores the stability of women’s and men’s fertility preferences across the life course. The data come from the first six waves of the German Family Panel (pairfam), which span the period from 2008/2009 until 2013/2014. In our analysis, fertility preferences are measured using the following question: “Under ideal circumstances, how many children would you like to have?” The average number cited by both women and men is 2.2. With rising age, this number declines modestly. Relying on fixed-effects modelling, we find that neither partnership status nor economic circumstances have any causal effect on fertility preferences. However, as the number of children a respondent has increases, his or her ideal number of children is also likely to grow. Thus, fertility ideals appear to undergo changes over time, and are adjusted in line with the size of the respondent’s own family