Compliance-related Causality Orientations Scale: Development and Psychometric Properties in Russian Sample

AbstractThis paper analyzes opportunities of application of the self-determination theory to the compliant behavior and describes the process of development and validation scale for measuring compliance-related causality orientations in the normative sample. Experts’ appraisals demonstrated that in clinical settings controlled causality orientation could be divided into two subscales: controlled by doctors and controlled by others subscales. Empirical data (N=246 students) supports internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha .76-.79), test-retest reliability and factor validity of the scale. All the subscales correlate with general controlled orientation subscale as well as relevant subscales of General Causality Orientation Scale. Controlled by doctors and impersonal causality orientations were negatively related to health-related quality of life. Compliance-Related Causality Orientations Scale correlated with retrospective appraisals of last episode of somatic illness (subjective interference with other domains, fear of future complications, fear of more severe illness, subjective ability to follow chosen treatment. Although testing prospective validity of the scale is a challenge for future research, the scale could be useful to study motivational factors of compliant behavior both in the normative and clinical samples

Brief and screening versions of the Digital Competence Index: verification and application possibilities

Background. Diagnostics of the schoolchildren digital competence is now an important educational task that requires an index applicable to children of the early school age and brief enough for population studies. The Digital Competence Index (DCI) as a component of social competence was proposed for measuring knowledge, skills, motivation and responsibility / security online in each of the following areas: content, communication, consumption, and technologicalsphere. Objective. The development and subsequent verification of a brief and screening versions of DCI, and also the study of DCI in children under 12 years of age. Design. During the first stage based on the first sample of DCI approbation, items with the highest correlation with each subscale were selected. Digital competence was assessed on the basis of the Index as well as the solution of experimental tasks. User activity was assessed using EU-Kids online methodology. During the second stage, the methodwas verified in the sample of children aged 7-11 and parents of children of primary school age. User activity was measured as well. The children also filled measure of Excessive Internet Use from EU-Kids online methodology and the Dembo-Rubinstein scales assessing their general and online self-esteem. Sample. The first study included 1203 adolescents aged 12-17 and 1209 parents. The second sample included 50 children aged 7-11 years old and 100 parents of children aged 5-11 years. Results. In the first study a brief version (32 points) allows to reliably (alpha 0.69-0.85) evaluate the four components and index ensuring the prediction accuracy of more than 90%. The screening version (16 points) makes it possible to reliably (0.71-0.73) estimate the overall index with the prediction accuracy of more than 85%. Both versions reproduced the basic patterns of the differences between correctly and incorrectly solved digital competence tasks by teenagers and parents. According to the second study, brief and screening versions can be used with the primary school age, although the screening version allows to estimate only the general index, but not the components of digital competence. The average digital competence of children 7-11 years old is 30% of the maximum possible, parents take 46%, which demonstrates the improvement of digital competence in the recent five years. Digital competence in both children and parents is associated with greater user activity, and in children – with a more positive self-esteem online and signs of excessive Internet use. In parents correct answers to the digital competence tasks were associated with greater competence, primarily on the components of responsibility/safety and skills. Conclusion. The data support the possibility of using the screening version of the Digital Competence Index to obtain the general indicator in diagnosing adults and children of the primary school age, whereas a brief version of the DCI can be used not only as an overall index but also of its components

Subjective Criteria for the Preference of Profession and Work in Senior Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Background. The present article addresses the criteria for choosing a profession and work among modern adolescents and young adults in the changing and transient world. It sets the ideals of professions that illusorily seem to be accessible, easy, well-paid, and interesting at the same time. Objective. The present study aims at identifying subjective criteria of the preference for occupation and work in senior adolescents and young adults and their relationship with personality traits, values, user activity, and subjective well-being. Study Participants. 172 subjects, 54 students of 8–11 grades at the age from 13 to 16 and 118 students of Moscow universities at the age from 17 to 23, including 103 males (59.9%) and 69 females (40.1%). Methods. The respondents fill in the scale of subjective criteria for job preference, the Ten Item Personality Measure, the Portrait Values Questionnaire and techniques for assessing subjective well-being and user activity. The answer the questions about the possibility and intention to combine several criteria of career and job choice. Results. The scale of the subjective criteria for job preference is a reliable, factor- and content-valid screening instrument assessing the importance of payment, interest, convenience, prospect, usefulness to others, ease, difficulty, and image in the work. In choosing a profession and job, both high school and college students focus on a wide range of criteria. Conscientiousness is associated with the preference for a well-paid, promising, and challenging work; openness to new experience is associated with the preference for interesting work. Orientation to the values of conformity and tradition is associated with the readiness to choose between different criteria, while the orientation to the values of achievement and power is associated with a wider range of subjective criteria, which the future job should correspond to. A higher level of positive emotions is associated with the preference for many criteria of job selection at the same time. A greater user activity is connected to the desire for easy work. Conclusions. In contemporary adolescents and young adults, a greater subjective well-being and the values of achievement and power are paradoxically associated with an unrealistically wide range of criteria of choosing a profession and job that are simultaneously important to them. This may further lead to some difficulties in searching for the job and disappointments in it

An International Study on Psychological Coping During COVID-19: Towards a Meaning-Centered Coping Style

Background/Objective This study examined the role of different psychological coping mechanisms in mental and physical health during the initial phases of the COVID-19 crisis with an emphasis on meaning-centered coping. Method A total of 11,227 people from 30 countries across all continents participated in the study and completed measures of psychological distress (depression, stress, and anxiety), loneliness, well-being, and physical health, together with measures of problem-focused and emotion-focused coping, and a measure called the Meaning-centered Coping Scale (MCCS) that was developed in the present study. Validation analyses of the MCCS were performed in all countries, and data were assessed by multilevel modeling (MLM). Results The MCCS showed a robust one-factor structure in 30 countries with good test-retest, concurrent and divergent validity results. MLM analyses showed mixed results regarding emotion and problem-focused coping strategies. However, the MCCS was the strongest positive predictor of physical and mental health among all coping strategies, independently of demographic characteristics and country-level variables. Conclusions The findings suggest that the MCCS is a valid measure to assess meaning-centered coping. The results also call for policies promoting effective coping to mitigate collective suffering during the pandemic

EU kids online 2020 : survey results from 19 countries

EU Kids Online 2020: Survey results from 19 countries. This report maps the internet access, online practices, skills, online risks and opportunities for children aged 9–16 in Europe. Teams of the EU Kids Online network collaborated between autumn 2017 and summer 2019 to conduct a major survey of 25,101 children in 19 European countries.peer-reviewe

Zero to eight : young children and their internet use

EU Kids Online has spent seven years investigating 9-16 year olds’ engagement with the internet, focusing on the benefits and risks of children’s internet use. While this meant examining the experiences of much younger children than had been researched before EU Kids Online began its work in 2006, there is now a critical need for information about the internet-related behaviours of 0-8 year olds. EU Kids Online’s research shows that children are now going online at a younger and younger age, and that young children’s “lack of technical, critical and social skills may pose [a greater] risk” (Livingstone et al, 2011, p. 3).peer-reviewe

Models of digital competence and online activity of Russian adolescents

Having established the conception of digital competence consisting of four components (knowledge, skills, motivation and responsibility) implemented in four areas (content, communication, consumption, and the techno-sphere), we propose the idea of models of digital competence as a specific systems of adolescents’ beliefs about their abilities and desires in the online world. These models (1) may be realistic or illusory, (2) their development is mediated by the motivation and online activity and (3) they regulate further online activities as well as the further development of digital competence. On the basis of nationwide study of digital competence (N=1203 Russian adolescents of 12-17 years) using latent class method we revealed 5 models of digital competence corresponding to its lowest level, the average level at high and low motivation, high specific (in the components of skill and safety) and high general level. It has been shown that higher appraisal of their digital competence is related to the opportunity of a more prolonged and self-service access to the Internet as well as the history of independent development of skills online. The illusion of digital competence is associated with a wide but shallow exploration activities online. Motivational component is related to the participation and recognition of the role of others in the development of digital competence, in comparison with others’ online skills and knowledge, as well as subjectively lower «digital divide» with parents. We suggest that the motivational component of the digital competence is developed if adolescent has a successful interaction via Internet, learn from other people and also if the range of her activities and interests online activity involves and requires the development of new skills. Based on digital competence model’s analysis, we have figured out 3 main types of Internet-users: (1) beginners, (2) experienced users, (3) advanced users. All these types fall into different risk groups, determined by variable possibilities of facing content-, communication-, technical- and customers- online-threats

Excessive Use of Internet, Mobile Phones and Computers: The Role of Technology-related Changes in Needs and Psychological Boundaries

AbstractIn this paper, based on the psychological model of consequences of info-communicational technology use [1] we study the role of two factors – change in needs (the need for development of image making by technology, the need for convenience and functionality) and transformation of psychological boundaries (subjective extension and subjective violation) – in the excessive use of technologies in the normative population (N=254, 17-77 years old). Specifically, we focus on the use of two gadgets (mobile phones and computers) – and one technology (the Internet). Hierarchical regressions were used to predict the two aspects of the excessive use – subjective feeling of dependence and subjective readiness of refusing from technologies. There were different patterns of correlations between age, gender and excessive use for mobiles, the Internet and computer. Frequency of use was unrelated to the excessive use. Psychological factors significantly improved all the models explaining 10-22 percent of the variance in subjective dependence, and 6-25 percent of the variance in readiness of refusing. Both technology-related changes in needs (especially need for “cool”, stylish or expensive gadgets) and psychological boundaries extension affect the excessive use of technologies although the contribution of each factor depends on technology in question. Data allows suggesting possible psychological mechanisms participating in the development of the excessive use of technologies

Готельні послуги для гіпотоніків в Україні: науково-практичні результати економіко-організаційного та маркетингового обґрунтування

Стаття присвячена економіко-організаційному та маркетинговому обґрунтуванню впровадження новітньої для України готельної послуги для хворих на артеріальну гіпотензію. Необхідність пропонування ринку таких послуг є на сьогодні вкрай актуальним напрямом не тільки в готельному господарстві, а й медичному обслуговуванні населення країни. Це підтверджує соціальну адресність готельної пропозиції на існуючому ринку, відповідальність перед суспільством і майбутню конкурентоздатність такого готелю.The article is dedicated to economic-organizational and marketing substantiation of the newest for Ukraine hotel service for patients with hypotension. The necessity of proposition of the market of such services is an extremely actual direction not only in hotel economy but in medical service of the country’s population today. It confirms the  social targeting of the hotel service offer at the existent market, responsibility before the  society and the future competitiveness of such hotel

Motivation in the structure of the digital competence of Russian adolescents

In contemporary world, the digital competence of adolescents is not a separate property or capacity any longer, becoming the prerequisite and basis for many types of activities, and the Internet has become a space mediating socialization of children. Russian population study indicated that there is a «gap» in the structure of motivation to improve digital competence: although every four teenagers from five ones declare preparedness for its development, their motivation in relation to specific goals and objectives is extremely low and does not exceed 20 per cent of the maximum possible level. The paper assumes that the «gap» is caused by different contents of general and specific motivation: general motivation describes great awareness of the importance and the declared preparedness, while specific motivation refers to the setting of specific goals. Applying the Digital Competence Index (DCI) in the samples of adolescents 12-17 years old (N=1203) and of parents of adolescents of the same age (N=1208) the relationship between general and specific motivation to improve digital competences and their links to the user’s activity, confidence, emotions, self-image on the Internet and its familiarization are considered. A high level of digital competence and excessive self-confidence in the user’s skills are associated with a less general motivation. A higher level of general and specific motivation is related to the participation of teachers and parents in the development of adolescent skills in the Internet. This extremely low self-confidence and the solution of any online problems by parents are associated with passive motivation, e.g. the desire to explore the Internet spontaneously through other people. Possible methods of developing active motivation to improve digital competence and the prevention of excessive confidence in adolescents are discussed