Understanding Adult Male Sexual Violence Victims' Reporting and Prosecution Decisions.

Purpose: To identify salient factors associated with adult male sexual violence victims' reporting and prosecution decisions, using a socioecological, mixed-methods approach. Method: British Crime survey data from 2004-2012 will be explored in two studies and used to model the different social ecologies which may interact to influence victims' decision making. The two models will be developed through adapting the Feminist Rape Mythology Hypothesis (Anders, 2007) to explore how congruence with rape myths (victim and assault level), and social support predict decision-making behaviour. A third study will explore these issues, and the value of the socioecological approach, qualitatively through in-depth interviews with voluntary organisation victim support workers. Results: Planned analyses include multi-level modelling for studies 1 and 2, and abbreviated Grounded Theory for study 3. Conclusion: The research findings are anticipated to have important implications for the policy and practice of the police, criminal justice system, and statutory and voluntary agencies which support male victims of sexual violence. Ultimately it is hoped that this research will shed further light on the experiences of male victims: an oft neglected and under-researched topic

Improving Responses to Rape and Sexual Assault: Delivering a Victim-Centred System.

Review of a Public Policy Exchange symposium, Broadway House, London,28 November 2013

Embedded or Modular? Preliminary Findings From a Study of Pre-Registration Nursing EBP Teaching Delivery Methods.

Aim: This study explores the impact of teaching delivery method (embedded vs. modular) on undergraduate pre-registration nursing students’ self-reported Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) implementation, attitudes, knowledge and skills. Background: For the past 20 years EBP has been increasingly emphasised as an effective approach and goal in healthcare. Although research has identified a number of barriers to its adoption and implementation, little research has focused on nurses’ pre-registration training; particularly on the impact of teaching delivery-method EBP throughout the learning process. Method: The study represents an on-going educational audit. Two cohorts of undergraduate nursing students were recruited for a longitudinal, cross-sectional survey study: cohort one (N=57, response rate= 90.1%) were being taught EBP modularly, but cohort two (N=88, response rate= 63.8%) had EBP embedded across their modules. Data was collected using the Evidence-Based Practice Questionnaire (EBPQ; Upton & Upton, 2006), administered at six-monthly intervals across the duration of students’ courses. Results: Preliminary analysis of students’ EBP 6-months into their courses identified no statistically significant differences between the cohorts on EBP Practice (U=2,138.00, Z=-0.13, p=.894). However, statistically significant differences between the two cohorts were identified on EBP attitudes (U=1, 852.00, Z=-2.43, p=.015; embedded group Md= 5.67, modular group Md=6.33) and Knowledge/skills (U=2,802.00, Z=3.68, p<.001; embedded group Md= 4.89, modular group Md=4.29). Conclusions: Although the project is still in its infancy, preliminary findings raise important questions about the relationship between EBP attitudes, practice and skill. The embedded cohort’s lower attitude scores may reflect social-desirability effects: modules dedicated to EBP may instil greater importance of displaying positive EBP attitudes. Embedding EBP may provide an effective means of developing students’ practice, knowledge and skills, without requiring dedicated modules (thereby reducing resource demands)

The role of victim and perpetrator gender in shaping rape myths and their impact on support services for adult survivors: insights from a socioecological approach

The concept of the rape myth has been influential in research exploring attitudes towards survivors, and their experiences with legal, medical and support systems. However, much of this work has been conducted from the female�victim-male-perpetrator paradigm. Historically, this has led to the marginalisation of male victims, female perpetrators and same-sex sexual violence in academic, public and political arenas. Despite growing recognition of these issues (particularly within the last 20 years), there are still gaps in our understanding of the way victim and perpetrator gender shape rape myths. While these gaps may currently represent barriers to supporting survivors of sexual violence, they may also hold the opportunity for transformative praxis. This research explores the role of victim and perpetrator gender in shaping rape myths for adult survivors, and how these myths impact on support services for adult survivors. A multiphase mixed methods design using a feminist-informed socioecological approach is used. ‘Mixing’ occurs at both the levels of research design and interpretation of the findings. The research comprises four phases: Phase 1. A systematic review that explored the findings of existing research in relation to victim gender and perpetrator gender and rape myths, and blame. Phase 2. Based on findings of phase 1, a quasi-experimental study was conducted that varied victim and perpetrator gender to examine their impact on acceptance of different rape types of myth. Phase 3. Informed by findings from phase 2, a qualitative study was conducted with sexual violence support specialists using an approach informed by the Think Aloud method. The study explored, from their experience, the salience of different myths for male and female survivors, and how this was affected by perpetrator gender. Phase 4. Conducted concurrently with phase 3, a qualitative in-depth interview study was conducted with the phase 3 sample of sexual violence support specialists. The study explored their experiences and beliefs of how gender and rape myths impact on support services for adult survivors of sexual violence. This research suggests that considering victim gender without the explicit consideration of perpetrator gender can be misleading because it overlooks important contextual information that perceivers use when making judgments about survivors. Recent events in UK (e.g. revelations relating to Jimmy Saville) have led to greater awareness of rape myths and victim blaming. However, although this may have brought about surface level change, rape myths still shape survivors’ experiences of seeking support and engaging with the Criminal Justice System. In combination, these factors play important roles in shaping services for male and female survivors of sexual violence (and survivors or other gender identities). The present thesis demonstrates the value of adopting a socioecological approach to explore the role gender plays in shaping challenges faced by specialist victim-survivor support provision

Qualitative Methods and Sight-impairment: developing a toolkit for inclusive teaching.

Background Research methods is a key component of a psychology degree and recognised as a challenging topic to learn and teach. However, students who have sight-impairments experience additional barriers to its study, which could inhibit life-long learning in this area. Despite a growing body of literature to guide inclusive teaching practices for quantitative methods, little (if anything) is available for qualitative methods. However, these methods are traditionally taught using visual techniques (e.g. thematic maps), presenting barriers to learners with sight-impairments. This (ongoing) project explores the experience of learning qualitative methods from the perspectives of both students and tutors, in order to develop a “toolkit” to guide inclusive teaching-practice. Developing more inclusive teaching practice would likely benefit all students and help to promote engagement and learning of research methods. Design This inductive qualitative research forms part of a “Students as Academic Partners” project, due to be completed by May 2018. Methods Students and tutors from the University of Worcester, with experience of learning/teaching qualitative methods in relation to sight-impairment will be recruited using opportunistic and snowball sampling. Data will be collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. Results Barriers to learning qualitative methods and strategies adopted to manage these will be explored. In particular, it is important tutors recognise sight-impairment is not “one thing”, and that a range of strategies for adapting teaching-practice is required for diverse needs to be met. Conclusions The experience of learning qualitative methods for students who have sight-impairments has received little attention, making it difficult to identify inclusive teaching-practice in this area. This research outlines a toolkit with practical recommendations that tutors can draw on so their practice can better meet the needs of learners with sight-impairments

The most important question is not 'how?' but 'why?: A multi-method exploration of a blended e-learning approach for teaching statistics within Undergraduate psychology

Research methods and statistics are cornerstones of undergraduate psychology degrees. However, many students find the subject uninteresting and anxiety provoking, while educators find it challenging to teach. This multi-method action research project explored how e-learning activities within a blended learning context affected students? experience of learning statistics. Data were gathered with first year undergraduate students via a survey (n = 89), two focus groups (n = 12), and interviews with educators (n = 2). The e-learning activities were valued by students and staff, owing to the interactive, flexible approach to learning they afforded. The blended strategy provided an opportunity for students to develop intrinsic motivation to learn statistics, completing a range of activities to develop competence with autonomy. Social support from peer-networks and tutor feedback during face-to-face sessions facilitated deeper learning. These findings are timely, given increases in online teaching resulting from changing higher education landscapes and the Covid-19 pandemic

Road Life Perspectives and Experiences Among Iranian Truck Drivers: a Qualitative Study

Truck drivers are one of the largest occupational groups in Iran. Evidence from previous studies suggests that working and living conditions on the road engender many concerns for truck drivers, and their families and communities. This research aimed to explore the experiences of Iranian truck drivers regarding life on the road. This qualitative study was conducted among Iranian truck drivers working in the inter-state transportation sector. A purposeful sample of 20 truck drivers took part in this research. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed based on qualitative content analysis. After analysis of the data, three main themes emerged: "Individual impacts related to the hardships of life on the road life", "Family impacts related to the hardships of road life", and "Having positive attitude towards work and road". These findings represent the dimensions of perspectives in the road-life of truck drivers. Although truck drivers possess positive beliefs about their occupation and life on the road, they and their families face many hardships which should be well understood. They also need support to be better able to solve the road-life concerns they face. This study's findings are useful for occupational programming and in the promotion of health for truck drivers

“Because It Kind of Falls in Between, Doesn’t It? Like an Acute Thing and a Chronic”: the Psychological Experience of Anaphylaxis in Adulthood

Anaphylaxis is a serious, rare condition increasing in prevalence. This study explored the psychological experience of adult-onset anaphylaxis from patient, family and staff perspectives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with twelve participants. Two global themes emerged from thematic analysis: ‘controllability’ (‘an unknown and distressing experience’, ‘the importance of control over triggers’ and ‘responsibility but no control: the impact on others’) and ‘conflict’ (‘rejecting illness identity’, ‘minimisation of risk’, ‘accessing specialist care: running in slow motion’ and ‘patient-centred versus service-centred care’). Findings highlight the importance of perceived control and emphasise the presence of conflict in the experience of this complex, episodic condition