Behavioral Sciences

Increased digitisation of day-to-day activities was occurring prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic only accelerated the virtual shift, making web accessibility an urgent issue, especially for marginalised populations. Despite decades of work to develop, refine, and implement web accessibility standards, people with cognitive disabilities regularly experience many barriers to web accessibility. To inform ongoing work to improve web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities, a systematic review was conducted. The main question guiding this review is: what are the state-of-the-art of interventions that support web accessibility for citizens, 9 years of age and up, living with cognitive impairment? A set of 50 search strings were entered into three academic databases: SCOPUS, ProQuest, and Web of Science. Systematic screening procedures narrowed the search returns to a total of 45 included papers. A data analysis revealed themes associated with the lived experiences of people with cognitive disabilities, tools for improving web accessibility, and methodological best practices for involving people with cognitive disabilities in research. These findings have immediate implications for ongoing research and the development of meaningful solutions to the problem of web accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities. Full article

This study aims to examine how social undermining restrains employee creativity. Specifically, an attempt is made to investigate the serial mediating role of interpersonal distrust and knowledge hiding in the relationship between social undermining and employee creativity. This study used purposive sampling to draw 309 employees from the advertising agencies of Pakistan. We used a time-lagged research design to collect the data on the measures at three different points in time. A self-administered questionnaire was used for the collection of data. We followed variance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) to conduct the data analysis in SmartPLS. Our study results indicated a significant negative association between social undermining and employee creativity, while serial mediation analysis showed that interpersonal distrust and knowledge hiding partially mediated the above linkage. This study’s findings contribute to the literature on employee creativity by identifying and testing social undermining as an interpersonal inhibitor factor that impairs employee creativity, and this relationship is serially mediated by interpersonal distrust and knowledge hiding. This study offers valuable insights for the managers of advertising agencies. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a lot of fear and anxiety globally. The current study attempted to investigate the association among the big five personality traits and the two factors of COVID-19 pandemic anxiety (fear and somatic concern). Further, sleep quality as a mediator between personality traits and pandemic anxiety was also assessed. The study involved a cross-sectional sample of 296 adult Indians who were administered the 10-item short version of BFI along with the COVID-19 Pandemic Anxiety Scale and Sleep Quality Scale. Path analysis was used to test the theoretical model that we proposed. The overall model has explained 6% and 36% of the variance, respectively, for the factors of fear and somatic concern of COVID-19 pandemic anxiety. The path analysis model indicated that only the trait of neuroticism showed a significant direct and indirect effect on pandemic anxiety in the sample. Those scoring high on neuroticism indicated high levels of fear as well as somatic concern. Neuroticism also showed partial mediation through sleep quality on the factor of somatic concern. Agreeableness was the only other personality trait that indicated a significantly negative relationship with the factor of somatic concern. These relationships were independent of age, gender, and occupational status. These findings provide a preliminary insight into the slightly different relationship which has emerged between personality and COVID-19 pandemic anxiety in comparison to general anxiety. Full article

Objective: Since many jobs imply driving, a relevant part of all road traffic crashes (RTC) is related to work. Statistics considering all crashes suggest that they are significantly associated with consumption of substances, but the root causes are not yet clear. The objective of the present paper was to systematically review the scientific literature concerning substances consumption and work-related RTC. We queried the PubMed and Scopus electronic databases according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Articles were included if they reported all necessary data and survived a quality assessment. We selected a final sample of 30 articles from an initial pool of 7113. As hypothesized, taking any of the considered substances was found to increase the risk of work-related RTC. Descriptive statistics on work-related RTC showed a higher average positivity rate for medicines (14.8%) than for alcohol (3.02%) and drugs (0.84%). Interestingly, the impact of some medications found an unconvincing explanation in the mere occurrence of side effects, and it suggests that psychosocial and/or medical conditions could be better predictors of RTC. We therefore propose an intervention and prevention model that also considers biopsychosocial factors, for which further studies are needed in future research. Full article

The purpose of this study is to explore the mechanisms by which leader humor affects followers’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, we examine the mediation effect of team commitment in the leader humor–change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior link and whether it varied by leader Machiavellianism. Using multi-sourced data from the four battalions of the Republic of Korean Army, our findings show that team commitment mediated the positive relationship between leaders’ affiliative humor and followers’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Furthermore, the mediated relationship was stronger when leader Machiavellianism was lower. On the other hand, we found no support for the negative relationship between leaders’ aggressive humor and followers’ change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. Full article

Public environmental cognition is an important basis for optimizing environmental management and reducing tensions between humans and land. Although the level of environmental cognition is a gradual process under normal conditions, it often changes qualitatively because of major public emergencies. During the 2019 new coronavirus epidemic (COVID-19), the most significant public health event in recent years, 24,188 national samples were obtained based on a network survey. The comprehensive evaluation method was used to assess the impact of major public events on public environmental cognition and the characteristics of spatial and temporal distribution. The findings are as follows. (1) During the epidemic period, sudden public health emergencies effectively promoted the national residents’ environmental awareness, whether urban residents or rural; most respondents generally agreed with the concept of “respect nature and cherish life”. (2) The environmental cognition of national residents was higher in the northwest and lower in the northeast of China, which is suitable for economic and social development and humanistic tradition. (3) There was a clear positive correlation between environmental awareness and education level. (4) During the epidemic, nervousness of respondents had a negative effect on environmental cognition. This study provides scientific support and a basis for decision making for the government to carry out environmental management optimization and improve the ecological and environmental cognition of the public, as well as devise effective intervention mechanisms with different time and space dimensions for similar future public health emergencies. Full article

The study investigates psychopathological symptoms and the Big Five personality traits as predictors of “problematic smartphone use” (PSU) in different generational groups. The generational groups were selected to analyze whether the different life stages and developmental tasks that need to be completed have an impact on PSU. The groups were divided into digital immigrants, digital natives, and Generation Y and Z as subgroups of digital natives. A total of 399 subjects participated (312 women, 86 men, 1 diverse; mean age = 25.9; range 14–67; 44 digital immigrants, 355 digital natives, 35 Generation Y, and 320 Generation Z). They completed the ICD-10 Symptom Rating (ISR), the Big Five Inventory-10 (BFI-10), and the Mobile Phone Problematic Use Scale (MPPUS). The results show differences between digital immigrants and digital natives in the expression of PSU, neuroticism, conscientiousness, depression, anxiety, and compulsivity. Concerning Generations Y and Z, differences were only found in the expression of the PSU. Regression revealed that symptoms for obsessive-compulsive disorders, depression, conscientiousness, and gender were significant predictors of PSU. Moderations have shown that being a digital immigrant/native moderates the impact of eating disorders on PSU. Belonging to Generation Y/Z moderates the influence of conscientiousness and depression on PSU. Thus, it shows that in different generations, different factors seem to play a role in the development and maintenance of PSU. Full article

The global importance of English and therefore the teaching of the English language has made the English language curriculum an integral part of all levels of teacher education, including early childhood education. The purpose of this study was to first explore the beliefs about the teaching of English to very young learners held by pre-service pre-primary teachers in Macau and then to see whether these beliefs were reflected in their microteaching. Qualitative content analysis performed on the written reflections and transcriptions of the microteaching videos of 75 pre-service pre-primary teachers found that their beliefs about classroom practices, lesson planning, and English as a foreign language (EFL) learners and learning were the most predominant beliefs exhibited in their reflections and were evidenced in their microteaching. Less predominant, but still salient, were their beliefs about the goals of language learning, assessment, teaching, pedagogical knowledge, and content. No observable practices were found regarding the pre-service teachers’ beliefs about the role of teaching, learning to teach, microteaching, the self, the subject, hearsay, self-assessment, and schooling. The current study found that with only limited exposure to EFL teaching methodology from a single course, the pre-service pre-primary teachers were able to implement some of their beliefs about several important aspects of teaching English to very young learners. Full article

(1) Background: The aim of the present study was to contribute to the validation of the Portuguese version of the Kenny Music Performance Anxiety Inventory (K-MPAI) and to study its psychometric properties. (2) Methods: A sample of 164 undergraduate music students in Portugal (62.2% female; mean age = 22.63; SD = 4.36) completed an online survey composed of the K-MPAI Portuguese version, the State Trait Anxiety Inventory, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The K-MPAI psychometric properties were examined using exploratory factor analyses, known-group differences, and Cronbach’s alpha. (3) Results: A four-factor structure was identified, in line with recent validation of this measure in other countries: music performance anxiety-related symptoms, depression and hopelessness, parental support, and memory self-efficacy. Concurrent and known-group validity were established, and reliability scores were appropriate for the dimensions and total score. (4) Conclusions: The results provide initial evidence of the appropriateness of the Portuguese version of the K-MPAI. Full article

Recent U.S. elections have witnessed the Democrats nominating both black and female presidential candidates, as well as a black and female vice president. The increasing diversity of the U.S. political elite heightens the importance of understanding the psychological factors influencing voter support for, or opposition to, candidates of different races and genders. In this study, we investigated the relative strength of the implicit biases for and against hypothetical presidential candidates that varied by gender and race, using an evaluative priming paradigm on a broadly representative sample of U.S. citizens (n = 1076). Our main research question is: Do measures of implicit racial and gender biases predict political attitudes and voting better than measures of explicit prejudice? We find that measures of implicit bias are less strongly associated with political attitudes and voting than are explicit measures of sexist attitudes and modern racism. Moreover, once demographic characteristics and explicit prejudice are controlled statistically, measures of implicit bias provide little incremental predictive validity. Overall, explicit prejudice has a far stronger association with political preferences than does implicit bias. Full article

Social media usage (SMU) and its relationship with working memory (WM) and academic performance remain unclear, and there is a lack of experimental evidence. We investigated whether WM mediates the association between SMU and academic performance, including the roles of depression, anxiety, and disordered social media use as possible contributors. A sample of 118 undergraduate students aged 19 to 28 from Saudi Arabia performed a WM test twice; for one assessment, participants were required to interact with social media before the test, and the other test was preceded by painting online. We also measured grade point average (GPA), habitual social media usage (SMU), depression (PHQ-9), anxiety (GAD-7), and disordered social media usage (SMDS). There was no significant difference between WM scores in the social media condition compared to the control condition, but when solely considering at least moderately depressed participants, social media use predicted significantly more errors in the social media condition compared to the control condition. Furthermore, higher SMDS scores were significantly predicted by higher PHQ-9 scores and more hours of habitual SMU. GPA scores were not predicted by WM performance or SMU. The present study is one of the first experimental attempts to compare the relationship between SMU and WM and highlights the priming effect of depression on the relationship between SMU and WM. Full article

Burnout in healthcare workers (HCWs) is defined as a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that results from unmanaged, excessive, and long-term workplace stressors. This study aims to assess the prevalence of burnout and the levels of anxiety and depression among HCWs who primarily work with children who have autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted utilizing the Arabic version of the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), Areas of Worklife Survey (AWS), Patient Health Questionnaire for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7), and Patient Health Questionnaire for Depression (PHQ-9). Among the 381 participants working in autism centers, the majority were young Saudi females (326) working full-time as specialists in the private sector with less than five years of experience. The HCWs’ overall mean scores on the three Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) subscales: emotional exhaustion (EE), depersonalization (DP), and personal accomplishment (PA) were 62%, 23.7%, and 76.5%, respectively. A total of 51.4% of HCWs reported moderate to high anxiety levels on GAD-7, and 47.8% showed moderate to very high levels of depression on PHQ-9. The mean perceived EE converged significantly but negatively on their overall mean perceived satisfaction with AWS (p-value < 0.001), demonstrating that greater emotional fatigue predicts less satisfaction with their work. The PA scores correlated significantly and positively with their overall mean satisfaction with their AWS score (p-value < 0.001). Considering sociodemographic variables, HCWs aged between 20–29 years have significantly lower mean PA scores than HCWs aged thirty and older (p = 0.007). Also, male HCWs perceived significantly higher work-related DP than females. More research is required to determine the nature of variables that contribute to burnout, depression, and anxiety in HCWs helping children with ASD. Full article

Emotional intelligence is a main area in educational psychology and a key factor in the academic life of students. It deals with deviant behavior through self-awareness and self-motivation, regulates emotional and social skills, and converts emotional energy into positive energy. This study examined direct and indirect relationships between emotional intelligence and study habits in blended learning environments. Blended learning is conceptualized as a hybrid learning approach that combines online learning opportunities and the traditional classroom approach. Furthermore, the study explored the mediating role of cognitive engagement in the relationship between emotional intelligence and study habits. We used 26 items in a paper-based questionnaire in a quantitative study to collect data on emotional intelligence, cognitive engagement and study habits from health sciences students (N = 338) enrolled in blended learning courses in universities in the Hunan province of China. Emotional intelligence included self-awareness, self-motivation, and the regulation of emotion; social skills were also examined. A partial least squares structural-equation modeling approach was applied through SmartPLS software to explore the relationships. The results indicate that self-awareness and self-motivation have direct, significant, and positive connections with study habits. Similarly, the results indicate that all four dimensions of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-motivation, emotion regulation and social skills) had indirect, significant, and positive relationships with study habits using cognitive engagement as a mediator variable. It was concluded that students face higher-than-usual challenges in building study habits in blended learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that emotional intelligence helps them to develop their study habits to greater effect. Similarly, it was concluded that cognitive engagement strengthens the connection between emotional intelligence and study habits. Therefore, it is recommended that universities take specific measures to enhance students’ emotional intelligence and cognitive engagement, which will ultimately improve their study habits. Moreover, valuable and practical implications for teachers, practitioners, and university management were also discussed in the study. Full article

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has produced negative mental health outcomes. These effects were more prominent in vulnerable communities that experienced prior similar disasters. The study aimed to examine the likelihood and correlates of anxiety symptoms among Fort McMurray (FMM) residents, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey questionnaire was applied between 24 April and 2 June 2021, at FMM, to gather sociodemographic, COVID-19, and clinical information, including generalized anxiety disorder (using GAD-7 scale). Results: Overall, 186 individuals completed the survey (response rate 74.7%). Most of the respondents were females (159, 85.5%); above 40 years (98, 52.7%); employed (175, 94.1%); and in relationship (132, 71%). The prevalence of moderate-to-severe anxiety was (42.5%, 71) on GAD-7 self-reported scale. Subscribers who reported that they would like to receive mental health support; have received no family support since COVID-19 declaration; and have lost their job during the pandemic were all more likely to report moderate-to-severe anxiety (OR = 3.39; 95% CI: 1.29–8.88), (OR = 4.85; 95% CI: 1.56–15.03), and (OR = 4.40; 95% CI: 1.01–19.24), respectively. Conclusions: Anxiety levels were high among FMM residents, compared to levels before COVID-19. Clinical and social factors significantly predicted likely anxiety in the Fort McMurray population, during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is imperative that resources are mobilized to support vulnerable communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Full article

(1) Shared decision making (SDM) has been advocated as a way of improving prudency in healthcare and has been linked to self-efficacy and empowerment of service users. The evaluation of its use in musculoskeletal (MSK) physiotherapy has been vague, but articles suggest that trust and communication are integral. (2) ENTREQ guidelines informed this systematic review and thematic synthesis. PRISMA recommendations steered a systematic literature search of AHMED, CINAHL, MEDLNE, EMBASE and Cochrane databases from inception to September 2021. COREQ was used for quality appraisal of articles alongside critical discussions. Analysis and synthesis included five stages: outlining study characteristics, coding of data, development of descriptive themes, development of analytical themes and integration and refinement. The review aim was to explore people’s experiences of SDM in MSK physiotherapy and to inform our understanding of the conditions needed for successful SDM. (3) Out of 1508 studies, 9 articles were included. Four main themes (trust, communication, decision preferences and decision ability) demonstrated that the majority of people want to participate in decision-making. As described in the capacity and capability model, three core conditions were needed to facilitate someone’s’ ability to participate. (4) People want to be involved in SDM in MSK physiotherapy. For successful SDM, physiotherapists should look to develop mutual trust, utilise two-way communication and share power. Full article

Transition to sustainability is a process that requires change on all levels of society from the physical to the psychological. This review takes an interdisciplinary view of the landscapes of research that contribute to the development of pro-social behaviors that align with sustainability goals, or what we call ‘inner sustainability’. Engaging in musical and dance activities can make people feel trust and connectedness, promote prosocial behavior within a group, and also reduce prejudices between groups. Sustained engagement in these art forms brings change in a matter of seconds (such as hormonal changes and associated stress relief), months (such as improved emotional wellbeing and learning outcomes), and decades (such as structural changes to the brains of musicians and dancers and superior skills in expressing and understanding emotion). In this review, we bridge the often-separate domains of the arts and sciences by presenting evidence that suggests music and dance promote self-awareness, learning, care for others and wellbeing at individual and group levels. In doing so, we argue that artistic practices have a key role to play in leading the transformations necessary for a sustainable society. We require a movement of action that provides dance and music within a constructive framework for stimulating social sustainability. Full article

Background: Previous studies have shown that many personality traits are associated with fibromyalgia (FM), worsening both the quality of life and psychological distress of patients. Despite the high comorbidity of psychopathological disorders in this syndrome and their association with immature defense styles, few studies have examined the defense mechanisms used by FM patients. The main aim of our study was to investigate personality traits and defense mechanisms in FM patients compared to in a healthy control group (HC). Moreover, we investigated the effect of personality traits and defense mechanisms on psychological distress in both FM and HC groups. Methods: A total of 54 women with FM and 54 healthy women completed the (1) Temperament and Character Inventory—Revised; (2) the Toronto Alexithymia Scale; (3) the Defense Style Questionnaire; and (4) the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Results: The results indicated that FM patients display higher alexithymia, higher harm avoidance, lower self-directedness, lower persistence, and the higher use of a maladaptive defense style compared to HC. We found that alexithymia, harm avoidance, and maladaptive defense style are significant predictors of patients’ psychological distress. Moreover, harm avoidance and adaptive defense style significantly predicted psychological distress in the HC group. Conclusion: The present study is the first to explore the contribution of both defense mechanisms and personality characteristics on the psychological distress of FM patients. Our findings have important clinical implications and may help diagnose and treat FM patients more in depth. Full article

This study aimed to investigate psychiatric symptomatology in a sample of patients affected by breast cancer undergoing surgery, evaluating the potential mediators on perceived stress levels, depression and hopelessness. The study was conducted on eighty-five patients with breast cancer, admitted consecutively to the Breast Unit of the IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino, between May 2018 and December 2019. Sociodemographic (age of diagnosis, gender, marital and occupational status, educational level, having children) and clinical (type and side of surgery, previous breast surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy and axillary dissection) characteristics were investigated through a semi-structured interview. The following rating scales were administered: Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Hopelessness Scale, and Perceived Stress Scale. Our findings indicate that the presence of children and of a partner was associated with a lower total score on the clinical dimensions evaluated. Furthermore, we found demolitive surgery to be a mediator between perceived stress and hopelessness, while history of previous breast surgery was found to be a mediator between demolitive surgery and perceived stress. In conclusion, patients affected by breast cancer undergoing more complex and demolitive surgery or with history of previous breast surgery should be mostly monitored from a psychological and psychiatric point of view from the beginning of treatments to evaluate the first manifestations of psychiatric symptomatology. Full article

Over the past fifteen years, research has demonstrated the central role of interpersonal emotions in communicating intentions, goals and desires. These emotions can be conveyed through facial expressions during specific social interactions, such as in the context of coordination between economic agents, where information inferred from them can influence certain decision-making processes. We investigated whether four facial expressions (happiness, neutral, angry and disgusted) can affect decision-making in the Ultimatum Game (UG). In this economic game, one player (proposer) plays the first move and proposes how to allocate a given amount of money in an anonymous one-shot interaction. If the other player (responder) accepts the proposal, each player receives the allocated amount of money; if he/she rejects the offer, both players receive nothing. During the task, participants acted as the responder (Experiment 1) or the proposer (Experiment 2) while seeing the opponent’s facial expression. For the responders, the results show that the decision was mainly driven by the fairness of the offer, with a small main effect of emotion. No interaction effect was found between emotion and offer. For the proposers, the results show that participants modulated their offers on the basis of the responders’ expressed emotions. The most generous/fair offers were proposed to happy responders. Less generous/fair offers were proposed to neutral responders. Finally, the least generous/fair offers were proposed to angry and disgusted responders. Full article