Search Results (4)

Adolescents today face significant exposure to social inequalities and environmental crises, including the impacts of climate change, such as heatwaves, floods, and droughts. In addition, they encounter various forms of inequality, such as job insecurity, lack of affordable housing, and growing mental health challenges. Future perception is an essential variable in understanding how adolescents address these social and environmental challenges. Thus, this study adapted the Future Time Orientation Scale (FTOS) to the Italian context, assessing its validity and reliability for measuring psychological future orientation among Italian-speaking adolescents. Two studies were conducted: the first validated the FTOS through exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, revealing two factors, “Impact” and “Distance”. The second study examined the relationship between future time orientation, future orientation in the professional field, and adolescents’ propensity to consider global challenges related to sustainable development. The results indicated that future orientation fully mediates the relationship between future time orientation and the tendency to consider global challenges in career decision-making. These findings underscore the importance of future orientation in shaping adolescents’ sustainable career choices and suggest that career interventions promoting future time orientation may enhance their engagement with global challenges. Full article

Background: Due to global technological advances, psychology professionals have experienced constant changes in their daily routines. The field of career development and vocational psychology is no different. Amplified by the adjustments brought about by the circumstances of the pandemic, there has been an increased demand for and development of various distance intervention methodologies. Methods: This study presents a systematic review of distance career interventions, focusing on (1) rationale, (2) groups of the population, (3) structure, (4) evaluation, and (5) outcomes and recommendations. Eleven keywords, three databases, and five eligibility criteria were defined. Results: Sixteen articles were collected for analysis. The results showed a predominance of (1) career construction theory and social cognitive theory rationales, (2) a sample of university students, (3) group career intervention, (4) pre- and post-test evaluation systems, and (5) effects in different dimensions and recommendations about intervention research design. Conclusions: Although there has been an increase in the number of publications in recent years, few studies evaluate distance career interventions. There are also few studies with different target populations. In this sense, indications for future interventions and studies are given, as well as the implications of these studies for practice. Full article

This study examined the effect of online technical lessons of how ocean sensors function on student interest in ocean science technology, as well as knowledge gain outcomes. Additionally, the study contributes novel findings to sensor-based learning literature by measuring changes to self-efficacy and confidence gains stemming from sensor-based learning, as well as changes in interest in ocean careers. The area of educational focus was also novel—focusing on how the sensors themselves function, not just what they do. Precipitated by COVID-19 pandemic constraints, the team used a remote learning approach to provide lessons on sensors at a distance, providing an additional opportunity to contrast this approach with previously studied hands-on learning modes. A sample of students from four high school marine science classes completed two assessments both before and after a series of lessons on ocean sensors. This included a self-reported survey (N = 48), and an open-ended knowledge assessment (N = 40). Results showed modest gains in knowledge assessments, and students experienced statistically significant gains in confidence in their ability to explain what sensors are, confidence in their ability to use sensors and understand resulting data, and confidence in accuracy of sensor data (p < 0.05). No changes were observed for several measures of interest in ocean technology, nor were there changes in an already high belief that understanding these sensors is important to marine science careers. Notably, these findings measure a positive shift in several measures of self-efficacy and confidence, which is a new finding for sensor-based learning. The findings also contrast with prior related work that included hands-on activities with sensors, which reported an increase in interest after working with sensors, whereas this intervention did not. This suggests a hands-on component is key to increasing interest in ocean technology. Full article

Musculoskeletal injuries (MSI) continue to affect Thoroughbred racehorses internationally. There is a strong interest in developing training and management strategies to reduce their impact, however, studies of risk factors report inconsistent findings. Furthermore, many injuries and fatalities occur during training rather than during racing, yet most studies report racing data only. By combining racing and training data a larger exposure to risk factors and a larger number of musculoskeletal injuries are captured and the true effect of risk factors may be more accurately represented. Furthermore, modifications to reduce the impact of MSI are more readily implemented at the training level. Our study aimed to: (1) determine the risk factors for musculoskeletal injuries and whether these are different for two-year-old and older horses and (2) determine whether risk factors vary with type of injury. This was performed by repeating analyses by age category and injury type. Data from 202 cases and 202 matched controls were collected through weekly interviews with trainers and analysed using conditional logistic regression. Increasing dam parity significantly reduced the odds of injury in horses of all age groups because of the effect in two-year-old horses (odds ratio (OR) 0.08; 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.02, 0.36; p < 0.001). Increasing total preparation length is associated with higher odds of injury in horses of all ages (OR 5.56; 95% CI 1.59, 19.46; p = 0.01), but particularly in two-year-old horses (OR 8.05; 95% CI 1.92, 33.76; p = 0.004). Increasing number of days exercised at a slow pace decreased the odds of injury in horses of all ages (OR 0.09; 95% CI 0.03, 0.28; p < 0.001). The distance travelled at three-quarter pace and above (faster than 13 m/s; 15 s/furlong; 800 m/min; 48 km/h) and the total distance travelled at a gallop (faster than 15 m/s; 13 s/furlong; 900 m/min; 55 km/h) in the past four weeks significantly affected the odds of injury. There was a non-linear association between high-speed exercise and injury whereby the odds of injury initially increased and subsequently decreased as accumulated high-speed exercise distance increased. None of the racing career and performance indices affected the odds of injury. We identified horses in this population that have particularly high odds of injury. Two-year-old horses from primiparous mares are at increased odds of injury, particularly dorsal metacarpal disease. Two-year-old horses that have had a total preparation length of between 10 and 14 weeks also have increased odds of injury. Horses of all ages that travelled a total distance of 2.4–3.8 km (12–19 furlongs) at a gallop in the last four weeks and horses three years and older that travelled 3.0–4.8 km (15–24 furlongs) at three-quarter pace and above also have increased odds of injury. We recommend that these horses should be monitored closely for impending signs of injury. Increasing the number of days worked at a slow pace may be more effective for preventing injury, if horses are perceived at a higher risk, than resting the horse altogether. Early identification of horses at increased risk and appropriate intervention could substantially reduce the impact of musculoskeletal injuries in Thoroughbred racehorses. Full article