ObjectiveCommunity sport can support mental health promotion and prevention initiatives. The aim was to establish the impact of a mental health literacy program (Tackle Your Feelings) delivered to Australian Rules Football clubs, on a range of mental health literacy measures.MethodsA mixed-method approach was undertaken with four community sporting clubs allocated to treatment or control (n = 155). Study 1) involved linear mixedeffects modelling to determine if the intervention differed in effect to a waitlist control over time across five outcome measures. Study 2) determined if differences were sustained post-intervention. Study 3) analysed interview data to establish qualitative insights into impacts of the program.ResultsLongitudinal mixed-effects modelling found significant effects for confidence to support (p<.001), knowledge of resources to support mental health (p<.042) help seeking (p=.030), supportive club environment (p<.001), and program content knowledge (p<.001). Post-hoc analyses revealed a positive effect across measures and Study 2) found this was sustained for four months post-program. Qualitative data highlighted the value of this type of program but also where improvements could be made.ConclusionFindings highlight the potential value of community sport as a setting to support mental health promotion across a wide range of club members whilst demonstrating enhanced member perceptions of a sporting club environment to support mental health. Qualitative data highlighted opportunities to embed such programs across multiple layers of the sporting club context.

Prior research has revealed a variety of factors associated with teacher views around when to incorporate challenging mathematical tasks into instruction, such as teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and their prior assumptions about student ability. There has been less focus on how motivational beliefs (teacher anxiety, enjoyment, confidence) shape teachers’ views around teaching with challenging tasks. To address this gap, the current study administered questionnaires to Australian primary school teachers ( n = 92) prior to them undertaking a professional learning programme focusing on teaching mathematics through sequences of challenging tasks. Employing logistic regression, we found that more teaching experience and lower levels of teacher anxiety teaching mathematics were associated with the view that challenging tasks should be introduced earlier in a student’s schooling. We also found that higher levels of teacher enjoyment substantially increased the likelihood that a teacher would endorse teaching with challenging tasks more than once a week; however, higher levels of teaching confidence somewhat reduced the likelihood. Implications for practice are discussed.

BackgroundThe highly complex and technological environment of critical care manages the most critically unwell patients in the hospital system, as such there is a need for a highly trained nursing workforce. Intensive care is considered a high-risk area for errors and adverse events (AE) due to the severity of illness and number of procedures performed.ObjectiveTo investigate if the percentage of Critical Care Registered Nurses (CCRN) within an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is associated with an increased risk of patients experiencing an AE.Design & SettingWe conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients admitted between January 2016 and December 2020 to a tertiary ICU in Australia. Descriptive statistics and multivariable logistic regression were used to investigate the relationship between the proportion of CCRNs each month and the occurrence of an AE defined as any one of a medication error, fall, pressure injury or unplanned removal of a central venous catheter or endotracheal tube per patient.ResultsA total of 13,560 patients were included in the study, with 854 (6.3%) experiencing one AE. Patients with an AE were associated with higher illness severity and frailty scores. They were more commonly admitted after medical emergency team response calls and were less commonly elective ICU admissions. Those with an AE had longer ICU and in-hospital length of stay, and higher ICU and in-hospital mortality, on average. After adjusting for ICU LOS and acute severity of illness, being admitted during a month of higher critical care nursing skill-mix was associated with a statistically significant lower odds of having a subsequent AE (OR 0.966 [95% CI: 0.944-0.988], p 0.003).ConclusionAn increasing percentage of CCRNs is independently associated with a lower risk-adjusted likelihood of an AE. Increasing the skill-mix of the ICU nursing staff may reduce the occurrence of AEs and lead to improved patient outcomes.

Ongoing concerns have been expressed about the poor rehabilitative climate of youth detention centers, with a number of government inquiries examining the nature of the centers and how to improve their rehabilitative culture. Emerging research points to staff training and support as mechanisms to improve institutional climate. This study examines the impact on institutional climate of training and coaching staff in effective practice skills. Staff and young people, across three Australian detention centers, were administered a validated social climate measure prior to and 3 to 6 months following training and coaching. The social climate improved at a statistically significant level for staff. For young people the social climate improved but the improvement was not statistically significant. The measure was also administered at two control sites for staff where minimal changes in social climate were seen, suggesting that the staff improvements flowed from the training and coaching rather than from other organizational factors. It is concluded that training and coaching improved detention center social climate for staff although the study does not provide evidence that it improved significantly for young people.

"Factors Lifting Apprenticeship Retention Expectations (FLARe)." Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 73(4), p. 625

Although apprenticeships ease the school-to-work transition for youth, many apprentices seriously consider dropping out. While associated with noncompletions, dropout considerations are important to study in their own right, because they reflect a negative quality of apprenticeship experience and can impact apprentices' quality of learning and engagement. Few studies have addressed apprentices' dropout considerations using comprehensive theoretical frameworks. To address this gap, this study examined how apprentices' interest and anxiety growth trajectories predicted dropout considerations and associated with perceived resources and demands, grounded in expectancy-value theory (EVT) and the job demands-resources (JD-R) model. Australian apprentices (N = 2387) were surveyed at 6-month intervals utilising an accelerated longitudinal design, on their workplace interest and anxiety, job-related resources (role model, timing of choice, employer teaching, expertise, job security, and training wages) and demands (lack of information, career indecision, and excessive work). Latent growth models (LGM) within a structural equation modelling framework showed apprentices began with high interest which declined over time, and low anxiety which increased in the latter half of their first year until the end of their second year. Apprentices' dropout considerations were predicted by initial interest and anxiety levels (at the beginning of their apprenticeship), and by interest losses during their apprenticeship (but, not by increases in anxiety). Almost half the variance in interest and anxiety trajectories was explained by apprentices' perceived resources and demands: resources had a greater effect on promoting interest than reducing anxiety, whereas demands were more important in exacerbating anxiety.

Motivated students have been shown to persist longer in post-secondary education. As a multidimensional psychological construct, motivation is shaped by within- and between-person perceptions of context. Empirical measures of distinct workplace and trade school subjective task values (STVs) were examined, and their predictions of apprentices' planned apprenticeship persistence and intentions to leave the occupation. Further, these STVs (i.e., workplace/trade school intrinsic, importance, utility and emotional cost) were explored for predictive differences across licenced and unlicensed trade apprentices. Among a representative Australian sample of 2,069 trade apprentices, STVs discriminated across learning contexts (trade school vs workplace) and between occupations (licenced vs unlicensed apprenticeships). Workplace STVs had a greater impact on both planned study persistence and occupational departure intentions, while also diminishing the effect of trade school STVs on the same outcomes due to apprentices' internal comparison of STVs across learning contexts. Findings highlight the need for employer training and regulating who should employ an apprentice to ensure apprentices are afforded workplace training in a manner that maintains interest and reduces anxiety. Other findings present the roles and practical implications of within- and between-person contextualised motivation in explaining study and occupational planned persistence.

The purpose of this research was to critically analyze the social license to operate (SLO) for an oil company operating in Block 10, an oil concession located in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The specific study area is an important biodiversity hotspot, inhabited by indigenous villages. A mixed-methods approach was used to support a deeper understanding of SLO, grounded in participants’ direct experience. Semi-structured interviews (N = 53) were conducted with village leaders and members, indigenous associations, State institutions, and oil company staff, while household surveys were conducted with village residents (N = 346). The qualitative data informed a modified version of Moffat and Zhang’s SLO model, which was tested through structural equation modelling (SEM) analyses. Compared to the reference model, our findings revealed a more crucial role of procedural fairness in building community trust, as well as acceptance and approval of the company. Procedural fairness was found to be central in mediating the relationship between trust and the effects of essential services provided by the company (medical assistance, education, house availability) and sources of livelihoods (i.e., fishing, hunting, harvesting, cultivating, and waterway quality). The main results suggested that the concept of SLO may not appropriately apply without taking into account a community’s autonomy to decline company operation. To enhance procedural fairness and respect for the right of community self-determination, companies may need to consider the following: Establishing a meaningful and transparent dialogue with the local community; engaging the community in decision-making processes; enhancing fair distribution of project benefits; and properly addressing community concerns, even in the form of protests. The respect of the free prior informed consent procedure is also needed, through the collaboration of both the State and companies. The reduction of community dependence on companies (e.g., through the presence of developmental alternatives to oil extraction) is another important requirement to support an authentic SLO in the study area.