Search Results (649)

Digital Product Passports came with the promise to bring about supply chain transparency. However, since their emergence, several adoption barriers have been identified primarily due to stakeholder disengagement and misaligned incentives. To this end, while regulatory mandates drive compliance, passive information repositories often fail to generate meaningful participation from suppliers and/or consumers. In consideration of this shortcoming, the present work proposes a Digital Product Passport framework enriched by gamification elements as a means of transforming transparency from burden to opportunity and individual motivations to collective transparency goals. In greater detail, the framework addresses supplier reluctance through competitive transparency scoring and value sharing mechanisms and further engages consumers through interactive product journey narratives and impact visualisation. The work contributes to the behavioural design research field by proposing an alternative framework that leverages intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in order to overcome traditional barriers to supply chain transparency. To contextualise these ideas, we provide illustrative scenarios demonstrating how gamification mechanisms could create self-reinforcing feedback loops between suppliers and consumers. Full article

Activism exposes individuals to sustained harassment, threat and psychological strain in contexts marked by discrimination and weak institutional protection. For LGBTQ communities, public engagement frequently increases vulnerability to both offline and digital harm, with cumulative consequences for mental health. Using the Balkans as a case example, this perspective sees activist mental health through a public health and health policy lens, framing distress not as an individual coping failure but as an outcome of structural barriers and minority stress processes, including inadequate legal protection, limited access to culturally competent mental health care and insufficient accountability for platform-mediated harm. This article highlights the population-level implications of unaddressed structural stressors, like burnout, disengagement and reduced sustainability of civil society participation, by situating activist mental health within broader questions of health system performance, access to care and governance. Upstream policy responses that strengthen institutional protection, ensure equitable access to mental health services and promote safer digital environments would address these challenges, positioning activist mental health as a critical public health policy issue. Full article

Living history tourism is traditionally framed through heritage preservation and educational interpretation, yet the mechanisms translating visitor motivation into behavioral intention remain insufficiently theorized. This study develops and empirically tests an integrated structural model combining escape motives, experiential immersion, authenticity construction, educational enrichment, and behavioral intention within a unified framework. Data were collected from 1066 visitors at Skansen (Sweden) between March 2025 and March 2026 using an on-site, self-administered questionnaire with voluntary participation. The sample included domestic and international visitors, predominantly aged 18–44, with high educational attainment. Structural equation modeling was applied. The results show that detachment-oriented motives strongly activate experiential immersion, which emerges as the central mechanism in the model. Immersion significantly strengthens perceptions of historical authenticity and represents the dominant predictor of behavioral intention, while educational motives exert a weaker but significant effect. Mediation analysis confirms that the influence of escape operates indirectly through immersion. The findings indicate that living history tourism functions primarily as an experiential environment enabling temporary disengagement from routine pressures. Although often framed as an educational domain, the results suggest that experiential engagement outweighs cognitive motives in shaping visitor behavior. Full article

Population ageing is one of the most significant phenomena of the 21st century. The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship between organizational culture (supportive culture, innovative culture, market culture, and rule culture) and ageism (prejudice and discrimination) and whether this relationship is moderated by organizational age (obsolescence, age norms, perceived time and opportunities left, and disengagement phase). The sample for this study comprises 400 participants from organizations across different sectors. This is a quantitative and correlational study. The results indicate that only supportive culture and perceived time and opportunities left have a negative and significant effect on discrimination. As for the moderating effect, only obsolescence moderates the relationship between rule culture and prejudice. Additionally, older employees reported a stronger perception of a supportive culture. Considering the results obtained, a supportive culture can combat discrimination and the high perception of the ageing process, the latter requiring a greater understanding of what is meant by perceived opportunities. Full article

The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools into academic and professional contexts has raised concerns regarding unethical use and the potential development of problematic usage patterns. Drawing on personality and moral psychology frameworks, the present study examined the associations between antagonistic personality traits (narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy) and problematic (i.e., addictive) GAI use (PGAIU), as well as the chain mediating effect of moral disengagement and unethical GAI use (UGAIU). Data were collected from an adult sample (N = 491; 52% men; M_age = 43.92) using validated self-report measures. Path analysis indicated that narcissism exhibited significant direct and indirect associations with PGAIU. In contrast, Machiavellianism and psychopathy were indirectly related to PGAIU via moral disengagement and UGAIU but demonstrated non-significant total and direct effects. Multi-group analyses revealed broadly similar structural patterns across men and women, although some paths involving moral disengagement were significant only among men. A comparable pattern was also observed across age groups, with only minor variations in the mediation pathways. Overall, the findings highlight the central role of moral disengagement and unethical GAI-related behaviors in linking antagonistic personality traits to PGAIU. Full article

Adolescence is a key period of significant physiological and social development, during which social anxiety symptoms often emerge and can impact academic and social functioning. Social anxiety disorder (SAD) involves heightened sensitivity to social cues and impaired social information processing, potentially contributing to persistent anxiety symptoms. However, research exploring the neural mechanisms of social information processing in adolescents with social anxiety remains limited. The investigation employed a facial dot-probe paradigm combined with EEG measurements to assess differences in attentional processing and neurophysiological activity between two adolescent groups: a high-social-anxiety (HSA) group (N = 27) and a low-social-anxiety (LSA) group (N = 18). Results showed (1) there was a significant reduction in P2 amplitudes in the HSA group compared to the LSA group. (2) A significant negative correlation between the disengagement index (DI) and P2 amplitude was found. (3) Weaker functional connectivity in the theta band was found in the HSA group. (4) In the graph theory analysis, the HSA group exhibited significantly higher node efficiency across various frequency bands compared to the LSA group. The findings suggest that socially anxious adolescents have impaired attentional control toward social cues. This difficulty may reinforce their anxiety symptoms over time. Full article

Background: The decline in physical activity during the transition to early adolescence poses a significant threat to lifelong health and well-being, directly impacting the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3). To design effective preventive interventions, researchers need developmentally appropriate tools to measure the psychological drivers of physical activity. Objectives: This study aimed to adapt the Attitude Towards Sport Scale (ATSS) for middle school students (ages 10–15) and evaluate its psychometric properties. Methods: We used a mixed-methods approach comprising a qualitative cognitive think-aloud phase (n = 27) and a quantitative cross-sectional validation phase (N = 531). Data were analyzed using robust Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Results: The results supported the structural model, demonstrating that the original three-factor structure fits the early adolescent sample acceptably. The scale demonstrated high composite reliability across all dimensions. Furthermore, the adapted ATSS-EA showed strong criterion-related validity through high correlations with perceived physical literacy and actual physical activity durations. It also successfully differentiated between licensed athletes and non-licensed students. Conclusions: The adapted ATSS-EA provides a developmentally appropriate tool for educators and researchers to monitor sport attitudes and identify students at risk of physical disengagement. Full article

Coping serves as a protective function in students’ responses to school bullying. Previous studies have proposed several models to explain how victims cope with school bullying, but most of these frameworks were developed in Western contexts. Grounded in these frameworks, this qualitative study explores how victims cope with different developmental stages of school bullying within the Chinese cultural context. Using grounded theory and constant comparative analysis, we analyzed retrospective self-reports from 67 Chinese university students who described bullying experiences from elementary to high school. The analysis identified four key coping categories: emotional response, endurance and avoidance, cognitive reconstruction, and action-oriented resistance. Based on these coping strategies, we developed a Victims’ Coping Strategies Model structured along two axes: engagement–disengagement and a cognitive–emotional to cognitive–behavioral continuum. By capturing the complex interplay of internal and external strategies influenced by Chinese sociocultural norms, the model demonstrates the developmental and context-dependent nature beyond static classifications of coping strategies. The findings contribute to cultural and developmental understandings of victim responses and inform practical implications for intervention. Full article

Understanding how family functioning shapes social cohesion in South African communities offers insight into relational dynamics that sustain neighborhood well-being. This convergent parallel mixed-methods study examined associations between family functioning and neighborhood social cohesion in Cape Town. Quantitative data (N = 662) were collected using the Family Functioning Questionnaire and the Neighborhood Social Cohesion Questionnaire. Correlations showed positive associations between family cohesion and trust (r = 0.20), expressiveness and tolerance/respect (r = 0.20), and democratic family style and neighborhood attachment (r = 0.21). Family disengagement showed a small negative association with tolerance/respect (r = −0.11) and a small positive association with practical help (r = 0.17), an unexpected pattern interpreted cautiously. Qualitative interviews (n = 20) provided contextual depth, describing how open communication, shared caregiving, and supportive family networks enhance trust, belonging, reciprocity, and responsibility. Thematic analysis produced five themes spanning cohesion, expressiveness, conflict/disengagement, democratic family functioning, and authoritarian parenting as adaptation. Triangulation indicated that cohesive, expressive, and democratic family processes align with stronger neighborhood connectedness, while conflict and strictness were often described as forms of regulation rather than uniformly harmful. Findings support strengthening family-based interventions, parenting programs, and community policies that reinforce both family well-being and social connectedness. Full article

Within the Canadian context, the academic trajectory of Black males is typically discussed in terms of failure or disengagement, with comparatively little attention paid to those who persist and succeed in post-secondary education (PSE). This paper examines the factors that enhance African Canadian males’ pursuit of PSE in Ontario and explores how their understandings of race, racism, and PBRI shape their academic trajectories. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and a Positive Black Racial Identity (PBRI) framework, the study analyzes phone interviews with 18 Black male post-secondary students drawn from a larger qualitative project on Black student success involving 56 participants. Findings highlight how PBRI, culturally grounded mentorship, and community-based support function as protective factors that foster academic persistence, advocacy, and a redefinition of success beyond deficit-based narratives. The paper argues that Black male success in PSE must be understood not as exceptional but as evidence of agency and resistance within structurally inequitable institutions, and it concludes with implications for curriculum, mentorship, and institutional policy in Canadian higher education. Full article

This study explores the factors contributing to educational stakeholders’ resistance to pedagogical and policy changes within a rural school in the Bojanala District, South Africa. Utilizing a qualitative approach, fifteen participants comprising five members of the School Governing Body (SGB), five members of the School Management Team (SMT), and five Grade 12 learners were purposively sampled to provide a multi-perspective analysis of the institutional environment. The findings reveal that resistance is driven by a complex interplay of limited policy awareness, deep-seated cultural and traditional beliefs, systemic socioeconomic challenges, and significant psychological barriers. These factors collectively undermine the quality of teaching and learning by inhibiting curriculum innovation, fostering learner disengagement, and eroding school morale. To address these systemic hurdles, the study advocates for a multi-tiered integration strategy that prioritizes transparent stakeholder communication frameworks to align national policy with local rural realities, the institutionalization of sustained, context-specific professional development, and the cultivation of transformational leadership capable of navigating the unique socio-economic constraints inherent in rural educational landscapes. Full article

Emotions in the Muslim Brotherhood have been largely overlooked in the literature. This article examines how the movement strategically regulates specific emotions—and the processes that generate them—to keep members in as well as to prevent and deter them from leaving. It focuses on conjugal love as it is produced through endogamous arranged marriage practices. Drawing on frame analysis of Brotherhood literature and fieldwork conducted in Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the UK, the study shows that the group tightly structures marital formation, including matchmaking, wedding rituals, and the organization of the couple’s household. Conjugal love produced in this marriage is entangled with two additional forms of attachment: love for the group and love for God. This entangled emotional structure transforms marriage and the three loves attached to it into a mechanism of organizational engagement that can prevent and deter members from leaving. For example, the group makes the cost of exit emotionally high through threats of divorce, social ostracism and God’s condemnation. Full article

This article reports findings from a series of learning episodes in the form of case studies from inside English teaching classrooms that use music and literary extracts to make English Language and its possible applications and interpretations alive to students. Central to this exploration is the concept of artistry, characterised here as a nuanced practice involving four interrelated elements: the possession of an idea worth expressing, the imaginative ability to conceive its expression, the technical skill to work with materials, and the sensibilities required to make delicate, evocative adjustments. For the tens of thousands of young people in the Further Adult, Vocational and Education (FAVE) sector in England retaking GCSE English every year, artistry is an often neglected but vital concept that is routinely overshadowed by more pragmatic and reductive interpretations of the English Language curriculum. Low national achievement rates for re-sitting students do little to incentivize institutions and teachers in experimenting with their curriculum. Moreover, many re-sitting students become demotivated and disengaged due to numerous previously failed attempts to achieve a pass grade. This small-scale, qualitative research study explores and proposes new possibilities regarding how the FAVE GCSE English curriculum can be realised in engaging and meaningful ways. Concepts of artistry are put to work with students in the FAVE GCSE English classroom to bring to the fore how these ideas in the GCSE English Language curriculum might be brought to life in ways which develop understanding and foster interest in the study of English Language. Full article

Moral disengagement (MD) typically peaks during adolescence. While the Dark Triad (DT) traits—Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and narcissism—are broadly linked to MD, the specific prospective pathways through which individual DT components predict distinct MD strategies remain unclear, particularly with respect to gender-specific variations in these influences among adolescents. To systematically investigate these temporal associations, this study employed Cross-Lagged Panel Network (CLPN) modeling on a sample of 1410 Chinese adolescents (M_age = 16.95, SD = 0.75) surveyed across three waves at three-month intervals. Results revealed a hierarchical pattern of DT influence: Machiavellianism exerted the strongest predictive effect on the MD system, followed by psychopathy, while narcissism showed negligible or even negative effects. Among MD strategies, euphemistic labelling, advantageous comparison and displacement of responsibility were the most responsive to DT traits. Bridge centrality analysis confirmed Machiavellianism as the primary cross-domain connector linking DT traits to MD. Weak but significant reciprocal effects were observed: MD slightly fed back onto later Machiavellianism and psychopathy, supporting a partially bidirectional process. Gender-separated networks revealed divergent pathways: Machiavellianism served as the key DT-MD bridge for males, whereas psychopathy fulfilled this role for females. These findings refine the understanding of the “dark side” of moral development by highlighting mechanism-specific MD vulnerabilities and demonstrating that the primary socio-cognitive pathway to MD is gender-contingent, thereby advancing developmental models of MD. Full article

Background/Objectives: Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) shows substantial cognitive heterogeneity, complicating individualized clinical formulation. This study examined whether Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome (CDS), anxiety, and ADHD symptom severity are associated with memory functions and visuospatial skills in children with ADHD. Methods: The sample included 120 children aged 6–12 years with ADHD (ADHD + CDS: n = 40; ADHD-only: n = 80). Memory was assessed with the Oktem Verbal Memory Processes Test (OVMPT) and Wechsler Memory Scale–Visual Reproduction (WMS–VR), and visuospatial skills with WISC-IV Block Design and Judgment of Line Orientation (JLO). ADHD symptoms were rated using combined parent–teacher Turgay-Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition-Based Disruptive Behavior Disorders Scale (T-DSM-IV-S) scores; CDS symptoms with the Barkley Child Attention Scale; and anxiety with the SCARED-Child Form. Group comparisons, correlation analyses, and multivariable linear regression models were conducted. Results: The ADHD + CDS group performed worse on WISC-IV Block Design than the ADHD-only group (p = 0.005). In the ADHD + CDS group, inattention severity showed a strong negative association with WMS–VR short-term memory (r = −0.560, p < 0.001). In the ADHD-only group, inattention severity was negatively associated with OVMPT Spontaneous Recall (ρ = −0.319, p = 0.004) and JLO total score (ρ = −0.348, p = 0.002). Anxiety severity in the ADHD-only group was positively associated with OVMPT Total Learning (ρ = 0.350, p = 0.001), Highest Learning (ρ = 0.370, p = 0.001), and WMS–VR short-term memory (ρ = 0.304, p = 0.006). In regression analyses, the presence of CDS independently and negatively predicted WMS–VR short-term memory (β = −0.187, p = 0.018) and Block Design performances (β = −0.226, p = 0.016). Inattention symptom severity was also independently and negatively associated with Block Design performance (β = −0.243, p = 0.013). Conclusions: CDS status and symptom dimensions contribute to cognitive variability in pediatric ADHD, with CDS showing independent associations with timed visuospatial construction and short-term visual memory. Inattention severity emerged as a robust dimensional predictor of cognitive inefficiency across domains, supporting the clinical utility of symptom-based cognitive profiling in ADHD diagnostic evaluations. In addition, mild anxiety symptoms demonstrated meaningful associations with some learning and memory performances within the ADHD-only group, indicating that affective factors may modulate cognitive outcomes in ADHD. Taken together, these findings support considering CDS status and symptom dimensions jointly when characterizing cognitive variability in ADHD. Full article