Background: There is a growing amount of research interest to understand the role of food in well-being. The demand for community supported agriculture (CSA), bringing people spatially, economically, and socially closer to food, is continuously expanding. CSAs play an important role in both sustainable agriculture practices and influencing consumers’ food-related practices, but yet have received little attention in well-being research. Methods: This study explores food-related well-being among CSA members by using an exploratory, qualitative research design and a thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. Results: The findings stress the relevance of psychological, social, and spiritual aspects of food-related well-being beyond the nutritional characteristics of food in CSA. Conclusion: The role of sustainable agriculture in contributing to food-related well-being becomes particularly evident based on consumers’ experiences. These results are important in convincing people that their food-related experiences belong to their perceived well-being as well as stimulating people to elevate their multidimensional expectations in relation to food.
10 February 2021 in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications
Attrition is an important issue in higher education, especially in the field of computer science (CS). Here, we investigate to what extent an education reform affects the attrition of students by analyzing the pattern of grades of CS students’ academic achievement from 2010 to 2018 by IRT, based on Rasch-model analysis. We analyze data from 3673 undergraduate students of a large public university. In 2016 an education reform—as an intervention—was added to our BSc program: all theoretical lectures became compulsory to attend and we introduced a learning methodology course for all first-year students. According to our results, after the education reform most subjects became accomplishable, and students with lower levels of ability also tried to take exams. We succeeded in retaining 28% of our students. Analyzing students’ results could help administrators develop new programs in order to increase retention.
16 April 2019 in Asian Journal of Social Psychology
Summing up the process of conceptualization of positive orientation theory (POT), the results of empirical studies which confirmed its validity, the operationalization of the positive orientation as a personality disposition in the Positivity Scale (PS), and the verification of the scale responsibility and empirical validity, it can be established that POT is a very promising, empirically validated theory. The dissemination of the POT and the PS in high‐impact scientific journals is an important contribution to the research on well‐being and in the domains of health psychology and positive psychology as well.
Currently, the dropout rate is crucial in the field of Computer Science (CS) higher education. In CS education it is usually the mathematically oriented subjects that are blamed for the high dropout rates. Implementing a theoretical framework into practice, we have been able to prevent 28% of our students from dropping out in the last 2 years due to our education reform. The aim of the present study is to analyse the results of the students through the curriculum of the CS program by factor analysis. Nearly 4000 first-year students’ results were analysed. One of the most important steps of the education reform was that all of the lectures became compulsory to attend. Another step was the introduction of a prevention and skills-training program for every first-year student in order to develop their study skills. Our findings highlighted that as a consequence of the education reform, more students stayed until the end of the first and second semesters and try taking exams in the exam period. Analysing the subjects as factors in the CS curriculum could (1) help faculty staff introduce an education reform, and (2) help decision-makers develop prevention and promotion programs in order to develop students’ study skills. The results reveal that we have managed to successfully engage first year students in the academic environments.
27 October 2023 in European Journal of Mental Health
Introduction: Several studies have shown the inconsistent factorial structures of the Values in Action Inventory of Strengths between cultures. Aims: This paper describes an adapted Hungarian version of the 24-item Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for adults. Methods: Participants in three online self-report questionnaire-based crosssectional studies (Sn = 10,911) filled in the 24-item Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, the Global Well-being Scale, Huppert’s and Diener’s Flourishing Scales, and the Positivity Scale. Results: The exploratory factor analyses provided evidence for four factors: Wisdom and Knowledge; Humanity; Temperance; and Spirituality and Transcendence. The scales showed excellent internal consistency values in each study. The confirmatory factor analyses of the subsamples also showed a good fit. Low discriminant but excellent content validity was proved. Participants rated themselves highest on Humanity and lowest on Temperance. Women reported significantly higher values on both the Humanity and the Spirituality and Transcendence virtue scales than did men. The Wisdom and Knowledge virtue showed a positive correlation with education level. Among those living alone, Humanity was significantly lower, while the level of Humanity among married people stood significantly higher than in any other group. Conclusion: Our results suggest that the Hungarian version of the 24-item Values in Action Inventory of Strengths for adults serves as a suitable measure for assessing character strengths and virtues.
Background: The literature suggests that farmers’ work involves a number of operational difficulties. Although alternative food networks address the majority of their problems, they can potentially generate new hardships. The aim of this study is to examine the situational and engagement-related work difficulties associated with the everyday world of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farmers. Methods: This study used the health psychology approach, namely interpretive phenomenology, to understand the social determinants of farmers’ working lives in CSA and to explore mental health challenges within the practices of local sustainable farming. To collect data, semi-structured, in-person interviews were conducted with CSA farmers in Hungary. Results: Our study shows that new modes of consumer-producer connectivity create novel situations and issues which farmers are forced to address. Three personal experiential themes emerge from the data to describe CSA farmers’ work difficulties: (1) Conflicted autonomy; (2) The pressure of boxes; (3) Social overload. The difficulties for CSA farmers seem to be rooted in the economic characteristics of alternative agriculture where farmers organize food production for the satisfaction of consumer needs. In addition, structural conditions require several different CSA farmer roles, which could even be conflicting. Conclusion: This study provides participants’ perspectives on the health and wellbeing costs of sustainable farming. Newer producer-consumer connections require both time and experience and involve extra effort or skills, but farmers often lack these abilities. The results show how perceptions of work processes relate to the general framework of CSA, which necessitates a distinct strategy for farm management.