As students' sense of school belonging (SOSB) is essential for their psychosocial well-being and academic success, developing precise measures of SOSB is critical for assessing it properly. After an unrelated item was deleted, the SOSB scale showed good psychometric properties, based on Rasch analysis of data from 36,963 students in Grade 4 or Grade 8 from four East Asian societies. While no items showed gender differential item functioning (DIF), two items showed substantial society DIF, and two items showed grade DIF in Japan and South Korea. Concurrent equating created a common measurement scale for the four societies for future comparisons. The multigroup random slope two-level analysis of the concurrent SOSB measures showed that SOSB is higher among girls than boys. From Grade 4 to Grade 8, SOSBs dropped substantially, especially for South Korea, and gender gaps decreased in Hong Kong, Japan, and South Korea. Hence, studies of interventions to improve SOSB, especially for boys and students in later grades, are vital.

Sense of school belonging: Psychometric properties and differences across gender, grades, and East Asian societies

The purpose of the study was to spotlight the implementation of anti-bullying programs in schools and to engage the public in the development of mitigating practices that include students, parents, school administrators, teachers, and entire communities. The study measured a group of students from two very different school districts with input from restorative justice practitioners on bullying exploring why students bully and what can be done about it. The study showed that restorative justice practitioners have led educators to focus more on using the relationship development protocols from restorative justice in schools. Restorative justice originated in the criminal justice system and included the victim and the offender to address repairing the harm done. The current study adopted the idea of implementing bullying prevention programs in schools that incorporated proven strategies and influenced the movement to develop long-term programs that include student input. When asked, “Have you ever been bullied?” 88% of the students responded that they have been bullied. Implications from the study suggested that cultivating youth voices creates a sense of community in the classroom and decreases the common practice of suspending students for misbehaving because it only contributes to expansion of the school-to-prison pipeline. The study determined that new disciplinary practices provide successful tools for behavior interventions that support students learning how to manage conflict in school and experience academic and social success without heavy-handed punishment. The outcome of the study revealed that adopting alternative practices to bullying behavior has been worth the effort to modify unwanted behaviors, improve school climate and achieve successful results in dispute resolutions.

Bullying resilience: Informing schools and communities to transform conflict by using an anti-bullying restorative justice campaign

The Relationship Between Increased Police Patrols and Violent Crime Rates in Seven United States Cities by Victor Sylvester Kabia MALS, Georgetown University, 2005 BA Hon, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, 1981 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Policy and Administration Walden University May 2016 Abstract Large, metropolitan areas across the nation have experienced high rates of violent crime over the past 2 decades As a consequence, law enforcement agencies have increased patrol efforts, but little is known about whether the decrease in violent crime rates was correlated to increased police patrols or to the economic variables of unemployment, inflation, level of education, unemployment compensation, and homeownership The purpose of this non-experimental, correlational study was to examine the nature of the relationship between increased police patrols, the 5 economic variables, and violent crime rates in 7 large US cities for a 10-year period The theoretical framework for this study was based on Paternoster’s deterrence theory and Becker’s economic theory of crime causation Data were acquired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and used a sample of 114 cases of reported violent crimes for each city included in the study for the years 2000 – 2010 (n = 798) A multiple regression analysis was initially performed with inconclusive results Spearman’s correlations between each of the independent and dependent variables of violent crime indicated that all the independent variables exceptLarge, metropolitan areas across the nation have experienced high rates of violent crime over the past 2 decades As a consequence, law enforcement agencies have increased patrol efforts, but little is known about whether the decrease in violent crime rates was correlated to increased police patrols or to the economic variables of unemployment, inflation, level of education, unemployment compensation, and homeownership The purpose of this non-experimental, correlational study was to examine the nature of the relationship between increased police patrols, the 5 economic variables, and violent crime rates in 7 large US cities for a 10-year period The theoretical framework for this study was based on Paternoster’s deterrence theory and Becker’s economic theory of crime causation Data were acquired from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and used a sample of 114 cases of reported violent crimes for each city included in the study for the years 2000 – 2010 (n = 798) A multiple regression analysis was initially performed with inconclusive results Spearman’s correlations between each of the independent and dependent variables of violent crime indicated that all the independent variables except for homeownership had statistically significant inverse correlations with violent crime rates The findings of this study may be used by law enforcement agencies and policy makers to develop crime prevention interventions that address those economic factors associated with violent crime, thereby promoting positive social change through creating safer communities The Relationship Between Increased Police Patrols and Violent Crime Rates in Seven United States Cities by Victor Sylvester Kabia MALS, Georgetown University, 2005 BA Hon, Fourah Bay College, University of Sierra Leone, 1981 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Public Policy and Administration Walden University May 2016 Dedication I dedicate this dissertation with affection to my father, mother, and all my teachers and dedicated friends who by their interest and encouragement have continually inspired me Acknowledgments I am grateful to Dr Hilda Shepeard, Dr Stallo, and Dr Settles, my dissertation committee for their invaluable guidance and all my tutors at Walden University who in various ways have brought me to this desired point of my quest In the same vein, I wish to thank Alex Naron, my computer mentor, and Carolyn Suitt, the indomitable cheerleader, who cheered me to the end To my numerous friends at the Center for Information Technology (CIT), Andy, Francini, Harry, Bill, Peter, Aloba, Edward, Agnes, Caponitti, and all my colleagues at MVM and many others for their encouragement To my family, Marie, Hannah, Samuel R Kabia, Victoria, John, Sentho, Sinnah, Gbessay, Ya Marie, Bafia, Baby Abu, Potho, Lombeh, Cecilia, Tutu, Fatmata, and Namina, I say “Thank You” for believing in me To my YUSA family, Samuel B Koroma, Ibrahim Kamara, Sallu Fullah, Musa Bangura, Sallieu Kamara, Beatrice Conteh, Beatrice Mulwanda, Abdul Kamara, etc, thank you for your encouragement Finally, I thank all my sons-inlaw, Abdul Rahman Kargbo, Idrissa Sesay, Desmond, and all those related to this family in one way or the other

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The Relationship Between Increased Police Patrols and Violent Crime Rates in Seven United States Cities

While literature has shown various predictors of school violence and victimization from multiple perspectives, predictors at the individual level were revealed in a large body of empirical studies. Researchers have demonstrated that gender (being male), low self-control, low self-esteem, stress, depression, and lack of social skills are significantly related to student victimization and violent offending.

Individual and Family Characteristics and School Violence

The study of the relationship between willingness to communicate and self-regulation with the mediating role of self-efficacy among English foreign language learners: structural equation modelling approach

In recent years, there has been an increase in deviant behaviors of students in Japan and Taiwan. The similarities and differences between the deviant behaviors of students in these 2 countries were investigated. A total of 516 and 476 valid questionnaires were obtained from Taiwan and Japan, respectively, in this study. Results indicated that there were fewer deviant behaviors among students in Taiwan than in Japan. Social control, authoritative teacher discipline, and parents’ laissez-faire parenting were common factors implicated in deviant behaviors of students in both countries. The factor most frequently affecting the deviant behaviors of Japanese students was social control. For Taiwanese students authoritative teacher discipline was the factor with the greatest effect.

Some factors in deviant behaviors of elementary school students in Taiwan and Japan

Antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to global public health. Inappropriate use of antibiotics can lead to an increase in antibiotic resistance. Individual self-efficacy in the appropriate use of antibiotics plays a key role, especially in China where the population has easy access to antibiotics. However, there are no tools available to assess the self-efficacy of appropriate antibiotic use for Chinese adults. We aimed to translate and develop a Chinese version of the Appropriate Antibiotic Use Self-Efficacy Scale (AAUSES), and validate its reliability and validity.A total of 659 adults were recruited to participate in the questionnaire. The original version scale was first translated into Chinese using the backward and forward translation procedures. The internal consistency reliability of the scale was measured by the Cronbach alpha coefficient, the test-retest reliability, and the corrected item-total correlation. The validity of the scale was assessed by the content validity index, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis.The content validity index of the scale was 0.96. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) supported a 4-factor structure of the translated questionnaire, and the discriminant validity of the scale was good. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) showed ﻿i﻿n the model fitness index, the chi-square degree of freedom was 2.940, the goodness-of-fit index(GFI) was 0.929, the incremental fit index (IFI) was 0.908, the comparative fit index(CFI) was 0.906, root mean square error of approximation(RMSEA) was 0.077, and standardized root mean residual (SRMR) was 0.0689, and the model fitting indexes were all in the acceptable range. Cronbach alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.910. The test-retest reliability was 0.947, and the corrected item-total correlations for the items ranged from 0.488 to 0.736. Self-efficacy for appropriate antibiotic use in adults varied by education, occupation, income, place of residence, and whether or not they had heard of antibiotic resistance.The results indicated that the Chinese version of the AAUSES had good reliability and validity. Therefore, it can be considered a tool to evaluate the appropriate antibiotic use self-efficacy of adults in China. 

https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-022-13729-1

Reliability and validity evaluation of the appropriate antibiotic use self-efficacy scale for Chinese adults

Background The number of students enrolled in higher education in China accounts for more than one-fifth of the world, and universities, as a community of faculty, staff and scholars, currently do not have a scale that specifically assesses the well-being of the population in the environment of Chinese universities. However, the University of Pittsburgh has developed a comprehensive well-being scale, referred to as the Pitt Wellness Scale, specifically to measure people’s well-being in a university environment. Aims Investigate the psychometric properties of the Pitt Wellness Scale in Chinese university environmental samples. Methods The original scale was culturally adapted and modified through expert consultation, a random sample of 1870 current faculty, staff, and students were selected for the questionnaire survey. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to investigate the potential factor structure of the Chinese Revision of the Pitt Wellness Scale and to measure its reliability and validity. Finally, the factors that affect people’s well-being in the Chinese university environment were explored. Results The Chinese Revision of the Pitt Wellness Scale retained 30 items, and the EFA supports a five-factor structure, which differed from the results of the original scale, and the CFA results showed that the model fitted well. The discriminant validity of the modified Chinese scale was excellent. The overall Omega coefficient of the scale was 0.958, and the reliability of the retest after 4 weeks was 0.821. Conclusion The Chinese Revision of the Pitt Wellness Scale possesses satisfactory psychometric properties, and it can be considered an instrument for assessing personal well-being in Chinese university environment.

Chung-Ming Liang

Papers

Some factors in deviant behaviors of elementary school students in Taiwan and Japan

Reliability and validity evaluation of the appropriate antibiotic use self-efficacy scale for Chinese adults

Psychometric Properties of the Chinese Revision of the Pitt Wellness Scale for People in the University Environment