Reducing car use by volitional strategy of action and coping planning enhancement

Personalized travel plans have been regarded as potentially effective soft measures in mobility management. This research conducted a randomized social experiment aiming at citizen car-use reduction, and examined the effect of implementing two personalized travel plans: action plans and coping plans. The two types of plans were designed respectively for enhancing action planning and coping planning as the volitional factors of behavior change. The results supported the effectiveness of the combined action-plus-coping plan intervention in reducing car use, but not of the action plan alone intervention. In addition, the influence of intervention on behavioral intention, action planning, and coping planning, were also presented.     

Book Review

Performance-based measures and ratings of executive functions were examined in a sample of adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and comparison controls. Performance-based measures of executive function included inhibition, working memory, set shifting, and planning, and ratings of these same executive functions were completed by parents and teachers. Adolescents with ADHD demonstrated lower executive function performance than controls and displayed elevated ratings on the executive function ratings by parents and teachers. Significant associations were obtained between the performance-based measures and the parent and teacher ratings, but each measure was not uniquely associated with its respective scale on the rating scales. When performance-based measures and ratings were examined as predictors of ADHD status, the parent and teacher ratings entered as significant predictors of ADHD status. Further commonality analyses indicated that performance-based measures accounted for little unique variance in predicting ADHD status and also displayed little overlap with the behavioral ratings. These findings highlight the diagnostic utility of behavioral ratings of executive function in predicting ADHD status; however, behavioral ratings should not be assumed to be a proxy for performance on measures of executive function in clinical practice.     

Do women who succeed in male‐dominated domains help other women? The moderating role of gender identification

It is often expected that the first women to advance in male‐dominated fields will promote other women who follow them. Two studies test the hypothesis that some women show this expected pattern of promoting women but that others show the opposite pattern, favoring men over women. In two studies, women's gender identification moderated the extent to which they favored men over women when they advanced in a male‐dominated field. Specifically, the weaker women's gender identification, the more favoritism they showed for a male relative to a female subordinate. Gender identification did not moderate women's behavior in a context in which women were not underrepresented, pointing to the power of the situation in eliciting this relationship. Implications for the advancement of women in male‐dominated fields are discussed.     

Special Considerations in the Adaptation of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia With Active-Duty U.S. Army Personnel

Insomnia is highly prevalent among active-duty military service members. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is a well-established and effective treatment; however, research and treatment recommendations have primarily focused on civilian or veteran populations. A multitude of military-specific factors directly impact service members’ sleep and the subsequent treatment recommendations. This article provides treatment considerations for the use of CBT-I with active-duty U.S. Army personnel. First, an overview of the theoretical model of insomnia, including military-specific predisposing, precipitating, and perpetuating factors, is presented, followed by a review of common comorbid conditions among service members with insomnia. Finally, discussion focuses on considerations and strategies for implementing components of CBT-I with service members, managing sleep during deployments, and adjusting sleep to accommodate overnight duties. Additional training resources and supplemental video examples (with actors) are provided.     

Validation of the Cycling Behavior Questionnaire: A tool for measuring cyclists' road behaviors

IntroductionEven though cycling is an activity whose benefits in terms of urban mobility and health are globally recognized, its disproportional growth during the past few decades has led to some unexpected dynamics. In fact, the increasing number of traffic injuries and deaths involving cyclists has a high cost for public health systems. Considering the available empirical evidence, aberrant and positive behaviors on the road constitute relevant predictors for the injuries suffered by road users. Nevertheless, the scarcity of tools that measure and evaluate the behavior of road users, especially in the case of cyclists, constitutes a serious lack in terms of explaining, intervening and preventing traffic crashes through behavioral approaches.ObjectiveThis study had two essential purposes: first, to describe in detail the validation of measurement of risky and positive road user behaviors of cyclists using the Cycling Behavior Questionnaire. Second, to compare the mean scores of the validated version of the CBQ according to demographic and cycling-related factors.MethodAs a part of a larger collaborative research project, our data was collected from 1064 Spanish-speaking cyclists (between 17 and 80 years old) from 20 countries, who filled out an anonymous electronic survey on their riding behaviors. The data was analyzed using competitive Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA), thus obtaining basic psychometric values and an optimized structure for the scale.ResultsThe obtained results suggest that the CBQ has a clear factorial structure, items with high factorial weight, and good internal consistency. In particular, the results of the latent variable model with three factors, which were labeled errors, violations and positive behaviors, show that the CBQ is satisfactorily adjusted.ConclusionThe findings of this research support the idea that the CBQ may have important applications in the improvement of road safety through the study of cyclists' behavioral factors and their relationship to demographic and cycling-related factors.     

Changing commuters’ behavior using rewards: A study of rush-hour avoidance

In a 13-week field study conducted in The Netherlands, participants were provided with daily rewards – monetary and in-kind, in order to encourage them to avoid driving during the morning rush-hour. Participants could earn a reward (money or credits to keep a Smartphone handset), by driving to work earlier or later, by switching to another mode or by teleworking. The collected data, complemented with pre and post measurement surveys, were analyzed using longitudinal techniques and mixed logistic regression. The results assert that the reward is the main extrinsic motivation for discouraging rush-hour driving. The monetary reward exhibits diminishing sensitivity, whereas the Smartphone has endowment qualities. Although the reward influences the motivation to avoid the rush-hour, the choice how to change behavior is influenced by additional factors including education, scheduling, habitual behavior, attitudes, and travel information availability.     

Communicating safety with drivers via dynamic message signs

In recent years numerous transportation agencies have begun displaying creative safety messages like “get your head out of your apps” on dynamic message signs (DMS). DMS have been used traditionally to provide real-time information about travel times, weather conditions, construction, and incidents. Applying emotional and consequential concepts from protection motivation theory, which has a track record of leading to behavioral changes from public awareness campaigns, this study evaluates how the use of safety messages on DMS impacts driver perceptions. We find that emotions, but not consequences, impact self-reported driving behavior. Further, while drivers reported negative emotions would change their driving habits, positive messages were recalled far more often. Cell phone related messages were recalled most frequently despite being rarely displayed along roadways in Michigan where the study is conducted. Thus, the results support the use of positively themed messages with consequences that drivers perceive as realistic.     

Associations between Positive Parenting Practices and Child Externalizing Behavior in Underserved Latino Immigrant Families

This study examined whether five specific parenting practices (i.e., monitoring, discipline, skill encouragement, problem solving, and positive involvement) were associated with reduced child externalizing behaviors among a sample of Latino immigrant families. It utilized baseline data from 83 Latino couples with children participating in a larger randomized controlled trial of a culturally adapted parenting intervention. Results reveal that monitoring, discipline, skill encouragement, and problem solving each made independent contributions to the prediction of child externalizing behavior, although not all in the expected direction. Further analyses examining mothers and fathers separately suggest that mother‐reported monitoring and father‐reported discipline practices uniquely contributed to these findings. These results may have important implications for prevention and clinical intervention efforts with Latino immigrant families, including the cultural adaptation and implementation of parenting interventions with this underserved population.     

An evaluation of interdependent and independent group contingencies during the good behavior game

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) uses an interdependent group contingency to improve classroom behavior. Despite the wealth of research on the effectiveness of the GBG, some teachers may have concerns about their students’ abilities to work in teams, particularly if they have a history of poor social skills. We used an alternating treatments design to compare the relative effectiveness of the GBG with interdependent and independent group contingencies in a classroom for children with emotional and behavioral disorders. Our results showed that both versions of the GBG reduced verbal disruptions, inappropriate sitting, and off‐task behaviors for all children. However, the majority of children preferred the interdependent arrangement. We discuss how these results may promote more widespread use of the GBG with children with substantial behavioral challenges.