Mean differences and individual changes in nursing students' attitudes toward statistics: The role of math background and personality traits

Assessing attitudes towards biostatistics education among medical students: adaptation and preliminary evaluation of the Chinese version survey of attitudes towards statistics (SATS-36)

BACKGROUND

Despite the numerous advantages of mastering biostatistics, medical students generally perceive biostatistics as a difficult and challenging subject and even experience anxiety during the courses. Evidence for the correlation between students' academic achievements and their attitudes, indicating that attitudes at the beginning of the biostatistics course may affect cognitive competence at the end of the course and subsequently influence student academic performance. However, there are current disagreements regarding the measurement and evaluation of attitudes related to statistics. Thus, there is a need for standard instruments to assess them. This study was conducted to develop a Chinese version of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS-36) in order to acquire a valid instrument to measure medical students' attitudes toward biostatistics under Chinese medical educational background.

METHODS

The Chinese version SATS-36 was developed through translation and back-translation of the original scale, with subsequent revisions based on expert advice to ensure the most appropriate item content. The local adaption was performed with a cohort of 1709 Chinese-speaking medical undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in biostatistics courses. And then, the reliability, validity and discrimination of the questionnaires were evaluated through correlation coefficient calculation, factor analysis, parallel analysis and other methods.

RESULTS

The Chinese version SATS-36 consisted of 36 items and loaded a five-factor structure by factor analysis, which offered an alternative similar but not equal to that original six-factor structure. The cumulative variance contribution rate was 62.20%, the Cronbach's α coefficient was 0.908, the Guttman split-half reliability coefficient was 0.905 and the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.752. Discriminant analysis revealed small to large significant differences in the five attitude subscales.

CONCLUSIONS

The Chinese version SATS-36 with good validity and reliability in this study can be used to evaluate the learning framework of Chinese medical students.

Latent profile analysis of personal values among Chinese college students: associations with mental health disorders and life satisfaction

Interindividual differences in personal values are prevalent both within and across societies. Interindividual differences in personal value and the relationships with mental health disorders and life satisfaction remain to be holistically considered, especially in China. The present study aims to characterize personal value profiles based on Schwartz's theory model and to examine differences in several mental health-related disorders and life satisfaction potentially across these profiles. Using convenience sampling, a sample of 8,540 Chinese college students (Mage = 18.89, SDage = 2.02, 57.7% male) from three universities completed a questionnaire assessing personal values, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, substance disorders, crime/violence, and life satisfaction. The latent profile analysis identified five personal value profiles, which were labelled as traditional social orientation, open personal orientation, open social orientation, moderate traditional social orientation, and average. Chinese college students in the three social orientation profiles reported low mental health disorders and high life satisfaction. In contrast, students in the personal orientation profile reported high mental health disorders and low life satisfaction. The results indicate the heterogeneity of Chinese college students' personal values and the positive relationship of social-oriented values with mental health and life satisfaction in collectivist cultures.

Effects of a multifaceted neurological assessment educational program in nursing students: A randomized crossover study

AIM

This study aimed to verify the effects of a multifaceted neurological assessment educational program on neurological assessment-related knowledge, skills, communication ability and self-efficacy in nursing students.

BACKGROUND

Nurses should be equipped with optimal neurological assessment competency to ensure quality care for patients with neurological symptoms.

DESIGN

This study involved a waitlist control group with a randomized crossover design.

METHODS

Fourth-year nursing students were randomly assigned to an intervention group (n = 28) or a waitlist control group (n = 27). Pre- and post-intervention differences in neurological assessment knowledge, skills, communication ability and self-efficacy between the intervention and the waitlist control group were analyzed using generalized estimated equations.

RESULTS

The nursing students in the intervention group showed significantly improved knowledge, skills, communication ability and self-efficacy scores compared with those in the waitlist control group. Scores related to knowledge, skills and communication ability were maintained and self-efficacy scores had further increased at 2 weeks after the educational program in the intervention group.

CONCLUSIONS

Our multifaceted neurological assessment educational program is useful for improving nursing students' knowledge, skills, communication ability and self-efficacy.

Validation and psychometric properties of the Italian Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX-I) scale

Despite the massive volume of scientific evidence on the benefits of immunisation, vaccine hesitancy is still a global health threat and represents an obstacle to controlling the spread of viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and its associated COVID-19. Thus, the present study aimed to adapt and validate an Italian version of the Vaccination Attitudes Examination (VAX) scale. The Italian version of the scale (VAX-I), along with validation measures (general health perceptions, perceived sensitivity to medicines, intention to get the flu vaccine, and trust in health authorities) were administered to a sample of 534 Italian participants aged 18 to 87 (M = 32.41, SD = 15.35). The original version of the VAX scale was translated into Italian using a back-translation method. The parallel and confirmatory factor analyses showed that the scale's four-factor structure fits the data well, as in the original version. Reliability coefficients indicated that the VAX-I scale showed good internal consistency and measurement invariance results demonstrated that the VAX-I scale is stable across gender. Construct validity was supported by the significant negative correlation with general health perceptions, intentions to get the flu vaccine, and trust in health authorities, and the weak but significant and positive correlation with perceived sensitivity to medicines. Overall, the VAX-I scale appears to be a valid instrument to assess vaccine hesitancy in the Italian context.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03209-5.