This study examined associations between support behavior, i.e. active engagement and protective buffering, and relationship satisfaction in both patients with diabetes and their partners. Active engagement refers to supportive behavior characterized by involving one's partner in discussions, asking how the other feels, and problem solving strategies. Protective buffering refers to less supportive behavior characterized by denying fears and worries, and by pretending everything is fine. Furthermore, we examined whether there were interactive effects of these two support behaviors on patients' and partners' relationship satisfaction. At baseline (T1), 205 couples rated to which degree they received active engagement and protective buffering from their partners, and completed a measure of relationship satisfaction. At three follow-up assessments, couples were asked to fill out the same measures. Using dyadic data analytic approaches, we found relationship satisfaction to be positively associated with active engagement, and negatively with protective buffering, in both patients and partners. Moreover, we found a moderating effect, in that the negative association between protective buffering and relationship satisfaction was only present when levels of active engagement were relatively low. Again, these results were found for patients as well as their partners. We were able to replicate the T1 results at the other three assessment points. Our findings illustrate the need to consider adequate and less adequate support behaviors simultaneously, and to study the effects on both patients and partners.
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The Refined Core and Balance Model of Family Leisure Functioning was used to guide our study of the link between vacation experiences of romantic couples and satisfaction with their relationship life. Results revealed that romantic couples who had more shared or joint experiences during their vacations in the previous year reported higher levels of satisfaction with their relationship life at the end of the year. This association was mediated by relationship functioning (i.e., couple cohesion and flexibility). The number of vacations was not a significant predictor of romantic couples’ satisfaction with relationship life; what mattered most was the extent to which partners were engaged in joint experiences during their vacations such as having fun together, mindful conversations, physical intimacy, and trying new things together. These findings demonstrate the need to continue to study less frequent, extraordinary leisure vacation experiences that may help maintain the love within romantic relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed
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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between subjective experience of an event, motivational style for participating and satisfaction afterwards. It proposes that subjective experience of positive affect acts as a mediator between motivation and satisfaction. Design/methodology/approachThe paper opted for a quantitative survey among 285 respondents asking about their motivation to participate in celebrating Queen's Day, a Dutch national event around the birthday of the Queen Mother. Their satisfaction levels and subjective experience of the event were collected after the event. The (mediation) hypotheses were tested through a series of regression analyses. FindingsThe paper provides empirical insights about how subjective experience mediates the effect between motivational style and satisfaction. Originality/valueThis paper fulfils an identified need to study the effects of subjective experience in events.
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PURPOSE: To examine physician assistant (PA) job satisfaction and identify factors predicting job satisfaction and identify areas of needed research. With a global PA movement underway and a half-century in development, the empirical basis for informing employers of approaches to improve job satisfaction has not received a careful review.METHODS: A narrative review of empirical research was undertaken to inform stakeholders about PA employment with a goal of improved management. The a priori criteria included published studies that asked PAs about job satisfaction. Articles addressing PA job satisfaction, written in English, were reviewed and categorized according to the Job Characteristics Model.RESULTS: Of 68 publications reviewed, 29 met criteria and were categorized in a Job Characteristics Model. Most studies report a high degree of job satisfaction when autonomy, income, patient responsibility, physician support, and career advancement opportunities are surveyed. Age, sex, specialty, and occupational background are needed to understand the effect on job satisfaction. Quality of studies varies widely.CONCLUSIONS: Employers may want to examine their relationships with PAs periodically. The factors of job satisfaction may assist policymakers and health administrators in creating welcoming professional employment environments. The main limitation: no study comprehensively evaluated all the antecedents of job satisfaction. PAs seem to experience job satisfaction supported by low attrition rates and competitive wages. Contributing factors are autonomy, experienced responsibility, pay, and supportive supervising physician. A number of intrinsic rewards derived from the performance of the job within the social environment, along with extrinsic rewards, may contribute to overall job satisfaction. PA job satisfaction research is underdeveloped; investigations should include longitudinal studies, cohort analyses, and economic determinants.
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Research has shown that some 30% of total care needs in people with late-life depression (LLD) are unmet. It is not known to what extent patients actually don’t receive any care for these needs or consider the care to be insufficient and their satisfaction with the provided care. Results: In 67% of patients, at least one unmet need was ascertained. In most cases (80%) care was actually provided for those needs by professionals and/or informal caregivers. Patients were satisfied with the care delivered for 81% of the reported care needs. Satisfaction was lowest for social care needs (67%). For six specific care needs it was demonstrated that dissatisfied patients were significantly more depressed than satisfied patients. Conclusion: Even though patients might receive care for certain needs, this does not mean that their needs are met. A substantial proportion of patients with LDD feel that they need additional help for unmet needs.
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Objective: The aim of this study was to obtain insight in specific elements influencing the use, non-use, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction of ankle foot orthoses (AFOs) and the presence of underexposed problems with respect to AFOs. Methods: A questionnaire was composed to obtain information from AFO users to investigate the variables associated with satisfaction and the relation between these variables. A specific feature of this study was the systematic analysis of the remarks made by the respondents about their AFO. Quantitative data analyses were used for analysing the satisfaction and qualitative analyses were used analysing the remarks of the respondents. A total of 211 users completed the questionnaire. Results: Our survey showed that 1 out of 15 AFOs were not used at all. About three quarters of the AFO users were satisfied and about one quarter was dissatisfied. Females and users living alone reported relatively high levels of dissatisfaction, especially in the field of dimensions, comfort, weight, safety and effectiveness. Dissatisfaction with respect to off-the-shelf AFOs for the item durability was higher than that for custom-made AFOs. In the delivery and maintenance process the items ‘maintenance’, ‘professionalism’ and ‘delivery follow-up’ were judged to be unsatisfactory. A large number of comments were made by the respondents to improve the device or process, mainly by the satisfied AFO users. These comments show that even satisfied users experience many problems and that a lot of problems of AFO users are ‘underexposed’. Conclusion: To improve user satisfaction, the user practice has to be identified as an important sub-process of the whole orthopaedic chain especially in the diagnosis and prescription, delivery tuning and maintenance, and evaluation phase.
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Person-centered care interventions can improve the quality of life and decrease behavioral problems of people with dementia. Although not convincingly proven, person-centered care interventions may benefit the caregivers as well. This study aims to gain insight into how working with the Veder Contact Method (VCM) – a new person-centered care method – influences the job satisfaction of caregivers.
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Previous research suggests that in today’s experience economy, service is no longer the key determinant and that customer experience has taken over. However, few studies compare the relative impact of service quality and customer experiences on outcomes. The aim of this quantitative study is to examine the separate effects of service quality and customer experience on satisfaction, revisit intentions and word-of-mouth communication. Contrary to expectations, service quality has a larger effect on outcomes than customer experience. The mediation analysis shows very small indirect effect sizes, suggesting that that customer experience hardly mediates the relationship between service quality and the three outcomes. The conclusion is that measuring service quality remains essential to explaining consumer behaviour in the experience economy.
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Grounded in self-determination theory, the present study examines the explanatory role of students' perceived need satisfaction and need frustration in the relationship between performance grading (versus non-grading) and students' motivation and fear in a real-life educational physical education setting. Grading consisted of teacher judgments of students' performances through observations, based on pre-defined assessment criteria. Thirty-one classes with 409 students (Mage = 14.7) from twenty-seven Flemish (Belgian) secondary schools completed questionnaires measuring students' perceived motivation, fear and psychological need satisfaction and frustration, after two lessons: one with and one without performance grading. After lessons including performance grading, students reported less intrinsic motivation and identified regulation, and more external regulation, amotivation and fear. As expected, less need satisfaction accounted for (i.e., mediated) the relationship between performance grading and self-determined motivational outcomes. Need frustration explained the relationship between performance grading and intrinsic motivation, as well as less self-determined motivational outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
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Objectives: Promoting unstructured outside play is a promising vehicle to increase children’s physical activity (PA). This study investigates if factors of the social environment moderate the relationship between the perceived physical environment and outside play. Study design: 1875 parents from the KOALA Birth Cohort Study reported on their child’s outside play around age five years, and 1516 parents around age seven years. Linear mixed model analyses were performed to evaluate (moderating) relationships among factors of the social environment (parenting influences and social capital), the perceived physical environment, and outside play at age five and seven. Season was entered as a random factor in these analyses. Results: Accessibility of PA facilities, positive parental attitude towards PA and social capital were associated with more outside play, while parental concern and restriction of screen time were related with less outside play. We found two significant interactions; both involving parent perceived responsibility towards child PA participation. Conclusion: Although we found a limited number of interactions, this study demonstrated that the impact of the perceived physical environment may differ across levels of parent responsibility.
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