Search

The primary goal of this study is to be able to discern specific types of consumers in terms of their psychosocial characteristics who may need different ways of receiving dietary advice. Knowing these types will enable a better fit of advice to consumers’ psychosocial characteristics, hereby stimulating healthy eating as the probability of compliance to the advice can potentially increase. The study draws upon several psychological theories to distinguish unique underlying factors that can subsequently be used to personalize nutrition information for consumers. A number of general psychological scales (self-regulation, action and coping self-efficacy, social comparison, intrinsic motivation, health info processing, need for cognition and for affect, and regulatory focus) are filled out by 988 respondents, including their preferences for receiving personalized forms of nutrition advice. The set of joint items from various psychological constructs is analyzed using a Principal Component Analysis to find underlying psychological characteristics. The PCA produces four components (explaining 51% of variation), that could be interpreted as ‘intrinsic interest and capabilities for healthy eating,’ ‘perceived difficulty to eat healthily,’ ‘self-worth insecurity,’ and ‘seeking positive challenges,’ respectively. By means of a Logistic Regression these components are able to predict preferences for different forms of receiving nutrition advice. This first component shows that a mind set for maintaining a healthy diet goes together with an interest in receiving an advice on what do to and on how that will affect one’s health. The second component predicts a preference for a fixed moment to receive information/advice. This may be a strategy of those that perceive difficulties to eat healthily, to help them control their healthy food intake. The insecurity that the third component models seems to lead to a wish for receiving specific advice about their health situation at fixed

Children growing up in poor areas with high crime rates are shown to easily get involved in violent actions and criminal gangs. In South Africa, despite considerable efforts to reduce youth delinquency, youth crime rates are still disturbingly high – specifically, in the townships of the Cape Flats. This paper points out an important aspect previously unaddressed by most youth crime prevention: the subconscious roots of youth crime. What if we could develop youth crime prevention programs that manage to impact the subconscious behavioral patterns of youth in high crime areas? This paper proposes a promising and cost-effective approach that has great potential to affect multipe causes of crime: mindfulness meditation. Built upon newest findings in Neuroscience, this paper suggests that mindfulness meditation classes are associated with a reduction in aggressive behavior, a risk factor for youth crime, and an increase in self-efficacy, a protective factor. The impact of mindfulness classes at a high school in Khayelitsha, a poor and violent-stricken township of Cape Town, is analyzed. Self-reported aggression and self-efficacy are measured via a psychometric survey questionnaire created from two well-tested and validated scales. Regression analyses of 384 survey answers provided mixed results. Whilst novice meditators were not associated with higher self-efficacy and lower aggression, long-term meditators performed better in several dimensions of self-efficacy and aggression, yet no significant relationship was found. Further research specifically needs to investigate the moderating effect of age (a proxy for psychological development) on meditation. This study aims to bridge the gap between the outdated paradigms of youth crime prevention and ancient wisdom via ground-breaking new evidence from the field of Neuroscience. This study furthermore hopes to point policy makers toward developing new, integrative and sustainable approaches to youth crime prevention – appro, Anders Westholm har inget med betygssättningen att göra annat än i rent formellt hänseende (examinator). Det är han som rapporterar in och skriver under men i sak är det seminarieledaren som har beslutet i sin hand. Statsvetenskapliga institutet har som princip att skilja på handledning och examination vilket innebär att handledaren inte får vara seminarieledare. Seminarieledare och personen som satt betygget var i det här fallet Sven Oskarsson: Sven.Oskarsson@statsvet.uu.se

Children growing up in poor areas with high crime rates are shown to easily get involved in violent actions and criminal gangs. In South Africa, despite considerable efforts to reduce youth delinquency, youth crime rates are still disturbingly high – specifically, in the townships of the Cape Flats. This paper points out an important aspect previously unaddressed by most youth crime prevention: the subconscious roots of youth crime. What if we could develop youth crime prevention programs that manage to impact the subconscious behavioral patterns of youth in high crime areas? This paper proposes a promising and cost-effective approach that has great potential to affect multipe causes of crime: mindfulness meditation. Built upon newest findings in Neuroscience, this paper suggests that mindfulness meditation classes are associated with a reduction in aggressive behavior, a risk factor for youth crime, and an increase in self-efficacy, a protective factor. The impact of mindfulness classes at a high school in Khayelitsha, a poor and violent-stricken township of Cape Town, is analyzed. Self-reported aggression and self-efficacy are measured via a psychometric survey questionnaire created from two well-tested and validated scales. Regression analyses of 384 survey answers provided mixed results. Whilst novice meditators were not associated with higher self-efficacy and lower aggression, long-term meditators performed better in several dimensions of self-efficacy and aggression, yet no significant relationship was found. Further research specifically needs to investigate the moderating effect of age (a proxy for psychological development) on meditation. This study aims to bridge the gap between the outdated paradigms of youth crime prevention and ancient wisdom via ground-breaking new evidence from the field of Neuroscience. This study furthermore hopes to point policy makers toward developing new, integrative and sustainable approaches to youth crime prevention – appro, Anders Westholm har inget med betygssättningen att göra annat än i rent formellt hänseende (examinator). Det är han som rapporterar in och skriver under men i sak är det seminarieledaren som har beslutet i sin hand. Statsvetenskapliga institutet har som princip att skilja på handledning och examination vilket innebär att handledaren inte får vara seminarieledare. Seminarieledare och personen som satt betygget var i det här fallet Sven Oskarsson: Sven.Oskarsson@statsvet.uu.se