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Background: Recent research has suggested that intergroup contacts with out-group members can both reduce prejudice and is associated with attitude change. Aim: This study extends prior work in Northern Ireland to examine parental and schooling effects on children's attitudes in a post-conflict environment. Sample: A large-scale cross-sectional survey of secondary schoolchildren (N = 1,732) and their parents (N = 800) in Northern Ireland assessed the effects of in-school and out-of-school intergroup contacts on intergroup attitudes. Method: Multivariate analysis of variance was employed to examine associations between children's political attitudes and parental, group membership, school, and contact variables. Conclusions: The results suggest that parental attitudes, group membership, and cross-group contacts explain the majority of variance (58%) in children's political attitudes. The findings provide a comprehensive account of the factors that influence children's political attitudes within a deeply divided society and offer teachers and educationalists a way to improve community relations in a segregated society.

The aim of this study was to test the utility and efficiency of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the health belief model (HBM) in predicting testicular self-examination (TSE) behaviour. A questionnaire was administered to an opportunistic sample of 195 undergraduates aged 18-39 years. Structural equation modelling indicated that, on the basis of all the fit indices, the TPB model was the better model, however, the quality of the models was very similar. The TPB explained 50% of the variance in intention and 22% in behaviour while the HBM (with self-efficacy) accounted for 56 and 21%, respectively. Self-efficacy was the most important predictor of TSE behavioural intention across both models. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the testing of multiple models in the health psychology domain. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

Examines the friendship choices of Northern Ireland adolescents within a planned integrated school, a Protestant desegregated school, and a Catholic desegregated school. Reporting on over 300 middle- and high-school students revealed that in-group bias was the exception rather than the rule. All three schools exhibited similar characteristics. (MJP)

Objectives: To explore regional variations in donation of cadaveric solid organs and tissues across the four devolved health administrations of the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Design: A secondary analysis of databases from NHS Blood & Transplant (1990-2009) and from the National Organ Procurement Service for the Republic of Ireland, Eurotransplant International Foundation and Scandiatransplant. Results: After adjusting for time, statistically significant differences were found among the four regions (p<0.001) for liver donations. The only exceptions were between England and Scotland and between Wales and Northern Ireland where the differences were not significant following a Bonferroni correction (p>0.008). England had significantly fewer heart donations than both Wales (p<0.001) and Northern Ireland (p=0.005). There were no significant differences among the four regions for lung donations. Regional variations in kidney and corneal donations were moderated by time. Northern Ireland, however, has had consistently lower corneal donation rates than the other three regions. Conclusion: Organ donation rates over the last two decades vary in the four UK regions, and this variation depends on the type of organ donated. Further exploration of underlying factors, organisational issues, practices and attitudes to organ donation in the four regions of the UK, taking into account findings from EU countries with varying approaches to presumed consent, needs to be undertaken before such legislation is introduced across the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]