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We administered a survey during the fifteen-minute wait time after the COVID-19 vaccine was given (N = 1475) to examine attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines among adults who were vaccinated in Arkansas between April 22nd and July 6th, 2021. We found 60% of those who had just been vaccinated reported some level of hesitancy, including 10% who reported being 'very hesitant.' Hesitancy was not evenly distributed across sociodemographic groups (age, sex, race/ethnicity, and education) and was associated with whether a non-English language is spoken in the home, health care coverage, and flu vaccination over the past five years in bivariate analysis. Generalized ordered logistic regression results reveal associations between the log-ordered odds of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and age, sex, race/ethnicity, health care coverage, health literacy, and flu vaccination over the past five years. Surprisingly, a prior COVID-19 diagnosis was not significantly associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. These results can inform health care and communication strategies. Further attention to 'hesitant adopters' can provide insights into the process of overcoming vaccine hesitancy that are critical to vaccine uptake., Author(s): Don E. Willis [sup.1] , James P. Selig [sup.2] , Jennifer A. Andersen [sup.1] , Spencer Hall [sup.3] , Emily Hallgren [sup.1] , Mark Williams [sup.2] , Keneshia Bryant-Moore [...]

The purpose of the study was to explore whether gender or ethnicity moderated the links between language skills and teacher ratings of problem behaviour and between language and social skills in 386 English-speaking Hispanic and European American preschool children from low-income families. The "Preschool Language Scale-4" was administered individually to each child participant. Teachers completed the "Child Behavior Checklist/1[superscript 1]/[superscript 2]--5 and the "Social Skills Rating System" for each participant. Results indicated that gender or ethnicity did not moderate the relationships between language skills and problem behaviours. However, the association between language skills and social skills was influenced by gender or ethnicity.

The benefits of studying topics accompanied by adjunct displays are well established in the literature; however, less is understood about the durability of these learning benefits. Therefore, in the current study, we investigate the cognitive benefits of causal diagrams over time. Undergraduate participants (N = 194) recruited from teacher education courses at a southwest university were asked to read about plate tectonics under 1 of 2 randomly assigned conditions: (a) text with a causal diagram or (b) text only. Upon completion of the first session, participants completed a set of learning measures and a perceived difficulty measure. Then, participants were randomly assigned to a delay period to complete the same outcomes. Statistically significant differences in favor of the causal diagrams on initial learning and perceived difficulty were identified; however, this initial advantage was no longer present on the delayed posttests. The results suggest that providing causal diagrams is immediately beneficial and reduces perceived difficulty but that benefits might not persist over time without further instruction.

The main objective of this study was to assess whether hesitancy toward receiving the initial COVID-19 vaccine was associated with uptake of the COVID-19 booster several months after it became available to all US adults. We ask whether hesitancy toward the initial COVID-19 vaccine was significantly associated with lower odds of COVID-19 booster uptake among adults. We test this association within the context of the highly rural state of Arkansas. By January 2022, the US had set a global record of nearly 1 million daily cases. The purpose of this study was to advance our understanding of vaccine hesitancy among those who have already received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and how that hesitancy may shape COVID-19 booster uptake. We analyzed data from a random sample survey of Arkansan adults (N = 2,201) between March 1 and March 28, 2022 and constrained our analytical sample to those who had received a vaccine (N = 1,649). Nearly two-thirds of vaccinated Arkansas residents had received a COVID-19 booster. Hesitancy was common even among vaccinated individuals and was significantly associated with reduced odds of COVID-19 booster uptake, even after controlling for other factors. Findings provide further support for conceptualizing vaccine hesitancy as an attitude related to—but separate from—the behavior of vaccination, as opposed to conflating vaccination with being nonhesitant. Public health interventions aimed at increasing COVID-19 booster uptake should pay attention to vaccine hesitancy indicated at the initiation of the series and should not ignore the vaccinated as an important population to target for intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have identified factors that influence genetic counseling applicants' decisions to initially apply to certain schools. However, research on the factors that influence their Genetic Counseling Admissions Match (GCAM) rank order preferences are limited. The purpose of this study was to investigate these factors via an online survey sent to current students and recent graduates who participated in the GCAM. Participants (N = 415) were asked to rank factors within six categories (faculty, students, didactic curriculum, clinical training, cost of attendance, and general program information) on a 7‐point Likert scale. Factors related to clinical training were most influential to applicants (M = 5.68), while factors related to didactic training were least influential to applicants (M = 4.63). Several significant differences existed between underrepresented and overrepresented applicants; overrepresented was defined as White, non‐Hispanic female. Underrepresented applicants were more influenced by the diversity of program faculty (p = 0.016), students (p ≤ 0.001), and the location/patient population (p = 0.003), while overrepresented applicants are more influenced by program graduation and board pass rates (p = 0.021). The results of our study suggest that GCAM rank preferences are influenced by a large number of factors. Additionally, by demonstrating significant differences in the influence of program diversity on underrepresented applicants, the results of our study suggest that JEDI efforts of genetic counseling training programs should continue to be an area of focus, in order to create a more welcoming environment for all students and to further diversify the genetic counseling profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters have been recommended for all Americans 12 years of age and older. However, uptake remains suboptimal with only 17% of the United States (US) population boosted as of May 2023. This is a critical public health challenge for mitigating the ongoing effects of COVID-19 infection. COVID-19 booster uptake is not currently well understood, and few studies in the US have explored the vaccination process for booster uptake in a 'post-pandemic' context. This study fills gaps in the literature through qualitative analysis of interviews with a racially/ethnically diverse sample of Arkansans who received the COVID-19 vaccine main series and expressed intent to receive a booster (n  = 14), but had not yet received the COVID-19 booster at the time we recruited them. All but one did not receive the booster by the time of the interview. Participants described influences on their vaccination behavior and uptake of boosters including reduced feelings of urgency; continued concerns about the side effects; social contagion as a driver of urgency; increasing practical barriers to access and missing provider recommendations. Our findings highlight the importance of considering vaccination as an ongoing, dynamic process drawing on past/current attitudes, prior experience, perceptions of risk and urgency and practical barriers. Based on these findings, healthcare providers should continue to provide strong, consistent recommendations for COVID-19 boosters to patients, even among those with histories of vaccine uptake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of several accessible sources has led to a proliferation of mediation models in the applied research literature. Most of these sources assume endogenous variables (e.g., M, and Y) have normally distributed residuals, precluding models of binary and/or count data. Although a growing body of literature has expanded mediation models to include more diverse data types, the nonlinearity of these models presents a substantial hurdle to their implementation and interpretation. The present study extends the existing literature (e.g., Hayes & Preacher, 2010; Stolzenberg, 1980) to propose conditional indirect effects as a useful tool for understanding mediation models that include paths estimated using the Generalized Linear Model (e.g., logistic regression, Poisson regression). We briefly review the relevant literature, culminating in a discussion of conditional indirect effects and their importance when examining nonlinear associations. We present a simple extension of the equations presented by Hayes and Preacher (2010) and provide an applied example of the technique.

Researchers in group counseling often encounter complex data from individual clients who are members of a group. Clients in the same group may be more similar than clients from different groups and this can lead to violations of statistical assumptions. The complexity of the data also means that predictors and outcomes can be measured at both the client and the group level. Researcher questions may focus on variables at the client level or the group level, or the interaction of client and group level variables. In this article, we introduce multilevel modeling as a tool that can be used both to account for the complex structure of the data and to incorporate variables at both the client and group levels. A published group counseling study is used as an example.

Researchers often collect longitudinal data to model change over time in a phenomenon of interest. Inevitably, there will be some variation across individuals in specific time intervals between assessments. In this simulation study of growth curve modeling, we investigate how ignoring individual differences in time points when modeling change over time relates to convergence and admissibility of solutions, bias in estimates of parameters, efficiency, power to detect change over time, and Type I error rate. We manipulated magnitude of the individual differences in assessment times, distribution of assessment times, magnitude of change over time, number of time points, and sample size. In contrast to the correct analysis, ignoring individual differences in time points frequently led to inadmissible solutions, especially with few time points and small samples, regardless of the specific magnitude of individual differences that were ignored. Mean intercept and slope were generally estimated without bias. Ignoring individual differences in time points sometimes yielded overestimated intercept and slope variances and underestimated intercept--slope covariance and residual variance. Parameter efficiency as well as power and Type I error rates for the linear slope were unaffected by the type of analysis.