No abstract

No abstract

Background Illicit substance use among college students represents one of the most complicated social problems. Studying its predictors could help deal with this problem more efficiently. Aims To determine the prevalence of life time illicit substance use and its predictors among Tunisian college students. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted in five colleges in the region of Sousse, Tunisia in the 2012-2013 school year. A sample of 556 college students responded to an anonymous self-administrated questionnaire. Collected data concerned socio-demographic characteristics and substances use. Results The mean age of students was 21.8 ± 2.2 years. Females represented 51.8% of participants. Among respondents: 31 (5.6%) had used illicit substance at least once. Cannabis was the main substance used by 26 (4.7%) students. The average age of the illicit substance use initiation was 19 (±2.5) years while it was almost 17 (±3) years for both tobacco and alcohol use initiations. Proportions of male students and academic failure were significantly more important among illicit substance users than among non users. While the most influential factors on illicit substance use were: alcohol use, tobacco use and low socioeconomic level. Conclusion This study highlights the strong association between the other risk behaviors and illicit drug use. Future interventions should focus on the whole risk behaviors simultaneously at late adolescence with regard to the environmental context.

No abstract

No abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between some corporate characteristics, audit quality and managerial entrenchment in Tunisian companies.Design/methodology/approachThe multivariate regression model is used for hypothesis testing using a sample of 224 listed observations on Tunisian Stock Exchange during 2014–2020. An exploratory factor analysis of four variables (chief executive officer (CEO) duality, CEO tenure, CEO seniority and CEO age) is used for calculating a unique index assessing the managerial entrenchment.FindingsThe results show a negative and significant relationship between audit quality and managerial entrenchment. The authors also find that firm characteristics affect management entrenchment. Precisely, corporate financial performance and firm leverage show positive connections with managerial entrenchment (ME). Additional analysis confirms the negative impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on managerial entrenchment level.Practical implicationsThe study’s findings have practical implications that may be useful to different stakeholders, policymakers and regulatory bodies interested in reducing management entrenchment. This study offers signals to shareholders about specific governance attributes, namely audit quality, that control the extent of manager's entrenchment.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper consists in focusing on developing countries, namely the Tunisian context; while the managerial entrenchment phenomena has been widely examined in developed markets. Moreover, contrary to the overwhelming majority of previous studies that has used individual indexes for evaluating the entrenchment, the authors calculate a mixed index of managerial entrenchment using the principal component analysis based on four governance mechanisms (CEO duality, CEO age, CEO seniority and CEO tenure).

Objective: To assess the reliability and construct validity of a French version of the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed among undergraduate medical students in Tunisia. A total of 833 students completed a French version of the JSE-S using convenience sampling. To identify the internal consistency aspect of the reliability, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was computed. Moreover, to assess the construct validity, the sample was randomly divided into two groups. Data from the first group (n=415) were subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA), with principal axing factoring (PAF) and oblimin rotation, to re-examine the underlying factor structure of the scale. Data from the second group (n=419) were used for confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to confirm its latent variable structure. Some goodness-of-fit indices were used to assess the hypothesized model. Gender groups were compared using a t-test to check the known-group validity.Results: Reliability analysis reported an acceptable level of internal consistency, with an overall Cronbach's alpha of 0.78 (95% CI [0.75,0.80]). EFA identified a two-factor structure, accounting for 27.4% of the total variance. The two-factor model produced good fit indices when item correlated errors were considered (χ 2 /df = 1.95, GFI = 0.92, CFI = 0.90, PCFI = 0.79, PGFI = 0.73 and RMSEA = 0.04). Female students had a statistically significant higher empathy scores than male students (t (830) = -4.16, p < .001). Conclusions:The findings support the construct validity and reliability of a French version of the JSE for medical students. This instrument appears to be useful for investigating empathy among French-speaking populations.

Résumé -Contexte : Le style d'apprentissage semble jouer un rôle dans le choix de l'approche d'apprentissage prometteuse de succès. Ainsi, il pourrait être opportun que les éducateurs cherchent à identifier les styles d'apprentissages des étudiants et à y adapter leurs dispositifs péda-gogiques. But : Décrire les styles d'apprentissage des étudiants de la faculté de médecine de Sousse (Tunisie). Sujets et méthodes : Une étude descriptive de nature transversale a été menée auprès de cinq promotions d'étudiants de la Faculté de médecine de Sousse au cours de l'année universitaire 2009-2010. L'instrument de mesure utilisé était l'Inventaires des Styles d'Apprentissage du Laboratoire d'Enseignement Multimédia -ISALEM 97, développé par l'Université de Liège, qui suggère l'existence de quatre styles d'apprentissage. Résultats : Huit cent cinquante six étudiants ont participé à l'étude pour un total de 1043 (taux de réponse : 82 %). Le style prédominant était le style intuitif-pragmatique dans 40 % des cas, suivi du style méthodique-pragmatique dans 28 % des cas. La dimension de transformation de l'expérience différait significativement selon le sexe. L'analyse en composantes principales confirme la structure bidimensionnelle de l'ISALEM 97. Les coefficients de Cronbach étaient ≥ 0,72. Conclusion : Les étudiants de la faculté de médecine de Sousse ont plutôt un style intuitif-pragmatique ; ils recourent à l'intuition pour la saisie des concepts et ont tendance à les appliquer dans de nouvelles expériences pour résoudre les problèmes. Ce profil ne change pas tout au long des années d'études médicales mais différent légèrement en fonction du sexe. Abstract -Context:Learning style appears to play a significant role in choosing a successful learning approach. The teachers' role is to identify and adapt the teaching techniques to their student's styles. Goal: Describing the learning styles of medical students at the faculty of medicine of Sousse (Tunisia). Subjects and methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among five cohorts of students from the faculty of medicine of Sousse during RECHERCHE ET PERSPECTIVES