Mental health clinicians worldwide have been expressing concerns regarding the broad psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonetheless, only a few studies have thus far evaluated the degree of fear of COVID-19, partially due to the lack of validated measures. In this study we evaluated the psychometric properties of the Hebrew version of the Fear of COVID-19 scale (FCV-19S), recently developed to assess different aspects of the fear of the pandemic, in a normative population of participants in Israel. Participants (n = 639) were asked to complete the FCV-19S scale, as well as to report anxiety, depression, and stress levels using validated scales. The results a unidimensional factor structure of the FCV-19S which explained 53.71% of the variance. When forcing a two-factor structure model, the analysis revealed two factors pertaining to emotional fear reactions and symptomatic expressions of fear. Gender, sociodemographic status, chronic illness, being in an at-risk group, and having a family member dying of COVID-19 were positively associated with fear of COVID-19. The measure was associated with anxiety, stress and depression. These results suggest that the FCV-19S has good psychometric properties, and can be utilized in studies assessing the effects of the pandemic on the population's mental health.
Abstract.With increasingly large friend networks, Facebook users may be losing sight of exactly with whom they are sharing content they post to Facebook. When Facebook released a new privacy interface in sum-mer 2010 they simplified privacy controls; however, group-based permis-sions remain at the core of fine-grained privacy control. In order to use these fine-grained controls, users must be able to accurately and usefully specify friend groups. In a series of 46 semi-structured interviews, we investigated how participants group their online friends using four differ-ent grouping methods. Our results show that these different mechanisms alter the strategies and groups that users create, that groups created a priori need further refinement before they can adequately address pri-vacy decisions, and that users are adapting their online behavior to avoid the need to specify groups in the current Facebook interface. We con-clude with several recommendations that would allow users improved group-based access control.
Students and clinicians with disabilities are underrepresented in the academic health programs and professional clinical settings. Disability studies foregrounds the unique ways of knowing and being that clinicians with disabilities can offer. Based on a larger grounded theory study of the experiences of students and clinicians with disabilities, this article examines the role that clinicians’ abilities to draw on their personal experiences of living with a disability have on their interactions with clients. The analysis of semistructured interviews with 55 students and clinicians with disabilities from different fields contributes to the development of a theory of epistemic connection. The theory is informed by the following three themes: (a) building rapport through understanding, (b) from understanding to advocacy and creative approaches, and (c) between professionalism and disability. The findings emphasize not only the importance of diversifying the health care workforce but also incorporating disability epistemology into the health care culture.
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Introduction
People with disabilities are underrepresented in health professions education and practice. Barriers for inclusion include stigma, disabling discourses, discriminatory programme design and oppressive interactions. Current understandings of this topic remain descriptive and fragmented. Existing research often includes only one profession, excludes particular types of disability and focuses on one aspect of the career journey. To expand understanding, we examined the recurrent forms of social relations that underlie the participation of disabled individuals in learning and practice contexts across five health professions.
Method
We analysed 124 interviews with 56 disabled health practitioners and students. Participants were interviewed up to three times over 1.5 years. Using constructivist grounded theory, authors used a staged analytic approach that resulted in higher level conceptual categories that advance interpretations of social processes. Finally, the authors compared and integrated findings among students and practitioners.
Results
Participants experience challenges to their sense of legitimacy and belonging as health providers. They describe tensions within the health education and practice between the commitment to inclusion and the day‐to‐day realities experienced by disabled participants. We identified six distinct, but related, conditions underlying these tensions: (i) validity and transparency of competencies' evaluation; (ii) the social and physical contexts; (iii) integration of inclusive practices; (iv) boundaries between personal and professional identities; (v) vulnerability to authority figures; and (vi) dynamic person‐level factors.
Discussion
If we are to commit to health practitioners and students with disabilities experiencing an overall sense of legitimacy and belonging, priority needs to be given to system‐level practices and policies to support inclusion. Attention to the day‐to‐day marginalisation of students and practitioners with disabilities in the health professions is also needed. Additionally, inclusive and transparent delineation of competency requirements is needed. Finally, educational actions are needed to increase understanding of disability in the health professions, with particular attention to promoting social relations that foster collective responsibility for supporting inclusion.
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