Explore the vast range of titles available.

Background Primary healthcare plays a crucial role in providing accessible, affordable, and comprehensive care to meet basic health needs. However, primary healthcare in China faces problems such as insufficient numbers of medical staff and low professional quality, which affect the quality of primary healthcare services. Since 2010, the Chinese government has initiated a rural-oriented tuition-waived medical education (RTME) programme, which has trained many excellent general practitioners for primary healthcare. However, rural-oriented tuition-waived medical students (RTMSs) have a weak sense of career identity and a low willingness to engage in primary healthcare at present, hindering the sustainable development of primary healthcare services. This study, based on social cognitive career theory, takes Zhejiang Province as an example to investigate the career identity levels of RTMSs and explores the demographic factors influencing these levels. It validates the internal relationships and mediation models among self-efficacy, vocational outcome expectations, and career identity. The study provides empirical evidence to enhance the willingness of RTMSs to serve in primary healthcare and to optimize talent training policies. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 428 RTMSs in Zhejiang, China, between November 2023 and March 2024. Participants were selected using multistage stratified random sampling. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and differences between groups were estimated using Student’s t-test and ANOVA. Pearson correlation analysis was performed to assess the degree of correlation between different dimensions of self-efficacy, career identity, and career outcome expectations. Based on the hypothesized model, structural equation modeling analysis was conducted to test the interrelationships between these research variables. Results The average total score of the career identity survey questionnaire for Zhejiang RTMSs is 3.68 ± 0.56. There are significant differences in the career identity scores of RTMSs across groups based on grade level, whether parents are healthcare workers, the level of understanding of the orientation policy, and the degree of parental support ( p  < 0.05). Results from the structural equation model indicate that self-efficacy significantly predicts career identity (β = 0.284, p  < 0.001), with vocational outcome expectations playing a partial mediating role between self-efficacy and career identity(Indirect effects account for 67.1%). Conclusions Career identity of RTMSs in Zhejiang is at medium level, with the lowest score observed in the “attitudinal identity” dimension, indicating that RTMSs’ willingness to accept primary healthcare work needs improvement. Vocational outcome expectations partially mediate the relationship between self-efficacy and career identity, in line with the SCCT. Enhancing RTMSs’ confidence through skills training and primary healthcare practice, along with optimizing policies that support vocational prospects, can strengthen positive outcome expectations.

Background Early career development—the first stage of an individual’s journey to get to know themselves and their profession—is very important in the career choice process. The correct identification of the variables that influence this process is valuable for the healthy continuation of the developmental process. This study examined whether maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles play a mediating role in explaining career exploration outcome expectations of metacognitive skills. Methods The hypotheses created for this purpose were examined within the framework of the correlational/relational design of quantitative research models. The target population comprised students studying in secondary schools in Turkey in 2023, and the sample comprised 318 individuals—168 boys and 150 girls—selected using convenience sampling method. SPSS 25.0 Process Macro 4.1 version “Model 6,” developed by Hayes, was used for multiple mediation analysis. Results Metacognitive skills positively and significantly predicted career exploration outcome expectations and maternal and paternal attachment styles, but not peer attachment style. Maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles did not significantly explain career exploration outcome expectations. Finally, maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles did not significantly mediate the relationship between metacognitive skills and career exploration outcome expectations. Conclusion These results show that individuals’ metacognitive skills play an important role in the process of career exploration and goal setting. Moreover, individuals’ metacognitive skills have a stronger association with family ties than with peer relationships. However, individuals’ ties to their mothers, fathers, and peers are not a determining factor in the formation of individuals’ expectations about their careers. Additionally, the relationship between metacognitive skills and career exploration outcome expectations occurs directly, independent of maternal, paternal, and peer attachment styles. Thus, individual characteristics, rather than social factors, such as family or peer relationships, play a significant role in shaping individuals’ expectations about career exploration.

Background: The theory if self-efficacy is the central concept of social cognitive theory with emphasis on the constructs of efficacy expectation, outcome expectation. Efficacy expectation is defined as the person’s confidence to carry out a specific behavior. Outcome expectation is beliefs that carrying out a specific behavior will lead to a specific outcome. While the benefit of measuring outcome expectations has been established, there has been no large scale within the Iranian context. The purpose of this study is to examine the reliability-validity of the Persian version of the Perceived Therapeutic Efficacy Scale (PTES). Methods: This study was conducted among 160 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) using a self-administered instrument measuring outcome expectation. We used a methodological study design to assess the validity and reliability of the translated Persian version of the instrument. Results: The findings of the present study support the uni-dimensionality of the Persian version of the instrument. The 10 items of the scale account for 73.54% of the total variance and the un-rotated factor loadings ranged from 0.66 to 0.93. Moreover, this study offers support for convergent validity and internal consistency of the scale. Conclusion: Our study demonstrated good convergent validity, factor structure and internal consistency in a sample of 160 Iranian adults with T2DM. Therefore, the Persian version of the scale is a valid and reliable instrument and can be used in research and clinical settings.

PurposeBuilding on social career cognitive theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate outcome expectations as a mediator and subjective norms as a moderator in the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and intentions.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of 1,026 students from US public and private universities retrieved from the Entrepreneurship Education Project, this study tests a first-stage moderated mediation model in a two-step process.FindingsResults show that entrepreneurial self-efficacy is positively related to entrepreneurial intentions through the partial mediating effect of entrepreneurial outcome expectations, and that this relationship is consistently significant and positive for individuals with lower, average and higher subjective norms towards entrepreneurship.Research limitations/implicationsThese findings contribute to the literature on entrepreneurial intentions by providing a comprehensive overlook on the mechanisms and boundary conditions relevant for intentions.Practical implicationsThese results reinforce the need for educators and policy makers to ensure programs manage outcome expectations and recognize the role of peer, parent and mentor role models on the construction of these expectations and, consequently, on entrepreneurial intentions.Originality/valueExploring the combined effect of entrepreneurial outcome expectations as a mechanism and subjective norms as boundary conditions on the relationship between entrepreneurial self-efficacy and entrepreneurial intentions is an unexplored issue to date, and helps to understand how and why entrepreneurial intentions emerge.

Our purpose in this study was to examine the relationships between age, gender, leisure constraint, leisure constraint negotiation, motivation, and physically active leisure for 271 older (50+) volunteers and visitors of a Midwestern metropolitan park agency. The primary objectives were: 1) to assess the relationship of age and gender to leisure constraint; 2) to examine the relative importance of all factors to active leisure participation; 3) to test negotiation as a mediator of the relationships of constraint and motivation to participation; and 4) to determine whether these relationships differed by frequency and duration. The inclusion of age, gender and multiple measures of physically active leisure revealed distinct relationships. The implications of these findings for park-based programs and settings for active leisure in mid to late life are discussed.

BackgroundNurturing students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers is a major goal of STEM education. Although the relationship between students’ stereotypical beliefs regarding STEM careers and their career interest can be reasonably hypothesized, research investigating the extent to which and how students’ STEM career interest is directly or indirectly influenced by their stereotypical beliefs is lacking. This study investigated how upper primary students’ stereotypical beliefs regarding STEM careers predicted their STEM self-efficacy and STEM career-related outcome expectations and how these constructs predicted their STEM career interest. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse quantitative survey data of 824 fourth- to sixth-grade students and test the hypothesized models.ResultsStudents’ stereotypical beliefs regarding STEM careers negatively predicted their self-efficacy in STEM activities and career-related outcome expectations. Additionally, the students’ self-efficacy in STEM activities and career-related outcome expectations in turn predicted their STEM career interest.ConclusionsThese results explain the potential indirect effect of STEM stereotypes on students’ career interest through self-efficacy and outcome expectations. The findings highlight the significant role of STEM stereotypes, self-efficacy in STEM activities, and career-related outcome expectations in students’ career development. The implications of this study for STEM education are also discussed.

BackgroundFormer studies demonstrated that negative outcome expectations (OE) toward psychotherapy predict unfavorable psychotherapy outcomes. Critically, the measurement of OE is limited to direct measures that could be subject to self-presentational distortions. This study aimed to validate an online single category implicit association test (SC-IAT) to measure OE toward psychotherapy indirectly.MethodsWe conducted three direct measures of OE, the Therapy SC-IAT, and a (control) Flower SC-IAT in a large sample (N = 705).ResultsThe Therapy SC-IAT correlated with most direct measures of OE (convergent validity) but not with measures of flower associations (discriminant validity). In exploratory analyses, we found that direct and indirect measurements of OE were related to prior experiences with psychotherapy.ConclusionWe discuss ways to improve the indirect-direct correlations and suggest that our newly developed indirect measure could complement the assessment of expectations in research and clinical practice.

Scholars conceptualize entrepreneurial behavior (EB) as the actions taken for new venture creation, which are said to manifest from an individual’s intention to become an entrepreneur (EI). Though theoretically supported, predicting EB through EI faces many operationalization challenges, is rarely empirically reported, and presents methodological inconsistencies. Addressing these issues will improve our ability to identify emerging and successful new business venturers and facilitate further entrepreneurial stimulation of populations. Using both a cross-sectional and a 5-year longitudinal research design, we study the applicability of social cognitive career theory (SCCT) in explaining EI and EB for a sample of 1,149 Portuguese college students. The cross-sectional results support SCCT’s ability to explain students’ intentions in this large student population. Furthermore, with a smaller subsample, longitudinal analysis confirms intentions, as predictive of nascent EB, towards successful new business creation. In contrast to the theory’s propositions, we find that entrepreneurial self-efficacy beliefs and outcome expectations do not add to EI’s ability to predict EB. This study contributes to the currently scarce empirical support for SCCT as an appropriate model explaining EI and is the first to apply this theory’s core model to test the EI-EB link longitudinally. This study may be relevant to educators and policymakers who want to promote and assist college students in creating their own new businesses.

PurposeThis study aims to explore whether expected image outcomes (risk and gain) represent a mechanism through which perceived organizational climates, in the dimensions of tradition and reflexivity, affect key components of the innovation process (idea generation and idea realization).Design/methodology/approachStructural equation models have been conducted to empirically analyse 3 waves of longitudinal survey data from an Italian military organization (N = 410).FindingsResults confirmed that image outcome expectations mediated the effects of perceived climate on idea generation, and that a serial mediation of image expectations and idea generation those on idea realization. Additionally, reflexivity was directly associated with idea generation.Practical implicationsThe findings offer guidance for organizations that aim to strengthen employee-driven innovation, highlighting the importance of organizational climate and image outcomes expectations.Originality/valueAdvancing from existing organizational behaviour and individual innovation literature, this article contributes to extend knowledge about the role of organizational climate and image outcome expectations in enhancing innovative work behaviours.