ghanaopendata/ghanaian-research-english huggingface dataset:
Perceived external prestige as a mediator between quality of work life and organisational commitment of public sector employees in ghana

Orientation: Research efforts have been directed at understanding the relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment, but these studies have not elucidated the mediating role of perceived external prestige in this relationship. Research purpose: This research seeks to close a research gap by determining the role of perceived external prestige in the relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment amongst public sector employees in Ghana. Research approach, design and method: Theoretically guided hypotheses and models were formulated and tested with hierarchical multiple regression statistics using data from a sample of 137 employees from two public sector organisations in Ghana. Main findings: The results support the hypothesis that quality of work life is positively related to both perceived external prestige and organisational commitment. Also, perceived external prestige was found to predict organisational commitment and partially mediate the relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment. Practical/managerial implications: The findings imply that one sure way to enhance organisational commitment of employees is by improving their quality of work life and boosting their perceptions of external prestige of the organisation. These results will be of particular interest to policymakers, public organisations and stakeholders interested in increasing organisational commitment of their employees. Contribution/value-add: The findings extend previous research by establishing the mediating role of perceived external prestige in the relationship between quality of work life and organisational commitment. If managers of organisations wish to improve organisational commitment, it is wise to institutionalise an organisational culture that promotes good quality of work life and boost the external prestige of the organisation in the employees’ mind. © 2015. The Authors.

Source: UG
Perceived incentives and barriers to exclusive breastfeeding among periurban ghanaian women

Focus group discussions were conducted to elicit the perceived incentives and barriers to exclusive breastfeeding in Ghana. Thirty-five breastfeeding women were recruited from the Manya and Yilo Krobo districts of the eastern region. Participants had a mean age of 27.5 years and had at least one child < 4 months old. Almost all of the participants believed that exclusive breastfeeding is the superior infant feeding method and should be practiced for the first 6 months postpartum. However, there was widespread belief that infants can be given water if it is clean. Mothers reported that exclusive breastfeeding was easier when breast milk began to flow soon after delivery. The main obstacles to exclusive breastfeeding identified were maternal employment, breast and nipple problems, perceived milk insufficiency, and pressure from family. Addressing the concerns put forward by these participants can be used to enhance exclusive breastfeeding promotion in this region. © Copyright 2009 International Lactation Consultant Association.

Source: UG
Perceived needs of health tutors in rural and urban health training institutions in Ghana: Implications for health sector staff internal migration control

Background: The population of Ghana is increasingly becoming urbanized with about 70% of the estimated 27 million people living in urban and peri-urban areas. Nonetheless, eight out of the ten regions in Ghana remain predominantly rural where only 32% of the national health sector workforce works. Moreover, the rural-urban disparities in the density of health tutors (staff responsible for pre-service training of health professionals) are enormous. This paper explores perceived needs of health tutors in rural and urban health training institutions in Ghana. Methods: This is a descriptive qualitative study conducted in the Greater Accra and Northern regions of Ghana. The Study used the deductive thematic and sub-thematic analysis approaches. Five health training institutions were randomly sampled, and 72 tutors engaged in separate focus group discussions with an average size of 14 participants per group in each training institution. Results: Perceived rural-urban disparities among health tutors were found in the payment of extra duty allowances; school infrastructure including libraries and internet connectivity; staff accommodation; and opportunities for scholarships and higher education. Health tutors in rural areas generally expressed more frustration with these work conditions than those in urban areas. Conclusions: There is the need to initiate and sustain work incentives that promote motivation of rural health tutors to control ongoing rural-urban migration of qualified staff. It is recommended the following incentives be prioritized to promote retention of qualified health tutors in rural health training schools: payment of research, book and rural allowances; early promotion of rural staff; prioritizing rural tutors for scholarships, and introduction of national best health tutor awards. © 2017 Alhassan et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Source: UG
Perceived organizational politics: Implications for nurses’ stress and job satisfaction

Background: Perceived organizational politics is a common phenomenon in almost every organization and is associated with undesirable employee outcomes. Despite numerous studies on this important topic, studies describing the influence of perceived organizational politics on nurses’ outcomes (job satisfaction and stress) remain underinvestigated. This study examined the impact of perceived organizational politics on job satisfac tion and job stress among nurses. Methods: A quantitative cross-sectional design was used in this study. Two hundred and thirteen (213) nurses participated. Three standardized instruments were utilized: Perception of Organizational Politics, Job Satisfac tion Scale, and Job Stress Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression analyses. Findings: Nurses perceived a high level of organizational politics. We identified a significant correlation between perceived organizational politics, job stress, and job satisfaction in nursing. The results showed nurses’ perception of organizational politics had a positive relationship with job stress and a negative relationship with job satisfaction. Managerial implication: Hospital management should reconsider the organizational, group, and individual situ ations that create perceived organizational politics to prevent any unnecessary political behaviors in the hospital. Also, strategies to enhance nursing management and healthcare provision should be directed at reducing the use of politics to promote self-interest. Originality/value: Our study provides a novel insight into the unexplored nature and impact of perceived orga nizational politics on nurses’ job satisfaction and stress in Ghana. It is the first research to investigate organi zational politics using nursing population in the Ghanaian context and makes significant contributions to theory and practice.

Source: UG
Perceived prenatal learning needs of multigravid Ghanaian women

Objective: to explore the learning needs of multigravid Ghanaian women in an effort to develop more effective prenatal education programmes. Design: a descriptive-exploratory design consisting of in-depth individual semi-structured interviews and a single focus group. Setting: prenatal clinic of a large hospital in a city in Ghana, Africa. Participants: 18 multigravid Ghanaian women between 38 and 40 weeks of gestation who were not experiencing complications with the index pregnancy. Findings: the women reported particular learning needs that were not being addressed during their prenatal care. They identified areas where they wanted more information about specific topics such as birth control, sexual activity during pregnancy and promoting ideal fetal positions. They also wanted information about how to care for themselves and their babies after birth. They received information from staff at the prenatal clinic that sometimes conflicted with what they learned from those in their informal support system (e.g. mothers and friends). Key conclusions: inconsistency with respect to information received from health professionals and that received from other sources of support created tension that led to increased doubt and anxiety on the part of the women. They reported that they wanted more in-depth information that was relevant to their specific needs and solution centred. They wanted a more interactive educational process including some separate teaching sessions specifically for multigravid women. They also wanted access to information during both private and group encounters with health-care professionals. Implications for practice: information and strategies deemed to be of interest and importance to these multigravid women, such as private counselling sessions to address individual concerns about safe sexual health and birth control, and interactive groups for multigravid women, could be implemented to increase interest and promote the well-being of these women. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Source: UG
Perceived Psychosocial Impact of Stigma on Patients Being Treated at Accra Psychiatric Hospital

Individuals diagnosed with mental illness encounter stigma and discrimination under various circumstances and these negatively affect them. Even though support systems and attitudes of the general public act as sources of stigma, perceptions held by the patients also influence their sensitivity to the experiences they encounter. The purpose of this study was to describe the role of personal factors in bringing about stigma.It also explored the public attitudes toward individuals diagnosed with mental illness. The study described coping mechanisms used by individuals with mental illness in relation to their stigma experiences, as well as to identify ways of reducing the stigma against them. The effects of stigma on people diagnosed with mental illness were also described. The research adopted a descriptive-exploratory method using semi-structured interview guide to elicit subjective responses from out-patients at the Accra psychiatric hospital. The investigator purposively sampled and interviewed 12 out-patients coming for review. All the interviews were conducted in English. Thematic content analysis was applied in analyzing the data. Even though the results revealed different public behaviors such as social isolation, discrimination, mocking, labeling and gossips, as disturbing, the participants were also found to stigmatize themselves. They used various mechanisms in dealing with stigma including secrecy, withdrawal, relaxation techniques, confrontation, interaction with people, ignoring the stigmatizing agent, and in-group comparisons. The impact of the stigma experiences on participants was diverse. These include devaluing, loss of their partners in the form of separation, and divorce, exclusion, unemployment and the loss of self esteem. The participants mentioned public education, enacting laws that seek to protect and promote patient rights as well as government support, social support and inclusion as measures that could help reduce mental illness stigma in the community. To completely understand stigma associated with mental illness, the views of the patients in decision making is key. It is worth noting that despite the labels attached to them by society, no matter how they appear, they harbor ideas that would help them live independent lives such as training for good jobs, adequate salaries, taking part in social activities in the community, decent shelter, and effective and affordable healthcare. Patients would therefore need support from all sectors including families, friends, employers, the Ministry of health and its subsidiary the Ghana health service, and the general public in order to be able to overcome stigma and the effects associated with it.

Source: UG
Perceived Quality of Healthcare Delivery in a Rural District of Ghana

Clinical Anatomy, Clinical Pathology, Medicine, Surgery, Theriogenology, Epidemiology and Disease Prevention, Food (Meat and Milk Hygiene and Inspection, Zoonoses and Environmental Health, Obstetrics, Mastitis and Udder Management, Veterinary Economics and Business Management, Veterinary Ethics, Jurisprudence and Extension, Clinics and Student Project. Long Vacations

Source: UG
Perceived racial discrimination and polysubstance use among racial/ethnic minority adolescents in the United States

Objective: Polysubstance use among adolescents is a significant public health concern, yet most studies on adolescent substance use focus on a singular substance. This study is one of the first to investigate the association between perceived racial discrimination (PRD) in school and polysubstance use among racial/ethnic minority adolescents using a nationally representative sample. Methods: Data was from the 2021 Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey. The sample included 4145 racial/ethnic minority adolescents (52.8% female). Hierarchical binary logistic regression was used to examine the association between PRD in school and polysubstance use among racial/ethnic minority adolescents. Results: About 12% of racial/ethnic minority adolescents engaged in polysubstance use and 23.4% reported experiencing PRD in school sometimes/most of the time/always. Controlling for other factors, experiencing PRD in school sometimes/most of the time/always was associated with 1.52 times higher odds of polysubstance use when compared to adolescents who never experienced PRD in school (OR=1.52, p=.044, 95% CI=1.01–2.30). Cyberbullying victimization, symptoms of depression, and being emotionally abused by a parent during COVID 19 were also associated with polysubstance use. Conclusion: Controlling for demographic characteristics and psychosocial stressors, PRD in school was significantly associated with higher odds of polysubstance use among racial/ethnic minority adolescents. The findings of this study could inform clinicians and policymakers of the association between PRD in school and polysubstance use, which could contribute to early identification of polysubstance use among racial/ethnic minority adolescents.

Source: UG
Perceived Satisfaction in Sustained Outcomes of Employee Communication in Ghanaian Organizations

This study aims at ascertaining the perception of the importance and role of effective communication among Ghanaian employees, as well as a sustained outcome of performance through effective communication. The research took a cross sectional approach to examine four Ghanaian organizations made up of two public organizations and two private companies. A combination of research methods: a quantitative survey and individual in-depth interviews were used to obtain in-depth information for the study. Findings showed that perceived effectiveness of communication has a direct positive effect on organizational performance. The paper makes a modest input of the significance of employee communication in both public and private organizations.

Source: UG
Perceived seriousness mediates the influence of cervical cancer knowledge on screening practices among female university students in Ghana

Background: Cervical cancer knowledge and awareness, as well as an individual’s perceptions about cervical cancer have been shown to significantly influence the screening practices of female students. Despite these studies, the mechanisms linking cervical cancer knowledge to screening practices among female students remain unexplored in the literature. Thus, this study examined the direct and indirect influences of cervical cancer knowledge on screening practices through perceptions about cervical cancer as informed by the health belief model. Methods: A cross-sectional survey design with a purposive sample of 200 female students were used in the study. Standardized questionnaires were used to measure cervical cancer knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness, perceived benefits, perceived barriers and cervical cancer screening behaviours. The Pearson productmoment correlation co-efficient and mediation analyses were used to analyse the data. Results: Our findings showed that cervical cancer knowledge, perceived susceptibility, perceived seriousness and perceived benefits were significant and positively correlated with increased screening behaviours. However, only perceived seriousness significantly mediated the relationship between cervical cancer knowledge and screening behaviour. Cervical cancer knowledge remained a significant direct predictor of screening behaviour in all the models. Conclusion: These findings underscore the need for increased awareness with emphasis on the seriousness of cervical cancer among female university students as it plays a key role in influencing their screening behaviours.

Source: UG
Perceived service quality and satisfaction of self-service technology: The case of automated teller machines

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose and investigate the dimensions of automated teller machine (ATM) service quality and their relationship with customer satisfaction in the retail banking sector. Design/methodology/approach – A structured questionnaire gleaned from the literature was used to collect data from 530 ATM customers of 15 banks in Ghana. Descriptive statistics, confirmatory factor analysis were used to identify the dimensions of ATM service quality and their relationship with customer satisfaction. Findings – The study found convenience, reliability, ease of use, privacy and security, responsiveness and fulfillment to be the major dimensions of ATM service quality. Apart from security and privacy, these dimensions are significantly related to customer satisfaction. Practical implications – The ATM quality dimensions found in this study provide practical guidelines for bank managers to improve customer experience with ATMs. The relative importance of the factors identified in the study also provide managers with a sense of what issues to focus on in order to improve service delivery through the ATMs. Originality/value – The ATM service quality dimensions found in this study have enriched knowledge in electronic banking usage in developing countries such as Ghana. In addition, the study also provides bank managers with insights into how to improve customer satisfaction in retail banking through the usage of ATMs. © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Source: UG
Perceived social support disparities among children affected by HIV/AIDS in Ghana: A cross-sectional survey

Background: The study investigated whether perceived social support varied among children who have lost their parents to AIDS, those who have lost their parents to other causes, those who are living with HIV/AIDS-infected caregivers and children from intact families (comparison group). Method: This study employed cross-sectional, quantitative survey that involved 291 children aged 10-18 years in the Lower Manya Krobo District of Ghana and examined their social support disparities. Results: Multivariate linear regressions indicate that children living with HIV/AIDS-infected caregivers reported significantly lower levels of social support compared with AIDS-orphaned children, other-orphaned children and non-orphaned children independent of socio-demographic covariates. Children who have lost their parents to other causes and other-orphaned children reported similar levels of social support. In terms of sources of support, all children orphans and vulnerable children were more likely to draw support from friends and significant others rather than from the family. Conclusion: The findings indicate a need to develop interventions that can increase levels of social support for orphaned and vulnerable children within the context of HIV/AIDS in Ghana, particularly networks that include the family.

Source: UG
Perceived social support disparities among children affected by HIV/AIDS in Ghana: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract Background The study investigated whether perceived social support varied among children who have lost their parents to AIDS, those who have lost their parents to other causes, those who are living with HIV/AIDS-infected caregivers and children from intact families (comparison group). Method This study employed cross-sectional, quantitative survey that involved 291 children aged 10–18 years in the Lower Manya Krobo District of Ghana and examined their social support disparities. Results Multivariate linear regressions indicate that children living with HIV/AIDS-infected caregivers reported significantly lower levels of social support compared with AIDS-orphaned children, other-orphaned children and non-orphaned children independent of socio-demographic covariates. Children who have lost their parents to other causes and other-orphaned children reported similar levels of social support. In terms of sources of support, all children orphans and vulnerable children were more likely to draw support from friends and significant others rather than from the family. Conclusion The findings indicate a need to develop interventions that can increase levels of social support for orphaned and vulnerable children within the context of HIV/AIDS in Ghana, particularly networks that include the family.

Source: UG
The Perceived Social Support for Job Search Activity Scale (PSS-JSAS): A psychometric evaluation in the context of Ghana

Lack of social support can have a profound impact on the job search efforts of young adults. The Perceived Social Support for Job Search Activity Scale (PSS-JSAS) was developed to assess the quality of social support a job seeker receives during a job search. Building on this previous work, the present study assessed the PSS-JSAS’s factor structure, construct validity, reliability, and measurement invariance in the context of Ghana. Data for the present analysis were provided by 429 recent university graduates. The sample was randomly split into two subsamples for exploratory factor analysis (EFA; n = 223) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; n = 206). EFA and parallel analysis with the first subsample suggested a single factor structure, comprising 6 items out of the original 8 items. In CFA with the second subsample, the construct validity of the single factor structure was found to be optimal. Multi-group CFA with the second subsample showed that the single factor structure was invariant across gender. Further, reliability analysis on the total sample and the subsamples demonstrated good internal consistency reliability for the 6 items. The validity evidence obtained in this study suggests that the PSS-JSAS has good psychometric properties and is thus suitable for assessing social support for job search efforts of university graduates.

Source: UG