Memory and mood changes in pregnancy: a qualitative content analysis of women's first-hand accounts.

OBJECTIVE: This qualitative study aimed to explore how pregnant women and new mothers self-report changes to their mood and memory during pregnancy. BACKGROUND: Researchers have investigated the various changes that women report throughout their pregnancy. Despite this evidence base, there is a notable lack of studies that take a qualitative approach to understanding how pregnant women and women in the postpartum period experience memory and mood changes through their pregnancy. METHOD: The present study involved a qualitative content analysis of women's first-hand accounts. Of the 423 participants who responded, 118 participants provided textual responses to questions about their memory and 288 participants provided textual responses to questions about their mood. Data were collected online via a free-text survey and analysed using both deductive inductive open coding. RESULTS: A qualitative content analysis generated four overall categories: two typologies of self-reported memory changes in pregnancy ('short-term memory lapses' and 'chronic memory fog') and two typologies of self-reported mood changes ('mood instability and constant change' and 'low mood and parenting anxiety'). CONCLUSION: These typologies represent unique profiles of the memory and mood changes that women experience during pregnancy and serve to accompany and expand the quantitative literature, which documents the changes women experience during pregnancy.

"It's hard to feel a part of something when you've never met people": defining "learning community" in an online era.

Feeling part of a community of learners has been shown to foster students' engagement and sense of belonging, leading to higher retention and achievement of learning outcomes. The pivot to online teaching caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a reappraisal of all aspects of the student experience, including students' capacity and opportunity to engage in meaningful learning communities online. There has been some emergent literature which considers how to facilitate online learning communities in the emergency remote teaching context prompted by COVID-19. However, there is a notable lack of literature which considers how learning communities are defined, understood, and negotiated by students in this unique teaching context. Given how students' perceptions of learning communities contributes to Higher Education policy (e.g. through the National Student Survey), this is important to understand. In the present study (N = 309), we qualitatively investigated students' understanding and definition of the term "learning community" during a time of emergency pivot to online teaching and learning. A reflexive thematic analysis of students' first-hand responses generated three dominant themes: "Feeling connected: Bridging the gap whilst physically distanced", "Feeling included: Visible and valued", and "Feeling together: Mutuality and the shared experience". We discuss the implications for these conceptualisations of an online learning community and suggest ways forward for Higher Education pedagogy.

Barriers to flexible sigmoidoscopy colorectal cancer screening in low uptake socio-demographic groups: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To synthesise qualitative evidence related to barriers and facilitators of flexible sigmoidoscopy screening (FSS) intention and uptake, particularly within low socio-demographic uptake groups. FSS uptake is lower amongst women, lower socio-economic status (SES), and Asian ethnic groups within the United Kingdom (UK) and United States of America. METHODS: A total of 12 168 articles were identified from searches of four databases: EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Web of Science. Eligibility criteria included: individuals eligible to attend FSS and empirical peer-reviewed studies that analysed qualitative data. The Critical Appraisal Skills Program tool evaluated the methodological quality of included studies, and thematic synthesis was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: Ten qualitative studies met the inclusion criteria. Key barriers to FSS intention and uptake centred upon procedural anxieties. Women, including UK Asian women, reported shame and embarrassment, anticipated pain, perforation risk, and test preparation difficulties to elevate anxiety levels. Religious and cultural-influenced health beliefs amongst UK Asian groups were reported to inhibit FSS intention and uptake. Competing priorities, such as caring commitments, particularly impeded women's ability to attend certain FSS appointments. The review identified a knowledge gap concerning factors especially associated with FSS participation amongst lower SES groups. CONCLUSIONS: Studies mostly focussed on barriers and facilitators of intention to participate in FSS, particularly within UK Asian groups. To determine the barriers associated with FSS uptake, and further understand how screening intention translates to behaviour, it is important that future qualitative research is equally directed towards factors associated with screening behaviour.

Blame it on her 'baby brain'? Investigating the contents of social stereotypes about pregnant women's warmth and competence.

The Stereotype Content Model proposes that social stereotypes broadly exist along two dimensions: warmth and competence. This framework has been used to investigate the contents of stereotypes of gendered groups in a range of contexts. However, it has not been extensively applied to perceptions of pregnant women. This is important, given how pregnant women are typically framed by society to have 'baby brain' or reduced competence. Therefore, we investigated the contents of social stereotypes of pregnant women. In Study 1, participants (N = 590) rated a target group (pregnant women) and thirteen other comparison groups on perceptions of warmth (compassion, empathy and comfort) and competence (mathematics ability, logic and memory). Pregnant women were generally stereotyped to have low competence and high warmth, relative to other groups. Study 2 (N = 54) then descriptively investigated the wider contents of stereotypes related to pregnant women, new mothers, men and women using a trait generation task. Generated traits were coded within the dimensions of warmth and competence. This showed, again, that pregnant women were assigned traits related to warmth and poor competence. Taken together, these studies confirmed that perceptions of low competence and 'baby brain' in pregnancy is broadly held by a non-pregnant sample.

Opportunities, challenges and tensions: Open science through a lens of qualitative social psychology.

In recent years, there has been a focus in social psychology on efforts to improve the robustness, rigour, transparency and openness of psychological research. This has led to a plethora of new tools, practices and initiatives that each aim to combat questionable research practices and improve the credibility of social psychological scholarship. However, the majority of these efforts derive from quantitative, deductive, hypothesis-testing methodologies, and there has been a notable lack of in-depth exploration about what the tools, practices and values may mean for research that uses qualitative methodologies. Here, we introduce a Special Section of BJSP: Open Science, Qualitative Methods and Social Psychology: Possibilities and Tensions. The authors critically discuss a range of issues, including authorship, data sharing and broader research practices. Taken together, these papers urge the discipline to carefully consider the ontological, epistemological and methodological underpinnings of efforts to improve psychological science, and advocate for a critical appreciation of how mainstream open science discourse may (or may not) be compatible with the goals of qualitative research.

Teaching open and reproducible scholarship: a critical review of the evidence base for current pedagogical methods and their outcomes.

In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergraduate and postgraduate research training. Specifically, a critical overview of the literature which investigates how integrating open and reproducible science may influence student outcomes is needed. In this paper, we provide the first critical review of literature surrounding the integration of open and reproducible scholarship into teaching and learning and its associated outcomes in students. Our review highlighted how embedding open and reproducible scholarship appears to be associated with (i) students' scientific literacies (i.e. students' understanding of open research, consumption of science and the development of transferable skills); (ii) student engagement (i.e. motivation and engagement with learning, collaboration and engagement in open research) and (iii) students' attitudes towards science (i.e. trust in science and confidence in research findings). However, our review also identified a need for more robust and rigorous methods within pedagogical research, including more interventional and experimental evaluations of teaching practice. We discuss implications for teaching and learning scholarship.

"I feel more protective over my body:" A brief report on pregnant women's embodied experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically altered the experiences of pregnant people. For example, the pandemic has disrupted access to healthcare, social distancing has reduced social support, and vaccine rollout has led to safety concerns. Consistent with the Developmental Theory of Embodiment, which posits that our experiences of our bodies are influenced by social factors, studies have revealed an uptick in body dissatisfaction and disordered eating during this time. However, research on pregnant people's experiences of their body and body image during the pandemic has been largely overlooked. In this exploratory qualitative study, we aimed to broadly understand how the pandemic and quarantine have impacted the way pregnant women (N = 190) in the US and UK relate to their bodies. We used Consensual Qualitative Research-Modified (CQR-M) to analyze pregnant women's brief textual accounts of their embodied experiences during the pandemic and identified eight core domains across the dataset. Some participants reported no change in their embodied experiences, whereas others reported accounts of appearance and weight concerns, health behavior self-judgment, gratitude for isolation, body appreciation, maternal healthcare concerns, COVID health concerns, and health and safety strategies. We conclude with implications and recommendations for supporting pregnant people and their embodied well-being during health crises.

Towards a culture of open scholarship: the role of pedagogical communities.

The UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has called for evidence on the roles that different stakeholders play in reproducibility and research integrity. Of central priority are proposals for improving research integrity and quality, as well as guidance and support for researchers. In response to this, we argue that there is one important component of research integrity that is often absent from discussion: the pedagogical consequences of how we teach, mentor, and supervise students through open scholarship. We justify the need to integrate open scholarship principles into research training within higher education and argue that pedagogical communities play a key role in fostering an inclusive culture of open scholarship. We illustrate these benefits by presenting the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT), an international grassroots community whose goal is to provide support, resources, visibility, and advocacy for the adoption of principled, open teaching and mentoring practices, whilst generating conversations about the ethics and social impact of higher-education pedagogy. Representing a diverse group of early-career researchers and students across specialisms, we advocate for greater recognition of and support for pedagogical communities, and encourage all research stakeholders to engage with these communities to enable long-term, sustainable change.

A network of change: united action on research integrity.

The last decade has seen renewed concern within the scientific community over the reproducibility and transparency of research findings. This paper outlines some of the various responsibilities of stakeholders in addressing the systemic issues that contribute to this concern. In particular, this paper asserts that a united, joined-up approach is needed, in which all stakeholders, including researchers, universities, funders, publishers, and governments, work together to set standards of research integrity and engender scientific progress and innovation. Using two developments as examples: the adoption of Registered Reports as a discrete initiative, and the use of open data as an ongoing norm change, we discuss the importance of collaboration across stakeholders.

Development and randomized controlled trial of an animated film aimed at reducing behaviours for acquiring antibiotics.

BACKGROUND: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global health crisis but reducing antibiotic use can help. Some antibiotic use is driven by patient demand. OBJECTIVES: To develop an intervention to discourage antibiotic-seeking behaviour in adults. METHODS: Literature reviewed to identify behaviours for acquiring antibiotics among adults in the community. Behaviour change wheel approach was used to select the target behaviour and behaviour change techniques. An intervention in the form of a short animated film was developed and its potential impact evaluated in a randomized, controlled, online questionnaire study. RESULTS: Asking a general medical/dental practitioner for antibiotics was identified as the target behaviour. A short stop-motion animated film was chosen to deliver several behaviour-change techniques. Education and persuasion were delivered around information about the normal microbial flora, its importance for health, the negative effect of antibiotics, and about AMR. 417 UK-based individuals completed the questionnaire; median age 34.5 years, 71% female, 91% white ethnicity. 3.8% of participants viewing the test film intended to ask for antibiotics compared with 7.9% viewing the control film. Test film viewers had significantly higher knowledge scores. At 6 week follow up, knowledge scores remained significantly different, while most attitude and intention scores were not different. CONCLUSIONS: Some patients continue to ask for antibiotics. The film increased knowledge and reduced intentions to ask for antibiotics. At 6 weeks, knowledge gains remained but intentions not to ask for antibiotics had waned. Evaluation in the clinical environment, probably at the point of care, is needed to see if antibiotic prescribing can be impacted.