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Background: Due to the diversity and range of services provided to humanitarian migrants during the settlement phase of migration, acquiring information across multiple service domains is intrinsic to the effective utilisation of settlement services. There are research gaps investigating how humanitarian migrants experience and navigate unfamiliar, multiple, and often complex information and service systems of host countries. This study seeks to understand the impediments to humanitarian migrants' effective utilisation of information about settlement services and to identify strategies that can be implemented to overcome these barriers. Methods: Service providers were purposively recruited from organisations funded by the Australian Government to deliver settlement programs. The study applied an inductive thematic analysis approach to identify key themes that emerged from the data. Results: From the perspective of service providers, the themed findings identified how humanitarian migrants gain knowledge about services, their information needs, information seeking practices and skills, and information specific to service domains. The findings illustrate the importance of acquiring information, knowledge, and skills across multiple information platforms and service domains as being integral to the effective utilisation of settlement services for humanitarian migrants. The study identifies systemic barriers to information and service access and suggests different strategies and approaches to improve access to context specific key information. The study identifies factors that inhibit the effectiveness of the Australian settlement service provision model and emphasises the need for targeted training of mainstream referral services. The study highlights the important role that settlement service providers play as mediators of information, adept at tailoring information to humanitarian migrants' individual and community information needs. Conclusion: The findings provide important insights that highlight the different roles that policymakers, researchers, and service providers can play to inform new approaches that improve the effectiveness of information and settlement service provision, as part of contributing to optimum settlement outcomes for humanitarian migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective migration often requires supports for new arrivals, referred to as settlement services. Settlement services literacy (SSL) is key to ensuring new migrants have the capability to access and utilise the information and services designed to support the resettlement process and achieve positive settlement outcomes. To date, however, no research has sought to empirically validate measures of SSL or to assess individual migrants' levels of SSL. The aim of this study was to establish the psychometric properties of constructs from the conceptual SSL framework. Design: Using a snowball sampling approach, trained multilingual research assistants collected data on 653 participants. The total sample was randomly divided into two split-half samples: one for the exploratory factor analysis (EFA; N = 324) and the other for the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA; N = 329) and scale validation. The final SSL scale included 30 questions. The full data set was used to test the nomological validity of the scale regarding whether the components of SSL impact on migrants' level of acculturative stress. Results: The EFA yielded five factors: knowledge (eight items, α = 0.88), empowerment (five items, α = 0.89), competence (four items, α = 0.86), community influence (four items, α = 0.82), and political (two items, α = 0.81). In the CFA, the initial model demonstrated a poor to marginal fit model. Its re-specification by examining modification indices resulted in a good model fit: CMIN/DF = 3.07, comparative fit index = 0.92, root mean square error of approximation = 0.08 and standardised root mean square residual = 0.07, which are consistent with recommendations. All the path coefficients between the second-order construct (SSL) and its five dimensions (knowledge, empowerment, competence, community influence and political) were significant at an α =.05 level, giving evidence for the validity of different SSL dimensions. We found that SSL is significantly related to migrants' acculturative stress (β = - 0.39, p < 0.05) in the nomological model. Conclusions: The study provides evidence of the construct validity and reliability of the SSL tool. It provides the basis for integrating the measures of SSL into evaluation of settlement services. This will allow for more effective decision-making in designing and implementing settlement services as well as funding and service agreements to address any deficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientific and commercial researchers around the world are relying increasingly on the responder insights obtained from online panels. However, from the researcher viewpoint, what distinguishes a good panel from a bad one is not clear and new metrics need to be developed to consider panel health. Given that online panels are composed of individuals, it is proposed that new individual-based metrics, taken across an individual's career, should also be developed. This paper proposes that each respondent's overall average relative response time (OARRT) across all surveys they have completed is one such measure, and examines how it is affected by a range of control factors. Three cohorts of panellists -- that is, 'ongoing', 'unsubscribers' and ' three-strikers' -- are examined. We found that the number of surveys completed and the respondent's age affected OARRT across the three cohorts, with participation in other panels affecting OARRT for unsubscribers. Gender, education and employment status did not impact OARRT for any group. The results suggest there may be a learning effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the study was to develop and test culturally appropriate health promotion materials that were seen to be socially inclusive in regard to blood donation within the Australian-African community. Materials were produced in multiple languages (English, Arabic, Swahili and Kirundi) and were initially developed based on previous pilot data, with feedback from the project partner (Australian Red Cross Blood Service) and the African community. Seven formative focus groups with 62 participants were then conducted to ensure the materials would be effective, credible and culturally acceptable to the target audience, including preferred messages, taglines and images. The response confirmed that quotes and images from community members (as opposed to actors) were critical to ensure messages were engaging and believable, and had meaningful taglines that were perceived to be authentic. The refined materials were then used in a community intervention study. The evaluation included an assessment of respondents' views of the messages post-intervention. Of the 281 African migrants who saw the campaign materials during the intervention period, the majority (75.8%) strongly agreed that the materials made them feel part of the wider Australian community. These results suggest that engagement in developmental activities with targeted communities is important for creating positively viewed culturally targeted public health campaigns. A six-step process is suggested that could be used by other organizations to ensure that messages are acceptable to targeted migrant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that African migrants are often positively predisposed towards blood donation, but are under-represented in participation. A culturally-tailored intervention targeting the African migrant community in Australia was developed and implemented, to enhance knowledge about blood donation, improve attitudes towards donating, increase intentions to donate blood, and increase the number of new African donors in Australia. Four weeks after a targeted campaign, a survey evaluation process commenced, administered face-to-face by bilingual interviewers from the African community in Melbourne and Adelaide, Australia (community survey). The questionnaires covered demographics, campaign awareness, blood donation knowledge and intentions, medical mistrust and perceived discrimination, and were analysed to evaluate changes in knowledge and intention. Sixty-two percent of survey participants (n = 454) reported being aware of the campaign. With increasing campaign awareness, there was a 0.28 increase in knowledge score (p = .005); previous blood donation was also associated with an increased blood donation knowledge score. Blood donation intention scores were not associated with campaign awareness (p = 0.272), but were associated with previous blood donation behaviour and a positive blood donation attitude score. More positive scores on the blood donation attitude measure were associated with increasing blood donation intentions, self-efficacy and campaign awareness (score increases of 0.27, 0.30 and 0.04, respectively, all p<0.05). Data were collected on the ethnicity of new blood donors in six blood collection centres before and after the intervention, and independent of the intervention evaluation survey. These data were also used to assess behavioural changes and the proportions of donors from different countries before and after the survey. There was no difference in the number of new African migrant donors, before and after the intervention. The culturally-relevant marketing campaign was associated with improved blood donation knowledge and attitudes, but there was no short-term change in blood donation intentions or the number of African donors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on a study which examined the motivations of research participants in joining a voluntary online panel. Motivations for volunteering under the Volunteer Functions Inventory (VFI) include values, social, career, understanding, enhancement and protective. There are 30 items included in the VFI, which has been used in a variety of volunteering situations. A web-based, self-reported survey data from a sample of members belonging to an Australian online panel was used in this study. Results of the study showed a lack of statistical significance in the relationship between the latent variables Protective and Value Expressiveness. It also found that the first-order structure of the VFI has a stronger solution than second-order models.

A study of the generalizability of the Personal Selling Ethics Scale (Dabholkar and Kellaris, 1992) was conducted using data from eight universities across four countries, the US, Canada, Australia, and the Netherlands. Results indicate statistically significant differences between countries. However, all countries viewed the controversial sales practices, on average, as “slightly unethical” and ranked the twenty individual scenarios similarly suggesting scale results are generalizable across the countries studied. Several variables moderated the relationship between culture and the PSE Scale. Females perceived the scenarios as less ethical than men did and this was consistent across all four countries studied. However, ethical viewpoints (deontological/teleological) and values affected the average PSE scores differently across the four countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No abstract available for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines Australian and US. attempts to regulate green marketing activities. Both countries have adopted voluntary guidelines in an attempt to control the problems associated with questionable green marketing claims and unfair competition which can mislead consumers. While both countries have adopted a similar approach to solving this problem the Australian activities can be generalized to all types of claims. The U.S. guidelines have been criticized as proscriptive and inflexible. The development of a set of guidelines which can be generalized will minimize the potential for consumers or governments to believe firms are using misleading green marketing claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores determinants of rural to rural outshopping in the Central Western region of NSW, Australia. The results of this study indicate significant psychographic and demographic variables associated with outshoppers to another rural trading area. These outshoppers tend to be more socially active, innovative, have one to two children living at home and are younger than those people who ten to shop in their local trading area. Regression analysis is used to develop a causal relationship between psychographic variables, demographic variables and outshopping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]