Browsing by Person "Mercier, Jayne"

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The five Cs of positive youth development in an Aotearoa/New Zealand program context
(University Library System, University of Pittsburgh, 2019-12-16) Mercier, Jayne; Powell, Catherine; Langdon-Pole, Georgina; Finau, Daleki (Fole); Hicks, Karen Anne; Bourchier, Louise; Hampton, Jacqui
This study took a qualitative look at an Aotearoa/New Zealand-based positive youth development outdoor-education program in schools using the 5 Cs model of positive youth development. The viewpoints of young people, parents, and teachers were gathered, providing an opportunity to explore additional perspectives of the 5 Cs. All 5 Cs were seen to be present in the program and the 6th C of contribution was also observed. The Cs of competence, confidence and connection featured strongly, whilst the C of connection appeared to be important to young people’s experience of the program. Young people and adults prioritized different outcomes, with adults focusing more on future impacts and young people identifying more immediate benefits. The findings of this study add to an understanding of the 5 Cs model beyond the American context and highlight areas for future research.
How do we know it's youth development? An evaluation study using the Five Cs model of positive youth development
(2018-08-15) Mercier, Jayne; Powell, C.; Hampton, Jacqueline; Bouchier, L.; Finau, F.; Hicks, Karen Anne; Langdon-Pole, G.
This presentation will provide an overview of an evaluation study of a national school-based youth development programme for 11 - 13 year olds undertaken by Unitec Institute of Technology. The research looked qualitatively at programme outcomes from the perspectives of a young person, their parent/caregiver and their teacher in six participating schools in the upper North Island. The Five Cs of positive youth development: confidence, competence, connection, caring and character, and the sixth C of contribution, as identified by Lerner (2004) were used as an analysis framework, as these Cs are seen as indicators that positive youth development is occurring (Phelps et al. 2009). The presentation will discuss the findings and the ways the Cs were present in the programme. Linking to the conference theme of reflecting back to move forward, the research will invite participants to consider how the Five Cs model may be useful to practice and evaluation.
SmokeFreeNZ: Designing and Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Mobile Application in Reducing Cigarette Consumption
(2018-10) Wu, Lian; Stamp, Daniel; Hanlon, Erin; Hampton, Jacqueline; Mercier, Jayne; Hicks, Karen Anne; Baghaei, Nilufar; Casey, John; Su, Bin
Background: Smoking is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity in New Zealand and the greatest burden of disease in the health of New Zealanders. A novel mobile application, SmokeFreeNZ, was developed for android phone systems. Objective: To investigate the efficacy of the SmokeFreeNZ app on prevalence of abstinence, self-reported number of cravings per day and smoking knowledge index measures. Methods: Forty Unitec smokers (30 android users and 10 controls) were recruited. Smokers’ demographics and their smoking information were investigated at baseline. The efficacy of the mobile app was evaluated by measuring prevalence of abstinence, self-reported number of cravings per day and smoking knowledge index measures. Results: After the mobile app use, mean Smoking Knowledge Index Measures increased from 62 (± 9)% to 96 (± 3)% (p<0.001) compared to the control group. Maximum number of days of continuous abstinence was 5.2 (± 0.5) days in the app user group and 2.1 (± 0.5) days in the control group (p<0.02). The prevalence of seven days abstinence in users of SmokeFreeNZ was also improved significantly in comparison to the control group (26.7% in the app user group compared to 10.0% in the control group, Chi-square tests; p<0.05). These findings indicate that the SmokeFreeNZ app did help smokers at Unitec to quit smoking. Conclusion: The SmokeFreeNZ app provided flexible and effective approach to coach smokers about the health risks of smoking and also improved seven days’ abstinence rates in the study period. Future investigation is required to compare the cost-benefit effects and to evaluate the efficacy in smoking cessation in a larger-scale trial.