Welcome to Massey Research Online


Massey Research Online is an open access digital archive of the research and scholarship of Massey University and is jointly managed by the University Library and Information Technology Services.

Massey Research Online contains research theses and research outputs including published work by Massey University students and academic staff as well as peer-reviewed material not published elsewhere. In the case of previously published research outputs all requirements of copyright owners are observed.

Items in Massey Research Online are fully indexed and searchable on Google Scholar and NZ Research.

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Risk perception and knowledge of protective measures for flood risk planning. The case study of Brindisi (Puglia region)
(2022-09-01) Santoro, S; Totaro, V; Lovreglio, R; Camarda, D; Iacobellis, V; Fratino, U
Floods are among the most frequent natural hazards, and flood risk management is a paramount task when planning solutions to reduce their impact on communities. In the last decades, policy makers' actions for flood risk management have been redirected from purely physical self-protective measures towards integrated management strategies by including social components. Assessing flood risk perception and the level of knowledge of citizens regarding protective measures is becoming a pillar for generating innovative flood integrated management strategies. This study aims to highlight multiple aspects which can influence flood risk management in urban areas, providing a preliminary assessment of citizens’ flood risk perception and knowledge of protective measures. Proposed methodology is based on E-survey in order to gather data and Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests to analyze them and has been applied to the case study of Brindisi (Puglia region, Southern Italy). The results suggest that flood risk perception depends on intrinsic components of individuals, mainly related to trust in public strategies and risk communication. It depends on hazard proximity but is uniformly distributed over the whole city, demonstrating that the perception of flood risk can not be related only to river floods. Knowledge of protective measures appears uniformly low by category of citizens and territorial area, particularly for teenagers. The methodological approach has allowed to bring out how the different nature of floods could produce a spatial and social heterogeneity in citizens’ flood risk perception and knowledge of protective measures, revealing latent risk features useful for supporting flood risk planning.
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Measuring driving fear: Development and validation of the Instrument for Fear of Driving (IFD)
(Hogrefe Publishing, 2021-11-24) Fischer C; Schröder A; Taylor JE; Heider J
Presently, there is no instrument to support the diagnosis of driving fear and its severity. To enable a reliable and valid diagnosis, the 5-item German-language Instrument for Fear of Driving (IFD) was developed. The items, by DSM-5 criteria for a specific phobia, measure the emotional, cognitive, and physiological components of driving fear as well as the degree of avoidance and impairment. The present paper comprises two studies that describe the development of the IFD and its psychometric properties. In Study 1, the IFD was administered to 810 non-clinical participants in an online survey and demonstrated good reliability and construct validity. In Study 2, fifty-four people with a clinical diagnosis, including clinically relevant driving fear, completed the IFD and a clinical interview. The IFD demonstrated good sensitivity and specificity, and a cut-off score resulted in 95% sensitivity and 97% specificity. While the findings are preliminary and further studies with larger samples are needed, the IFD is a promising screening instrument for driving fear and its severity.
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Democracy and belief in conspiracy theories in New Zealand
(Australian Political Studies Association, 2022) Marques MD; Hill SR; Clarke EJR; Williams M; Ling M; Kerr J; Douglas K; Cichocka A; Sibley C

The COVID-19 pandemic supercharged the spread of fake news, misinformation, and conspiracy theories worldwide. Using a national probability sample of adults from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study during 2020 (17–99 years old; M = 48.59, SD = 13.86; 63% women, 37% men; N = 41,487), we examined the associations between agreement with general conspiracy beliefs and political indicators of intention to vote and satisfaction with government, alongside political factors including trust in politicians, political efficacy, identity centrality, and political ideology. Left-wing political ideology, trust in politicians, and political efficacy accounted for most of the explained variance in satisfaction with the government. General conspiracy belief was also a unique contributor to lower satisfaction with the government. We also found a curvilinear relationship between political ideology with heightened belief in conspiracies at both ideological extremes and the centre. Findings are discussed in terms of the consequences of conspiracy belief on democratic engagement.

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An exploration of frontline health professional's current understanding of non-fatal strangulation.
(John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2024-07-07) Donaldson AE; Ravono A; Hurren E; Harvey C; Baldwin A; Solomon B
Aim To explore frontline health professionals' current understanding of non-fatal strangulation and their need for and support for a comprehensive education and screening package to support health delivery. Design A descriptive mixed-method approach was chosen to analyse responses to an anonymous, online survey consisting of ten Likert scale, open-ended and five demographic questions. 103 frontline health professionals (nurses, doctors, paramedics, midwives) participated in this study. Methods Content analysis of the Likert scale and open-ended questions describing the subjective experiences and perceptions of the participants was undertaken along with percentage and frequency counts of the rated Likert responses. Results The findings identified that 51.1% of health professionals do not ask about strangulation routinely and that 59% of health professionals reported receiving no formal education or professional development on NFS to enhance their knowledge or inform clinical practice. No health professionals identified mild traumatic brain injury as a consequence or sign of strangulation, nor did they identify an understanding that 50% of people may have no visible injuries after being strangled. Health professionals also do not routinely document the different agencies referred to or involved in supporting the person who experienced NFS. Conclusion Findings suggest that frontline health professionals lack the confidence, skills and education needed to meet medical obligations to their patients and to fulfil their duty to ‘do no harm’. Frontline health professionals would welcome a comprehensive education and screening package to guide recognition and response to non-fatal strangulation in their clinical settings. Where and on Whom Will the Research Have an Impact? The purpose of the study was to understand and explore health professionals' knowledge about non-fatal strangulation so that improved education around better screening, and management of trauma-focused care to people who have been subjected to non-fatal strangulation could occur. No Patient or Public Contribution This review contains no patient or public contribution since it examines health professionals' knowledge of identifying non-fatal strangulation and the screening and assessment tools used in clinical practice.
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Assessing the win-win situation of forage production and soil organic carbon through a short-term active restoration strategy in alpine grasslands
(Frontiers Media S.A., 2024-01-11) Wang Y; Wang Z; Kang Y; Zhang Z; Bao D; Sun X; Su J
INTRODUCTION: Grassland degradation has seriously affected the ecological environment and human livelihood. To abate these, implementing effective management strategies to restore and improve the service functions and productivity of degraded grasslands is crucial. METHODS: To evaluate the influences of restoration measures combined with different grazing intensities on short-term (1 year) grassland restoration, the changes in soil physicochemical properties, as well as plant traits under restoration measures of different grazing intensities, reseeding, and fertilization, were analyzed. RESULTS: Soil organic carbon (SOC) increased to varying degrees, whereas available nutrients decreased under all combined restoration measures. Reseeding, alone and in combination with fertilization, substantially increased SOC, improved grassland vegetation status, and enhanced grassland productivity. The aboveground biomass of Gramineae and the total aboveground biomass increased under the combined restoration measures of transferring livestock out of the pasture 45 days in advance, reseeding, and fertilization (T4). Redundancy analysis revealed a strong correlation between grassland vegetation characteristics, SOC, and available potassium. Considering soil and vegetation factors, the short-term results suggested that the combination measures in T4had the most marked positive impact on grassland restoration. DISCUSSION: These findings offer valuable theoretical insights for the ecological restoration of degraded grasslands in alpine regions.