Relationships between bullying,psychosocial work environment and individual stress reactions

It is frequently assumed that a poor psychosocial working environment will create conditions that encourage bullying. However, few studies have examined this assumption while comparing work environment ratings of bullied and non-bullied employees who work in the same organization and/or department. The objectives of this study were therefore, first, to investigate relationships between bullying and other psychosocial work environment factors within a particular organizational setting and, second, to investigate if bullied employees reported higher levels of stress than non-bullied employees. A total of 186 blue-collar employees from a Danish manufacturing company participated in the study (response rate of 93%). Results showed significant differences in bullied and non-bullied employees’ ratings of psychosocial factors such as job control, management style, role clarity, social climate, social contact and work centrality. In order to investigate assumptions that a poor psychosocial work environment creates conditions that encourage bullying, a number of analyses compared the company's manufacturing departments with either high, medium or low levels of bullying. Results showed significant departmental differences. Yet, when bullied employees were removed from the statistical analyses, with regard to the perceived psychosocial environment these same departments could be differentiated only on the basis of rated job demands and management style. The results therefore bring into question the assumption that a generally poor work environment contributes to bullying. None the less, they do suggest that management style may directly or indirectly have contributed to a higher level of bullying. Also, bullied employees reported significantly more symptoms of psychological stress and mental fatigue than non-bullied employees.     

Where You Lead,I Will Follow: Exploring Sibling Similarity in Brain and Behavior During Risky Decision Making

This exploratory study examined whether social learning increases similarity in adolescent siblings’ behavior and neural patterns during risky decision making. Participants included 86 adolescents (43 sibling dyads; younger siblings: M_age = 12.2 years; 22 females; older siblings: M_age = 14.6 years; 20 females) who completed questionnaires, and a decision‐making task during an fMRI scan. Younger siblings became more similar to their older siblings’ risky decision making after observing their older sibling take risks). Younger siblings who reported greater modeling of their older sibling, and less differentiation from them, showed increased neural similarity to their older siblings in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and the right anterior insula and ventral striatum, respectively. These findings highlight siblings as salient social agents in how adolescents process risky decision making.     

State attachment variability across distressing situations in middle childhood

Contemporary research suggests that attachment has both a trait‐like, stable component, and a state‐like component that varies across contexts. In the current study, we assessed state attachment variability across comparably distressing situations in middle childhood. In two samples, children reported their expectations of maternal support in each situation. Additionally, we administered trait attachment and psychological well‐being measures. Results indicated that, overall, children varied in their expectations across situations: more than half of the variance was explained by intra‐individual differences across situations. Results revealed two components underlying variability: a Signal‐and‐Support component reflecting expectations of support‐seeking and receiving, and a Back‐on‐Track component reflecting expectations of stress reduction and comfort. State attachment variability was related to individual differences in trait attachment: children who are more securely attached at the trait level, overall appear to vary less in their state attachment, likely due to their high mean state attachment scores across situations. When the mean state attachment scores are accounted for, more securely attached children seem to vary more, suggesting that their state attachment expectations are more sensitive to contextual fluctuations. Importantly, degree of state attachment variability explained psychological well‐being over and above trait attachment.     

The discovery of the true self—A case study

This paper addresses the diagnosis and treatment of clients whose lives are constricted, and whose relationships are characterized by adaptations to the needs of others. This life style is believed to be the result of very early adaptations to pathological parental needs which interfered with psychosocial development and identity formation. It is suggested that Winnicott's theory of ego distortion in terms of True and False Self provides a useful conceptual framework for diagnosis and treatment of such cases. His theory is presented, followed by a case report, illustrating the application of these principles.     

Theory in social work—some reflections on understanding and explaining interventions Teori i socialt arbete—några reflektioner om att förstå och förklara interventioner

This article reflects on theory in social work. With a starting point in the contemporary discussion of evidence-based social work, we raise questions about the role of theory. To understand empirical data, we need theory. The arena of social work is an open field for many academic disciplines, and theories used for understanding social work are mostly imported from general social science. Theory has to be built on an empirical base, and in order to be regarded as a social work theory this empirical base should come from social interventions. Therefore, the challenge for social work is to develop theories of its own. Theory development in social work could be in contrast to existing non-theoretical research and conceptual models without a base in social facts, as well as to prevailing perspectives in social work practice, such as reflective social work. In this article we sketch a model of the field of knowledge in social work and elucidate the multifaceted aspects that exist in social work. Finally, we argue for an awareness of the levels, or social domains, in social work practice on the one hand and the scientific explanations on the other hand.     

Cohabitation and social background: Trends observed for Swedish women born between 1936 and 1960

This paper throws some light on changing family-building patterns in Sweden during the 1960s and 1970s. The family-building events analyzed are first informal cohabitation, first marriage, birth of first child (both outside a union and within a consensual union), and separations from childless informal cohabitation. Results from three previous studies are first summarized. These analyze the patterns by socio-economic and regional origin, applying multiple-decrement techniques separately for each background factor. The new results presented here are based on analyses that use multiplicative hazard models, permitting isolation of the effects of socio-economic background and region of childhood and adolescence respectively. It is generally found that socio-economic background is more important than the region where the woman grew up. Marriage intensities, however, which exhibit a clear regional pattern, are exceptions to this.     

Racing Against the Biological Clock? Childbearing and Sterility Among Men and Women in Second Unions in France

In developed countries, rising rates of union disruption have induced an increase in the share of people experiencing several fertile partnerships during their fertile life-span. However, from the large-scale 1999 French Family Survey, in the 1939–1954 birth cohorts it appears that completed fertility of repartnered men is slightly higher than that of never-separated men while repartnered women have fertility levels similar to those who remain in a first intact partnership. Following this observation, this article aims to study whether people, and especially women, have enough time to have children in the context of second union before they become limited by the “biological clock”. Using a cure model, we find that once age-related sterility is controlled for, the decrease in risk of having children with age is not visible anymore up to age 40. This offers some evidence that people in their second partnership, especially women, are constrained in their childbearing by the decline in fecundity with age. Additionally, childless women seem to respond proactively to the decline in fecundity with age by accelerating childbearing.     

The diversity of household assets holdings in the United States in 2007 and 2009: measurement and determinants

Review of Economics of the Household - We apply diversity indices, such as the Gini-Simpson index and entropy related indices, to the study of the distribution of individual asset holdings in the...     

Sources of Social Influence on Adolescents’ Alcohol Use

The present research examines social influences on self‐reported frequency of drunkenness in a longitudinal sample of 1,439 adolescents (46% female, 90% White, mean age = 14 at baseline) with social network measures from friends, romantic partners, and romantic partners’ friends. We build on past research by addressing multiple mechanisms of social influence—peers’ frequency of drunkenness, alcohol‐related attitudes, and unstructured socializing—across relationship types. Adolescents’ drunkenness frequency increased when their friends’ and partners’ friends’ drunkenness frequency increased and when their romantic partners’ positive alcohol‐related attitudes increased. Furthermore, the association between unstructured socializing and frequency of drunkenness was stronger for older than younger adolescents. Results advance understanding of the social transmission of alcohol use in adolescence and inform intervention efforts.