Sense of coherence and ill health among the unemployed and re-employed after closure of an assembly plant

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between employment status, ill health and sense of coherence(SOC). A cross-sectional sample of the former workers at the closed down Volvo Kalmar plant in Sweden was used. A questionnaire was mailed to all identified subjects 2 years after the closure of the plant. Responses were obtained from 344 persons, of whom 173 were re-employed and 92 were unemployed. They answered the questionnaire anonymously on background variables, SOC and ill health (physical and psychological symptoms). A notable difference was found between the re-employed and unemployed, where the unemployed reported symptoms significantly more often as well as a significantly weaker SOC. A main finding in a four cell model indicated that unemployment had a rather low impact on symptoms in the presence of a strong SOC. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed with simultaneous analysis of the unemployed and reemployed. The SEM analysis indicated that SOC seemed to have a greater impact on psychological symptoms among unemployed compared with re-employed persons. However, it should be noted that the present study does not allow for the determination of cause-effect relationships.     

Psychiatric Symptoms and Same-Sex Sexual Attraction and Behavior in Light of Childhood Gender Atypical Behavior and Parental Relationships

This study explores the relation between the level of current symptoms of depression and anxiety and recalled childhood gender atypical behavior (GAB), and quality of relationships with parents among men and women who reported same-sex sexual attraction or engaged in same-sex sexual behavior and men and women who did not. Matched pairs, 79 men (n = 158) and 148 women (n = 296), with equal levels of GAB were created of Finnish participants with either same-sex sexual attraction or behavior and participants without. The measures used were retrospective questionnaires. Ratings of maternal and paternal over-control and coldness differed as a function of same-sex sexual attraction or behavior. Childhood GAB was correlated with negative ratings of parental relationships. Both same-sex sexual attraction or behavior and a history of childhood GAB affected the reported levels of current depression and anxiety. Only gender typical participants with no same-sex sexual attraction or behavior reported significantly lower levels of symptoms. The findings suggest that childhood GAB is related to later distress both among hetero- and homosexual individuals. The elevated level of psychological distress among homosexual individuals, reported in several studies, might—to some extent—be caused by their generally higher levels of childhood GAB as opposed to a homosexual orientation per se.     

Exposure,Resistance and Life Expectancy: Disease and Death During the Economic Development of Japan, 1900–1960

By 1900 Japan was still extremely poor, rural and predominantly agrarian: but it had achieved effective mortality parity with the more economically advanced and/or wealthier countries of Western Europe. As standards of living rose, life expectancy remained relatively stagnant until the end of World War II. Subsequently, in spite of the economy being still partially crippled by wartime destruction, life expectancy in Japan increased very rapidly. The analysis of these puzzling trends is undertaken by means of an historical model of mortality change in which life expectancy is interpreted as the function of both the relative overall resistance of the population to disease, and the degree to which it was protected from exposure to the leading causes of death. It is argued that the early and late Japanese achievement of relatively high life expectancy at relatively low levels of income rested on the government's efficient delivery of a very high level of protection from exposure to disease. The middle period, 1910 to 1940, represented a relative failure of protection due to the concentration of financial resources on the military sector; a failure which better diets etc. could not effectively counter. The post-war period involved a return to higher levels of investment in public health during a period of technological progress and structural shifts which enhanced the efficiency of such investment.     

Job characteristics as predictors of ill-health and sickness absenteeism in different occupational types--a multigroup structural equation modelling approach

The objective of the present study was to test for multigroup invariance in measurement models and structural models between job characteristics, psychosocial intervening variables, health outcomes and sickness absenteeism. Four types of occupation were represented in the study: blue-collar workers ( n = 241), white-collar workers ( n = 209), elderly-care workers ( n = 338) and child-care workers ( n = 336). A first-order, six-factor multigroup confirmatory factor analysis model (i.e. measurement model) composed of two perceived job characteristics ( job autonomy and skill discretion), appraised workload, job satisfaction, stress-related ill-health and sickness absenteeism provided a good model fit. Invariance tests showed that the six-factor model fits well for all occupations. A partially recursive mediated multigroup structural model showed both similarities and differences across occupations as regards the relationships between independent latent variables ( job autonomy, skill discretion), intervening latent variables (appraised workload, job satisfaction) and dependent latent variables (stressrelated ill-health, sickness absenteeism). By comparing a generic model with occupation-specific models across occupations, this study showed that occupation-specific models were more plausible. The results indicate that it is important to examine different occupational contexts in detail to better understand how certain psychosocial factors at work influence strain in different occupations. Since job characteristics can potentially be amended, the findings have important implications for the differentiation of prevention and intervention in different occupations.     

COVID‐19 as a breakdown in the texture of social practices

‘A lot of things need to be repaired and a lot of relationships are in need of a knowledgeable mending. Can we start to talk/write about them?’ This invitation — sent by one of the authors to the others — led us, as feminist women in academia, to join together in an experimental writing about the effects of COVID‐19 on daily social practices and on potential (and innovative) ways for repairing work in different fields of social organization. By diffractively intertwining our embodied experiences of becoming together‐with Others, we foreground a multiplicity of repair (care) practices COVID‐19 is making visible. Echoing one another, we take a stand and say that we need to prevent the future from becoming the past. We are not going back to the past; our society has already changed and there is a need to cope with innovation and repairing practices that do not reproduce the past.     

Self‐Employment as a Strategy for Dealing with the Competing Demands of Work and Family? The Importance of Family/Lifestyle Motives

In this paper, we test the argument that self‐employment may be a strategy for dealing with competing demands of work and family. We do this by comparing work–family conflict experienced by self‐employed and employed men and women. By examining to what extent the self‐employed versus regularly employed value time for themselves and their family — i.e., whether they are driven by family/lifestyle motives in their working life — we examine whether self‐employment can help reduce work–family conflict among those guided by family/lifestyle motives. Using data from a 2011 Swedish survey of 2483 self‐employed and 2642 regularly employed, the analyses indicate that experiences of work–family conflict differ between self‐employed and employees. Self‐employed men and women, especially those with employees, generally experience more work–family conflict than do employees. However, self‐employment can sometimes be a strategy for dealing with competing demands of work and family life. The presence of family/lifestyle motives generally decreases the probability of experiencing work–family conflict, particularly among self‐employed women with employees.     

Goffman's sociology: An inspiring resource for developing public relations theory

This article introduces key concepts in Erving Goffman's sociology, which are advocated to be important to our understanding of social interaction and the study of interpersonal relationships with internal and external publics. The concepts of impression management, framing, footing and face have bearing upon essential notions in public relations: relationships, identification and image. Thus, it is predicted that development of these concepts in public relations research will deepen our understanding of communication processes that have important implications for the relation of publics in public relations.     

When Numbers Began to Count for Health Policy: A Review Essay*

Books reviewed in this article: Jack M. Hollander , The Real Environmental Crisis: Why Poverty, Not Affluence, Is the Environment's Number One Enemy Glenn Firebaugh , The New Geography of Global Income Inequality Nancy E. Riley and James Mccarthy , Demography in the Age of the Postmodern Catherine Campbell , ‘Letting Them Die’: Why HIV/AIDS Intervention Programmes Fail Konstantinos Kapparis , Abortion in the Ancient World     

Call for Papers and Invitation

Call for Papers

Call for Papers and Invitation