Labor Market Penalties for Mothers in Italy

We use a large Italian employer-employee matched dataset to study how motherhood affects women’s working career in terms of labor force participation and wages. We confirm that the probability of exiting employment significantly increases for mothers of pre-school children; however, this is mitigated by higher job quality, human capital endowment and childcare accessibility. Most importantly, the availability of part-time jobs reduces their probability of moving out of the labor force. Women not leaving employment after becoming mothers experience lower wages than women with no pre-school child, and there are no signs of this gap closing 5 years after childbirth. Contrary to previous literature, the wage gap penalty emerges only among women working full-time, thanks to the high protection accorded to part-time jobs in Italy.     

Factors Associated with Employee Stress in Psychiatric Rehabilitation: Identifying Vulnerability and Resilience

ABSTRACT

Use of sick days related to mental stress and burnout is a growing problem in Germany. Since stress is related to work demands, there is a substantial need for suitable workplace health promotion programs. This study identifies several organizational and personal stress predictors and presents a predictive model for workers in the field of psychiatric rehabilitation. A cross-sectional design was utilized to collect the self-ratings of employees (n = 243) who typically work with patients. Univariate analyses show, overall, above average stress scores, below average scores in occupational self-efficacy, and a much higher proportion of a gratification crisis (that is, insufficient reward for work performance) compared to other people employed in health care. A multivariate model for predicting the heightened stress indicates the supposed pathogenetic and salutogenetic main effects for organizational variables, such as gratification crisis, and personal variables, such as occupational self-efficacy as well as an interaction of both types of variables. High occupational self-efficacy can attenuate the effect of an existing gratification crisis. Workplace health promotion programs in this field should address organizational and personal variables, in particular occupational self-efficacy and gratification crisis. Future research should focus on interaction effects based on a person-environment-interaction model.     

The Effect of a Multicomponent Dual-Modality Exercise Program Targeting Osteoporosis on Bone Health Status and Physical Function Capacity of Postmenopausal Women

Purpose: Exercise is important for the prevention of osteoporosis and the reduction of fracture risk because it improves muscle mass and strength, besides improving balance. We evaluated the effect of a specific exercise program on bone mass and quality and physical function capacity in postmenopausal women with low bone mineral density. Methods: Participants (N = 125) underwent a bone mass (Dual X-ray Absorptiometry), bone quality (osteosonography), and physical functional capacity assessment. Fifty-eight of them took part in an 11-month exercise program (E), that included a multicomponent (strength, aerobic capacity, balance, joint mobility) dual-modality (on ground and in the water; alternating group and home-based exercise periods) exercise regimen. The others represented a control group (C) that did not exercise. After the exercise program all participants were reevaluated. Results: After the training program: femoral neck T-score significantly improved in E; C significantly decreased all bone quality (osteosonography) parameters, whereas E showed no differences; E significantly improved all the physical function capacity parameters, while most of them decreased or did not change in C. Conclusions: A specific exercise program targeting osteoporosis improves physical function capacity, reduces physiological bone loss, and maintains bone quality in low bone mineral density postmenopausal women.     

Leaders' relational self-concept and followers' task performance: Implications for mentoring provided to followers

Using a sample of 137 leader–follower dyads, this study investigated how leaders' relational self-concept relates to the mentoring (career support and psychosocial support) they provide to their followers, and whether followers' task performance moderates this relationship. As expected, leaders with a stronger relational self-concept provided more career support to followers who displayed higher (vs. lower) task performance. However, leaders' relational self-concept was unrelated to their provision of psychosocial support, irrespective of followers' task performance.     

Model Assessment for Predictive Classification Models

In this article, we present a novel methodology to assess predictive models for a binary target. In our opinion, the main weakness of the criteria proposed in the literature is not to take the financial costs of a wrong decision into account.

The objective of this article is to derive the optimal cut-off in predictive classification models and to improve model assessment on the basis of a general class of loss functions. We describe how our proposal performs in a real application on credit scoring.     

Fiducial distribution in a power series family

Abstract

In this article the interest is on finding the fiducial distribution of the parameter, when the probability distribution belongs to the power series family, as in Johnson et al. (1992 Johnson, N. L., S. Kotz, and A. W. Kemp. 1992. Univariate discrete distributions. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons. [Google Scholar]). Recently in Nájera and O’Reilly (2017 Nájera, E., and F. O’Reilly. 2017. On fiducial generators. Communications Statistics - Theory Methods 46 (5):2232–2248. doi:10.1080/03610926.2015.1040505.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) an argument is given to obtain a unique fiducial in the Bernoulli case. An attempt is made here to define some sort of invariance in a power series distribution so that, as was done in the Bernoulli case, one may find a unique invariant fiducial for the parameter. The Bernoulli case is reviewed in detail and the Poisson and negative binomial cases are addressed.     

“Trying to be positive in the face of the storm”: The experiences of independent college students during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic created multiple stressors for college students, particularly for young adults experiencing multiple forms of disadvantage. Little is known about the pandemic experiences of independent college students, many of whom are emancipated minors, former wards of the state, and other students who lack familial financial and practical support as they pursue higher education. Twenty-three independent students, ages 18–23, from one northeastern university were interviewed to understand how independent students were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their needs for support from the university during this time. Most participants were identified as Black or Latinx, and two thirds were first-generation college students. Participants reported an overall lack of support from their families prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, they experienced compounding academic, economic, and mental health-related stressors. Students responded to these stressors in resilient and resourceful ways, by adapting to their new realities, expressing gratitude, and finding opportunities for self-growth. Participants recommend that institutions of higher education support independent students during periods of emergency through providing financial assistance, offering opportunities for connection with both adults and peers, and demonstrating administrative flexibility and understanding of their unique needs.     

The territories of the practices of the trench: Origins,scope, desire

Our work with children whose rights have been violated, with their families devastated by family violence and where the majority have been left out of the sociocultural systems and experiencing serious economic and educational difficulties, has taken us to our professional limit. The solitary and individual work, in the dim light of the office, left us without tools. As therapists, we can say that it has been necessary to break with our own mental schemes and to take a leap into the territory, the terrain itself. The learned university theories were questioned, forcing us to include a more humanising and less judgmental look at the work. A psychology of the trench was born for us. This paper articulates a work process that required something more than specific training in our subject matter. It summoned us as human beings capable of hosting suffering. From this starting point, and with an open mind and heart to go through its stages, this process is presented as a journey with advances and setbacks in its intervention modalities, systematising programs in permanent construction. Systematising practices is not an easy task. Familias Cuidando (Caring Families) and Adoptar es Posible (To Adopt is Possible) are the developmental spaces of our trench practices, practices that aim to accompany children, adolescents, and their families through the system of promotion and comprehensive protection of their rights. From Vicente López, a district in the province of Buenos Aires, our psycho-socio-educational and legal approach tries to be a link within collaborative and supportive practices; establishing ties, networks, and dialogues to strengthen the new paradigm aiming to support listening to the voice of children and adolescents; rescuing their childhoods, resignifying the different family models, and accompanying the construction of a life project for each one, in which we all fit.