The contribution of supervisor behaviour to employee psychological well-being

Many employees affirm that supervisors affect employee well-being, and research has demonstrated associations between supervisor behaviour and employee psychological well-being. However, what hasn't been clear is the extent to which the association with supervisor behaviour compares with that of other variables known to affect well-being. This exploratory study addresses that issue. Our hypothesis was that supervisor behaviour can contribute to the prediction of psychiatric disturbance beyond the contribution of other influential variables. We created a new, questionnaire-based instrument to measure supervisor behaviour. We tested our hypothesis using stepwise regression with a convenience sample of 167 men and women working in a variety of organizations, occupations, and industries in the USA. Results supported our hypothesis: supervisor behaviour made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of psychiatric disturbance beyond a step-one variate comprised of age, health practices, support from other people at work, support from home, stressful life events, and stressful work events. This provides additional evidence that supervisor behaviour can affect employee well-being and suggests that those seeking to create healthier workplaces should not neglect supervision. We believe that there is now ample justification for those concerned with psychosocial working conditions to consider supervisor behaviour as a potentially influential variable.

Furthermore, we believe that we have presented a new instrument for assessing supervisor behaviour that has the potential to be of value in future studies.     

Assessment and Application of National Environmental Databases and Mapping Tools at the Local Level to Two Community Case Studies

Communities are concerned over pollution levels and seek methods to systematically identify and prioritize the environmental stressors in their communities. Geographic information system (GIS) maps of environmental information can be useful tools for communities in their assessment of environmental‐pollution‐related risks. Databases and mapping tools that supply community‐level estimates of ambient concentrations of hazardous pollutants, risk, and potential health impacts can provide relevant information for communities to understand, identify, and prioritize potential exposures and risk from multiple sources. An assessment of existing databases and mapping tools was conducted as part of this study to explore the utility of publicly available databases, and three of these databases were selected for use in a community‐level GIS mapping application. Queried data from the U.S. EPA's National‐Scale Air Toxics Assessment, Air Quality System, and National Emissions Inventory were mapped at the appropriate spatial and temporal resolutions for identifying risks of exposure to air pollutants in two communities. The maps combine monitored and model‐simulated pollutant and health risk estimates, along with local survey results, to assist communities with the identification of potential exposure sources and pollution hot spots. Findings from this case study analysis will provide information to advance the development of new tools to assist communities with environmental risk assessments and hazard prioritization.     

Different Histories,Different Stories: Using a Narrative Tool to Assess Children’s Internal Worlds

This study investigated the concurrent validity of a children’s narrative assessment tool, the Plenk Story-Telling Test (PST). The PST attempts to measure aspects of young children’s internal working models by eliciting narratives from nine pictures. The PST, child behavior checklist, and the parenting stress index were administered to a clinical sample and a community sample of children. Data from 262 participants were obtained. Children in the clinical sample significantly differed from the community sample on each instrument. The PST was reliably coded and most of the responses could be interpreted through a factor analysis. Consistent with hypotheses, children in the clinical sample viewed the world as a more dangerous place, were more preoccupied and less optimistic than those in the community sample. These findings support initial concurrent validity for the PST because it reliably distinguished between the two different groups, making the PST a potentially useful tool for both research and clinical uses.     

Clinicians’ Perspectives on the Diagnosis of Antisocial Disorders in Adolescence

The intent of the study was to explore how professionals view the assessment and diagnosis of antisocial disorders such as oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) and conduct disorder (CD). Six professionals from varying theoretical orientations were interviewed in order to gain insight into how theoretical and clinical perspectives influence the diagnostic process of antisocial disorders. Data was analyzed using a qualitative, constructivist grounded theory research methodology. The findings from the research interviews suggest that clinicians perceive a multifaceted approach to diagnosis. Participants emphasized the importance of individualized assessment, differential diagnosis, the role of context and impairment, and the functional and stigmatizing effects of diagnostic labels. The results illustrate relative consistency among practitioners in the assessment and diagnostic process. Further, it appears that clinicians incorporate a biopsychosocial approach to conceptualizing ODD and CD. This type of qualitative research serves to develop a conceptual understanding of the diagnostic process related to antisocial disorders.     

A Longitudinal Examination of Work–Family Balance among Working Mothers in the United States: Testing Bioecological Theory

The current study used a bioecological framework to examine three moderated-mediation models testing the mediating effects of positive work-to-family spillover and positive family-to-work spillover in the relationship between a nonstandard work schedule and work–family balance as well as between relationship quality and work-to-family balance. The moderating effects of education, family–friendly workplace policies, and race in the aforementioned models also were tested. Path analyses were used with longitudinal data from four-time periods to test the models. Results showed family-to-work spillover mediated the relationship between relationship quality and work–family balance in two models, whereas the availability of family–friendly policies significantly moderated these relationships. Relationship quality was one of the most consistently significant variables across all models, suggesting its role in helping establish work-family balance is particularly influential regardless of context. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

     

Framing Effects on Public Opinion During Prewar and Major Combat Phases of the U.S. Wars with Iraq*

Objectives. Our purpose was to develop and test several hypotheses concerning the impact of poll‐question wording on aggregate public support for war. We drew on general insights from framing theory and specific insights from various theories of public support for war. Methods. Our database consisted of two collections of aggregate poll results drawn from the prewar and major combat phases of the Gulf War (1990–1991) and the Second War with Iraq (2002–2003). For each data set, we used multivariate OLS regression to gauge the impact of specific question‐wording variations on the percentage of respondents expressing support for war, controlling for systematic time and pollster effects. Results. Most of the hypothesized wording effects were significant in the expected direction. Mentioning WMDs, terrorism, Saddam, hostages, and international support for war boosted aggregate war support in one or both wars; mentioning the president, oil or gasoline, international opposition to war, and U.S. or Iraqi casualties depressed support. Conclusions. Various theories emphasizing different “rational” aspects of public attitudes toward war are supported. However, the significance of mentioning Saddam by name in the Second War with Iraq, and mentioning the president in both wars, would seem to imply framing effects based more on emotion and/or symbolism.     

Roof–envelope ratio impact on green roof energy performance

This paper addresses the impact of roof-to-envelope ratio on overall energy savings of a green roof design over conventional roof designs. Simulations were performed using a modified version of the Environmental System Performance program simulator, developed at the University of Strathclyde. The modified design employed a model developed by Columbia University and the Goddard Institute of Space Science which models the evapotranspiritive effect of a green roof calculated using the Bowen ratio; that is, the ratio of sensible heat flux to the surrounding air to the latent heat flux resulting from evapourative energy losses. The resulting heat flux term is proportional to the external surface convection, but inversely proportional to the surface Bowen ratio, which is held constant and chosen to match experimental results obtained for a given roof design. The present study performed simulations for the month of July in a Toronto climate on square warehouse style one, two, and three-story buildings, with windows occupying 10% of the area of each wall. For the first set of simulations, the internal building load of each story was set to zero, and the roof–envelope ratio was increased by increasing the building width and length. For the final simulations, several roof–envelope ratios were chosen, and the internal load of each story was increased from 0 to 50,000 W. As the roof–envelope ratio increases, the cooling load of the upper floor for multi-story designs approaches the entire building cooling load. This indicates the importance of upper zone cooling in total building energy reductions. Furthermore, the total energy savings of a green-roofed building over a conventional roofed building were far more significant for single-story structures. A 250 × 250 m green-roof design with 50,000 W internal loading was found to have percentage energy savings of 73%, 29%, and 18%, for a one, two, and three-story design, respectively.     

The art and science of anti-aging therapies

A meeting entitled "The Art and Science of Anti-Aging Therapies: Convergence of Theory and Practice" took place on 18 and 19 March 2005 at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. The symposium was held for health care professionals, researchers, and consumers to provide them with information about current trends in anti-aging therapies. The program, which combined medical, surgical, and nonpharmacological approaches to healthy successful aging, gave attendees the opportunity to make sense of the issues at hand and to sort out safe treatments from perilous quick fixes.     

The Earnings and Employment Outcomes of the 2005 Cohort of Canadian Postsecondary Graduates with Disabilities

Canada's fear of future skill and labor shortages has brought youth with disabilities to the forefront of public policy. Many universities are now reporting that an increased proportion of their graduating students identify as having a disability, and as a result, educational achievement‐based programs designed to accommodate students’ needs are growing across campuses. Despite recent attention by policymakers on improving accessibility standards and increasing employer incentives, young Canadians with disabilities continue to face barriers in their transitions to the workforce. The nature and extent of the early workforce inequalities faced by postsecondary graduates with disabilities remains unclear. This paper draws on the 2005 cohort of Statistics Canada's National Graduates Survey to examine the early workforce outcomes of postsecondary graduates with disabilities. Contrary to theories of human capital, the results reveal significant earnings gaps between graduates with and without disabilities of various fields of study and levels of schooling. Further, graduates with a disability are even more disadvantaged in terms of securing employment, as they were significantly less likely to be employed full‐time, and were overrepresented among unemployed and part‐time workers across various fields of study and levels of postsecondary education.