Rumination for innovation? Analysing the longitudinal effects of work-related rumination on creativity at work and off-job recovery

Work-related rumination is not a single construct, but consists of a dimension associated with negative emotions or affect (affective rumination), and a dimension associated with reflective thinking and applying strategies to solve problems (problem-solving pondering). In this three-wave longitudinal study across two years (N?=?630) we investigated whether the relationships between work-related rumination, off-job recovery, and creativity at work varied along the two dimensions of work-related rumination. In addition, we tested whether the relationships followed normal, reversed, or reciprocal causation. The results showed, first, that in a one-year perspective affective rumination, but not problem-solving pondering, was negatively related to off-job recovery and that problem-solving pondering, but not affective rumination, was positively related to creativity at work. Second, in a two-year perspective, reversed effects were detected as creativity at work was negatively related to affective rumination and positively to off-job recovery. Our results suggest that the quality of work-related thoughts determines whether the outcome is beneficial or detrimental. Occupational health interventions that only advise employees to stop thinking about work during off-job time, may therefore be too simplistic.     

The Intergenerational Consequences of Parental Health Limitations

Scholars have theorized interrelationships between family members' health and well‐being. Though prior research demonstrates associations between parents' and children's health, less is known about the relationship between parental health limitations and children's behavioral and academic outcomes. This article uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Well being Study (N = 3,273) to estimate the relationship between parental health limitations and four aspects of children's well‐being. Findings reveal that mothers' health limitations, especially when they occur in middle childhood or chronically, are independently associated with greater internalizing and externalizing behaviors, lower verbal ability, and worse overall health at age 9. Fathers' health limitations are not associated with children's well‐being. Fathers exert influence in other ways, as the relationship between mothers' chronic health limitations and children's internalizing behaviors is concentrated among children not residing with their fathers. These findings support the development of policies and interventions aimed at families.     

Intersectional Epistemologies of Ignorance: How Behavioral and Social Science Research Shapes What We Know,Think We Know,and Don’t Know About U.S. Black Men’s Sexualities

Epistemologies of ignorance describe how ignorance influences the production of knowledge. Advancing an intersectional epistemologies of ignorance approach that examines how conscious (or unconscious) ignorance about racism, heterosexism, and classism shapes empirical knowledge about Black men’s sexualities, we conducted a critical review of the behavioral and social science research on U.S. Black men, ages 18 and older, for two time frames: pre-1981 and the most recent decade, 2006–2016. Our search yielded 668 articles, which we classified into five categories: sexual violence, sexual experiences and expressions, sexual identities, cultural and social-structural influences, and sexual health and sexual risk. We found that most of the research, particularly pre-1981, centered the experiences of White heterosexual men as normative and implicitly constructed Black men as hypersexual or deviant. Most of the research also color-blinded White privilege and ignored how racism, heterosexism, and classism structured Black men’s inequities. We also found notable exceptions to these trends. Black men who are gay, bisexual, or who have sex with men, and research on HIV risk were prominent in the past decade, as was research that emphasized the social-structural (e.g., poverty, heterosexism, racism) and cultural (e.g., masculinity, religion) contexts of Black men’s lives and sexualities. We provide 10 recommendations to avoid intersectional epistemic ignorance in future research.     

The Contribution of Drug Overdose to Educational Gradients in Life Expectancy in the United States, 1992–2011

Since the mid-1990s, the United States has witnessed a dramatic rise in drug overdose mortality. Educational gradients in life expectancy widened over the same period, and drug overdose likely plays a role in this widening, particularly for non-Hispanic whites. The contemporary drug epidemic is distinctive in terms of its scope, the nature of the substances involved, and its geographic patterning, which influence how it impacts different education groups. I use vital statistics and National Health Interview Survey data to examine the contribution of drug overdose to educational gradients in life expectancy from 1992–2011. I find that over this period, years of life lost due to drug overdose increased for all education groups and for both males and females. The contribution of drug overdose to educational gradients in life expectancy has increased over time and is greater for non-Hispanic whites than for the population as a whole. Drug overdose accounts for a sizable proportion of the increases in educational gradients in life expectancy, particularly at the prime adult ages (ages 30–60), where it accounts for 25 % to 100 % of the widening in educational gradients between 1992 and 2011. Drug overdose mortality has increased more rapidly for females than for males, leading to a gender convergence. These findings shed light on the processes driving recent changes in educational gradients in life expectancy and suggest that effective measures to address the drug overdose epidemic should take into account its differential burden across education groups.     

Getting Under the Skin: Children’s Health Disparities as Embodiment of Social Class

Social class gradients in children’s health and development are ubiquitous across time and geography. The authors develop a conceptual framework relating three actions of class—material allocation, salient group identity, and inter-group conflict—to the reproduction of class-based disparities in child health. A core proposition is that the actions of class stratification create variation in children’s mesosystems and microsystems in distinct locations in the ecology of everyday life. Variation in mesosystems (e.g., health care, neighborhoods) and microsystems (e.g., family structure, housing) become manifest in a wide variety of specific experiences and environments that produce the behavioral and biological antecedents to health and disease among children. The framework is explored via a review of theoretical and empirical contributions from multiple disciplines, and high-priority areas for future research are highlighted.     

Reports of Conferences,Institutes, and Seminars

ABSTRACT

This quarter's column reports on sessions from NASIG 2017: Racing to the Crossroads, held in Indianapolis, IN, June 8 to 11, and ALA Annual 2017: Transforming Our Libraries, Ourselves, which took place in Chicago, IL, June 22–27.