Burnout and reciprocity: Towards a dual-level social exchange model

A tentative dual-level social exchange model of burnout and organizational commitment is proposed that includes social exchange relationships at the interpersonal level (i.e. between human services professional, or caregiver, and recipient) as well as at the organizational level (i.e. between employees and organization). The model was tested and cross-validated in two independent samples that consisted of 220 and 142 student nurses, respectively, by using linear structural modelling with LISREL VII. The hypothesized model assumes that lack of reciprocity at both levels is positively related to burnout, whereas poor organizational commitment is exclusively related to lack of reciprocity at the organizational level. This model fitted reasonably well to the data of both samples. The limitations of the study and its practical implications are discussed, and directions for future research on the dual-level social exchange model are proposed.     

The Bumpy Road to Womanhood

This paper is based on a qualitative study dealing with societal constraints with regard to womanhood for physically disabled young women in Sweden. The findings show that the young women are subjected to stereotyped views on what having an impairment involves and have to deal with certain normative criteria of what constitutes womanhood. Despite being 'children' of their time and culture, i.e. rejecting the traditional subservient role of 'the disabled' and of women generally, the young women yearn for the pursuing of tasks, such as caring for children and the home, closely linked to the traditional role of (non-disabled) women. It is argued that this can be understood as a means of counterbalancing an early acquired role of passive recipient. Alongside a positive identification with the group of 'the disabled', the interviewees strive towards being seen as something other than disabled, i.e. as women.     

Scheidung in Ost- und Westdeutschland

This paper compares marital stability of East and West German women before re-unification in 1990. It is analyzed to what extent women in both countries differed concerning the risk to experience a first divorce and what factors caused these differences. The main focus is on the impact of women’s labor force participation on marital stability. While the GDR, in terms of women’s participatio in the labor market, was based on egalitarian role expectations, the social and institutional constraints of the FRG supported the male-breadwinner model. The oppositeness of these role models makes it possible to investigate whether the interrelation between women’s labor force participation and marital stability differs between traditional and egalitarian societies. The empirical analyses, based on the German Fertility and Family Survey (1992), show a significantly higher divorce risk for East German women that is primarily caused by the smaller number of religious people, a higher share of women that experienced a parental divorce and the higher number of employed women in the GDR. In both countries women’ labor force participation was connected with a higher divorce risk, but the effect was stronger in West than in East Germany. Thus, this study yields evidence for a weaker negative relationship between women’s labor force participation and marital stability in societies that are dominated by egalitarian in comparison to traditional role expectations.     

Out of the Disability Closet: strategic use of perception management by select university students with disabilities

This study examines the ways in which university students with apparent and hidden disabilities actively manage the perceptions of others. Interview data were collected and analysed by theme. Students indicated that they valued their own experience of disability, but were aware that knowledge of their disability altered the behaviors of others toward them. Whereas some perception management strategies have previously been called denial and 'passing,' for our participants these behaviors constituted a set of interpersonal skills. Participants evaluated themselves positively while struggling to project an image as complex individuals rather than stereotypes. Within deviance theory, passing as non-disabled has been conceptualised as a reactive social behavior that is motivated by low self-regard or fear. Our findings do not support this model. We, therefore, examine perception management within the framework of social identity theory.     

Scandinavian Contrasts and Norwegian Variations in Special Housing for Older People

De-institutionalization is a general trend for Scandinavian long-term care over the last decades. Denmark and Sweden have taken this trend a step further than Norway has, as Denmark suspended institutional care altogether in 1987 and Sweden in 1992. Since then, residential care has been provided to individuals in special housing in various forms. This housing is in principle “independent housing,” where residents are tenants and are provided services according to needs and not sites. This article concentrates on the Norwegian variations to this system, as this is the only country of the 3 that still provides residential care under 2 “regimes,” an institutional care regime and an assisted housing regime. Is assisted housing essentially different from institutional care, or is it better described as old wine in new bottles? The latter may be the case for Sweden, whereas Denmark stands out as having the most housing-oriented care model. Institutional care (i.e., nursing homes) still dominates in Norway, where assisted housing is merely a minor supplement to institutional care in most municipalities. The article explores the reasons for these trends and, in particular, the reasons for the Norwegian resistance to assisted housing as an alternative form of residential care.     

Change in Gender‐Ideology, 1977–1996:The Contributions of Intracohort Change and Population Turnover

This paper addresses the processes underlying the dramatic shift in beliefs about women's work and family roles in the United States over the past two decades. Following Mason and Lu (1988) , we posited this shift to be a function of actual change in individual opinions, as well as changes in population membership that result from births and deaths. Using pooled cross‐sections from the General Social Surveys (1977 to 1996), we found that although demographic processes and microlevel attitude change are both important in understanding attitude trends, the contribution of cohort succession is substantially greater now than in the period that Mason and Lu examined. Multivariate analyses show that (a) the sex difference in attitudes is greater among recent cohorts, and (b) the strong association between education and attitudes that characterized earlier cohorts is significantly weaker among cohorts born after 1945.     

Intimate Partner Violence Survivors’ Unmet Social Service Needs

ABSTRACT

Women who have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) victimization are at risk for physical and mental health problems, as well as social and economic challenges. In this cross-sectional study, 173 adult, English-speaking women who had experienced police response to IPV completed a self-report questionnaire about their use of, interest in, and need for various social services and whether or not each type of service helped (or would help) them to feel safer. More than three quarters of the participants reported a current need for health and economic support services. There was less interest in traditional IPV resources: law enforcement and domestic violence counseling or shelter. Expanding services to meet survivors’ needs for health care and economic independence may facilitate long-term safety. Recommendations for further research in this area are provided.     

GENDER,OCCUPATIONAL CLASS AND WORK–LIFE CONFLICT

Although people from different countries may report similar scores on measures of work–life conflict, the factors which give rise to conflict may in fact be very different. Full-time working respondents to the 2002 Family module International Social Survey Programme (ISSP) in both Portugal and Britain were assessed for country, gender and occupational class differences in work–life conflict, focusing on both work and domestic spheres. Two distinct groups emerged as having very high levels of work–life conflict: routine and manual women in Portugal and professional and managerial women in Britain. It is suggested that very long hours of domestic work, combined with worries over unsatisfactory childcare arrangements and a lack of support from partners and informal networks, contribute to the high levels of conflict experienced by women working in routine and manual occupations in Portugal. The pressures of very long working hours, combined with a perception of increasing work demands, as well as additional domestic work, contribute to the high levels of work–life conflict for women working in professional and managerial occupations in Britain.