A 14-h night-shift in the control room of a fire brigade

Abstract

All 29 operators in the control room of a fire brigade performed test sessions during work and leisure time at 2-h intervals on a day with a 14-h night-shift, a day off and a day with a 10-h morning shift. The test sessions consisted of a visual search choice reaction time test and two Sternberg memory search tests (1 or 5 letters had to be memorized). Furthermore, the operators recorded their oral temperature and their subjective alertness before each test session. The subject also kept a diary of work and sleep times for 14 days. The circadian rhythm of body temperature was hardly changed by a single night-shift. Parallel to the body temperature, the subjective alertness fell significantly during the night-shift reaching a minimum value at 06:00 h. The mean reaction times increased non-significantly at the end of the night-shift and the results of the two Sternberg memory search tests showed no significant trends. The sleep of the operators after the night-shift was on average reduced to 5 hs 34 min. The results of subjective rating of alertness and reaction time test are interpreted as effects of the combined influences of circadian rhythmicity, sleep loss and time on professional task. Most results support the conclusion that a 14-h night-shift without extensive breaks is not acceptable.     

The Impact of Childhood Sexual Abuse on Later Sexual Victimization among Runaway Youth

Path analysis was used to investigate the impact of childhood sexual abuse on later sexual victimization among 372 homeless and runaway youth in Seattle. Young people were interviewed directly on the streets and in shelters by outreach workers in youth service agencies. High rates of both childhood sexual abuse and street sexual victimization were reported, with females experiencing much greater rates compared with their male counterparts. Early sexual abuse in the home increased the likelihood of later sexual victimization on the streets indirectly by increasing the amount of time at risk, deviant peer affiliations, participating in deviant subsistence strategies, and engaging in survival sex. These findings suggest that exposure to dysfunctional and disorganized homes place youth on trajectories for early independence. Subsequently, street life and participation in high‐risk behaviors increases their probability of sexual victimization.     

Risk Management in a Polio-Free World

Inherent in the decision to launch the Global Polio Eradication Initiative in 1988 was the expectation for many people that immunization against poliomyelitis would eventually simply stop, as had been the case with smallpox following its eradication in 1977. However, the strategies for managing the risks associated with a "polio-free" world must be continuously refined to reflect new developments, particularly in our understanding of the live polioviruses in the oral poliovirus vaccine (OPV) and in the international approach to managing potential biohazards. The most important of these developments has been the confirmation in 2000 that vaccine-derived polioviruses (VDPVs) can circulate and cause polio outbreaks, making the use of OPV after interruption of wild poliovirus transmission incompatible with a polio-free world. A comprehensive strategy has been developed to minimize the risks associated with eventual OPV cessation, centered on appropriate long-term biocontainment of poliovirus stocks (whether for vaccine production, diagnosis, or research), the controlled reintroduction of any live poliovirus vaccine (i.e., from an OPV stockpile), and appropriate use of the inactivated poliovirus vaccine (IPV). Although some aspects of this risk management strategy are still debated, there is wide agreement that no strategy would entirely eliminate the potential risks to a polio-free world. The current strategy for risk management in a polio-free world will continue to evolve with better characterization of these risks and the development of more effective approaches both to reduce those risks and to limit their consequences should they occur.     

Interethnic Contact, Identity, and Psychological Adjustment: The Mediating and Moderating Roles of Communication

Social psychological theories of second-language communication posit a relationship between second-language competence/usage and social identity. Identity and adaptation outcomes of intercultural contact have also been central issues for cross-cultural psychology. The studies described here are at the junction of these two research traditions. Based on a situated-identity approach, they show the mediating and moderating roles of second-language confidence for identity change and adjustment among minority- and majority-group members. Two studies involving Canadian francophone and anglophone university students illustrate the relationship between relative status and identity as well as the mediating role of communication in determining identity and adjustment. The third study, involving participants of East Indian descent, shows that incongruities among aspects of identity are related to the experience of collective discrimination and stress. Furthermore, these relations are moderated by second-language confidence. The conclusion discusses theoretical and practical implications for policy.     

Family transitions in Young Adulthood

Using the first (1995) and third (2001-2002) waves of the Add Health survey, we examine women 's family transitions up to age 24. Only a third of all women marry, and a fifth of those marriages dissolve before age 24. Three out of eight women have afirst birth, with a substantial majority of those births outside of marriage: 66% for whites, 96% for blacks, and 72% for Mexican Americans. Cohabitation is the predominant union form; 59% of women cohabit at least once by age 24. Most cohabitations are short lived, with approximately one in five resulting in a marriage. We summarize the family and relationship experience of women up to age 24 in terms offour categories, each accounting for roughly a quarter of all women. Category 1 has the women who remain single nonparents. Category 2 has the early marriers, women whose marriage is not preceded by a first birth. Category 3 has those who become single parents. Category 4 has the women who cohabit at least once, but who do not marry or have a birth by age 24. The strictly ordered transitions of the 1950s are long gone and have been replaced by a variety of paths to adulthood.     

Please wait until I am done! Longitudinal effects of work interruptions on employee well-being

ABSTRACT

Work interruptions are contemporary job stressors that occur frequently in the workplace. Theories on work interruptions and the stressor–strain relationship over time suggest that work interruptions should have a lagged negative effect on well-being. However, we argue that continued changes in work interruptions may also be important for employees’ well-being. We investigated the mid- and long-term effects of work interruptions on employee job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints across two studies (Study 1: N?=?415, four waves over five years; Study 2: N?=?663, five waves over eight months). Using latent growth modelling, we predicted job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints with respect to the level of, and changes in, interruptions. Controlling for initial well-being, we found that the mean levels (intercepts) of work interruptions had negative effects on later well-being in Study 1, but not in Study 2. However, increases in interruptions over time (slopes) predicted later well-being consistently. An analysis on reversed effects revealed that only the initial level of psychosomatic complaints positively predicted work interruptions. The studies underscore not only the importance of interruptions for well-being over time in general, but also the particular importance of exposure to increases in interruptions.     

What do teenagers want? What do teenagers need?

It is widely accepted that adolescence is a developmental phase fraught with challenges, yet in the 1990s, teenagers face unique demands and difficulties. Dilemmas such as increased violence, drug and alcohol use, sexual involvement and AIDS pose problems not only for the teens themselves, but also for their families, teachers, health care providers and other caregivers.This article reports on the qualitative findings extracted from a study of over 3,700 teenagers from urban, suburban, and small city settings, describing the array of difficulties teenagers face today. The themes which emerged from the students' comments offer a compelling portrait of life as a teenager in the 1990s and help shape an agenda for understanding and responding to these myriad needsThis research was supported by grants from the Ohio Department of Mental Health (#93,1058A), Treu-Mart Fund, Nord Family Foundation, and the University at Albany Faculty Research Awards Program.     

BOOK REVIEWS

Book reivewed in this article:
The New Conservatism: Cultural Criticism and the Historians' Debate , by Jurgen Habermas. Ed. and trans. by Shierry Weber Nicholsen. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990, 200 pages, $19.95, hardback.
Deceptive Distinctions: Sex, Gender and the Social Order , by Cynthia B. Fuchs Epstein. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988, 300 pages, $25.00, hardback.
Medical Work in America: Essays on Health Care , by Eliot Freidson. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989, 274 pages, $30.00, cloth, $15.95, paper.
Philosophy of Science and Its Discontents , by Steve Fuller. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989, 188 pages, $32.95, hardcover.
Friendship: Developing a Sociological Perspective , by Graham Allan. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989, 174 pages, $16.95, hardback.
The Urban Web: Politics, Policy, and Theory , by Lawrence J.R. Herson and John M. Bolland. Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall Publishers, 1990, 512 pages, $22.95, paper, $29.95, hardback.
The Real Disaster is Above Ground: A Mine Fire and Social Conflict , by J. Stephen Kroll-Smith and Stephen Robert Couch. Lexington, KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1990, 200 pages, $24.00, hardback.
The Power Elite and the State: How Policy is Made in America , by G. William Domhoff. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1990, 315 pages, $47.95, hardback, $19.95, paper.
Locality and Inequality: Farm and Industry Structure and Socioeconomic Conditions , by Linda M. Lobao. Albany, NY: The State University of New York Press, 1990, 291 pages, $49.50, hardback, $14.95, paper.     

Do Americans Trust Other Nations? A Panel Study*

Objectives. This study examines Americans' generalized beliefs about how much the United States can trust other nations, as well as changes over time in such beliefs. Methods. We analyze original panel survey data collected in 2001 and 2002. Results. Although only a minority of panel respondents expressed generalized trust in other nations immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, even fewer expressed such trust when reinterviewed almost a year later. Social trust, political trust, and party loyalties predicted individual‐level change in this form of trust from 2001 to 2002. Conclusions. Declining trust in other nations may have important implications for public opinion and, ultimately, public policy regarding world affairs.