Stress, the quality of work, and repetition strain injury in Australia

Widespread concern developed in the 1980s in Australia about repetition injuries among keyboard operators, particularly in the Australian Public Service. Government departments were found to vary in their injury rates and this research seeks to explain the variation. It is hypothesized that it is associated with differences in job stress or, more generally, the quality of work. A survey was carried out, using the Insel and Moo Work Environment Scale and certain other job stress variables and the hypothesis was confirmed. The paper draws conclusions about the need to redesign jobs in order to reduce the risk of repetition injuries.     

Grandparent and Kinship Foster Care: Implications of Licensing and Payment Policies

ABSTRACT

In this article, we examine the different licensing and payment policies in the United States for kinship foster care and assess the potential impact of licensing policies on the likelihood that grandparents or other kin will become licensed as formal kinship foster care providers. With this information, discussion is presented that outlines possible barriers to formalized foster kinship care placement and identifies the need for changes in public policy that could lead to increased program access for kinship foster caregivers.     

Meeting communication needs: topics of talk in the nursing home

Nursing home residents primarily rely on staff for communication and interpersonal relationships. Challenged by staffing shortages and increasingly complex care, staff who provide the most communication with residents lack awareness and skills to effectively communicate with older adults. This study, a secondary analysis of staff-resident interactions from one nursing home, explores communication topics and the effects of an intervention. Staff from one unit were recorded during 2 hours of caregiving to provide a representative sample of their communication with residents. Staff then attended an educational program targeting improved awareness of communication needs and reducing "elderspeak". Recording was repeated post-intervention. Baseline conversations focused on activities of daily living (ADLs), personal-social, technical care, and health assessment. Post-intervention ADL talk decreased in staff-resident interactions, while personal-social topics increased. These findings suggest that residents' limited opportunities for communication with staff are primarily focused on care tasks. With increased communication awareness, staff can learn to modify conversational topics to better meet older adults' psychosocial needs.     

Implementing a social norms approach to reduce alcohol abuse on campus: Lessons learned in the shadow of ‘The World's Largest Six-Pack’

Many institutions of higher education are struggling with the problem of excessive alcohol consumption by students. Colleges and universities want to be ‘good neighbors’ in their communities and must limit legal and social risks that result from excessive alcohol consumption by students. At the same time, colleges and universities operate in an increasingly challenging marketplace where many prospective students seek out institutions with a ‘party school’ reputation. Thus, higher education institutions are finding it difficult to define and carry out alcohol reduction measures that satisfy all constituents. This article discusses the approach taken at the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse. UW-L is an institution that identified a serious alcohol consumption problem and had to address the problem in a community where high levels of alcohol consumption are socially and culturally condoned. The article profiles the UW-L community and discusses the campaign model and strategy chosen. Quantitative and qualitative measures of success are discussed, along with lingering issues of resistance. The article ends with a summary of current issues and future directions being taken by the campaign.     

An Analysis of Atlanta's Ordinance Prohibiting Urban Camping: Passage and Early Implementation

In November 1996, the Atlanta City Council passed an ordinance to prohibit certain Urban Camping behaviors on public lands. This paper analyzes the development, passage, and early implementation of Atlanta's Urban Camping and Improper Use of Public Places ordinance. The ordinance prohibits lying down, sleeping, regular meal preparation, and storing belongings on public property. The ordinance is controversial because it criminalizes behaviors of homeless individuals who have no private property and therefore no choice but to perform tasks necessary to life on public lands. The ordinance's passage in Atlanta is at least partly the result of a post Olympic private sector growth in power that capitalized on growing concerns about public safety and urban economic vitality. During its first year, the ordinance disproportionately impacted homeless persons. Arrests occurred primarily in parks and during daytime, summer hours. Arrests trends reflect continuing tension between Atlanta's various users of public space.     

Gift-giving and deadweight loss

Although economic theory asserts that cash is often superior to gifts in-kind for maximizing welfare, there has been no empirical consensus on whether in-kind gift-giving destroys or creates value—i.e., whether recipients value gifts less than, as much as, or more than givers pay for them. The present study introduces a simple but important methodological innovation. Whereas prior studies focused exclusively on recipients’ estimates of the costs of gifts, we obtain more objective information on actual market prices. We also compare gifts in-kind to gift cards. We find a deadweight loss that averages more than 7 percent of the market price on gifts in-kind, and more than 14 percent on gift cards.     

Inequality,happiness and relative concerns: What actually is their relationship?

This paper briefly and informally surveys different theoretical models of relative concerns and their relation to inequality. Models of inequity aversion in common use in experimental economics imply a negative relation between inequality and happiness. In contrast, empirical studies on happiness typically employ models of relative concerns that assume that increases in others’ income always have a negative effect on own happiness. However, in these latter models, the relation between inequality and happiness can be positive. One possible solution is a rivalry model where a distinction is made between endowment and reward inequality which have respectively a negative and positive effect on happiness. These different models and their contrasting results may clarify why the empirical relationship between inequality and happiness has been difficult to establish. I would like to thank Ravi Kanbur, Tatiana Kornienko and, especially, Andrew Oswald for very helpful comments. Any errors are mine.     

Parental Provision of Academic Structure and the Transition to Middle School

This study examined parents' provision of academic structure, and whether they implement it in an autonomy supportive or controlling manner, in relation to children's competence‐related beliefs, motivation, and academic behavior over the transition to middle school. Interviews with 160 sixth‐grade children were coded on parental structure and autonomy support. Children reported on their competence‐related beliefs, motivation, and engagement in sixth and seventh grades. Regression analyses showed that higher structure predicted seventh‐grade perceived competence, intrinsic motivation, engagement, and English grades, controlling for these same outcomes at sixth grade. Autonomy support predicted perceived competence, autonomous motivation, and English grades, controlling for prior outcomes. Structural equation models indicated that relations between structure and engagement and between autonomy support and grades were mediated by perceived competence.     

Reclaiming and Reimagining Macro Social Work Education: A Collective Biography

The authors focus on a collective biography of 12 women social work educators, all either tenured or in tenure lines, from five different universities at the time of the study. The participants represent several aspects of macro practice including administration, planning, community practice, and policy. Beginning with reflections about coming into macro practice, we highlight memories about first teaching experiences and examine cultural shifts discovered in our academic journeys. We feature students who inspired us and perceptions of challenges in curricular development affecting the preparation of students. This article includes comments that emphasize the themes and focus of our collective reflections. Finally, we place what we learned in the context of a report from the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration calling for the visibility of and advocacy for macro social work education.