Burnout and Wellbeing: Testing the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory in New Zealand Teachers

The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI) is a public domain questionnaire measuring the degree of physical and psychological fatigue experienced in three sub-dimensions of burnout: personal, work-related, and client-related burnout. This study first examines the reliability and validity of the CBI in measuring burnout in New Zealand secondary school teachers, and then the relationship between burnout and wellbeing among this population. The CBI had acceptable reliability (internal consistency and homogeneity) as well as factorial and criterion-related validity. As expected, burnout was negatively related to wellbeing measures (wellbeing index, school connection, and perceived general health). The findings indicate that this burnout questionnaire is a valid instrument to use with New Zealand secondary teachers, and also highlight the potential impact of burnout on the health and wellbeing of teachers.

An efficient two-stage randomized response model under stratified random sampling

A two-stage randomized response model is extended to stratified random sampling in order to find out more efficient estimators of proportions built from sensitive questions, which respondents may not answer truthfully, in a population divided into homogeneous subgroups. In each subgroup, the respondents who have not answered the sensitive question in the first stage are requested in the second stage to either answer the sensitive question (second attempt then) or to draw a card indicating “yes” or “no”. In the latter case, they are required to report the outcome. Such extension provides a more efficient estimator of the proportion of the population having a given sensitive attribute than its counterpart in simple random sampling. The extended two-stage randomized response model is more efficient than the stratified randomized response model, where respondents must answer the sensitive question either in the first or in the second stage. Moreover, it increases the respondents’ cooperation. When strata weights are unknown, they are estimated by the double sampling method.     

Sustainability‐oriented Innovation: A Systematic Review

This paper is intended as a contribution to the ongoing conceptual development of sustainability‐oriented innovation (SOI) and provides initial guidance on becoming and being sustainable. The authors organize and integrate the diverse body of empirical literature relating to SOI and, in doing so, develop a synthesized conceptual framework onto which SOI practices and processes can be mapped. Sustainability‐oriented innovation involves making intentional changes to an organization's philosophy and values, as well as to its products, processes or practices to serve the specific purpose of creating and realizing social and environmental value in addition to economic returns. A critical reading of previous literature relating to environmental management and sustainability reveals how little attention has been paid to SOI, and what exists is only partial. In a review of 100 scholarly articles and 27 grey sources drawn from the period of the three Earth Summits (1992, 2002 and 2012), the authors address four specific deficiencies that have given rise to these limitations: the meaning of SOI; how it has been conceptualized; its treatment as a dichotomous phenomenon; and a general failure to reflect more contemporary practices. The authors adopt a framework synthesis approach involving first constructing an initial architecture of the landscape grounded in previous studies, which is subsequently iteratively tested, shaped, refined and reinforced into a model of SOI with data drawn from included studies: so advancing theoretical development in the field of SOI.     

Nonverbal Reactions to an Attractive Stranger: The Role of Mimicry in Communicating Preferred Social Distance

The present study was conducted to determine the extent to which different nonverbal behaviors were associated with romantic interest in a highly attractive confederate and whether these behaviors differed as a function of relationship status and self-reported love for one’s partner. Mimicry was positively associated with romantic interest in the confederate, and consistent with the devaluation hypothesis, mimicry was negatively associated with self-reported love for one’s partner, suggesting that mimicry functions to signal preferred social distance. In addition, smiling and vocal pleasantness emerged as important affiliative nonverbal behaviors. The present results suggest that mimicry acts as a relationship-maintenance mechanism, one that is expressed automatically, unintentionally, and nonconsciously. Implications for the role of nonconscious mimicry in romantic attraction and relationship-maintenance processes are discussed.     

MINIMUM AUSTRALIAN CHILD CARE STANDARDS: A COMPARISON WITH INTERNATIONAL BENCHMARKS

In 1994 the State, Territory and Federal governments agreed upon a set of minimum regulatory standards for long day centre-based child care. This article compares those standards with two international benchmarks for minimum standards in child care. The Australian standards are barely adequate at best when assessed against those benchmarks. It is an open question how much improvement the new child care accreditation system can achieve without improvements in the underlying regulatory requirements.     

Recycling in multi-family dwellings: Increasing participation and decreasing contamination

This study explored the promotion of recycling in multi-family dwellings. An experimental design investigated four behavior change techniques: biweekly postcards giving specific feedback to each dwelling unit as to quantity and contamination of the recyclables, newsletters giving general information on recycling and the amount recycled by the city as a whole, written pledges committing households to recycle for a specified period, and volunteer coordinators who distributed information and answered questions from residents. The effectiveness of these techniques was compared against that of a control group. The findings suggest that volunteer coordinators are not an effective intervention technique in multi-family dwellings, and that feedback and commitment techniques are useful mainly for managing contamination in medium sized complexes. The data also suggest that the size of a multi-family dwelling complex significantly affects the amount of recyclables collected and the level of contamination. Smaller complexes with less than ten units recycled up to three times the amount on a per unit basis as complexes with more units. Smaller units also had fewer problems with contamination in their recyclables. Several explanations are offered for the poor participation and performance in larger complexes.     

A suggested framework for analysis of urban-rural fertility differentials with an illustration of the Tanzanian case

This paper offers a framework for analyzing how individual characteristics and urban or rural "place" factors interact to influence fertility decisions. The framework builds on the Davis-Blake model and additionally shows how place or community variables influence exposure to intercourse, conception, and birth, either with or without a conscious decisionmaking process. The framework emphasizes the way person and place related factors combine to determine a woman's perception of her life options before bearing any children, as well as how changes in these factors may affect subsequent child decisions. The framework is briefly illustrated by the Tanzanian case. The analysis highlights urban-based considerations, such as education-wage differentials, which may influence the rural couple's decisions. A comparison of two rural cohorts shows that specific community variables such as cultural attitudes, accessibility, general educational levels, and child mortality mediate the influence of these urban-based phenomena.Research for this project was completed while the author was affiliated with GETEMPO, Washington, D.C., under contract to the Office of Urban Development, U.S. Agency for International Development. The author gratefully acknowledges the comments and assistance of Ann C. Orr, James E. Kocher, Paula E. Hollerbach, and two anonymous referees. Requests for reprints should be directed to Sally Evans Findley, Minnesota State Planning Agency, Room 101 Capitol Square Building, 550 Cedar Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101.