A critical perspective on organizational values

This article looks critically at the results of one nonprofit volunteer center in its identification of organizational values and associated workplace behaviors. Using Martin's cultural framework (2002) inclusive of integration, differentiation, and fragmentation perspectives revealed a richer understanding of how staff, board members, and in‐service service volunteers variously interpret the meanings of workplace values. In particular, views that might otherwise have been ignored or remained silent were more clearly understood.     

STUDENT POVERTY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BALLARAT

This article draws together the findings of two recent studies at the University of Ballarat which suggest that poverty is experienced among a considerable minority of students. In a pilot study of 54 students and a phenomenological study of 17 students, different ways of measuring poverty were considered: the Poverty Line, dependence on a government allowance, cultural criteria and self‐perception. It was found that undertaking part‐time work failed to protect students from poverty, with significant indebtedness affecting all. Those under the Poverty Line were more likely to be young and male and less likely to be living in a family. Poor students saw their well‐being and self‐worth affected by poverty as they struggled to escape a cycle of indebtedness and risked academic standards by working longer hours.     

College students' attitudes about lesbians: what difference does 16 years make?

The article reviews empirical studies on trends in attitudes toward lesbians and gay men and compares data from a 1985 survey of 297 students living in a college residence hall with data collected in 2001 when 152 students living in the same residence hall responded to a similar questionnaire. College students in 2001 expressed more accepting attitudes toward lesbians, reported more contact with lesbians, and assessed their parents' attitudes as more positive when compared with the 1985 sample. Consistent trends in the importance of these variables to the development of attitudes toward lesbians were shown, with gender role attitudes, parental attitudes, and exposure to education and media about gays and lesbians remaining the most important predictors. This suggests that strategies that discourage gender role stereotypes and provide educational and media experiences could increase acceptance of sexual minorities. Although gender was significant in 1985, there were no effects of gender in the 2001 sample. Continued study of trends in attitudes toward all sexual minorities and attention to the relative importance of gender and gender roles are recommended.     

Addressing the Needs of Adults and Children with Disabilities through Emergency Preparedness and Organizational Improvisation

The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe the experiences of fifteen organizational leaders and staff members who were responsible for caring for adults and children with disabilities during a 2014 winter storm. This study integrates the literature bases of emergency management and organizational improvisation. In response to this severe unexpected winter weather event, organizational leaders and staff members demonstrated creativity and flexibility in addressing the needs of clients, students, and patients, including adults and children with disabilities. The study concludes with reflections about emergency planning and organizational improvisation, practical implications, and a call to action to learn from these events and provide additional training and resources to individuals who may be in similar situations in the future.     

Infant Neurodevelopment is Affected by Prenatal Maternal Stress: The QF2011 Queensland Flood Study

Research shows that prenatal maternal stress (PNMS) negatively affects a range of infant outcomes; yet no single study has explored the effects of stress in pregnancy from a natural disaster on multiple aspects of infant neurodevelopment. This study examined the effects of flood‐related stress in pregnancy on 6‐month‐olds' neurodevelopment and examined the moderating effects of timing of the stressor in gestation and infant sex on these outcomes. Women exposed to the 2011 Queensland (Australia) floods in pregnancy completed surveys on their flood‐related objective and subjective experiences at recruitment and reported on their infants' neurodevelopment on the problem solving, communication, and personal–social scales of the Ages and Stages‐III at 6 months postpartum (N = 115). Interaction results showed that subjective flood stress in pregnancy had significantly different effects in boys and girls, and that at high levels of stress girls had significantly lower problem solving scores than boys. Timing of the flood later in pregnancy predicted lower personal–social scores in the sample, and there was a trend (p < .10) for greater objective flood exposure to predict lower scores. PNMS had no effect on infants' communication skills. In conclusion, differential aspects of maternal flood‐related stress in pregnancy influenced aspects of 6‐month‐olds' neurodevelopment.     

Age differences and transfer on control solution testing with blood glucometers

The elderly are at an increased risk for being diagnosed with diabetes. While previous studies have examined technique errors when a patient used his or her current blood glucometer or a single novel glucometer, no study has measured errors as a patient transferred to using a second, novel experimental glucometer. Results support findings that older adults perform more slowly and less accurately than younger adults when transferring between pieces of equipment. Implications for future blood glucometer design and training are discussed.     

The Associations between income,informal social networks,and health among older adults in South Korea: A multi‐group analysis based on the level of age‐friendly environments

The aim of the present study was to empirically investigate the role of age‐friendly environments (AFE) on the associations between income, informal social networks, and health among South Korean older adults. We used data from the “2017 Age Integration Survey” collected nationally and ultimately analyzed 615 older adults over 50 years of age. Structural equation modeling and multi‐group analysis were used to test the hypothesis. Specifically, two groups of perceived levels of AFE (top 25%, bottom 25%) were compared in order to examine the moderating effects. The results indicated that poor income and scarce informal social networks each had a significantly adverse impact on health. However, the effect of income on health was no longer significant for older adults living in environments that were more age‐friendly. In both groups, the presence of fewer informal social networks adversely impacted health, although the sizes of the effects decreased when the level of AFE perceived by older adults was improved. Finally, several implications of the study findings were discussed.     

Beyond Bluebeard: feminist nostalgia and Top of the Lake (2013)

Jane Campion’s films have repeatedly used the Bluebeard story as a myth underpinning their narrative structures. This article examines the way in which her 2012 TV series, Top of the Lake, both uses and moves beyond this myth, arguing that its central focus on mothers and daughters draws instead on another, related myth, that of Demeter and Proserpine. This story, Mary Jacobus has suggested, is the Greek myth that Freud does not select, indeed represses, in his search for a founding myth that would ground the psychoanalytic story of childhood development. It is also a myth which, in a gesture of “feminist nostalgia,” feminists have repeatedly appropriated in their desire to recover a “lost,” unalienated mother-daughter relationship. Top of the Lake, I argue, is both an exercise in and investigation of such feminist nostalgia. Campion’s evocation of the myth of Proserpine/Demeter to underpin its complex mix of female Gothic and detective story counters the dominant cultural narrative of Oedipus. But like Jacobus it remains suspicious of utopian fantasies and the unalienated body.