Noticing and helping the neglected child: towards an international research agenda

This systematic review examined the evidence on the extent to which practitioners are equipped to recognize and respond to the indications that a child's needs are likely to be, or are being neglected. This paper examines the methodological issues arising from the review. A systematic process of progressive filtering yielded 112 papers representing primary studies that inform the international research agenda for child neglect. A final dataset of 63 studies was of sufficient quality and usefulness for inclusion. The review raised a number of methodological issues of relevance for research in child protection in general, and on neglect in particular. Researchers and practitioners can benefit from an enhanced understanding of the issues that make neglect difficult to understand. Common issues were identified to inform future research. For example, there was a tendency for studies to use a range of proxy measures rather than direct observation of the outcome of interest, and a wide range of different outcome measures was used. Many of the studies were small scale or retrospective in design. Many studies conflated neglect and other forms of maltreatment, and it was often difficult to extract specific messages for neglect.     

Yoga for stress reduction and injury prevention at work

At work employees face numerous psychological stressors that can undermine their work performance. These stressors, stemming from a variety of possible causes, have enormous health and financial impacts on employees as well as employers. Stress has been shown to be one of the factors leading to musculo-skeletal disorders (MSDs) such as: include back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, shoulder or neck tension, eye strain, or headaches. Yoga is an ancient form of exercise that can reduce stress and relieve muscular tension or pain. Practicing yoga at the workplace teaches employees to use relaxation techniques to reduce stress and risks of injury on the job. Yoga at the workplace is a convenient and practical outlet that improves work performance by relieving tension and job stress.     

Trust: Missing Piece(s) in the Safety Puzzle

While trust is increasingly recognized as a factor that impacts on safety behavior, the exact nature of trust and its role in shaping organizational safety is poorly understood. This special issue contains six articles that examine the relationship between trust and safety behavior in a range of high-risk work contexts. The issue begins with two articles that introduce the complex nature of trust and the positive and negative roles that trust can play in shaping an organization's safety culture. This background is then developed by two articles that explore the role of trust and distrust in safety performance, and uncover a range of significant but often counterintuitive relationships between forms of trust and safe behavior. Finally, the issue concludes with two articles that examine the role that leadership may play in developing trust. These articles examine the conditions important for the development of trust in leaders, and the trust-promoting actions that leaders can employ to influence employees' engagement in safety participation.     

Psychological distress among black and white Americans: differential effects of social support, negative interaction and personal control

This study examines the relationships among social support, negative interaction, financial strain, traumatic events, personal control, personality, and psychological distress among African American and white adults. These analyses: (1) test the overall adequacy of various models (i.e., main, mediator, and artifactual effects) of these effects, (2) examine the role of social support and negative interaction within the context of financial strain and traumatic events, and (3) verify possible indirect effects of social interaction on distress by assessing their impact on personal control. Data from The National Comorbidity Survey were used to examine these relationships using structural equation modeling techniques. Findings indicated different models of these relationships for African Americans and whites. Overall, personal control mediated the relationship between negative interaction and psychological distress. For whites, negative interaction was an overall stronger predictor of distress and contributed to the impact of financial strain and traumatic events on psychological distress. Among African Americans, social support was a stronger predictor of distress. The findings suggest that the underlying models of these relationships are different for African Americans and whites.     

Status, role, and resource explanations for age patterns in psychological distress

Using data from the 1996 and 1998 General Social Surveys, we explore the relationships among age, age-linked personal and social qualities, and two measures of psychological distress: depression (1996) and generalized distress (1998). Our study has three aims: (1) to replicate the u-shaped age-distress relationship in two recent U.S. data sets, (2) to confirm and elaborate on the mediators of the parabolic association, and (3) to explore the possible suppressor effects. In 1996, depression decreases from young adulthood into midlife and increases among the oldest-old. Less education, lower control, and widowhood contribute to old-age upturn; however, fewer time demands and greater financial satisfaction suppress the upward curve. Conversely, greater control, less shame, and greater religious attendance contribute to the decline through midlife; however, poorer health in midlife suppress that decline. Age patterns in distress are similar in the 1998 sample. Greater satisfaction with finances and fewer religious doubts contribute to the downward slope; however, declining levels of health suppress that downturn. Less education and retired status contribute to the old-age upturn. In sum, personal and social conditions have opposing influences on the parabolic relationship between age and distress.     

Strategic planning—Which style do you need?

Strategic planning is now a large and diverse activity practised in many different kinds of organizations. This article provides an overview of the field with a summary of the five main schools of thought each with its own business philosophy and a range of practical approaches and techniques. These basic styles are concerned with planning as a central control system, a framework for innovation, an organizational change process, a political activity, and a way of exploring the future. Most planning systems have a dominant style or focus and this emphasis needs to be adjusted in response to changes which are occurring continually in the organization and in the external environment. The article is designed to help the senior manager or corporate planner to assess the state of planning in his organization and to see where there are important gaps in the enterprise's capability for planning which might be filled by the launching of new initiatives. The article also offers an agenda of approaches for consideration by the executive who wishes to move his enterprise from a conventional 5-year planning and budgeting system towards a more comprehensive process of managing organizational change and development.     

Comparative trials in classification of image data

In this paper, we describe some results of an ESPRIT project known as StatLog whose purpose is the comparison of classification algorithms. We give a brief summary of some of the algorithms in the project: discriminant analysis; nearest neighbours; decision trees; neural net methods; SMART; kernel methods and other Bayesian approaches.We focus on data sets derived from images, ranging from raw pixel data to features and summaries extracted from such data.