The Attitude Toward Voluntary Childlessness in Europe: Cultural and Institutional Explanations

The prevalence and social acceptance of childlessness have increased in recent decades. Still, little is known about how this social acceptance is shaped, the extent to which approval of childlessness differs across Europe, and what factors cause potential cross‐national variation. The authors used data from the European Social Survey 2006 (N = 36,187) to examine the attitude toward voluntary childlessness in 20 countries. Results from multilevel models were largely in line with expectations derived from Second Demographic Transition theory concerning traditional orientation, age, religiousness, education, and stage of Second Demographic Transition in a country. The results also corroborated individual‐level expectations on the role of gender and socioeconomic status based on New Home Economics theory. One country‐level indicator, child‐care availability, was not related to the attitude toward childlessness. The current study provides new insights into explaining cross‐national differences in the attitude toward childlessness and more generally into the process of fertility decision making.     

Natural disasters: an assessment of family resiliency following Hurricane Katrina

This study explored the role of family characteristics in the coping process of a family after having experienced Hurricane Katrina to gain an understanding of the relationship between family resiliency, hope, family hardiness, and spirituality for survivors of this natural disaster. It was hypothesized that families who demonstrate higher levels of hope, family hardiness, and spirituality would be more likely to effectively cope after the storm. Further, great resource loss was hypothesized to diminish a family's ability to cope. Four hundred fifty-two participants completed the survey. Results indicate a relationship between hope, family hardiness and spirituality, and the criterion variable, family coping. The importance of these findings in terms of exploring family resiliency following a natural disaster is discussed.     

Evaluation of public health professionals' capacity to implement environmental changes supportive of healthy weight

Community-based interventions to promote healthy weights by making environmental and policy changes in communities may be an important strategy in reversing the obesity epidemic. However, challenges faced by local public health professionals in facilitating effective environmental and policy change need to be better understood and addressed. To better understand capacity-building needs, this study evaluated the efforts of the Healthy Start Partnership, a university-community project to promote healthy weights in young families in a rural eight-county area of upstate New York. Qualitative interviews (n=30) and pre/post surveys (n=31) were conducted over three years of the intervention. Challenges faced by partners significantly slowed progress of environmental interventions in some communities. First, many partners did not feel their "regular" jobs afforded them sufficient time to do community work. Second, many partners did not feel they had the personal political power to work on broader environmental, policy, or system change issues. Third, facilitating and policy change and reaching out to non-traditional partners, like businesses, required developing a new set of public health skills. Fourth, the long-time frame of environmental and policy work meant that many efforts would exceed the grant period. Building local public health leaders for environmental and policy change necessitates that these challenges are acknowledged and addressed.     

‘Without fish,there would be nothing here’: Attitudes to salmon and identification with place in a Russian coastal village

Postsocialist transformations have changed resource values in many rural parts of Russia. On the Terskii Coast in the northwest of Russia, salmon has become a key resource for people's everyday survival. Management of this resource used to be heavily controlled by the state during the Soviet period. The situation changed radically after the collapse of Soviet rule, as fishing salmon individually became more easily available. Depending on whether they are local or come from elsewhere, people ascribe different values to local resources. Incomers tend to focus on a commercial meaning of salmon and have a more exploitative attitude to it compared to local people. While also ascribing high commercial value to salmon as a resource, local people attribute nonprofit meanings to salmon at the same time. The difference between the two groups reveals itself in people's attitudes to commercial fishing, and in their ways of sharing salmon with others. In this article I look at how place-related identity interplays with values attributed to salmon as people on the Terskii Coast manage this key local resource.     

Resisting Smoking When a Best Friend Smokes: Do Intrapersonal and Contextual Factors Matter?

This longitudinal study examines individual differences in the tendency to initiate (N = 4,612) and escalate (N = 2,837) smoking when adolescents gain a best friend who smokes. Potential moderating factors include self-esteem, depression, problem behavior, school and family bonds, and household access to cigarettes. In addition to acquiring a smoking best friend, initiation was predicted by trouble at school, household access, poorer grades and delinquency, whereas escalation was predicted by depressive symptoms. There was little evidence that the examined individual difference factors moderate the association between gaining a smoking best friend and increased adolescent smoking. Results point to the challenges of identifying factors that may lead adolescents to be more or less susceptible to the influence of pro-smoking friends.     

The influence of the tasks characteristics in physical performance and psychosocial aspects of workers

The work and life conditions have influence on the health and life quality of workers. Physically active persons can demonstrate a life style that are and affect the physical performance, psychosocial aspects and work capacity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the physical activity level and work capacity in different tasks characteristics, one with more physical exertion and other with more cognitive exertion. A total of 193 workers from an institution of higher education and 457 workers from a metallurgical industry participated in the current study. All participants completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ-short) and Work Ability Index (WAI). The results indicated that both groups were classified as having high level of physical activity while only few of them were considered sedentary (less than 27%). However, the group of metallurgical workers had greater indices (82%) than the workers from higher education institution (74%). Overall, the workers reported their work ability as moderate to excellent, suggesting that overall they are satisfied with their working and health conditions. It can be concluded that even though workers performed tasks with different demands (cognitive versus physical), they demonstrated similar level of physical activity as well as work ability.     

Ergonomic and organizational analysis of an association of collectors of recyclable waste

The managerial difficulties encountered by an Association of Recyclable Materials Collectors to organize and ensure the perpetuation of his work gave rise to this research. In order to overcome the difficulties encountered with regard to accounting, organizational and ergonomic work, we used a methodology capable of providing a greater interaction between researchers and collectors, facilitating the exchange of knowledge and the perpetuation of the techniques used. Improvements were seen in relation to screening, storage and organization of work.     

Prevalence of discomfort/pain complaints and related factors in dental professionals of the public health service in Araucária, Paraná state, Brazil

This poster presents a study about the influence of gender related factors, age, body weight, time of service in the profession and practice of physical exercise on the prevalence of discomfort/pain complaints in dental professionals. The scope of this study was limited to 123 subjects, 84.24% of professionals in the public dental clinics, who answered the multidimensional analytical work questionnaire. The data suggest that the lack postural awareness can contribute to the maintenance of painful conditions and also the low commitment to self-care can perpetuate the state of musculoskeletal discomfort/pain, justifying the application of the ergonomics concepts in the workplace and systematic guidance to professionals to adopt a healthy lifestyle.     

Determining anthropometric variables as a tool in the preparation of furniture and designs of interior spaces: the case of children 6 to 11 years old of Vicosa, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil

The adequacy of facilities and the individual securities in their different age groups is importance to ensure greater functionality to them, allowing full development of daily activities. For this to occur more efficiently it is necessary the use of ergonomics which can ensure more comfort and safety for end users of products and spaces. The present study aimed to measure body dimensions of a representative sample of children aged 6 to 11 years old, children of graduate and pos graduate students, faculty and staff of the Federal University of Vicosa and also residents of the city of Vicosa, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, coming from different municipalities of State of Minas Gerais, to organize a database that will provide the furniture industry, anthropometric variables more appropriate to design products for both the leisure activities, and for the school sector. To realize this research we used the methodology proposed by the authors Panero and Zelnik, based on samples distributed in six age groups, and providing a measurement of 10 variables. By applying the methodology to the field was possible to compare the observed data, with the tables of the aforementioned authors. The main results revealed a significant variation of the 10 variables analyzed, and it is believed that this variation could lead to possible flaws in the designs of products that use the data from these authors. The completion of the study provided data on Vicosa considered more appropriate for the design of products and environments for the population of the study, considering age and region, of Brazil (State of Minas Gerais) and it is believed that the future may expand to the Brazilian population, with the progress of study of this nature.