Occupational stress in universities: Staff perceptions of the causes,consequences and moderators of stress

In recent years, the Australian university sector has undergone large-scale organizational change, including restructuring, downsizing and government funding cuts. At the same time, research from across the globe reports an alarming increase in the occupational stress experienced by university staff. We report on the first phase of a longitudinal investigation of occupational stress. A total of 22 focus groups were conducted with a representative sample of 178 academic and general staff from 15 Australian universities. The groups focused on understanding staff 's experience of occupational stress, and perceptions of the sources, consequences and moderators of stress. Both general and academic staff reported a dramatic increase in stress during the previous 5 years. As a group, academic staff reported higher levels of stress than general staff. Five major sources of stress were identified including: insufficient funding and resources; work overload; poor management practice; job insecurity; and insufficient recognition and reward. The majority of groups reported that job-related stress was having a deleterious impact on their professional work and personal welfare. Aspects of the work environment (support from co-workers and management, recognition and achievement, high morale, flexible working conditions), and personal coping strategies (stress management techniques, work/ non-work balance, tight role boundaries and lowering standards), were reported to help staff cope with stress. The findings provide a timely insight into the experience of stress within universities.     

Regression from another angle

This paper presents a simply viewed framework that brings together various concepts of regression, prediction, and principal components. Several new concepts related to prediction are introduced, and then the interrelationships of these concepts are established. The generalizations are examined in detail and are illustrated in the context of a well known data set.     

Measurement Error Correction by Exploiting Gene–Environment Independence in Family‐Based Case–Control Studies

Abstract. Family‐based case–control designs are commonly used in epidemiological studies for evaluating the role of genetic susceptibility and environmental exposure to risk factors in the etiology of rare diseases. Within this framework, it is often reasonable to assume genetic susceptibility and environmental exposure being conditionally independent of each other within families in the source population. We focus on this setting to explore the situation of measurement error affecting the assessment of the environmental exposure. We correct for measurement error through a likelihood‐based method. We exploit a conditional likelihood approach to relate the probability of disease to the genetic and the environmental risk factors. We show that this approach provides less biased and more efficient results than that based on logistic regression. Regression calibration, instead, provides severely biased estimators of the parameters. The comparison of the correction methods is performed through simulation, under common measurement error structures.     

The impact of learning opportunities and decision authority on occupational health

In an investigation of 418 employees in the Norwegian Postal Service, employees with high learning opportunities and high decision authority were found to be better off on psychological functioning, health and organizational outcome variables than employees with low scores on these variables. Decision authority and learning opportunities had specific and independent impact on subjective health, psychological functioning, coping style and organizational outcome variables. There were, however, also interaction effects between demands, learning opportunities, and decision authority on subjective health. Learning opportunities and decision authority were operationalized with a questionnaire, supplemented with questions on the opportunities to learn skills beyond the present job situation. It is suggested that this is a particularly important dimension for coping with the present day rapid changes in working life, where the objective for many workers will be to broaden their repertoire and competence to increase their flexibility in the labour market.     

论新闻计算句子长短的句子标准

新闻语体的句子应该比其他语体的句子短，这是由新闻的易读性决定的。但是目前的一些新闻语言研究中，统计出的句子比其他语体的句子还要长几倍。一些新闻语言研究中同时以单句和复句为单位。单句和复句在语法结构上不是同一层级的语言单位，同时作为计算单位，是违反逻辑的。语法系统中，小句是基本的句子，是传递信息的基本单位。新闻语言研究中也应以小句为计算单位。     

Lifestyle habits,substance use and predictors of job burnout in professional working women

Abstract

This study explores differences in self-reported lifestyle habits, substance use (alcohol, drugs and smoking) and predictors of job burnout in a sample of 879 professional working women employed in dental health ofices in a cross-sectional design. Job burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and self-reported substance use and lifestyle habits were assessed using the Stress Assessment Profile. Self-reported drinking, smolung and drug use were only modestly correlated with each other in this sample. Employed women with higher levels of drinking reported significantly lower quality overall lifestyle practices, eating/nunition habits, and more frequent use of avoidant coping strategies in the face of work and life hassles compared to non-drinkers. Women who smoked also reported significantly lower overall lifestyle practices and eating/nutrition habits. Those who reported using drugs for recreational purposes reported significantly greater hassles, poorer lifestyle habits, a less hardy outlook on life, and more frequent use of dysfunctional coping strategies. Although women who reported using drugs experienced significantly higher interpersonal burnout (depersonalization) compared to non-drug users, in general, self-reported substance use was not significantly related to job burnout. After controlling for age and psychological distress, perceived stress, type A behaviour, cognitive hardiness and lifestyle habits significantly contributed to predictions of job burnout in multiple regression analyses. Despite methodological limitations, the prevalence of substance use found in this study supports previous research findings. Professional working women who practise poor lifestyle and health habits appear to be at risk of experiencing job burnout.     

网上银行顾客感知服务质量影响因素研究

通过文献研究和深度访谈，提炼出可能影响网上银行顾客感知服务质量的19个因素，通过探索性因子分析，将这19个因素归纳为经济性、易用性、履行性、安全性和响应性。通过相关分析和多元回归分析发现，有4类因素与网上银行顾客感知服务质量呈显著正相关，依次是经济性、易用性、履行性和安全性。通过对我国主要网上银行服务质量测评发现，当前我国网上银行服务质量不高，且各家网上银行服务质量存在明显差异。     

Investigating the Structural Validity of Ryff’s Psychological Well-Being Scales Across Two Samples

Ryff’s (1989b) Psychological Well-Being (PWB) scales measure six related constructs of human functioning. The present paper examined the validity of Ryff’s 6-factor PWB model, using data from a life events study (N = 401) and an organisational climate study (N = 679). Previous validation studies, using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), have identified alternative PWB models, but limitations include the use of shorter scale versions with items relating to a number of life domains within the same PWB factor, and failure to examine the influence of participants’ socio-demographic characteristics on PWB. In this study, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) mostly found consistency in the PWB items and structure between the two studies whereby a 3-factor model delineated between items relating to Autonomy, Positive Relations and a super-ordinate factor comprising the other PWB factors. Using CFA, Goodness of Fit indices reached acceptable levels for the adjusted PWB model identified by the EFA, whilst differences between adjusted models of PWB previously identified in the literature were hardly evident. Post-hoc analysis by gender demonstrated socio-demographic effects on the structure and items that comprise PWB. Further development of PWB measures is needed to reflect its hierarchical and multi-dimensional nature. In the scales’ current form, the construct validation of the PWB factors will continue to be problematic and will fail to adequately evaluate the nature and impact of PWB.     

A time-varying measurement error model for age of onset of a psychiatric diagnosis: applied to first depressive episode diagnosed by the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI)

A substantial degree of uncertainty exists surrounding the reconstruction of events based on memory recall. This form of measurement error affects the performance of structured interviews such as the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), an important tool to assess mental health in the community. Measurement error probably explains the discrepancy in estimates between longitudinal studies with repeated assessments (the gold-standard), yielding approximately constant rates of depression, versus cross-sectional studies which often find increasing rates closer in time to the interview. Repeated assessments of current status (or recent history) are more reliable than reconstruction of a person's psychiatric history based on a single interview. In this paper, we demonstrate a method of estimating a time-varying measurement error distribution in the age of onset of an initial depressive episode, as diagnosed by the CIDI, based on an assumption regarding age-specific incidence rates. High-dimensional non-parametric estimation is achieved by the EM-algorithm with smoothing. The method is applied to data from a Norwegian mental health survey in 2000. The measurement error distribution changes dramatically from 1980 to 2000, with increasing variance and greater bias further away in time from the interview. Some influence of the measurement error on already published results is found.     

The classification accuracy of four problem gambling assessment instruments in population research

Improved methodology was used to re-examine the weak correspondence between problem and pathological gamblers identified in population surveys and subsequent classification of these individuals in clinical interviews. The SOGS-R, the CPGI, the NODS and the Problem and Pathological Gambling Measure (PPGM), as well as questions about gambling participation and expenditures, were administered to a total of 7272 adults. Two clinicians then assessed each person's status, based on comprehensive written profiles derived from these questionnaire responses. Instrument classification was then compared to clinical classification. All four instruments correctly classified most non-problem gamblers (i.e. had good to excellent sensitivity, specificity and negative predictive power). However, the PPGM was the only instrument with good classification of problem gamblers (i.e. excellent sensitivity and positive predictive power). The CPGI and SOGS-R had weak positive predictive power and the NODS had only adequate sensitivity and positive predictive power. Improvement in the classification accuracy of the CPGI occurred when a 5+ cut-off was used and when a 4+ cut-off was used with the SOGS. In general, the classification accuracy of the NODS, SOGS and CPGI is better than prior research suggested but overall accuracy is still modest. With adjusted cut-offs, all three instruments are reasonably congruent with clinical ratings.