Voluntary childlessness in the Netherlands

Until recently, Holland has had a high birth rate and a low employment rate for married women when compared with other industrialized countries. This high rate, together with (since 1920) the lowest death rate in Northwestern Europe, has constituted a bona fide demographic anomaly. Nevertheless, the picture is now changing rapidly. In spite of the still traditional pronatalistic socialization, a remarkable rise in voluntary childlessness is taking shape. Author's Note: Thanks are due Professor Larry D. Barnett, who helped me to make my English understandable to more people than myself.     

Women under protection – in hiding from violent men

In Sweden in 2007, 11,047 people, out of a population of around nine million were living under at-risk conditions requiring protective measures for their safety. Sixty per cent were women, most of them hiding from men who had battered them and were still threatening and stalking them. In this research and intervention study, a group of women in hiding were given different kinds of support and 23 women were interviewed. These women struggle to make a living, work or study, and their finances are extremely strained. Their social networks/interactions are nonexistent. Living under constant threat and insecurity has an adverse impact on the women's health. The community is obliged, for economic and security reasons, to support battered women. There are still severe shortcomings with regard to security. One recommendation is the institution of personal protection officers, i.e. specially trained social service caseworkers able to support the woman once protection measures have been decided.     

Mixed Messages: Inconsistent Parental Mediation Indirectly Predicts Teens’ Online Relational Aggression

Although the predictors of off-line relational aggression have been examined in prior work, less is known about the factors that contribute to online relational aggression perpetration and victimization. This study examined parental restrictive and active mediation of teenagers’ social media use as potential predictors of these outcomes. We were particularly interested in understanding whether parental agreement about media rules and the consistency with which mediation was implemented had implications for teens’ social media use, conflict with parents, and experience with online relational aggression. We conducted an online survey of 814 adolescents from the United States (14- to17-year-olds), asking about perceived agreement between parents about media rules, parental mediation styles, the teens’ social media use, and their experiences with online relational aggression. Results showed that parental rule agreement negatively predicted inconsistent parental mediation. Inconsistent parental mediation predicted more adolescent social media use and more parent-teen conflict over media rules, which in turn, predicted both online victimization and perpetration.     

A criterion-referenced multidimensional job-related model prediction capability to perform occupations among persons with chronic pain

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this prospective study was an exploration of the construct of the criterion-referenced multidimensional job-related model (CMVA) aimed for predicting patients' with chronic pain capability to perform occupations. METHODS: The study samples were 1) participants (n=84) who at present were not performing employed work (median sick-listing period 12 months) because of chronic pain and 2) participants (n = 104) who at present were performing employed work at least 20 hours of a workweek. The participants had experiences of 40 different occupations classified into five of the occupational categories of Jist's Enhanced Dictionary of Occupational Titles. Data were collected through ten assessment instruments and a structured interview, comprising 54 variables and 465 items. Data were analyzed using multiple regression with forward entering of variables. RESULTS: The CMVA model (Adjusted R^2 0.777, F (4, 183) = 164.067; p<0.001) was able to explain 78% of the variance. CMVA contained the aspects; "the work demands-variable, the person-variable of work life values, the environment-variable of social support and the two occupational performances-variables; self-perceived capability to perform work tasks/the simulated work tasks". CONCLUSIONS: The construct of CMVA was robust suggesting that among persons with chronic pain, the predictors focusing on their capability to perform occupations are of great importance.     

Optimal prevention when coexistence matters

We study the optimal subsidy on prevention against premature death in an economy composed of two-person households, where the survival of the spouse matters, either because of self-oriented coexistence concerns or because of altruism. Under a noncooperative household model, the laissez-faire prevention levels are shown to be lower than the first-best levels, to an extent that is increasing in self-oriented coexistence concerns and decreasing in spousal altruism. The decentralization of the social optimum thus requires a subsidy on prevention depending on the precise type of coexistence concerns. Our results are shown to be globally robust to the introduction of imperfect observability of preferences, life insurance, imperfect marriage matching, and myopia. We conclude by studying the optimal prevention in a cooperative household model with unequal bargaining power.     

The meaning of work and job

This article proposes that the concepts of work and job derive meaning from different dimensions. Work is viewed as having meaning that relates to a social framework and goes beyond organizational boundaries. Here two dimensions of work meaning are termed acceptability and instrumentality. Job meaning on the other hand, is viewed to be the result of an interplay between situational characteristics and organizational dimensions, and the value and relevance of those to an individual. These dimensions are here referred to as situational and personal relevance job meaning. It is suggested that making a distinction between work and job meaning will facilitate comparisons between groups that are of different employment status.     

The sense-of-coherence and the capability of performing daily occupations in persons with chronic pain

OBJECTIVES: It may be helpful for occupational therapists who promote enabling occupations among persons with chronic pain, to understand the relationship between the persons feelings of meaningfulness, comprehensibility and manageability in life and their capability to perform daily occupations. AIM: The aim of this study was to describe and investigate how these concepts of person and occupational performance of 27 daily occupations in terms of "effort", "inconvenience", "avoidance", "give up", "frequency" and "satisfaction" were related to each other. DESIGN: A prospective correlative study was conducted. METHOD: A consecutive series of eighty-four patients with chronic pain completed a structured interview and responded to the self-assessment instruments Sense-of-Coherence Scale (SOC-13) and Capability of Performing Daily Occupations (CPDO). RESULTS: Weak but significant correlation (p < 0.05) were found between the SOC-13 sub-scale "manageability" and the specific occupations "physical exercise / training" (r = - 0.24), "climb stairs" (r = - 0.27) "social activity" (r= - 0.25) and "wash the laundry" (r = - 0.30), as well as between the SOC-13 sub-scale "meaningfulness" and the CPDO occupations "grocery shopping" (r = -0.22), "performing meals" (r = - 0.24), and "wash the laundry" (r = - 0.31) and the CPDO question "frequency of performing occupations" r = -0.22). The participants' mean value (mean = 58) of SOC-13 was below the other populations represented in a literature review. The mean values for CPDO (3.4-4.3) (optimal score is zero) showed that the participants perceived themselves having activity limitations concerning performance of daily occupations, and the performance area of work productive activities were experienced as more disabling. The degree to which the participants perceived themselves having a strong sense of coherence or being disabled by pain varied greatly both for the results of SOC-13 ( range 32-90 points) and CPDO (range 1.1-7.8 points). CONCLUSION: The expected significant relationship between a person's sense of coherence and the performance of daily occupations was partly verified with weak significant correlations. In clinical practice the assessment instruments are suggested to be of value in rehabilitation clinics for occupational therapists who work with people with chronic pain.     

Artistry and disability – Doing art for real? Affordances at a day activity centre with an artistic profile

Taking our point of departure from critical disability studies, this study explores affordances of a day activity centre with an artistic profile. The analysis reveals that this centre has two fundamental meanings to the participants; it is a place to create art, and it is a ‘safe haven’. Our conclusion is that the desire to belong, to be in a community and to do artwork, entails a future need for flexible institutional environments, where the social milieu is characterized by increased influence and with an engaging focus, such as that which is offered in cultural work.     

What is learned during the first moments of work?

The supervision of internships is often based on common sense. However, learning processes at workplace and their conditions remain partly unknown: what is really learned and under what conditions? Two studies on the learning of social working have been conducted, based on work analysis theories and methods. 6 experienced social workers and 4 interns in their first year of training have been interviewed according to the method of "explicitation" interview. The results show that professional learning can occur anyplace, anytime, under certain conditions and under certain forms that have been analyzed. These studies try to analyze the first internship as an entrance into a culture, through a psychological perspective.     

Québec in France: towards an understanding of the trans-Atlantic French-Québec subject

This paper examines the events commemorating the 400th anniversary of the founding of Québec City in 2008 and, in particular, the ways in which the Québec 400 was celebrated in Western France. The author argues that the events provide an instance of trans-Atlantic subject formation. Through analyzing a series of public events that took place in the La Rochelle region of France in 2008, the author argues that this extra-national raciality was constituted through two specific modes: practices of territoriality that signify a ‘cartography of origins’ and tropes of family that affirm the racialized dimensions of Québécois belonging in France.