Job Strain, Effort-Reward Imbalance and Mental Distress: a study of occupations in general medical practice

There is increasing evidence to support the predictive power of social epidemiological models such as Effort-Reward Imbalance (Siegrist, 1996) and the Job-Strain Model (Karasek, and Theorell, 1990) for explaining occupational stress, although it has been suggested that the models may have distinctive contributions towards explaining work stress in specific work settings. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the explanatory power of the different models might be enhanced if they were combined. The aim of this paper is to explore these questions by examining the power of the two different models both separately and in combination for explaining job satisfaction and mental distress in general medical practice. This analysis was based on data collected from a postal survey of the members of staff (N=1089, response rate = 70%) of 81 practices, which were randomly selected from all general practices in the National Health Service Executive South East region. The results show that while both models were predictors of mental distress and job satisfaction the models that combined different dimensions were the strongest predictors.     

Race,ethnicity, young people and offending: the elephant in the room

ABSTRACT

Can we start to say Race again when discussing youth and justice? This demand emerges from the findings of the participatory action research reported in this article. Fifty young people, in custody or in contact with youth offending teams (YOT), discussed the support that would enable them to desist from offending behaviour. Race was a prism through which they saw their experience. Rather than naming racism, family appeared to be a covert, legitimate, way of talking about identity, solidarity and difference. Family ties, overlaid with experiences of race and racism, could be reasons for engaging in behaviour that was seen as criminal. Family, overlaid with ethnicity, could become a source of support to enable young people to cope with the challenges of being involved in and desisting from offending behaviour. At a time where policy and political language has shifted from rac(ism) to a culturalist discourse focused on ethnicity or religion, naming Race and racism remains vital. Only by acknowledging the differentiating power of Racism can the experience of young people in contact with YOT be understood. Only by appreciating the value of shared experience of race (within families and communities) can appropriate pathways towards alternative futures be offered.     

Attachment, Temperament, and Preschool Children's Peer Acceptance

This study examined the relations between preschool children's attachment security, temperament, and peer acceptance. Ninety‐eight preschool children and their mothers were recruited through childcare centers in the southeast. Mothers and their children participated in two two‐hour home observations. Attachment security was assessed using the Waters Attachment Behavior Q‐set (AQS) completed by observers, and mothers reported on their children's temperament. Standard picture‐sociometric nominations and paired‐comparisons were used to measure children's peer acceptance. Results revealed significant associations between security and temperament. In addition, both attachment and temperament made significant and unique contributions to peer acceptance whereas temperament was found to be a stronger predictor of children's peer rejection. These findings underscore the dynamic interplay of inter‐ and intrapersonal factors that influence preschool children's peer relations. Implications of the findings for theory building and future research are discussed.     

Job Strain,Effort-Reward Imbalance and Mental Distress: A study of occupations in general medical practice

There is increasing evidence to support the predictive power of social epidemiological models such as Effort-Reward Imbalance (Siegrist, 1996) and the Job-Strain Model (Karasek, and Theorell, 1990) for explaining occupational stress, although it has been suggested that the models may have distinctive contributions towards explaining work stress in specific work settings. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the explanatory power of the different models might be enhanced if they were combined. The aim of this paper is to explore these questions by examining the power of the two different models both separately and in combination for explaining job satisfaction and mental distress in general medical practice. This analysis was based on data collected from a postal survey of the members of staff (N=1089, response rate = 70%) of 81 practices, which were randomly selected from all general practices in the National Health Service Executive South East region. The results show that while both models were predictors of mental distress and job satisfaction the models that combined different dimensions were the strongest predictors.     

Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion: Implications for Social Work Education

This article considers the importance of understanding poverty for social workers and the ways it is delivered on social work programmes. It reviews the context in which poverty is experienced by service users and social workers. It then goes on to consider the ways in which teaching about poverty has been approached in social work education. Drawing on the experiences of the authors of designing and delivering a module on social work, poverty and social exclusion on a postgraduate DipSW programme it considers an approach to developing poverty aware social work practice for social workers in training. Finally it discusses ways in which the new three year qualification for social work training might develop this subject more fully in ways that seek to combat poverty and social exclusion amongst social work service users.     

Tree consistency and bounds on the performance of the max-product algorithm and its generalizations

Finding the maximum a posteriori (MAP) assignment of a discrete-state distribution specified by a graphical model requires solving an integer program. The max-product algorithm, also known as the max-plus or min-sum algorithm, is an iterative method for (approximately) solving such a problem on graphs with cycles. We provide a novel perspective on the algorithm, which is based on the idea of reparameterizing the distribution in terms of so-called pseudo-max-marginals on nodes and edges of the graph. This viewpoint provides conceptual insight into the max-product algorithm in application to graphs with cycles. First, we prove the existence of max-product fixed points for positive distributions on arbitrary graphs. Next, we show that the approximate max-marginals computed by max-product are guaranteed to be consistent, in a suitable sense to be defined, over every tree of the graph. We then turn to characterizing the nature of the approximation to the MAP assignment computed by max-product. We generalize previous work by showing that for any graph, the max-product assignment satisfies a particular optimality condition with respect to any subgraph containing at most one cycle per connected component. We use this optimality condition to derive upper bounds on the difference between the log probability of the true MAP assignment, and the log probability of a max-product assignment. Finally, we consider extensions of the max-product algorithm that operate over higher-order cliques, and show how our reparameterization analysis extends in a natural manner.