Still-births among the offspring of male radiation workers at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant: detailed results and statistical aspects

Summary. This study investigates whether there was evidence of increasing risk of still-birth with increasing paternal exposure to ionizing radiation received during employment at the Sellafield nuclear installation before the child was conceived. A significant positive association is found between the total paternal preconceptional exposure to external ionizing radiation and the risk of still-birth (after adjustment for year of birth, social class, birth order and paternal age, odds ratio at 100 mSv 1.24 (95% confidence interval 1.04–1.45)). A summary of the principal scientific findings of this study has been published in the Lancet . This paper describes in detail the statistical methods that were used in the investigation and presents the results in full.     

Conditioning effect of prior reputation on perception of corporate giving

Prior corporate reputation, one responsibility of a public relations department, affects public perceptions toward corporate philanthropic messages and ultimately affects public attitudes toward the company. Using an experiment that emulates the sort of news consumption individuals normally undertake, participants inferred corporate charitable giving as a mutually beneficial activity when a company had a good reputation (H1a). Participants inferred corporate charitable giving as a self-interested activity when the company had a bad reputation (H1b). Also, public inference (suspicion) successfully mediated corporate prior reputation on public attitude toward the company (H2). Participants showed positive attitude toward the company when they inferred the company had an altruistic motive for charitable giving (H3a). However, participants showed negative attitude toward the company when they inferred the company had a self-interested motive for charitable giving (H3b).     

Increasing implicit and explicit attitudes toward an organic food brand by referencing to oneself

In the last decades, theoretical and empirical work has been devoted to implicit attitudes toward a large range of food items. Despite the increasing development of green labels in the food market, to our knowledge no study has investigated implicit attitudes toward organic food nor has tried to change them. Capitalizing on the important role of the self in consumer or pro-environmental behavior, we aim to change or form implicit and explicit attitudes toward organic food brands using the self. Moreover, we investigate the possibility of changing hypothetical shopping behavior, brand identification, and attitude change persistence. Targeting two fictitious brands of organic food in two studies, we use the Self-Referencing (SR) task, an evaluative learning paradigm that relies on both the use of the self as a positive source of evaluation and the common action to classify the self and a target. We assess its effects on implicit attitudes, using one of the most common indirect measure (Implicit Association Test), as well as on explicit attitudes. We show that the SR manipulation results in more positive implicit attitudes, explicit attitudes, and to more frequent hypothetical choice of products for the eco-brand paired with the self compared to the other eco-brand. SR manipulation also results in higher level of brand identification. Moreover, changes in implicit attitude mediate changes in explicit attitude, identification, and hypothetical choice. Finally, we provide evidence for the persistence of the effect: Participants liked and identified more with the brand originally paired with the self even after removing the pairing with the self. The discussion is organized around the importance of taking into account implicit attitudes toward organic food brands and the usefulness of the self in changing or forming these attitudes.     

Pragmatic professionalism: micro-level discourse in social work

In recent years the welfare sector has encountered numerous and often challenging changes, such as marketisation, New Public Management, and demands for evidence-based practices. These changes can be seen as a shift between the two logics of creating and maintaining authority, and as a movement from occupational towards organizational professionalism. Perhaps the most important difference between these logics is that, in occupational professionalism, authority is built on trust in the professionals’ education and ethics, whilst in organizational professionalism it is grounded in regulation and control expressed, for example, in rules, regulations, and routines. The article focuses on the ways in which two groups of social workers in Swedish social welfare offices orient themselves towards organizational and occupational professionalism in constructing themselves and in the construction of each other, as well as the work that is carried out by each group. The aim is thus to elaborate on what these logics mean at the micro-level. In this respect, pertinent questions such as ‘How are they to be understood?’, ‘Regarded from the point of view of micro politics, what do these logics mean?’ and ‘How are the logics internalized by the social workers?’ are posed.     

Unemployment and men's entrance into female-dominated jobs

Despite the contraction of many male-dominated occupations, men have made limited progress in entering female-dominated jobs. Using monthly employment histories from the SIPP, we examine whether individual economic conditions—such as a period of unemployment—are associated with men subsequently pursuing female-dominated work. Specifically, we ask whether men are more likely to enter female-dominated jobs after unemployment, compared to men who take a new job directly from employment. We find that unemployment significantly increases the odds of men entering female-dominated work among men who make job transitions. By examining changes in occupational prestige as well as wage differences before and after unemployment, we also find that entering a female-dominated job (compared to other job types) may help men mitigate common scarring effects of unemployment such as wage losses and occupational prestige downgrades. Accordingly, this study reveals a critical occupational route that may allow men to remain upwardly mobile after involuntary unemployment.     

Spatial effects on individual social capital: Differentiating the constraints of local occupational structures

Recent studies have paid more attention to how position-generated social capital varies by an individual’s characteristics, and less to how geographical distributions of occupations may constrain position-specific connections. By integrating two national surveys from the United States, we differentiate the extent to which individual social capital fluctuates by occupational compositions at the county, metropolis, and state levels. Multilevel analyses show that when more people at all three levels work in education, training, and library occupations, residents have a greater chance to gain access to professional-type resources. Similar spatial effects on farming and production resources, however, are more apparent at the county level. Not only does the association between individual social capital and local occupational structures vary across different occupations, but the magnitude of such spatial effects also differs by the scope of the geographical areas. The findings underscore how contextual factors and geographical location may contribute to building occupation-specific network resources.     

Enhancing the social capital in industrial workplaces: Developing workplace interventions using intervention mapping

Social capital in the workplace has been found to be associated with employee wellbeing and work engagement. Yet, evidence of effects of interventions to enhance the social capital are lacking. The intervention mapping method has been described as a useful tool for developing workplace interventions but it is very resource consuming. We aimed to develop an adapted version of the intervention mapping method which is more practically feasible to apply. To get insight into strengths and weaknesses of the adapted method, we applied it and conducted interviews with staff at six companies. The interviews revealed that the action plans developed using the adapted intervention mapping method were generally perceived as relevant and that the action plans had a positive effect on the social capital. However, the implementation of the action plans had been a challenge. In conclusion, the adapted intervention mapping method appears to be suitable for developing interventions to enhance the social capital in the workplace. However, more attention to the implementation of the action plans needs to be incorporated into the method. Suggestions to enhance the implementation included the involvement of the management in the implementation and monitoring of the implementation of the action plans as well as integrating the action plans into existing procedures in the workplace.     

普通高校大学生体育锻炼态度影响因素的调查研究——以长沙市大学生为例

采用文献资料法、问卷调查法、数据统计法等,对长沙市普通高校大学生体育锻炼态度进行调查研究,结果表明：1.大学生的锻炼态度表现在八个维度的得分上都比较高,说明长沙市普通高校大学生体育锻炼态度普遍良好。2.大学生的体育锻炼态度受性别差异的影响因素,男生的体育锻炼态度普遍比女生要强。3.体育锻炼态度很大程度上影响了锻炼者的锻炼行为,而其锻炼行为又影响了体育成绩。     

Happiness is not Enough: Cognitive Judgements as Indicators of National Wellbeing

The European Social Survey, on which this issue of the journal focuses, is a 30-nation multi-funded survey series measuring attitude change. Started in 2001, it is characterised by unusually high standards of sampling and data equivalence. Its data are made available on-line with equal access to all, and have already attracted over 20,000 users. Many papers, articles and books based on the ESS have already appeared. But none has yet employed the data—whether alone or with other sources—to derive indicators of citizens’ cognitive judgements of their society. A recent EC grant is enabling the authors to fill this gap, covering topics such as trust in national institutions, tolerance, social cohesion, social trust and fear of crime. The aim is to be able to monitor changes over time in the distance between what citizens believe their society ought to be in these respects and how they actually perceive it to be.

生命教育视野下大学生生死观状况调查分析

在生命教育视野下,采用生命意义感量表和死亡态度量表对北京、苏州四所大学376名大学生的生死观进行了调查,结果表明:大学生生命意义感较高,但死亡恐惧感也较高。大二学生的生命意义感低于其他三个年级。独生子女的死亡恐惧感高于非独生子女。生命意义感和死亡态度的部分因素之间存在关联。建议加强大学生的生死观教育,尤其是死亡态度的引导。