Translating cross-lagged effects into incidence rates and risk ratios: The case of psychosocial safety climate and depression

Longitudinal studies are the gold standard of empirical work and stress research whenever experiments are not plausible. Frequently, scales are used to assess risk factors and their consequences, and cross-lagged effects are estimated to determine possible risks. Methods to translate cross-lagged effects into risk ratios to facilitate risk assessment do not yet exist, which creates a divide between psychological and epidemiological work stress research. The aim of the present paper is to demonstrate how cross-lagged effects can be used to assess the risk ratio of different levels of psychosocial safety climate (PSC) in organisations, an important psychosocial risk for the development of depression. We used available longitudinal evidence from the Australian Workplace Barometer (N?=?1905) to estimate cross-lagged effects of PSC on depression. We applied continuous time modelling to obtain time-scalable cross effects. These were further investigated in a 4-year Monte Carlo simulation, which translated them into 4-year incident rates. Incident rates were determined by relying on clinically relevant 2-year periods of depression. We suggest a critical value of PSC?=?26 (corresponding to ?1.4 SD), which is indicative of more than 100% increased incidents of persistent depressive disorder in 4-year periods compared to average levels of PSC across 4 years.     

Mediating role of mentoring functions on linking personality and occupational commitment in Indian organizations

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the mediating effect of mentoring on the relationship between the Five Factor Model (FFM) Personality traits and occupational commitment (OC). The study used cross-sectional survey-based research design. Data were collected from 362 managers of public and private sector organizations located in North India. The results indicated that psychosocial mentoring acts as a partial mediator for facilitating the linkage between all the FFM traits and OC. Contrary to this, career mentoring was found to partially mediate the link between only conscientiousness-OC, agreeableness-OC and emotional stability-OC. No mediating effect of career mentoring was found for personality factors of openness and extraversion. HRD practitioners are encouraged to implement train-for-trainers’ sessions for raising awareness among senior managers/mentors about the importance of psychosocial mentoring functions. This study is unique, because it is among the few to appropriately capture the mediating role of mentoring functions vis a vis the personality and OC relationship. Further, it also enriches the existing body of research on workplace mentoring and careers, especially in the South-Asian context.     

A New Methodology for Before–After Safety Assessment Using Survival Analysis and Longitudinal Data

The widely used empirical Bayes (EB) and full Bayes (FB) methods for before–after safety assessment are sometimes limited because of the extensive data needs from additional reference sites. To address this issue, this study proposes a novel before–after safety evaluation methodology based on survival analysis and longitudinal data as an alternative to the EB/FB method. A Bayesian survival analysis (SARE) model with a random effect term to address the unobserved heterogeneity across sites is developed. The proposed survival analysis method is validated through a simulation study before its application. Subsequently, the SARE model is developed in a case study to evaluate the safety effectiveness of a recent red‐light‐running photo enforcement program in New Jersey. As demonstrated in the simulation and the case study, the survival analysis can provide valid estimates using only data from treated sites, and thus its results will not be affected by the selection of defective or insufficient reference sites. In addition, the proposed approach can take into account the censored data generated due to the transition from the before period to the after period, which has not been previously explored in the literature. Using individual crashes as units of analysis, survival analysis can incorporate longitudinal covariates such as the traffic volume and weather variation, and thus can explicitly account for the potential temporal heterogeneity.     

Comprehensive neighbourhood mapping: developing a powerful tool for child protection

This paper proposes ‘comprehensive neighbourhood mapping’ as a schema for gathering and interpreting information within a given geographical area which is informed by imaginative thinking about the safety of children and young people from sexual crime. It would build upon current forms of profiling by local authorities, health authorities and central Government. CNM would actively involve local people, in partnership with agencies, in ‘mapping’ danger points and support points. Eight components are discussed, including environmental issues, locations of sex offenders, sites where teenagers meet and share information, supportive individuals and organizations. Some issues for pilot projects are discussed, including the need to set up planning and implementation groups and to integrate CNM into wider child protection and community safety strategies. CNM is grounded in an ecological perspective which sees partnership approaches as essential and believes an overarching view of neighbourhood needs, based on detailed local information and understanding of how different forms of harm interconnect, is crucial in developing child protection strategies. At times of acute official anxiety about community ‘lynch‐mob’ reactions to known paedophiles, CNM aims to build communities which instead are informed and thoughtful about child protection. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

论发达地区农村社会阶层结构的变迁——以绍兴县西蜀阜村为例

此文以绍兴县西蜀阜村为例,基于对大量翔实资料的实证分析,阐述和探讨了经济发达的农村社区在农村工业化和城市化过程中,村落社会结构分化的历史进程、决定因素和现实状况,探讨了阶层分化与农村社会经济变迁的关系,对深化沿海发达地区中心镇村现代化进程的认识,有一定的借鉴意义。     

更高层次的迈进——企业相对社会责任的实现

相对社会责任的承担与实现,对企业自身和社会都具有重大意义,但由于缺乏机制的制约和策略的应用,其实现是困难的。正确处理企业利益与社会责任的关系,促使更多企业从履行绝对社会责任,上升到追求更高层次社会责任的实现,一方面需要外在环境的保障,另一方面要求企业在履行社会责任时,注意策略选择。     

城市公众安全文化教育的方法与思路——兼议北京2008“安全奥运文化”普及问题

通过对安全文化发展演变历史的简单回眸,探讨了适用于城市安全减灾的安全文化教育的模式及方法,尤其从文化建设层面上研究了应用安全文化建设方法的特点。作为最现实的应用,还就2008年北京“安全奥运”的系统化建设提出了“安全奥运文化”普及教育的思路。     

A Risk-Based Method for Modeling Traffic Fatalities

We describe a risk-based analytical framework for estimating traffic fatalities that combines the probability of a crash and the probability of fatality in the event of a crash. As an illustrative application, we use the methodology to explore the role of vehicle mix and vehicle prevalence on long-run fatality trends for a range of transportation growth scenarios that may be relevant to developing societies. We assume crash rates between different road users are proportional to their roadway use and estimate case fatality ratios (CFRs) for the different vehicle-vehicle and vehicle-pedestrian combinations. We find that in the absence of road safety interventions, the historical trend of initially rising and then falling fatalities observed in industrialized nations occurred only if motorization was through car ownership. In all other cases studied (scenarios dominated by scooter use, bus use, and mixed use), traffic fatalities rose monotonically. Fatalities per vehicle had a falling trend similar to that observed in historical data from industrialized nations. Regional adaptations of the model validated with local data can be used to evaluate the impacts of transportation planning and safety interventions, such as helmets, seat belts, and enforcement of traffic laws, on traffic fatalities.     

国民党对日派遣占领军问题浅析

战后国民党政府对日派遣占领军问题是在美国的亚洲政策及对日政策的影响下提出的,是国民党政府忙于打内战使此问题未果而终。这一结局影响中国战后对日处置一些问题的实施,进而影响战后一段时期亚太地区的国际关系。     

论诚实信用原则——以安全为价值取向的新分析

诚实信用原则是民法和合同法的基本原则。它要求民事主体诚信行使权利和履行义务,在民事活动中友好待人,从而维持当事人之间的利益以及当事人利益和社会利益之间的平衡。中国新的合同法已经把诚实信用原则作为基本的原则并规定了一系列适用规则。这表明我国的合同法已经向现代法律理念靠拢。本文讨论了诚实信用原则的概念和特征,相信这个原则可以根本改善现行司法,并扩大法官权利使他们更独立和自由地行为。“诚信和正义”是这一原则的升华和最高理想,它应该被运用到民事司法实践中。“安全”是诚实信用的一个重要价值,本文拟以安全为价值对诚实信用原则进行新的分析。