Daily Occupations,Routines, and Social Participation of Homeless Young People

Homelessness disrupts young people’s participation in the productive occupations that facilitate transition to adulthood, impairs social connections, and has a disorganizing effect on their time use. Semi-structured focus group interviews were used to explore how 19 homeless young people perceived their daily routines, meaningful occupations, and social participation to be impacted by the experience of homelessness. Occupational therapy practitioners can use the findings from this study to inform the development of comprehensive community-based programming aimed at increasing social opportunities, developing balanced, healthy routines, decreasing intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to residential stability, and promoting participation in productive and leisure occupations.     

Prestige and Social Standing of Growth Occupations, 1982–1995

This study helped to determine whether applicants for assistance from the state employment office view fast- and large-growth occupations with a hierarchy similar to that cited in the professional literature. Findings revealed that professions were in the top ranks, skilled and crafts occupations in the middle ranks, and service-oriented occupations in the low ranks. Growth occupation information did not seem to influence or affect job applicants' ratings.     

Stability and Change in the Social Status of Occupations Over 21 and 42 Year Periods

Forty-two years ago, Counts (1925) surveyed the social status of occupations and found a well-defined prestige order, with banker at the top and ditch digger at the bottom. Because of changes wrought by the depression and World War II, Deeg and Paterson (1947) repeated Counts' study and found only minor relative changes in social status. Because of the extensive social and cultural changes since World War II, Counts' study was repeated again, and again only minor relative changes in the social status of occupations were found. The prestige order of the occupations surveyed is remarkably stable.     

Coping,Social Interest,and Psychological Birth Order as Predictors of Resilience in Turkey

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of psychological birth order, social interest, and coping strategies and their interactions on resilience in Turkish population (N?=?247). The results indicated social interest, coping strategies of active planning, acceptance and cognitive restructuring, seeking external help and psychological birth order of the youngest and middle child were predictors of resilience.     

The Place of Poetry in Gerontological Social Work Education

This essay focuses on poetry as a means to enhance the education and training of social workers and allied health care professionals working with the elderly. The poetry examined includes published popular poetry and poetry created by the elderly in community and residential programs. Finally, I discuss the poetry and narrative of four social workers as an integrative device for dealing with personal and professional issues relating to aging and identity.     

Adolescent Place Attachment, Social Capital, and Perceived Safety: A Comparison of 13 Countries

In adolescence, children become increasingly independent and autonomous, and spend more time in neighborhood settings away from home. During mid-to-late adolescence, youth often become more critical about the place they live. Their attachment to home and even community may decrease as they explore and develop new attachments to other specific places. The aim of this study is to understand how 15-year-old students from 13 countries perceive their local neighborhood area (place attachment, social capital and safety), and how these different community cognitions are interrelated. We hypothesize that their place attachment predicts safety, and that the relationship is mediated in part by social capital. Result show that, despite cross-cultural differences in neighborhood perceptions, the proposed theoretical model fits robustly across all 13 countries.     

Self-Monitoring and Performance in Nontraditional Occupations

Previous studies have found that self-monitoring can enhance the job performance of women in traditional male occupations (computer sales, management). The present study tested for this same enhancement effect among men in the traditional female job of staff nurse. Correlations between nurses' scores on the revised Self-Monitoring Test and hospital performance evaluations indicated that the self-monitoring factor of Sensitivity to Expressive Behavior of Others was highly correlated with male nurses' job success but was uncorrelated with female staff nurses' job success. This same self-monitoring factor was also correlated with the job success of female nursing administrators, a job that is "nontraditional" for women in the sense that masculine occupation expectations are generally associated with leadership and management behaviors. It was concluded that self-monitoring ability can facilitate adaptation to nontraditional occupations for both men and women probably because the social skills associated with high self-monitoring can enhance perceptions of occupation legitimacy.     

从恢复体验到地方依恋:环境偏好与居住时长的作用

探究源自环境的恢复体验(如,放松、平静等)对居住者地方依恋(包括地方依赖和地方认同两个维度)的预测作用,并分析其中的内在过程与情境条件。采用问卷研究法(N=410),结果发现:(1)恢复体验能显著正向预测个体地方依恋;(2)环境偏好在恢复体验与地方依恋之间起完全中介作用;(3)居住时长调节环境偏好与地方依恋(主要是地方认同)之间的关系。研究将有助于探寻环境心理学视角下的压力管理与城市管理协同路径。     

The Place of Network Analysis in the Study of Supportive Social Associations

Network analysis is a set of constructs used to identify and to describe social units according to the transactions that take place among individuals. This analytic framework can prove particularly useful for the study of supportive 'interpersonal exchanges during conditions of rapid social change. Despite demonstrated importance of social support to health and well-being, earlier concepts used in the study of social support have not provided a framework needed to differentiate supportive exchanges, to describe the supportive associations available to a single individual, and to uncover the often concealed structures that underlie repeated patterns of supportive exchanges within a community. A review of both the earlier concepts and of network analysis is followed by an examination of four studies, each illustrating a particular value in the use of network analysis for the study of social support.     

Monitoring Perceptions of Social Progress and Pride of Place in a South African Community

A social indicators community project was conducted in 2007 to monitor living standards and quality of life in Rhini, a low-income suburb of Grahamstown, Makana Municipality, South Africa. Since 1994, under democratic rule, considerable progress has been made in service delivery to the formerly disadvantaged in South African society in terms of access to housing, infrastructure, and a social safety net to mitigate the high rate of unemployment. A representative cross-sectional household study (n 1020) conducted in 2007 in Rhini found that a positive assessment of the household’s situation and personal life satisfaction did not reflect better living conditions. Lack of income and employment opportunities appeared to dilute gains from higher living standards. The project also inquired into attitudes to place names and a proposed name change for the city under discussion at the time of the survey. It is argued that a place name with which one can identify may be as important as service delivery to enhance community satisfaction and overall quality of life. Dissatisfied residents who had limited access to services and expressed less civic pride were more likely than others to opt for a proposed name change for the city of Grahamstown that would better reflect the country’s new identity and multicultural heritage. It is concluded that a useful pursuit for community quality-of-life studies in countries undergoing social transformation will be to inquire into the complex combination of factors that drive perceptions of material and symbolic progress.     

Job Satisfaction of Women in Nontraditional Occupations

The author investigates factors that influence job satisfaction among Delaware women working in nontraditional occupations. Earnings, household responsibilities, and ability to cope with family and work also were studied.     

Birth Defects,Causal Attributions,and Ethnicity in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study

In order to translate research findings into effective prevention strategies, it is important to understand people's beliefs about the causes of poor health outcomes. However, with the exception of knowledge and beliefs about folic acid supplementation, little is known regarding women's causal attributions women regarding birth defects. We employed Attribution Theory constructs to analyze open-text interview responses from 2,672 control mothers in the National Birth Defects Prevention Study who gave birth in 1997–2005. Common themes included use of alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs, and medications during pregnancy. Stress and emotional upset were also suggested as possible causes of birth defects. Genetic- and heredity-related responses were more likely to be mentioned by Asian/Pacific Islander women compared to non-Hispanic Whites. Hispanic women were less likely to suggest several specific possible teratogens, such as paint, pesticides, or other chemicals, but were more likely to suggest events occurring during childbirth. Differences also emerged among ethnic groups for theoretical constructs, although most responses were categorized as controllable, changeable over time, and with an internal locus of causality.     

Public Attitudes Toward the Trustworthiness, Competence, and Altruism of Twenty Selected Occupations

Ratings on 4-point scales of truthfulness, competence, and altruism of 20 selected occupations were obtained from 4 samples of subjects. The subjects included 200 students from the University of Connecticut, 96 students from the University of Maryland, 50 secretaries from a small town in Connecticut, and 50 teachers from the public schools of the same town. In spite of differences in sex, age, occupation, education, and locale, all the samples and subsamples were remarkably similar in their ratings of the 20 occupations. A strong tendency appears for professionals to be rated high and for people who may be regarded as powerful in our society to be rated poorly on all 3 variables. Several interesting differences in ratings on the 3 variables within professions were obtained.     

Italian,Bulgarian, and U.S. Children's Perceptions of Gender-Appropriateness of Occupations

Abstract

A stratified sample of 238 female business graduates in Singapore provided the data for this study. Twelve external barriers (including family-related and work/organization-related barriers) were included as predictor variables and their relations with the career success of women graduates were explored. The results showed external barriers to be important predictors of women's career success. Because the sample involved respondents at different stages of career development, the study also provided an understanding about how various external barriers interacted to impede the career development of women.     

The Psychological and Physical Weil-Being of Women in Sex-Stereotyped Occupations

The authors examined the perceptions of women who work in three sex-specific occupational categories and the effects of their participation in these occupations on several psychological and physical health variables.     

Selection,Function, and Assessment of Residence Hall Counselors

Two studies are reported which are concerned with the program of counseling in the women's residence halls of the University of Illinois. The first study demonstrated the inadequacy of the MMPI as a selection instrument for graduate assistants (G.A.'s) serving as residence hall counselors. The second study demonstrated: that students, G.A.'s, head residents, deans, and professional psychologists differ significantly in their definition of the G.A.'s function; that they differ less in defining the attributes of an ideal G.A.; that head residents and students do not differ significantly in their rating of a real G.A.; that the less experienced and the less able students ask more of a G.A. and value her more highly; that the program is functioning well as judged by student endorsement; and that neither the Strong, the Edwards, nor the CPI discriminate between the better and poorer G.A.'s. The data also suggest caution in generalizing results from one institution to another.     

Pay Equity Evaluations of Occupations and Their Bases

Recent research indicates that type of occupation is a major basis for evaluating the fairness of earnings. The present paper reports the results of a research investigating which of the characteristics of occupations serve as bases of pay-equity evaluations, and whether there is a measure of consensus in regard to these bases. Major prevalent theoretical perspectives, such as equity theory and status value theory, served as bases for formulating and testing a series of hypotheses. The findings, based on a cross-sectional city sample of 222 employed individuals in Israel, show that pay-equity evaluations of occupations are based on a consensual frame of reference. The major bases of such evaluations were found to be occupational prestige and certain contributive inputs such as the amount of vocational training and the physical demands required of the incumbents' occupations.