Family process: Early child emotionality,parenting stress,and couple relationship quality

Guided by family systems theory, we used couple data (N = 1,778) from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to examine the link between perceived infant negative emotionality, parenting stress, and couple relationship quality when the child was 1, 3, and 5 years. Using a latent actor–partner interdependence model, we tested dyadic direct and indirect effects for married and cohabiting couples. Parents who reported higher levels of perceived infant negative emotionality at age 1 had higher parenting stress at age 3. Mothers' and fathers' parenting stress at age 3 predicted lower levels of their own couple relationship quality and their partner's relationship quality at age 5. Parenting stress mediated the relation between perceived infant emotionality and couple relationship quality.     

Counseling in gerontology

More attention should be given to the need and potential for counselor involvement in gerontology. In this article the author presents ways in which counselors could be involved in gerontology, and he considers some of the things counselors and counselor education must do in order to prepare for work in this area.     

Employment of Gerontological Counseling Graduates: A Follow-Up Study

Twenty-five counselor education departments offering specializations in gerontological counseling were asked to survey their graduates who had completed course work or a specialization in aging. Implications are presented concerning employment opportunities for counseling graduates wanting to work with older people.     

PROGRESSION THROUGH THE RANKS: ASSESSING EMPLOYEE REACTIONS TO HIGH-STAKES EMPLOYMENT TESTING

Employee reactions to promotional examinations were investigated in 2 studies ( N  = 498 & 182, respectively) of police officers. Anxiety, motivation, and justice perceptions were examined as possible predictors of promotional exam performance and intentions to recommend the exam to others. Reactions to a promotional examination were significantly and differentially related to those criteria. Motivation predicted performance whereas justice perceptions predicted recommendation intentions. In Study 2, the role of cognitive processing was also investigated. Results indicated that candidate reactions predicted exam performance through cognitive processing mechanisms. Exam motivation facilitated cognitive processing, which resulted in higher levels of exam performance. In contrast, exam anxiety exhibited both facilitative and debilitative cognitive processing effects.     

LOYAL FROM DAY ONE: BIODATA, ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTIFICATION, AND TURNOVER AMONG NEWCOMERS

This paper attempts to use biodata to uncover behavioral and experiential antecedents of organizational identification (OID), and to demonstrate one way in which theory can be used in the development and analysis of objective biodata. The biodata correlates of organizational identification were assessed with a sample of 2,535 new U.S. Army recruits. Four biodata factors emerged: activities involving outdoor work or pastimes; a dependable, non-delinquent, lifestyle reflecting socialization to institutional expectations; a general preference for group attachments; and diligent involvement in intellectual pastimes. Results with a subset of 1,082 recruits revealed that both OID and the biodata antecedents predicted subsequent attrition across 6 time periods spanning 6 to 24 months. Results also revealed relatively high OID among the recruits.     

A LONGITUDINAL INVESTIGATION OF THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN JOB INFORMATION SOURCES, APPLICANT PERCEPTIONS OF FIT, AND WORK OUTCOMES

This longitudinal field study was designed to examine the relationships between job information sources, self-esteem, and perceptions of person-job (P-J) and person-organization (P-O) fit, as well as the relationships between perceptions of fit and work outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational identification, intentions to quit, stress symptoms, and turnover). The results indicate that the number of formal job information sources and self-esteem were positively related to perceptions of P-J fit, and formal job information sources were positively related to perceptions of P-O fit. Perceptions of P-J fit were positively related to job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational identification, and negatively related to stress symptoms and intentions to quit. Perceptions of P-O fit were negatively related to intentions to quit and turnover. In addition, perceptions of fit mediated the relationships between job information sources and self-esteem with job satisfaction, intentions to quit, and turnover. These results highlight the job applicant's perspective of fit, and demonstrate the importance of both P-J and P-O fit perceptions.