Quality of Social Support in Mental and Physical Health

The current study investigates the relationship between social support and mental and physical health. Results indicate that poor functional support (or quality of support) is related to physical health problems while structural support (or social network size) is not. Moreover, although both poor functional and structural support are related to depression and anxiety, functional support is more strongly related to these outcome variables, the strongest relationship being associated with depression. Depression and hostility are also related to social isolation, although the relationship is again stronger for depression. The results suggest that the quality of social relationships is more important than quantity for optimal mental and physical health. The clinical relevance of these findings is that the quality of social support in the lives of individuals is central to recovery and should be addressed in medical and mental health treatment planning whenever it is an etiological or maintaining factor. The author dedicates this paper to her beloved father, Charles VanderVoort and her colleagues Dr. Uwe Stuecher and Dr. Gay Barfield whom she describes as “natural altruists, the rarest and most loving type of people in the world.”     

Effects of Alcohol Intoxication on Parenting Behavior in Interactions With Child Confederates Exhibiting Normal or Deviant Behaviors

Experimental analogue methods were used to study how acute alcohol intoxication in parents influences their perceptions of and reactions to child behaviors, as well as their strategies for management of those behaviors. All participating parents had a grade school-aged son, but in half the cases this target child had a diagnosed externalizing disorder, whereas for the remaining half neither the target son nor any other offspring of the parents evidenced any psychopathology. Equal numbers of married fathers, married mothers, and single mothers from each of these groups received either alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverages prior to videotaped interactions with male child confederates who, depending on condition, enacted behaviors characteristic of either normal boys or boys with attention deficit hyperactivity/conduct/oppositional defiant disorders (ADHD/CD/ODD). Results indicated that intoxicated parents rated their ADHD/CD/ODD child partners as less deviant than did sober parents. Alcohol intoxication caused all participant groups to exhibit less attention and productive work and more commands, indulgences, and off-task talk in the interactions. Implications for better understanding of the role of psychosocial factors in the correlation between adult drinking problems and childhood behavior disorders are discussed.     

Ability and effort weights in pay level and pay increase decisions

It was hypothesized that ability, effort, and the interaction between ability and effort would influence pay level and pay increase decisions. An experiment was conducted with 66 human resource professionals to test this hypothesis. The results indicate that pay level decisions are influenced primarily by ability, and pay increase decisions are influenced primarily by the interaction between ability and effort. The results are discussed in the context of the traditional compensation model which suggests that ability should influence pay level, but not pay increase, and that effort should influence pay increase, but not pay level. It was concluded that the distinction currently being made between person and job based pay plans may not be meaningful.Portions of this paper were presented to the PHR division of the Southern Management Association, Atlanta, November, 1991.The authors wish to thank Marcia Miceli, Eileen Hogan, and Don Eskew, for their helpful comments on earlier drafts.     

Attributions related to wife abuse: A comparison of the perceptions of volunteer advocate-counselors and marriage and family therapists

Attributions related to wife abuse held by advocate-counselors working in women's shelter home settings and marriage and family therapists were compared. The major finding was that the two groups were surprisingly similar in their attributions even though their theoretical backgrounds and training were considerably different. Implications for practice and training are presented.     

SELF-ADMINISTERED WRITTEN PROMPTS TO TEACH HOME ACCIDENT PREVENTION SKILLS TO ADULTS WITH BRAIN INJURIES

This study evaluated the use of written checklists and task analyses as self-administered prompts to teach home accident prevention skills to 4 adults with brain injuries. Subsequent to baseline, participants used written checklists that identified potential in-home hazards but did not prompt behaviors necessary for hazard remediation. Written individualized task analyses, incorporating specific behavioral steps for correcting hazards that participants had failed to remediate during the checklist phase, were used to prompt appropriate responding when necessary. These were subsequently faded to transfer stimulus control to the natural conditions. A multiple probe technique across participants and settings was used. Results indicated that the checklist alone was sufficient to increase appropriate responses to many of the potential hazards. Individualized task analyses, when needed, resulted in appropriate remediation of all potential hazards. Generalization to untrained potential hazards occurred to some degree for all participants. Follow-up results showed that most skills trained were maintained over a 1-month period.     

Politics,lack of career progress,and work/home conflict: Stress and strain for working women

This study examines the stress experienced by working women in terms of politics, lack of career progress, and work/home conflicts, the symptoms of distress and satisfaction associated with these stressors, and the organizational resources available for managing these demands. Subjects were 195 female personnel professionals. A different pattern of results emerged for politics and lack of career progress in contrast to work/home conflicts. Specifically, politics and lack of career progress were associated with greater strain symptoms and reduced satisfaction, and organizational resources were associated with lower levels of these stressors. Work/home conflicts were associated with greater strain symptoms, but were unrelated to satisfaction and organizational resources. This suggests that organizations identify the most effective targets of their resources to achieve beneficial results.     

Site Distance, Gender, and Knowledge of Geographic Sites

The primary purpose of the experiments presented in this report was to study systematically the geographic site-name, associative memory of male and female college students (predominantly White and middle class) for locations that varied in distance: local, national, and international sites. In the first experiment, participants were to match listed names of campus buildings and local cities with their marked locations on maps. In the second experiment, under a site-name memory, a site-name/map-aid memory, and a map-aid/name-aid memory (site-name associative memory) condition, participants were to recall or match as many of the 50 US states and the 25 largest US cities as they could. In the third experiment, the participants were to match a listed grouping of the world’s largest bodies of water and continents, a set of countries, and the world’s largest cities, with their marked locations on maps. In the first experiment, men matched significantly more local cities than did women; in the second experiment, men recalled significantly more of the cities under the site-name/map-aid and the map-aid/name-aid memory conditions than did women; and in the third experiment, men matched significantly more sites on all three maps than did women. The absence of gender differences for campus buildings and states may have been a product of the participants having had extensive opportunities to learn these sites. That men displayed greater knowledge of cities and international sites suggests that they have a greater interest in geography than do women. Because of the limitations of the methodology used, the gender differences favoring men could not be interpreted as primarily a product of nature or of nurture, and thus it was concluded that they were a joint product of nature and nurture.     

Moms Hating Moms: The Internalization of Mother War Rhetoric

Work status and mothering are culturally constructed as rigid binaries. The purpose of this study was to explore the effect on mothers of these polarized characterizations of motherhood and to assess the social support mothers perceive they receive for their mother identity. This study, based on interview data collected from 98 married mothers of preschool children, demonstrated that Mother War rhetoric is most extensively internalized by at-home mothers. The majority of mothers perceived a lack of cultural support for their mother role, though the impact of cultural Mother War rhetoric was buffered or exacerbated by mothers' social support systems. The lack of adequate support from other mothers, spouses, parents, and in-laws led mothers to binary constructions of worker–mother identity. This, in turn, led mothers to seek support within shared contexts, which further separated at-home and employed mother from each other and separated mothers from the support of their parents.     

The Amazing Life and Times of Oliva Espín

ABSTRACT

Oliva Espín is a prolific feminist and multicultural writer and psychologist who has significantly contributed to feminist therapy throughout her career. This biographical article highlights her many contributions to feminism, feminist psychology, and humankind.     

A Multilevel Examination of the Relationship Between Leader–Member Exchange and Work–Family Outcomes

Purpose

Recent work–family literature has identified leadership as an area for practical research inquiry. The purpose of the present study was to conduct a multilevel analysis that applies leader–member exchange (LMX) and conservation of resources theories as frameworks for optimizing subordinates’ work–family experiences.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Effects of the interaction between individual-level and workgroup-level LMX on work–family outcomes were examined using web-based survey data from 765 information technology workers in 79 workgroups.

Findings

High LMX was linked to reduced work interference with family, perceptions of managerial support, perceived career consequences, and organizational time demands. However, the benefits of high LMX were attenuated in the presence of low workgroup LMX for all outcomes except managerial support.

Implications

Findings suggest that an individual’s work–family experiences are influenced by both self and others’ supervisory relationships and provide further support for the efficacy of multilevel examinations of LMX. Results support LMX theory as a framework for enhancing work–family outcomes. Through individual and group-level LMX, supervisors may foster perceptions that shape work–family micro-climates within the same organization.

Originality/Value

This study focuses on a practical avenue for intervention (i.e., leadership) using a theoretically grounded approach. It uncovers a possible mechanism—high individual and group LMX—through which work–family outcomes can be improved. Additionally, this study answers calls in the work–family literature for research with implications for intervention and employs multilevel modeling.