Interface between work and family: A longitudinal individual and crossover perspective

This study assessed longitudinal individual and crossover relationships between work‐family conflict and well‐being in the domains of work (job satisfaction) and family (parental distress) in a sample of 239 dual‐earner couples. The results revealed only longitudinal individual effects over a 1‐year period. First, high family‐to‐work conflict (WFC) at Time 1 was related to a high level of work‐to‐family conflict (WFC) 1 year later in both partners. Second, the wife's high level of FWC was related to her decreased job satisfaction 1 year later. Thus, the longitudinal effects identified supported normal causality, that is, work‐family conflict led to poor well‐being outcomes or increased perceived work‐family conflict later on. Longitudinal crossover effects from one partner to another were not observed within a 1‐year perspective.     

The effect of fearful faces on the attentional blink is task dependent

In a set of three rapid serial visual presentation experiments, we investigated the effect of fearful and neutral face stimuli on the report of trailing scene targets. When the emotional expression of the face stimuli had to be indicated, fearful faces induced a stronger attentional blink (AB) than did neutral faces. However, with identical physical stimulation, the enhancement of the AB by fearful faces disappeared when participants had to judge the faces’ gender. If faces did not have to be reported, no AB was observed. Thus, fearful faces exhibited an effect on the AB that crucially depended on the observer’s attentional set. Hence, the AB can be influenced by an emotional T1 when T1 has to be reported, but this influence is modulated by task context. This result indicates a close connection between temporal attention and emotional processing that is modulated by task context.     

Beyond words: Sensory properties of depressive thoughts

Verbal thoughts (such as negative cognitions) and sensory phenomena (such as visual mental imagery) are usually conceptualised as distinct mental experiences. The present study examined to what extent depressive thoughts are accompanied by sensory experiences and how this is associated with symptom severity, insight of illness and quality of life. A large sample of mildly to moderately depressed patients (N = 356) was recruited from multiple sources and asked about sensory properties of their depressive thoughts in an online study. Diagnostic status and symptom severity were established over a telephone interview with trained raters. Sensory properties of negative thoughts were reported by 56.5% of the sample (i.e., sensation in at least one sensory modality). The highest prevalence was seen for bodily (39.6%) followed by auditory (30.6%) and visual (27.2%) sensations. Patients reporting sensory properties of thoughts showed more severe psychopathological symptoms than those who did not. The degree of perceptuality was marginally associated with quality of life. The findings support the notion that depressive thoughts are not only verbal but commonly accompanied by sensory experiences. The perceptuality of depressive thoughts and the resulting sense of authenticity may contribute to the emotional impact and pervasiveness of such thoughts, making them difficult to dismiss for their holder.     

Child’s Difficult Temperament and Mothers’ Parenting Styles

The study examined the associations between children’s temperamental characteristics and mothers’ parenting styles, and the mediating and moderating role of maternal well-being in these associations. Mothers of 152 Finnish first grade children (79 girls and 73 boys) filled in questionnaires measuring their parenting styles (i.e., affection, behavioral control, and psychological control) and psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms and self-esteem), and their children’s temperament. The results showed that children’s low positivity was associated with low maternal affection, whereas children’s negative emotionality was associated with mothers’ high controlling attempts in terms of psychological and behavioral control. The impacts of children’s low levels of positivity and high levels of activity on mothers’ psychological control were mediated via maternal well-being: the more active and the less positive a mother perceived her child to be, the lower was her well-being and, consequently, the more psychological control she applied. Moderating effects of psychological well-being were not found.     

Motivational interviewing in health promotion: it sounds like something is changing.

Motivational interviewing (MI), initially developed for addiction counseling, has increasingly been applied in public health, medical, and health promotion settings. This article provides an overview of MI, outlining its philosophic orientation and essential strategies. Major outcome studies are reviewed, nuances associated with the use of MI in health promotion and chronic disease prevention are described, and future directions are offered.     

Experiences of justice in school and attitudes towards democracy: A matter of social exchange?

In a democratic society, school has the goal to foster democratic attitudes in students. Besides explicit attempts to do so, justice experiences in school may be crucial to develop positive attitudes towards democracy. Therefore, we studied the relationship between different dimensions of justice experiences in school and democratic attitudes. We further examined a potential mechanism underlying this relationship, namely general trust, and hypothesized that the relationship between justice experiences in school and democratic attitudes can be understood on the basis of social exchange theory. A total of 210 participants who had visited a public school gave information about their justice experiences in school, general trust, and democratic attitudes. First, it was shown that overall experiences of distributive and interactional justice predict democratic attitudes, more specifically the approval of civic and human rights and the approval of the democratic institutions. Second, we found that the relationships between overall distributive and interactional justice and the approval of civic and human rights, the approval of the democratic institutions, and the approval of democracy-supporting behaviors are each mediated by general trust which can be interpreted as a social exchange process. This study therefore highlights the role of general justice-related school experiences for the development of democratic attitudes.     

Identifying ICT-Related Affective Events Across Life Domains and Examining their Unique Relationships with Employee Recovery

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of information and communication technology (ICT) use for employees by exploring affective ICT events and their relation to employee recovery. We conducted two daily diary studies with knowledge workers in Germany. In study 1 (N = 153), we followed a qualitative approach by developing a taxonomy of negative and positive ICT events at work and at home. We found 11 negative (e.g., multichannel use, work e-mails in the evening) and 10 positive ICT event clusters (e.g., utilizing idle times, availability at home). In study 2 (N = 154), we examined how the occurrence of ICT-related events in the evening is related to detachment from work and sleep quality using a multilevel design. Study 2 provided a differentiated picture of relationships between evening ICT events and recovery. Overall, results indicate that work-related ICT events in the evening—even in cases where they are appraised as positive—are detrimental for employee recovery. Our study contributes to the refinement of the operationalization of ICT use for future analyses of ICT impacts and sheds light on the differential effects of specific types of ICT events. ICT use conceptualized as the occurrence of affective events helps to advance our understanding of the diversity of ICT-related experiences. The negative effects of handling work e-mails at home imply that organizations should engage in optimizing their “e-mail culture.”