Investigating occupational well-being and leadership from a person-centred longitudinal approach: congruence of well-being and perceived leadership

The overall objective of this longitudinal study was to investigate the association between perceived leadership and employee well-being from a person-centred approach utilizing the principles of the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513–524; Hobfoll, S. E. (2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307–324). First, we aimed to identify latent classes (i.e., subgroups) of employees that demonstrated similar mean levels of stability and change in occupational well-being (i.e., vigour and emotional exhaustion) across a mean time-lag of 14 months. Second, we ascertained whether employees in the latent well-being classes differed in their ratings of transformational, authentic, and abusive leadership behaviours across time. Self-report data were obtained from Finnish employees (N = 262, 88% women) working in a variety of municipal jobs. Using factor mixture modelling, four latent well-being classes were identified, indicating good (79%), low (10%), improving (8%), and deteriorating (3%) well-being. Congruence in both level and change of well-being and perceived leadership was found. That is, employees with better well-being across time reported more favourable leadership behaviours at both time points, and changes in employee well-being were reflected as changes in perceived leadership. The close relationship between perceived leadership and well-being is discussed from both a leader-centric (leadership as a resource) and a follower-centric (well-being as a resource) perspective.     

Interaction in planning vocalizations and grasping

Previous studies have shown a congruency effect between manual grasping and syllable articulation. For instance, a power grip is associated with syllables whose articulation involves the tongue body and/or large mouth aperture ([kɑ]) whereas a precision grip is associated with articulations that involve the tongue tip and/or small mouth aperture ([ti]). Previously, this effect has been observed in manual reaction times. The primary aim of the current study was to investigate whether this congruency effect also takes place in vocal responses and to investigate involvement of action selection processes in the effect. The congruency effect was found in vocal and manual responses regardless of whether or not the syllable or grip was known a priori, suggesting that the effect operates with minimal or absent action selection processes. In addition, the effect was observed in vocal responses even when the grip was only prepared but not performed, suggesting that merely planning a grip response primes the corresponding articulatory response. These results support the view that articulation and grasping are processed in a partially overlapping network.     

Maternal experience of their infants’ crying in the context of war trauma: Determinants and consequences

We examined, first, how prenatal maternal mental health and war trauma predicted mothers’ experience of their infant crying, indicated by emotions, cognitions, and behavior; and second, how these experiences influenced the mother–infant interaction and infant development. Participants were 511 Palestinian mothers from the Gaza Strip, reporting their war trauma, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and perceived stress during pregnancy (Time 1). They reported experiences of infant crying at 4 months (Time 2), and the mother–infant interaction and infant sensorimotor and language development at 12 months of infants’ age (Time 3). Results revealed that maternal mental health problems, but not war trauma, were important to experiences of infant crying. A high level of PTSD symptoms predicted negative emotions evoked by infant crying, and high depressive symptoms predicted low active and positive responses to crying. Unexpectedly, high prenatal perceived stress predicted high active and positive responsiveness. Concerning the consequences, mothers’ sensitive interpretation of infant crying predicted optimal infant sensorimotor development, and mothers’ active and positive responses predicted high emotional availability in mother–infant interaction. Crying is the first communication tool for infants, and mothers’ sensitive responses to crying contribute to infant well-being. Therefore, reinforcing mother's optimal responses is important when helping war-affected dyads.     

The Relationship between Childhood Family Background and Educational Performance,with Special Reference to Single-parent Families: A Longitudinal Study

Aims: Education is an important indicator of health and well-being. We studied the relationship between childhood family background and later educational achievements. Methods: A total of 10,581 subjects from the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort were studied prospectively covering the period from pregnancy to 31 years of age. The association between family background (two-parent family and three types of single-parent families, wantedness of pregnancy, mother's education, family size, social class and its change between 1966 and 1980) and educational achievements (school performance and highest attained education by age 31) was examined using two-way tables and logistic regression analysis. Results: Low maternal education and large family size were the most powerful predictors for low education in adulthood. Single-parent family background seemed to be less important compared with other family background variables in predicting low school performance or low educational level in adulthood. Conclusions: Single-parent family background and other adverse family features may increase the risk of educational underachievement. However, in a welfare state with well-educated population the effect of single-parent family background seems to be relatively small. Health care professionals, teachers and parents should pay attention to the specific educational needs and counselling of young adults from disadvantaged families.     

Is an interest in computers or individual/team sports associated with adolescent psychiatric disorders?

The Internet plays a major role in adolescents' free time activities and communication nowadays. The aim here was to investigate the possibility of an association of computers and video games or sports (team, individual) with psychiatric disorders among underage psychiatric inpatients. The series of adolescents (n?=?508) had been diagnosed using semistructured interviews (K-SADS-PL). The results showed that an interest in computers and video games did not increase the risk of any specific psychiatric disorder among these adolescent inpatients, but the likelihood of a substance-related disorder was statistically significantly lower among the boys with computers as a hobby. Team sports were related to increased likelihood of conduct disorder among the boys, whereas the likelihood of an affective disorder was reduced. No such association was found in individual sports or among the girls. We conclude that social contacts and peers play an important role in preventing adolescent depression.     

The feasibility of working memory tablet tasks in predicting scholastic skills in classroom settings

Cognitive assessment in natural group settings facilitates data collection but poses threats to the validity. In this study, tablet‐based working memory (WM) tasks, the counting span, and reading span were used in predicting 12‐year‐old children's (N = 837) scholastic skills and fluid intelligence in a classroom with environmental noise. WM tasks had excellent internal consistency, correlated with scholastic skills, and accounted for more of the variance in cognitive performance (grade point average, fluid intelligence, scholastic skills) compared with individually administered (n = 190) digit span task. Furthermore, the multilevel analysis revealed that compared with the classrooms with no noise, when naturally occurring speech or nonspeech types of environmental noises were present during assessment, WM scores or the reliability estimates were not lower. In contrast, when both types of noises were present, the relationships between some of the WM and achievement scores were even stronger. Thus, assessments in natural classroom contexts may promote revealing the individual differences in WM.     

Stable hopelessness and its predictors in a general population: a 2-year follow-up study

Information on hopelessness at the population level is limited, and no previous studies have focused on its stability in a general population. We examined the stability and associated factors of hopelessness in a general population sample of 1,389 adults. More than half of those who were hopeless at baseline remained hopeless on follow-up. When those with a mental disorder were excluded, the relative risk for stable hopelessness in unemployed men was 7.2 (95% CI 2.6-19.9), in men with a poor financial situation it was 3.5 (95% CI 1.3-9.3), and in women with a poor financial situation it was 3.8 (95% CI 1.5-9.4). Awareness of the stability of hopelessness offers us newpossibilities in preventative and mental health work.     

Compassion protects against vital exhaustion and negative emotionality

Motivation and Emotion - We investigated (i) the predictive relationships of compassion with negative emotionality (a marker of susceptibility to stress) and vital exhaustion (a marker of chronic...