Long Sickness Absence Differences Between Natives and Immigrant Workers: The Role of Differences in Self-reported Health

The limited empirical evidence on sickness absence among immigrants indicates that non-Western immigrants have a higher incidence of sickness-related absence than natives. The purpose of this article is to examine whether health is a contributing factor to the immigrant-native sickness absence gap. The present article makes use of two data sources: register data (FD-trygd) with labour market and long-term sickness absence information linked to a cross-section questionnaire survey on health: The Oslo Health Study, which was conducted in 2000–2001 (N?=?14,114). The findings in this article show that non-Western immigrants have a higher incidence of long-term sickness absence than natives. For both women and men, the differences in long-term sickness absence between non-Western immigrants and natives can be explained by poorer self-reported health among immigrants.     

Workaholism and work–family spillover in a cross-occupational sample

This study examined the relationship between three components of workaholism (work involvement, drive, enjoyment of work) and work–family spillover. A cross-occupational sample consisting of 661 Norwegian employees from six different organizations responded to a Web-based questionnaire measuring workaholism and work–family spillover. A short and revised version of the WorkBAT showed that work involvement was positively related to both positive family-to-work spillover and to negative work-to-family spillover. Drive was positively related to both negative work-to-family and negative family-to-work spillover, and negatively related to positive work-to-family spillover. Enjoyment of work was positively associated with positive work-to-family and positive family-to-work spillover. Workaholism is clearly related to spillover. The findings imply that interventions for workers scoring high on work involvement and drive should be emphasized as these dimensions were associated with negative spillover. More research on this area is warranted.     

Hiring Rankings of Immigrant Job Applicants: Immigrants’ Acculturation Strategies and Managers’ Personality Trait Perception

This study examines how non-Western immigrants' acculturation strategies are related to managers' hiring rankings. It examines whether hiring managers differ in personality trait inferences depending on whether the candidate is a Turkish immigrant or a native Norwegian. Managers (N?=?436) evaluated three job applicants in terms of personality and hirability. Across three experimental conditions, the information of one (target) was manipulated and presented as either a native, as an integrated Turkish immigrant, and as a separated Turkish immigrant. The separated Turkish target received lower hirability rankings compared with the other target applicants. The integrated Turkish target was rated as more open, extraverted, conscientious, agreeable, and neurotic than the two other targets. Personality ratings of the Norwegian and the separated Turkish target did not differ significantly. Evaluations of personality were associated with hiring ranking of the Norwegian target only.     

Poor Sleep as a Risk Factor for Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Adolescent Girls

The purpose of this study was to examine the relation between poor sleep and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), and to test the hypothesis that poor sleep is a risk factor for the development of NSSI in young adolescents. Questionnaire data were used from a 2-wave longitudinal study of a community sample of 881 young Swedish adolescents. The results showed that 7 % of the girls reported poor sleep (never or seldom sleeping well), and 20–26 % of the girls reported repeated NSSI (at least 5 instances). Poor sleep was associated prospectively with NSSI among girls, but not among boys. Of girls who responded that they seldom or never slept well at T1, 77 % reported repeated NSSI 1 year later. Poor sleep at T1 was found to predict the incidence of new cases of repeated NSSI in girls at T2, independently of their degree of psychopathology. No similar relationship between poor sleep and NSSI was found in boys. The present results suggest that screening for poor sleep in adolescents may serve to identify a subgroup of girls at risk for developing NSSI. It is concluded that poor sleep in young girls should be taken seriously, even in the absence of other self-reported psychological problems, and that interventions targeted at sleep disturbances may be important for prevention.     

Neuropsychological Deficits in Relation to Symptoms of ADHD: Independent Contributions and Interactions

Twelve children with and without Down syndrome (DS) performed eight subtests of an apraxia battery to determine under what conditions children with DS had difficulty performing representational and nonrepresentational gestures. Participants with DS also completed a dichotic listening test. Participants with DS performed just as well as control participants on all aspects of the apraxia battery except a subtest in which they were required to pantomime tool use from verbal instruction. This suggests that children with DS have difficulty generating an action from memory following verbal instruction. Given the sufficient context or visual demonstration, children with DS performed similar to the other participants. As well, there was a great deal of within-group variability for dichotic listening ear advantage. Participants with a greater left ear advantage on the dichotic listening test committed more errors on an imitation test that also included a verbal component than participants with a greater right ear advantage.     

The relationship between ‘workaholism’, basic needs satisfaction at work and personality

The aim of this study was to examine correlates of ‘workaholism’ components (Work Involvement, Drive, Enjoyment of Work). A cross‐occupational sample of 661 Norwegian employees in six different organizations completed a web‐based survey measuring ‘workaholism’, basic needs satisfaction at work and personality. Needs satisfaction at work was positively related to Enjoyment of Work, and negatively to Drive. Conscientiousness was positively related to all ‘workaholism’ components; Extraversion and Openness to Work Involvement and Enjoyment of Work; and Neuroticism to Drive. Negative relations were found between Neuroticism and Enjoyment of Work, and Agreeableness and Drive. Although the associations were rather weak, the findings give reason to differentiate between enthusiastic and non‐enthusiastic ‘workaholic’ characteristics, which were consistent with predictions taken from central theories on ‘workaholism’. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of social desirability on self reported and recorded road traffic accidents

The use of lie scales has a fairly long history in psychometrics, with the intention of identifying and correcting for socially desirable answers. This represents one type of common method variance (bias introduced when both predictors and predicted variables are gathered from the same source), which may lead to spurious associations in self-reports. Within traffic safety research, where self-report methods are used abundantly, it is uncommon to control for social desirability artifacts, or reporting associations between lie scales, crashes and driver behaviour scales. In the present study, it was shown that self-reports of traffic accidents were negatively associated with a lie scale for driving, while recorded ones were not, as could be expected if the scale was valid and a self-report bias existed. We conclude that whenever self-reported crashes are used as an outcome variable and predicted by other self-report measures, a lie scale should be included and used for correcting the associations. However, the only existing lie scale for traffic safety is not likely to catch all socially desirable responding, because traffic safety may not be desirable for all demographic groups. New lie scales should be developed specifically for driver behaviour questionnaires, to counter potential bias and artifactual results. Alternatively, the use of a single source of data should be discontinued.     

Achievement strategies in peer groups and adolescents' school adjustment and norm-breaking behavior

The present study examined the extent to which the achievement strategies deployed by adolescents, and those used by their peers would predict adolescents' school adjustment, academic achievement and problem behavior. The participants were 287 14–15-year-old comprehensive school students (121 boys and 165 girls) from a middle-sized town in central Sweden. The results showed that not only the maladaptive strategies used by adolescents, but also those reported by their peers predicted adolescents' norm-breaking behavior, low school adjustment and low level of achievement: high levels of failure expectations and task-avoidance among adolescents' peers were positively associated with adolescents' own norm-breaking behavior, and indirectly via this, also with their maladjustment at school and low grades. These associations were found after controlling for the impact of adolescents' own achievement strategies.     

Charity and Error‐Theoretic Nominalism

I here investigate whether there is any version of the principle of charity both strong enough to conflict with an error‐theoretic version of nominalism about abstract objects (EN), and supported by the considerations adduced in favour of interpretive charity in the literature. I argue that in order to be strong enough, the principle, which I call “(Charity)”, would have to read, “For all expressions e, an acceptable interpretation must make true a sufficiently high ratio of accepted sentences containing e”. I next consider arguments based on (i) Davidson's intuitive cases for interpretive charity, (ii) the reliability of perceptual beliefs, and (iii) the reliability of “non‐abstractive inference modes”, and conclude that none support (Charity). I then propose a diagnosis of the view that there must be some universal principle of charity ruling out (EN). Finally, I present a reason to think (Charity) is false, namely, that it seems to exclude the possibility of such disagreements as that between nominalists and realists.