“Basic education assistance module as a material and psychosocial support intervention for orphans and vulnerable children in Gutu District,Zimbabwe. An evaluation”

Much has been written on the psychosocial support of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) around the world regarding their well-being. However, there is still a lack of information on the efficacy of the Basic Education Assistance Module (BEAM) both as material and a psychosocial support intervention for OVCs within the rural communities of Zimbabwe. This article is a qualitative phenomenological study seeking to examine the perceptions, views and feelings of the OVC, care-givers and community leaders on their experiences with BEAM as a material and psychosocial support intervention in Zimbabwe. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 OVCs which consist of the primary and secondary school going children; 10 care-givers and 10 community leaders purposively selected in the Gutu District of Zimbabwe. The results showed that whilst the BEAM has been applauded as an OVC psychosocial support intervention, its efficacy was marred by its failure to proportionately and holistically provide all the basic needs of the school-going OVCs within the rural communities. This study therefore recommends the establishment of the OVC stakeholders integrated support model, which is deeply entrenched in a holistic approach for the provision of the material and psychosocial support needs of the OVCs in Zimbabwe.     

“Behave like a responsible adult” – Relation between social identity and psychosocial skills at stake in self-management of a chronic disease

We show that the development of psychosocial skills promoting self-management of a chronic disease is associated with the acquisition of a social identity valued in the ideological context of reference. To do this, we focus on a skill that is important for people suffering from a chronic disease to acquire: Assuming responsibility for self-managing one’s own pathology. Because acting responsibly is also a skill socially attributed to the identity of adults in Western liberal societies, we studied the chronically ill’s sense of belonging to the adult social group. In Study 1 (N = 102 diabetics), we suggested that behaving like a “responsible adult” in the self-management of a chronic disease is socially valued. In Study 2 (N = 261 diabetics), we suggested that identification with this group is associated with a feeling of responsibility promoting improved self-management behaviors. The results obtained from the two studies are consistent with our hypotheses. They allow us to conceptualize psychosocial skills through the identity, ideological and normative issues that underpin their development.     

Changes in psychological well-being among older Lithuanian city dwellers: Results from a cohort study

Background/Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate changes of psychological well-being (PWB) in older Lithuanian city dwellers during ten years of follow-up, and to establish factors associated with it. Method: 7,115 men and women of age 45-72 years participated in the initial survey in 2006-2008. In 2016 the follow-up survey was performed among all 6,210 participants who survived. 4,266 individuals responded to postal questionnaires. PWB was evaluated by using CASP-12 questionnaire. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by CES-D-10 scale. Quality of life, self-rated health, and social activity were evaluated.Socio-demographic, socio-economic factors were included into standard questionnaire. Results: PWB deteriorated in all age groups during 10-years follow-up. Poor quality of life, poor self-rated health, having depressive symptoms, and not being member of social organization are associated with lower PWB after 10 years in men and women. Employed-retired, retired, and not socially active women have higher possibility to have lower PWB over 10 years. Conclusions: PWB in older Lithuanian city dwellers deteriorates as many other socio-economic and psychosocial indicators during ten-year follow-up. Mostly psychosocial factors, but not the socio-demographic, and socio-economic ones predict PWB over 10 years. It is crucial to understand and promote predictors of PWB in older age.     

Vers une approche organisationnelle du stress au travail

The aim of this paper is to consider the relationship between the organization of work today installed in many businesses and the growing stress of all categories of employees, and so, with components from literature but also from employees interviews. The organizational approach of stress at work can overcome a reflection traditionally engaged in risk management and psychosocial in the work during the last decade. We will show that several changes in work organization, the end of Fordism, increasing individualization, the distance between the real work and the work required, problems of recognition and penibility at work, have a direct impact on the individual. The company becomes the new place of responses to stress management. We outline new opportunities for understanding the psychosocial risk from a practical and organizational.     

L’analyse des risques psychosociaux en ESAT parmi des travailleurs en situation de handicap (TSH) : éléments de réflexion

Unlike the mainstream world of labour, studies on psychosocial risks (PSR) in Establishments and Work Assistance Services (ESAT) among workers with disabilities are scarce. Given the adverse effects of the PSR on both these workers and on the work itself, it seems essential to focus specifically on the PSR in the context of ESAT. The paper shows that the application of different theoretical models of PSR from the mainstream environment to the ESAT is possible. The health at work for people with disabilities requires taking into account the disorders influencing the identification and the mobilization of resources and skills. Working conditions in ESAT allow health promotion if they are adapted to the specificities and needs of people with disabilities.     

A matter of habit? Stressful life events and cognitive flexibility in 15-month-olds

Exposure to chronic stress is associated with habitual learning in adults. We studied the origins of this association by examining the link between stressful life events and infant cognitive flexibility. The final sample consisted of N = 72 fifteen-month-old infants and their mothers. Mothers completed a survey on pre- and postnatal negative life events. To assess chronic stress physiologically, infant and maternal hair cortisol concentrations were determined for cortisol accumulation during the past 3 months. Each infant participated in two cognitive tasks in the laboratory. An instrumental learning task tested infants’ ability to disengage from a habituated action when this action became ineffective (Seehagen et al., 2015). An age-adequate version of the A-not-B task tested infants’ ability to find a toy at location B after repeatedly finding it at location A. Correlations between cortisol concentrations and postnatal negative life events (number, perceived impact) did not yield significance. Infant and maternal hair cortisol concentrations were not correlated. Infants’ ability to shift to a new action in either task, controlled for acute stress, correlated neither with pre- and postnatal negative life events nor with cortisol concentrations. Taken together, these results indicate that the potential link between long-term stress exposure and cognitive flexibility might not be present in samples with low levels of psychosocial stress.     

Éléments de réflexion pour la mise en œuvre d’une démarche de prévention des risques psychosociaux au travail en France

Preventing social risks at work is an international concern. It has been demonstrated that the work in its all dimensions such as, organizational, technical, technological and relational, involves a multiplicity of constraints. They participate to the degradation of work health and to the organizational performance through to the complex and various mechanisms. The aim of this paper is to explain how a methodological consensus linking the European legislation, national agreements, scientifically theories and tools, and actual work has been gradually introducing in France. Based on theoretical and methodological considerations and on a Return Of Experience (ROE) we demonstrate the necessity to adopt an integrated approach to prevent social risks that focusing more on the work determinants than on individuals’ issues.     

Prévention des situations à risque de forte charge émotionnelle : exemple dans le secteur de l’aide à domicile

Far from disappearing from the professional world, psychosocial risks remains a concern within organizations. Their rate is still high and their effects for the health are still deleterious (Eurofound and EU-OSHA, 2014). Nevertheless, it is possible to act in prevention to isolate these risks and reduce them. The analysis of several high emotional charged situations, based on workplace observations and interviews on work experience, lead to identify risky working conditions for the health, in terms of too much high work and emotional requests. This article exposes a research-action led in a small sized enterprise of home help. The aim was to analyze psychosocial risks factors and to reduce them. We made interviews with 25 home helps, 3 administrative staff, and the head of the service; then, we observed the activity of 13 employees. The video recording was used as an analysis vector, at first in the workplace, then in collective self-confrontations sessions. The feedback collected from these sessions, in addition to activity and emotions at work analyses, allowed to identify the noxious working conditions and to target potential or real psychosocial risks. The results show how much certain situations with high emotional labor echo in a negative way on the health of people having lived them. They also show that the implementation of preventive measures with regard to these risky situations facilitates the emotions regulation and are protective towards the health. Finally, this article highlights that the emotional component of work plays a fundamental role on the subjective relationship between employees, their work and their health, and shows that emotional component analysis can contribute to the psychosocial risks identification and their prevention.