Hurricane Katrina's impact on the mental health of adolescent female offenders

Abstract

Exposure to multiple traumatic events and high rates of mental health problems are common among juvenile offenders. This study draws on Conservation of Resources (COR) stress theory to examine the impact of a specific trauma, Hurricane Katrina, relative to other adverse life events, on the mental health of female adolescent offenders in Mississippi. Teenage girls (N=258, 69% African American) were recruited from four juvenile detention centers and the state training school. Participants were interviewed about the occurrence and timing of adverse life events and hurricane-related experiences and completed a self-administered mental health assessment. Hierarchical linear regression models were used to identify predictors of anxiety and depression. Pre-hurricane family stressors, pre-hurricane traumatic events, hurricane-related property damage, and receipt of hurricane-related financial assistance significantly predicted symptoms of anxiety and depression. Findings support COR theory. Family stressors had the greatest influence on symptoms of anxiety and depression, highlighting the need for family based services that address the multiple, inter-related problems and challenges in the lives of female juvenile offenders.     

Role ambiguity and self-efficacy: The moderating effects of goal orientation and procedural justice

The present study investigated variables that moderated the relationship between role ambiguity and self-efficacy. Results of a field study found support for the moderating role of learning goal orientation, such that the relationship between role ambiguity and self-efficacy was weaker when learning goal orientation was high. In addition, we found that procedural justice moderated the role ambiguity—self-efficacy relationship, such that the relationship was stronger when procedural justice was high. However, contrary to our prediction, avoiding goal orientation did not interact with role ambiguity to predict self-efficacy. Implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.     

不同职业人员工作压力源及压力反应的比较研究

采用自编的压力源量表、SCL-90症状自评量表对255名不同职业的宁波市民进行问卷调查。以了解不同职业人员的工作生活压力源及压力反应的情况。结果表明：(1)不同职业人员首要的工作生活压力源因素是工作压力及经济收支,而且不同职业群体在这个因素上差异极显著。(2)不同职业人员在SCL-90的强迫、人际关系、妄想症、敌意、精神性、抑郁、阳性项目数、SCL-90总分等症状因子上差异极显著。(3)相关分析的结果表明,政府职工的经济收支和工作压力、家庭生活事件这两个压力源因子与SCL-90各因子间有极显著的负相关关系。     

When work and family collide: Deciding between competing role demands

This study examined the factors that influence the decision to participate in a work activity or a competing family activity. Part-time MBA students were presented with a vignette in which they were required to choose between participating in a weekend project team meeting and a surprise birthday party for a parent. Pressures from role senders (managers and spouses) to participate in each activity and the supportiveness of role senders for participation in the other role were manipulated in vignettes, and the salience of each role was assessed with self-report scales. Both work and family pressures affected the choice of activity. The salience of work and family roles for respondents also influenced the choice, with the effect of family salience stronger for those who were higher in self-esteem and higher in work salience. Implications of the findings for understanding the directionality of work–family interference are identified, limitations are discussed, and areas for future research are proposed.     

Convergence between measures of work-to-family and family-to-work conflict: A meta-analytic examination

The overlap between measures of work-to-family (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) was meta-analytically investigated. Researchers have assumed WFC and FWC to be distinct, however, this assumption requires empirical verification. Across 25 independent samples (total N = 9079) the sample size weighted mean observed correlation was .38 and the reliability corrected correlation was .48. The pattern of external correlates for the two types of conflict was also examined. Both forms of conflict had similar (.41) reliability corrected correlations with measures of organizational withdrawal. WFC conflict correlated .41 (k =  15, N = 4714) with job stressors and .17 (k = 13, N = 3312) with non-work stressors whereas FWC conflict correlated .27 with job stressors and .23 with non-work stressors. Correlations between the two forms of work/family conflict and other variables such as organizational commitment, job and life satisfaction, and health were examined. Implications for the discriminant validity of the two types of conflict measures are discussed.     

Speech vs. reading comprehension: an explorative study of gender representations in Norwegian

As research on the construction of a mental representation of referent gender in speech comprehension is scarce, this study examined whether factors identified in reading comprehension exert similar influence in speech comprehension. Conceptually replicating previous research, a sentence continuation evaluation task was set up in two modalities, as a listening task and as a time-confined reading task (i.e. to correspond to the time constraint when listening). In line with previous findings from self-paced reading paradigms we found gender representations in language comprehension to be grounded in the interaction between textual (grammatical) and background (stereotypical) information. Extending previous research, the effect of stereotypical information was however modulated by presentation modality. In all, although speech and reading comprehension share higher-level processes of comprehension, this study provides first evidence that differences in comprehension might occur due to differences such as orthographic access or attention allocation.     

The mediating influence of role stressors in the relationship between mentoring and job attitudes

This study investigated the influence of two role stressors—role ambiguity and role conflict—on previously established relationships between mentoring activities—vocational support, psychosocial support, and role modeling—and prominent job attitudes. Full and partial mediation models were tested with a sample of 355 protégés. Results showed that both role conflict and role ambiguity completely mediated the relationships between psychosocial support and role modeling with job attitudes. There was also support for role conflict as a partial mediator of the relationship between vocational support and job attitudes. Additional analyses revealed that psychosocial support served as a suppressor-variable in this study. Implications for future research and mentoring practice are discussed.     

Blurring boundaries: Correlates of integration and segmentation between work and nonwork

This study investigates the interrelations among role integration-segmentation, role identification, reactions to interruptions, and work-life conflict. Results from a field survey of university staff employees suggest that as highly identified roles are integrated into other domains, high role integration is related to less negative reactions to interruptions, and employees who integrate work into nonwork set fewer boundaries for using communication technologies during nonwork time and report higher work-life conflict. Findings from this research provide insight into how individuals integrate their work and life domains and the consequences of such integration to work-life conflict.