When all COVID breaks loose: Examining determinants of working parents' job performance during a crisis

As governments mandated organization and school closures due to COVID-19, working parents involuntarily found themselves trying to balance both work and child educational responsibilities from home while still endeavoring to remain productive at work. As such, we integrate the crisis management literature with boundary theory and the work–home resources model to propose and test a process model to better understand how abrupt shifts to remote work and school closures impact working parents' job performance during a crisis. Using data collected across four time periods beginning at the time when most states had issued “safer at home” orders, we examine a serial mediation model and find, consistent with predictions, that early experiences of boundary violations and job insecurity impact work–family balance self-efficacy, which in turn drives future job performance by way of its effects on working parents' subjective well-being. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Leaning In and Out: Work–Life Tradeoffs,Self-Conscious Emotions,and Life Role Satisfaction

Drawing on self-discrepancy theory, which posits discomfort when actual selves deviate from ideal or ought selves (Higgins, 1987), we examine the complementary and compounding effects of work–life tradeoffs on self-conscious emotions, life role satisfaction, and spouse/partner work satisfaction. Across multiple samples, we augment and refine extant tradeoff measures to include minor tradeoffs (e.g., limiting networking, missing a family event) in addition to the more frequently researched major tradeoffs (e.g., quitting a job, choosing not to have children) and test their effects. Work compromising tradeoffs (i.e., sacrificing work for family/personal activities) were associated with negative self-conscious emotions and lower levels of job, career, and life satisfaction indirectly through professional self-discrepancy, suggesting that making work compromises for family affects how individuals see themselves as professionals. Family/personal compromising tradeoffs (i.e., sacrificing family/personal activities for work) were associated with negative self-conscious emotions and lower levels of job, career, family, and life satisfaction indirectly through family and professional self-discrepancy, suggesting individuals view their family and professional selves less favorably when they make family/personal compromises for work. Despite negative effects for the employees, our results suggest work tradeoffs are beneficial for spouse/partner work hours and satisfaction.     

Sustainable system-of-systems and francophone activity-centered approaches in ergonomics: Converging and diverging lines of dialogue

This paper initiates a dialogue between the sustainable system-of-systems (SSoS) approach and one particular situated approach of activity analysis within francophone activity-centered ergonomics (FACE). This paper explores the possible cross-fertilizations between FACE and SSoS in coping with the challenge of enlargement which ergonomists have to face in order to address sustainability issues. We present how the SSoS model and FACE have currently considered the challenges of sustainable development and the theoretical-methodological principles that frame their approaches. Then, eight topics of dialogue are introduced and debated in order to open the dialogue between the two approaches where emerging lines of convergence are generated. We conclude by further discussing the complementarity between FACE and SSoS in the objectives of their approaches and the levels analysed by each approach, and by highlighting the importance of taking into account the emergent and complex aspects of systems. One possible way forward might be to “situate the sustainable system-of-systems” while also “systemizing systems of sustainable situations” for the future.     

Absence of differences in the learning rate of a speed–accuracy movement task between women patients with mild and major depression and healthy adult women

This study tested the hypothesis that women patients with depression should perform movements more slowly and with greater variability, and their learning rate should be lower compared with age-matched healthy adult women. Three groups of adult women subjects (aged 33–37 years, women patients with mild and major depression and healthy adult women, n = 20 in each group) performed five series (20 repetitions in each series) of a speed–accuracy hand-movement task (SAT). The mean movement speed (V_a) of the SAT was lower and more stable (the coefficient of variation of V_a was lower) in women patients with major depression compared with those with minor depression and healthy adult women during the first series of the SAT. Only the V_a and movement accuracy (path of movement, S) of the SAT varied significantly in the five learning series regardless of the subject group (healthy women subjects and women patients with minor and major depression). The intraindividual variability of reaction time, V_a, maximal movement velocity to the target (tV_max), time to tV_max, and S did not change significantly in any of the groups. Our research data showed that although women patients with depression performed speed–accuracy movements more slowly, the stability of the performance of their movements and their learning rate did not differ from those of age-matched healthy adult women.     

Narrating the negative consequences of elder care and familial obligation in Atlantic Canada

At a time when renewed emphasis is being placed on the role of the family in providing care for elderly people, shifts in family structures and the demographic profile of societies such as Atlantic Canada are impacting on community structures foundational to familial caregiving practices. Research shows that family members who attempt to provide familial care without adequate support risk negative health and interpersonal consequences. Hence many find it necessary to reflect upon their familial obligations. This article investigates the storytelling processes through which caregivers, aged between 45 and 55 years (N = 26), make sense of their efforts to provide care. We explore the ways in which participants in four focus groups and 12 interviews refer to negative consequences of caring in order to navigate dilemmas arising from their enactment of familial obligations in the absence of adequate support. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving Young Male Couples’ Sexual and Relationship Health in the 2GETHER Program: Intervention Techniques,Environments of Care,and Societal Considerations

Young male couples are at high risk for acquiring human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, few HIV prevention programs meet the needs of young male couples that express an interest in how to maintain healthy relationships. As such, we developed 2GETHER, a couple-based program that integrates HIV risk reduction and sexual health information into a relationship education program specific to young male couples. 2GETHER was guided by cognitive-behavioral theories of HIV risk reduction and relationship functioning and was informed by a social–ecological perspective to address factors within and outside the couple that can impact sexual and relationship health. As a micro-level intervention, 2GETHER intervenes directly with couples via psychoeducation and cognitive-behavioral strategies to change couples’ communication patterns, sexual health behaviors, and relationship satisfaction. Successful implementation of 2GETHER requires mezzo-level interventions that create an affirming environment of care for sexual minority individuals and facilitators who are culturally competent in working with young male couples. Although macro-level interventions to change societal acceptance of and policies germane to sexual minority couples are beyond the scope of 2GETHER, we discuss how clinicians can advocate for systemic changes to improve sexual minority couples’ health, and how 2GETHER addresses the impact of such macro-level factors on the couple’s relationship. Our experience developing and testing 2GETHER indicates that HIV prevention programs for young male couples should reflect the unique contexts shaping sexual minority individuals’ relationships and lives, and that programs should intervene within and across multiple levels when possible to improve health for sexual minority men.     

Care for Caregivers: Understanding the Need for Caregiver Support

Most long‐term care for older adults in the United States is provided by informal caregivers (Ahmad, 2012 ), the majority of whom experience an intense range of emotions from satisfaction to loneliness. Counselors must consider this emerging population of caretakers and learn methods to encourage clinical services to address their need for support. This article delineates experiences and challenges of informal caregivers and provides suggestions for effective clinical services for caregiver populations.     

社会自我效能感与工作倦怠的关系：社会交换视角下有调节的中介模型

本研究基于工作要求-资源模型和领导-成员交换理论,采用两时点追踪问卷调查方法收集了313份数据,探讨了员工的社会自我效能感与工作倦怠之间的关系及其内在机制。分析结果表明：社会自我效能感对工作倦怠有显著的负向预测作用;领导-成员交换关系在社会自我效能感和工作倦怠之间有着显著的中介作用;领导-成员交换社会比较调节了社会自我效能感通过领导-成员交换关系预测工作倦怠的间接效应。