Who benefits the most from a gratitude intervention in children and adolescents? Examining positive affect as a moderator

This research addresses the notion that the compatibility of skills and task demands involved in an activity elicits flow-experiences that render the activity intrinsically rewarding. We applied two experimental settings designed to test the causal impact of a skills–demands compatibility on the emergence of flow and intrinsic motivation: a playful computer game (Experiment 1) and a knowledge task (Experiment 2). Results support the balance hypothesis and indicate that compatibility of skills and task demands results in a flow-experience, irrespective of the type of activity. This demonstrates the generalizability of flow-experiences across two qualitatively different types of activities. Going beyond prior research, the results of Experiment 2 reveal that flow-experiences foster the willingness to reengage in the activity in a free choice setting, which represents a behavioral measure of intrinsic motivation.     

Work engagement and workaholism: comparing the self-employed and salaried employees

This study among a Dutch convenience sample of self-employed individuals (n = 262) and salaried employees (n = 1900) tested to what extent workaholism and work engagement relate to self-reported work performance. After controlling for measurement inequivalence, results of structural equation modeling showed that the self-employed score higher on engagement and working excessively then employees, but not on working compulsively. In addition, work engagement related positively to task performance and innovativeness for both groups. However, engagement only related to contextual performance (performance beyond role requirements) for employees. Workaholism had positive and negative relationships with self-reported performance. Working excessively related positively to innovativeness for both groups, and to contextual performance for the self-employed. Working compulsively suppressed this positive relationship between excessive working and innovativeness in both groups, and between excessive working and contextual performance for the self-employed. In contrast to our expectations, working compulsively related positively to contextual performance for employees.     

Work engagement and burnout: testing the robustness of the Job Demands-Resources model

This study focuses on work engagement and its negative antipode, burnout, as well as their antecedents and consequences. According to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, two different processes have to be distinguished: a motivational process that links job resources with turnover intention through work engagement, and an energetic process that links job demands and health complaints via the mediating role of burnout. The robustness of the JD-R model was tested in a heterogeneous occupational sample (N = 846). Structural equation modeling analyses yielded a slightly modified model with only exhaustion being indicative of burnout and vigor, dedication along with absorption being indicative of engagement. The results provide evidence for the dipartite structure of the JD-R model. Multi-group analyses revealed the model to be invariant across age and gender. Although strengths of path coefficients and factor loadings differed among white- and blue-collar workers, the basic structure of the model was also confirmed among these subgroups. Therefore, the findings underscore the robustness of the JD-R model.     

Relationships among perceived career support,affective commitment,and work engagement

This study sought to test the predictive effects of perceived career support and affective commitment on work engagement. It was hypothesized that perceived career support would relate positively to work engagement and this relationship would be transmitted through affective commitment. Survey data were collected from 115 full‐time employees enrolled as part‐time graduate students in a large public university in Malaysia. Multiple regression analysis yielded results indicating that the relationship between perceived career support and work engagement was mediated by affective commitment. This finding suggests that employers can promote employee work engagement by ensuring employees perceive their organization to be supportive of their career and increasing employees' level of affective commitment.     

Social Orientation of Students in the Israeli State High School System

In this study, we focused on the relationship between schools differing in their ideologies, beliefs, and environments and students' social orientations. Three research instruments, each examining different social orientations, were administered to 331 11th-grade students attending a random sample of national-religious and national-secular high schools in the Israeli state educational system. The results indicated that students in the national-religious sector had a more conservative social orientations profile than national-secular sector students, who tended to have more liberal and optimistic social orientations.     

Reaching Out: Improving the Continuity of Care of Community Mental Health Services Through a Weekly Climbing Group

This mixed-method study examined the impact of a novel activity group on engagement in care. Thirty-two participants were recruited from National Health Service (NHS) community mental health services in three inner-London boroughs. Participants undertook eight weekly sessions of supervised climbing. There was a significant quantitative improvement in the domain “individual progress” (Z = 2.12, p = 0.03). Qualitative data indicated a wide range of benefits. The study identified both direct and indirect benefits to continuity of care. The study validates the use of a climbing activity group to engage and benefit community mental health service users.     

Understanding the properties of interactive televised characters

Children's television programming frequently uses interactive characters that appear to directly engage the viewers. These characters encourage children to answer questions and perform actions to help the characters solve problems in the televised world. Children readily engage in these interactions; however, it is unclear why they do so. To investigate this issue, 53 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds made decisions about events occurring in the real world based on information provided by a live individual and by a televised interactive computer-generated character. Five-year-olds followed the advice of both the live individual and the televised computer-generated character, whereas 7- and 9-year-olds only followed the advice of the live individual. Results are discussed in terms of a transition from children believing that interactive televised characters can engage in a real communicative interaction to children understanding that this apparent interaction is an illusion.     

Where's the impairment: An examination of factors that impact sustained attention following a stressor

This contribution examines the emotional engagement of men and women when reading narrative texts, aiming to see under which textual conditions men and women turn out to be different from or similar to each other in what they think and feel during reception. As part of an experimental mixed-methods study, male and female readers are asked to read either experience-type texts (focusing on inner experiences of characters) or action-type texts (focusing on actions as part of a suspenseful plot) and report their engagement on questionnaire scales and in written protocols. Results show that men and women differ in their engagement when reading action texts and in their emotional affinity to plots. They are highly similar when reading the experience texts, however, and in their affinity to characters. This study underlines that the emotional responses of males and females during reading are highly dependent on (con)textual cues.     

Relational Job Characteristics and Work Engagement: Mediation by Prosocial Motivation

This study tested the relation between perceived social impact, social worth, and work engagement in the military, and mediating effects of prosocial motivation. We tested hypotheses using structural equation modeling analysis in a field study with 322 officers and sergeants and 1,045 soldiers of the Portuguese Army. Results confirmed that perceived social impact and social worth were associated with work engagement. Furthermore, regardless of the rank category, perceived social impact was associated with higher prosocial motivation, which in turn was associated with higher work engagement. In the soldiers subsample, results further indicated that soldiers’ perceived social worth was associated with higher prosocial motivation, which in turn was related to higher work engagement. The direct effects of perceived social impact and social worth on work engagement, and the mediating role of prosocial motivation supported the hypothesis that perceptions of social impact and social worth may strengthen the motives to “do good” (prosocial motivation), leading to an upward spiral that cultivates work engagement among members of the military.     

Organizational Support,Job Resources,Soldiers’ Motivational Profiles,Work Engagement,and Affect

The authors examined the relationships between soldiers’ motivational profiles and work correlates. Results showed that the profiles differentially related to perceived organizational support and work engagement in both samples, as well as to communication, supervisor support, and positive and negative affect in Sample 2. Specifically, soldiers with the highest autonomous motivation scores displayed the highest levels of perceived organizational support and work engagement. Moreover, the highest levels of autonomous motivation were associated with the highest levels of communication, supervisor support, and positive affect. Finally, soldiers with low to moderate levels of autonomous motivation reported higher levels of negative affect than those characterized by high autonomous motivation scores. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.