Open Workplace Climate and LGB Employees' Psychological Experiences: The Roles of Self‐Concealment and Self‐Acceptance

This study explores how an environmental factor (i.e., a perceived open climate) shapes lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) employees' job satisfaction and job anxiety through the mediating role of self‐concealment. It also investigates the moderating role of self‐acceptance. Results from 315 LGB employees supported the conclusion that a perceived open climate for minority sexuality increased job satisfaction and decreased job anxiety. The open climate–job anxiety relationship was mediated by self‐concealment, and both stages of this mediation process were moderated by self‐acceptance. These findings offer useful insights for counselors and managers to help LGB individuals improve their workplace psychological experiences.     

Positive School Climate as a Moderator of Violence Exposure for Colombian Adolescents

In Colombia, many adolescents have experienced violence related to the decades‐long armed conflict in the country and have witnessed or been directly victimized by violence in their communities, often related to gang activity or drug trafficking. Exposure to violence, both political and community violence, has detrimental implications for adolescent development. This study used data from 1857 Colombian adolescents in an urban setting. We aim to understand the relations between exposure to violence and adolescent outcomes, both externalizing behaviors and developmental competence, and then to understand whether school climate (i.e., safety, connectedness, services) moderates these relations. Results demonstrate that armed conflict, community violence victimization, and witnessing community violence are positively associated with externalizing behaviors, but only armed conflict is negatively associated with developmental competence. School safety, connectedness, and services moderate the relation between community violence witnessing and externalizing behaviors. School services moderates the relation between community violence victimization and developmental competence. As students perceived more positive school climate, the effects of community violence exposure on outcomes were weakened. This study identifies potential levers for intervention regarding how schools can better support violence‐affected youth through enhancements to school safety, connectedness, and services.     

中学生欺凌受害对其内化问题的影响:有调节的中介模型

采用特拉华校园氛围量表、特拉华欺负受害量表、心理弹性量表、病人健康问卷抑郁量表和广泛性焦虑量表对3543名中学生进行调查。探讨中学生感知的校园氛围与心理弹性在其欺凌受害与内化性问题间的中介调节作用。结果表明:(1)在控制中学生的性别、年级及父母文化水平后,欺凌受害能显著正向预测学生的内化性问题。(2)心理弹性在欺凌受害与内化性问题间起部分中介作用。(3)中学生感知的校园氛围在欺凌受害以及心理弹性对内化性问题的影响中均有显著的调节作用。     

Applying a longitudinal tracer methodology to evaluate complex interventions in complex settings

Long-running multi-faceted intervention studies are particularly problematic in large complex organizations where traditional methods prove too resource intensive and can yield inaccurate and incomplete findings. This paper describes the first use of, longitudinal tracer methodology (LTM), a realist approach to evaluation, to examine the links between multiple complex intervention activities (processes) and their outcomes on a construction megaproject. LTM is especially useful when the researcher has little control over intervention delivery but has evidence drawn from multiple sources to evaluate the intervention activities effects over time. This methodology has rarely been deployed in complex organizational settings and not on a construction megaproject. This paper presents a case study of its use over a period of three years, on 24 construction sites forming London’s Thames Tideway Tunnel (Tideway) megaproject. The study examines the “transformational” power of occupational safety and health (OSH) interventions across the multiple organizations and supply chains in the megaproject. The study shows how the method can be adapted in-flight to accommodate shifting lines of inquiry as the intervention activities progress and change. This feature along with its resource-efficient operation, make it an attractive option where interventions are likely to have differential effects across multiple sites of enactment.     

Linking safety knowledge to safety behaviours: a moderated mediation of supervisor and worker safety attitudes

The thousands of deaths and disabilities due to workplace accidents and injuries each year emphasize the importance of safety research. Despite occupational safety research that has contributed to identifying antecedents of safety, little is known about why and how safety knowledge leads to safety behaviours and how personal and situational factors interact to promote occupational safety. Using a multilevel, multisource, and time-lagged research design, the present study investigates whether safety knowledge affects safety behaviours through safety attitudes and further tests whether supervisory safety attitudes can impact the strength of these relationships and play a role as moderators of the proposed mediated relationship. Data were collected from workers (N = 177) and supervisors (N = 42) in a construction company in the energy industry at two time points. Results indicate full support for the moderated mediation model, demonstrating that worker safety attitudes partially mediate the relationship between safety knowledge and safety behaviours. Moreover, when supervisors had positive attitudes towards safety, both the direct relationship between worker safety attitudes and safety behaviours and the indirect relationship between safety knowledge and safety behaviours were more positive compared to when supervisors had negative safety attitudes. Theoretical and practical implications for occupational safety are discussed.     

Psychosocial impacts of communal conflicts in a sample of secondary school youths from two conflict communities in south east Nigeria

In Nigeria, communal conflicts arise due to misunderstanding from ownership of land for farming, oil deposits, solid minerals or water for fishing activities. It may also arise in defence of community pride and properties or even in defence of the people involved in the conflict. The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), The Short Screening Scale for Post traumatic stress disorder, The Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-2) were used to assess psychosocial impacts of communal conflicts among 560 secondary school youths from two communities in south east Nigeria. Result revealed various forms of psychosocial impacts of communal conflicts among the youths.     

Decision-making in rectal and colorectal cancer: systematic review and qualitative analysis of surgeons’ preferences

Surgeons are experiencing difficulties implementing recommendations not only owing to incomplete, confusing or conflicting information but also to the increasing involvement of patients in decisions relating to their health. This study sought to establish which common factors including heuristic factors guide surgeons’ decision-making in colon and rectal cancers. We conducted a systematic literature review of surgeons’ decision-making factors related to colon and rectal cancer treatment. Eleven of 349 identified publications were eligible for data analyses. Using the IRaMuTeQ (Interface of R for the Multidimensional Analyses of Texts and Questionnaire), we carried out a qualitative analysis of the significant factors collected in the studies reviewed. Several validation procedures were applied to control the robustness of the findings. Five categories of factors (i.e. patient, surgeon, treatment, tumor and organizational cues) were found to influence surgeons’ decision-making. Specifically, all decision criteria including biomedical (e.g. tumor information) and heuristic (e.g. surgeons’ dispositional factors) criteria converged towards the factor ‘age of patient’ in the similarity analysis. In the light of the results, we propose an explanatory model showing the impact of heuristic criteria on medical issues (i.e. diagnosis, prognosis, treatment features, etc.) and thus on decision-making. Finally, the psychosocial complexity involved in decision-making is discussed and a medico-psycho-social grid for use in multidisciplinary meetings is proposed.     

Speed-calming measures and their effect on driving speed – Test of a new technique measuring speeds based on GNSS data

Speeding increases the risk and severity of accidents, especially for vulnerable road users. Hence, minimisation of speeding in built-up areas is vital. Some countries widely use speed-calming measures (SCs). Documentation shows that SCs reduce speeding considerably although various types and designs of SCs affect this reduction. This paper includes studies of the effects from establishment of sinus speed humps of height 10 cm and length 950 cm and chicanes (with a free carriageway width of 5.30 cm and a length between the 0.5 m wide obstacles of 18 m) as a before/after study where the speed pattern after establishing SCs is compared with the one before. Floating Car Data used for analyses includes 3216 trips passing one/more SCs. The main results are that the effect from SCs decreases with the distance from the SCs and that a clear pattern is hard to establish above 75 m from the SC. Despite the apparent absence of more distant effects of each SC, there is an overall reduced average speed on the full length of a road with SCs. Humps reduce the mean speed comparable to the reduction from chicanes, but the speed variation is less reduced near chicanes, and especially prior to the arrival to such SC. Due to different traffic patterns around the two types of SCs, a direct comparison between the effects from humps and chicanes cannot be made. A tentative result at least for the two types of SCs studied is that the chicane results in a reduced effect on speed variation compared to the hump. The chicanes result in increased speed variation prior to the arrival to the SC compared to the humps. Hence, the indication is that chicanes might be less safe than humps due to speed variation although more research is needed especially concerning developing of best practice design for speed reducing devices and other speed-calming measures in built-up areas.     

Bicycle fatalities: Trends in crashes with and without motor vehicles in The Netherlands

Boufous and Olivier (2015) recently found an increasing trend of police-reported cyclist deaths in single-vehicle crashes while a decreasing trend was found for fatal bicycle-motor vehicle crashes. This study sets out to conduct the same trend analyses for the Netherlands using causes of death statistics. The results show that for 1996–2014, the number of cyclist deaths in motor vehicle collisions per km cycled (i.e. the risk) has declined by 3.8% per annum (95% CI: −4.6%, −3.0%) while the risk of cyclist deaths in crashes without motor vehicles increased by 7.0% per annum (95% CI: 5.5%, 8.7%). The large majority of cyclist deaths at the beginning of the study period were due to bicycle-motor vehicle crashes. By 2014, however, the share with motor vehicles was only slightly higher than the share without motor vehicles. We also conducted trend analyses controlling for age by stratifying into nine age groups. After controlling for age, the average annual decrease of cyclist deaths in crashes with motor vehicles was 5.4% (95% CI: −6.0% to − 4.7%). The average annual increase of deaths in crashes without motor vehicles was 4.4% (95% CI: 3.1–5.7%). These trends are more favourable than those without controlling for age which can be explained by more cycling among the elderly who have an elevated risk. We conclude that, similar to Australia, cyclist deaths following motor vehicle crashes in the Netherlands have decreased while deaths without motor vehicles have increased.     

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and enacted PSC for workplace bullying and psychological health problem reduction

Bullying at work has profound effects on both the individual and organization. We aimed to determine if organizational psychosocial safety climate (PSC; a climate specific to worker psychological health) could reduce workplace bullying and associated psychological health problems (i.e., distress, emotional exhaustion, depression) if specific procedures were implemented (PSC enactment). We theorized that the PSC enactment mechanism works via psychosocial processes such as bullying mistreatment climate (anti-bullying procedures), work design (procedures reduce stress through work redesign), and conflict resolution (procedures to resolve conflict). We used two-wave national longitudinal interview data from 1,062 Australian employees (Australian Workplace Barometer project) and structural equation modelling to explore relationships over 4 years. PSC Time 1 predicted enacted PSC and reduced bullying 4 years later. PSC Time 1 was indirectly negatively related to poor psychological health Time 2 through enacted PSC and bullying. Bullying Time 1 also gave rise to procedures which in turn reduced bullying Time 2. Our findings suggest a multi-component approach to prevent or reduce bullying. Procedures (to reduce psychosocial hazards) that emerge in a high PSC context are more comprehensive than those triggered by bullying (reactive procedures), and can therefore be more effective in reducing worker mistreatment. Building PSC and a strong climate for psychological health, and enacting PSC is fundamental to bullying prevention.