Self-concept in educable mentally retarded and emotionally handicapped children

A total of 48 educable mentally retarded (EMR) and emotionally handicapped (EH) children ( \(\overline {CA} \) =137.7 months) were pretested on Coopersmith's Self-Esteem Inventory (SEI), Nowicki-Strickland's Locus of Control Scale for Children (LCSC), and 3 behavioral measures: (1) risk-taking, (2) a chance/skill task, and (3) delay of gratification. One group of 12 children from each population was then exposed to either a self-confident or a control model. After exposure, Ss were given an opportunity to perform successfully on an ambiguous task and answer questions about their success, and were readministered the SEI, LCSC, and 3 behavioral choices. Correlational analyses of pretreatment data revealed significant relationships between defensiveness and LCSC, SEI, and delay of gratification and a near-significant relationship between LCSC and SEI. EMR and EH Ss were both lower on self-esteem than the general population, while EMR Ss were more defensive, more external, and less likely to delay gratification than EH Ss. Both treated groups matched more of the behavioral choices than the control groups, while only treated EH Ss were more likely to attribute their success to internal causes. It was concluded that EMR and EH children differ in self-concept development and that future attempts to modify self-concept should include greater modeling exposure as well as increased opportunity for performance with its resultant feedback.     

A questionnaire to assess school social climate

A questionnaire to assess the school social climate (CECSCE) made from items of The California School Climate and Safety Survey is presented. The CECSCE displays a stable factorial Oblimin structure in two social climate factors: 1) relative to the school and 2) relative to the teaching staff. Both factors present a correlation that oscillates between 0.42 and 0.48; and they explain 54,2% and 45,6% of the variance, respectively. Its reliability test-retest is acceptable (r= 0.61) after 9 months. Both factors present gender differences in favour of girls. They also differentiate at the educational level, displaying in 2 masculine course higher means in both factors than in 3 masculine course. The second factor correlates positively with the factors that measure social competence in the Merrell School Social Behaviour Scales and negatively with those that measure antisocial and non adapted behaviour.     

Does Hub‐and‐Spoke organization of healthcare system promote workers' satisfaction?

The healthcare services network is a recent organizational structure of healthcare services that are interdependent and organized as a network on the basis of the Hub‐and‐Spoke model. This questionnaire‐based study analyzed socio‐psychological well‐being of health workers both in terms of team‐related experience and individual satisfaction and engagement with one's work in a Hub‐and‐Spoke healthcare service in comparison to non‐network healthcare service. Workers from two different public healthcare services involved in the treatment of the same skeletal rare diseases participated in the Study. We expected that working under a Hub‐and‐Spoke healthcare service—involving teamwork and cooperation among different healthcare services within the units, as well as among workers belonging to different units—would lead to greater psychological team‐related and individual benefits. In line with predictions, the findings showed that under a Hub‐and‐Spoke healthcare service, health workers felt highly interdependent by their team fellows and developed shared cognitions (i.e., team mental models) about their integration and their tasks to a higher extent than non‐network ones. They were also individually more satisfied of their job and displayed higher work engagement than non‐network workers. Beneficial team‐related dynamics, such as perceived interdependence, were responsible for the differences between the Hub‐and‐Spoke workers and non‐network ones. The implications of the present findings were discussed in terms of promotion of health workers' satisfaction and well‐being.