Quality of working life and commitment amongst employees in public organisations in Ghana: does job involvement matter?

This study tested a mediation model of job involvement to predict organisational commitment from quality of work life. A total of 137 workers employed in two public organisations participated in the study (males?=?52.6%, females?=?47.4%, junior staff?=?67.9%, senior staff?=?32.1%, age range 24 to 53 years). Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was computed on the data to model the effects of job involvement on organisational commitment taking into account quality of work life. The results indicated job involvement partially mediated the relationship between quality of worklife and organisational commitment (β?=?0.242, t(134)?=?4.475, p?=?0.05). Thus job involvement is important to employee commitment and should be targeted for intervention support in work organisations.     

Social-Psychological Factors Associated with Bullying Behaviour among Secondary School Students

This study investigated the association between social-psychological factors (misconduct, impulsivity, school sense of belonging, intention to use non-violent strategies, beliefs supportive of violence) and bullying behaviour. A total of two-hundred and fifteen (n=215) secondary school students randomly selected from five secondary schools in Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State participated in the study (boys =106, or 49.30%) and girls n=109 or 50.70%; age ranges = 16 to 22 years, mean = 19 years, SD= 3.19 years). The participants completed measures of misconduct, impulsivity, school sense of belonging, intention to use non-violent strategies, beliefs supportive of violence and bullying behaviour. Demographics data of the participants were also obtained. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that misconduct is the most important correlate of bullying behaviour. Pro-aggression behaviours explained bullying behaviour, intention to use non-violent strategies, beliefs supportive of violence, impulsivity and school sense of belonging also significantly explained lower bullying behaviour.     

Gendered adversity and mental health of adolescents orphaned by AIDS in a rural South African community: An exploratory study

This study explored gender differences in adversity and mental health among South African adolescents orphaned by AIDS. Adolescents (N = 121; females = 45.5%; mean age 14.14 years, SD = 2.09) self-reported their childhood adversities and probable mental ill health on the Child Trauma and General Health Questionnaire. Results revealed that female participants orphaned by AIDS were significantly more likely to report childhood adversity at total score level as compared to male participants. However, both male and female participants reported comparable scores on subscales of childhood adversity (emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and physical neglect). Moreover, female participants displayed higher composite mental ill health and all its subscales except for social dysfunction. Our findings suggest that gender-sensitive programmes and policies to address the effect of childhood adversity and mental ill health among adolescents orphaned by AIDS, are urgently needed.