Search

The psychosocial model of functional disability in two elderly populations aged 61 and above, 178 seniors living in the community, and 168 in-patients in a rehabilitation hospital is tested. The result indicated that the community samples were significantly older than the rehabilitation patients, whereas the hospital sample reported greater functional disability but were satisfied with their social relations than the community-residing elderly, and women reported more functional disability than men.

•Financial threat correlates with acute economic hardship more than chronic hardship.•Financial threat correlates with constructive financial behavioral intentions.•Economic hardship moderates the financial threat-behavioral intentions relationship.

•The FTS was psychometrically evaluated in four adult European samples.•Results were highly similar across samples, attesting to the FTS’ generalizability.•The FTS related to financial situation, personality, and psychological health variables.•The FTS mediated the relation between economic hardship and psychological well-being.

Résumé:Cette étude a examiné un échantillon de 228 personnes âgées en réhabilitation après chirurgie pour remplacement d'une articulation; elle a porté sur la relation entre une adaptation proactive, l'humeur et les résultats psychologiques et fonctionnels. Faire face proactivement c'est une façon de réagir qui est axée sur les objectifs et nécessite qu'on affront les facteurs qui incitent le stress comme un défiplutôt qu'une menace. Selon notre hypothèse, les personnes âgées qui adoptent des stratégies proactives d'adaptation subiraient une amélioration du fonctionnement physique et psychologique apres la réadaptation et connaîtraient une humeur positive. Le modèle proposé a trouvé du support, par lequel une expérience de vigueur a été trouvé à la médiation de l'effet d'une adaptation proactive sur les résultats. Les implications théoriques et pratiques des résultats de recherche sont discutées dans le contexte des interventions qui encourageraient les personnes âgées à faire face proactivement.Abstract:The relationship between proactive coping, mood, and psychological and functional outcomes was examined in a sample of 228 older adults undergoing rehabilitation following joint replacement surgery. Proactive coping is a coping style that is goal oriented and involves approaching stressors as challenges rather than threats. It was hypothesized that older adults who use proactive coping strategies would experience improved psychological and functional outcomes following rehabilitation. Further, it was expected that this relation would be mediated by the experience of positive mood. Support for the proposed mediation model was found, whereby the experience of vigor was found to mediate the effect of proactive coping on outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of the research findings are discussed in the context of interventions to foster proactive coping in older adults.

Traditionally, psychological research has focused on negative states, their determinants, and consequences. Theoretical conceptions of coping focus on strategies used to diminish distress. This approach is derived from the perspective that coping is mainly reactive, a strategy used once stress has been experienced. In contrast, proactive coping involves goal setting, having efficacious beliefs, and is associated with resources for self-improvement, including social support. In the present research, a theoretical model was developed in which coping and social support were seen in a synergistic relationship and were associated with a positive state that, in turn, was expected to relate to better psychological functioning. The general theoretical model was tested in three different samples: First year university students coping with depression (n= 68), rehabilitation patients mastering independent functioning following major surgery (n= 151), and employee absenteeism (n= 313). Results of path analyses showed that proactive coping was a partial mediator of social support on positive affect and that positive affect was associated with better psychological functioning. In students only, positive affect mediated the relationship between proactive coping and depression. This research represents a contribution within the field of positive psychology by empirically demonstrating how positive constructs contribute to improved psychological functioning. Theoretical and applied implications of the results are discussed.

The present study tests a psychosocial model of factors predicting emotional exhaustion and state anger in 333 nurses who worked during the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak. Predictors included working conditions, feedback, risk of contracting SARS, and perceived organizational support. Results of path analysis revealed that working conditions contributed significantly to an increase in perceived SARS threat, which led to increased emotional exhaustion and state anger. Positive feedback was directly and positively related to organizational support. Higher levels of organizational support predicted lower perceived SARS threat, emotional exhaustion, and state anger. Implications for health-care providers are discussed.

The objective of this study was to examine the predictive value of positive coping in relation to behavioral outcomes. Positive coping focuses on goal setting and preparative behavior in response to distress. The participants were 228 in-patients in a rehabilitation hospital following joint replacement. The average age of participants was 67.3 years old, 71 were women and two-thirds were married. Sixty percent had a hip replacement and 40 had a knee replacement. The study was designed so that at Time 1, two scales were used the proactive coping subscale of the Proactive Coping Inventory and the Getting on with Life scale. Proactive coping measures future-oriented planning and goal-setting strategies that an individual develops when confronting stress. Getting on with Life assesses feelings about resuming activities and social relationships that give one day-to-day pleasure. At Time 2, behavioral outcomes were assessed using the 2-Minute Walk (2MW) Test and a functional independence measure. In the 2MW Test, participants were instructed to walk at a comfortable pace and the distance walked in 2 min was measured in meters. The functional independence measure was based on average ratings of participants' independence behavior by trained hospital personnel in different areas. Results indicated that proactive coping and Getting on with Life were significantly related to behavioral outcomes. In conclusion, the results illustrate the value of positive coping in a rehabilitation setting.

This study examines university students' psychological reactions to a two-month faculty strike at a large Canadian university. Of particular interest were relationships between students' experience of angry feelings (state anger) about the strike and perceptions of the extent to which the strike had affected their plans involving important planned life experiences such as graduation, travel, and employment. The role of social support from the internet during the strike in alleviating the intensity of angry feelings was also investigated. Data were collected using an anonymous self-report questionnaire administered a few days after the labour dispute was settled. A total of 289 college students completed the questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted with variables entered as blocks and with state anger and anxiety as dependent variables. The first block of variables entered were individual variables such as age and year of study. The second block included average ratings of the extent to which plans were affected by the strike and how fairly students felt they had been treated. The third block of variables included social support from the internet and self-efficacy. The fourth block was the interaction between internet support and sex. With anger as the dependent variable, results showed that the more unfairly students felt they were treated during the strike and the more their plans had been affected by the strike, the greater their anger. Support provided to students from the internet predicted to lower anger. Further regression results indicated that the more students' plans had been affected by the strike, the greater their anxiety. Higher self-efficacy in students contributed to lower anxiety. Implications of the results are discussed within a social context, particularly the importance of studying how individual and social resources can reduce distress resulting from an interruption of students' academic plans due to a strike.

Increasingly, organizations are experiencing changes as a result of extensive downsizing, restructuring, and merging. In Canada, government-sponsored medicine has been affected as hospitals have merged or closed, reducing essential medical services and resulting in extensive job loss for hospital workers, particularly nurses. Hospital restructuring has also resulted in greater stress and job insecurity in nurses. The escalation of stressors has created burnout in nurses. This study examines predictors of burnout in nurses experiencing hospital restructuring using the MBI-General Survey which yields scores on three scales: Emotional exhaustion, Cynicism, and Professional efficacy. Multiple regressions were conducted where each burnout scale was the criterion and stressors (e.g., amount of work, use of generic workers to do nurses’ work), restructuring effects, social support, and individual resources (e.g., control coping, self-efficacy, prior organizational commitment) were predictors. There were differences in the amount of variance accounted for in the burnout components by stressors and resources. Stressors contributed most to emotional exhaustion and least to professional efficacy. Individual resources were more likely to contribute to professional efficacy and least to emotional exhaustion. Stressors and resources accounted for approximately equal amounts of variance in cynicism. Three conclusions were drawn. First, present findings parallel others by showing that individual coping patterns contribute to professional efficacy. Second, emotional exhaustion was found to be the prototype of stress. Third, prior organizational commitment, self-efficacy, and control coping resulted in lower burnout.

Job loss and job insecurity are frequently associated with today's widespread restructuring and downsizing of the workplace. The authors have developed an Impact of Restructuring Scale that quantifies the effects of restructuring in the healthcare sphere. The scale documents the effects of the resulting cutbacks, hospital mergers and hospital closings on two areas: quality of healthcare services and effects on staff. The study described in this article applies the scale to the healthcare sphere as reported in a sample of 1,363 nurses employed in hospitals that were being restructured. The nurses returned a self-report questionnaire in which they reported their reactions on a variety of measures designed to assess extent of restructuring initiatives, stressors, hospital support, job satisfaction and distress. Results showed that predictors of the impact of restructuring on nurses include restructuring initiatives undertaken by the hospital, deterioration of hospital facilities and services, work stressors (e.g., workload, bumping, use of generic workers) and social support. Hospital restructuring was also associated with lower job security, diminished job satisfaction and an increase in depression, anxiety and somatization.

As restructuring and downsizing occur throughout the workplace, many individuals are either losing their jobs or experiencing job insecurity. The study of downsizing is particularly important within the healthcare system where hospital mergers and closings, and severe cutbacks, have dramatically reduced healthcare services. Since nurses are the largest group employed by hospitals, they are the most likely to be affected by recent cutbacks. All this leads to the conclusion that a measure of the impact of restructuring is needed. This study reports on the Impact of Restructuring Scale — a new scale containing acceptable psychometric properties — that quantifies the effects of restructuring on organizations and individuals. The scale was applied to a sample of 1,363 nurses employed in hospitals undergoing restructuring and downsizing. The nurses returned a self-report questionnaire in which they reported their reactions to hospital restructuring and to specific job stressors.

This study examined the role played by two personal resources (job mobility options, financial resources) among nursing staff during a period of major hospital restructuring and downsizing. Data were collected from 1362 staff nurses using questionnaires. Personal resources were hypothesized to have both direct and indirect effects on job satisfaction and psychological well-being in a model of hospital restructuring and its effects. The model included four variables: extent of hospital restructuring, future threats to the workplace, job satisfaction and psychosomatic symptoms. LISREL analyses indicated that financial resources reduced perceptions of future workplace threats and psychosomatic symptoms, while job mobility options were associated with higher levels of job satisfaction.

The health care sector has undergone significant change during the past decade as hospitals struggle to provide the same service with fewer resources. This study examined perceptions of hospital restructuring and downsizing and their effects on nursing staff as a function of years in nursing. Data were obtained from 1,362 staff nurses by questionnaire. Nursing staff having less tenure generally described and responded to hospital restructuring and downsizing in more negative terms. Nursing staff having less tenure were in better health, reflecting their younger age. Some implications for hospital administration and the nursing profession are raised. Entrants to hospital-based nursing staff positions are the life blood of the profession. Their reactions to hospital restructuring and downsizing may influence their commitment to nursing as well as hospital functioning. The profession may have difficulty attracting young women and men into nursing programs. As longer tenured nursing staff retire, a potential shortage of nurses may result.

A research model incorporating hospital restructuring stressors, job satisfaction, psychosomatic symptoms and active and escapist coping was tested in a large sample of nursing staff. Almost 1,400 staff nurses participated by completing anonymous questionnaires. Concepts in the model were assessed using multiple-item scales having satisfactory psychometric properties. A LISREL analysis was undertaken in which relationships among all variables in the model were considered simultaneously. Use of active coping was negatively related to the use of escapist coping; use of escapist coping was positively related to future threats to security and psychosomatic symptoms and negatively related to self-reported job satisfaction; use of active coping was related to perceptions of less extensive hospital restructuring, greater job satisfaction, and fewer psychosomatic symptoms.

This study compared levels of self-reported psychological burnout, and its antecedents and consequences, among male and female teachers/administrators of three ages of students: elementary—6 to 12 yr., junior—13 to 14 yr., and secondary—15 to 20 yr. Elementary teachers/administrators exhibited significantly lower psychological burnout than junior and secondary teachers/administrators. Similar patterns of differences were present on theoretically-based antecedents and consequences of burnout.

This investigation compared levels of psychological burnout and its antecedents and consequences among teachers, department heads, and principals from a single school board. The data showed that increased stress and burnout were associated with decreased administrative responsibilities. Possible explanations for these findings are provided.

Sex differences in levels of experienced psychological burnout, and its antecedents and consequences, were examined among teachers and department heads. Male teachers reported greater burnout and less job satisfaction than did female teachers. Although male department heads scored significantly higher on psychological burnout, there were no sex differences on measures of satisfaction and emotional well-being. The findings are explained in terms of sex differences in levels of social support.

This study examined a research model developed to understand psychological burnout in work settings. Data were collected from 473 teachers and school administrators using questionnaires completed anonymously. Four groups of predictor variables identified in previous research were considered: individual demographic and situational variables, Type A behavior, job Stressors and coping responses. Type A behavior, job Stressors and coping responses were significantly and independently related to levels of psychological burnout.

This study examined the relationship among psychological variables and organizational functioning in a sample of managers, 65 women and 65 men. Analysis of responses to a mail questionnaire showed women, compared to men, were higher on Type A behaviour, speed and impatience, and job involvement scale scores. Women were less likely to have families than men, and men appeared to benefit more from marriage. Men also reported higher salaries with greater family support. These results support the need for research to take into account the social context within which organizational and work behaviour takes place.

Four career orientations proposed by Cherniss (1980) were related to psychological burnout and its antecedents and consequences. The four career orientations were: Self-investors, Social Activists, Careerists, and Artisans. 833 men and women in teaching provided data by completing questionnaires. Artisans were most common (61%), followed by Social Activists (18%), Careerists (12%), and Self-investors (10%). Social Activists reported greater burnout, greater stress, and the least satisfying work setting. In addition, Social Activists reported the least job satisfaction, greatest intention to turnover, and poorest physical health. Artisans reported greatest work satisfaction, least burnout, and the least stress.

Scores on burnout among 631 Canadian and 1,180 Dutch teachers were compared with various demographic variables (sex and age) and factors related to work (experience in teaching, type of school, and number of hours employed). Burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory of three dimensions, Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Personal Accomplishment. Analysis indicated that, over-all, Canadian teachers reported higher scores on Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization than their Dutch peers. Differences in the number of hours employed were also significant: full-time Canadian teachers scored higher on Depersonalization than their Dutch colleagues. Across countries, sex and type of school appeared significantly related to burnout. Male teachers rated higher on Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization than the women. Especially with regard to the attitudinal components of burnout, i.e., Depersonalization and Personal Accomplishment, secondary school teachers reported higher scores than elementary school teachers. Age was not significantly related to measures.

Career orientations of 833 male and female school-based educators were examined at the start of their teaching careers and currently. Data were collected using anonymous questionnaires. Although more men held Careerist occupational self-concepts than women initially, this career orientation decreased for men and increased for women over time. The presence of the Careerist orientation was associated with increasing administrative responsibility for both men and women.

Summary The majority of one hundred and eighty-eight women interviewed after having legal, therapeutic abortions did not experience psychiatric disturbance. While women with a psychiatric history were more likely than their more mentally healthy counterparts to experience some psychiatric disturbance afterwards, the majority of those with psychiatric problems in the past appeared to be coping reasonably well afterwards. It was pointed out that factors and circumstances other than the abortion itself, but occurring around the same time, may constitute reasons for the subsequent appearance of psychiatric disturbance, such as suicide attempts. Finally, the grounds for legal abortion in Canada were questioned — particularly the artificial practice of compartmentalizing and labeling reasons for abortion as psychiatric and non-psychiatric. While such practices may facilitate the decision-making processes involved in reviewing applications for abortion, they do not take account of the full range of human and social need.

According to research, hostility is a reliable predictor of coronary heart disease. Cook-Medley-defined hostility in particular has been seen as a significant precursor of coronary disease. It is important to specify the kind of hostility measured by the Cook-Medley scale. The present study examined the construct validity of the Cook-Medley scale for a sample of 219 university students in Finland, a country with a high incidence of coronary heart disease. The results supported the interpretation of the Cook-Medley scale primarily as a measure of cynicism and distrust. On the basis of our previous research, a subscale of the Cook-Medley scale was formed. This 9-item scale, a measure of Cynical Distrust, correlated positively with cynicism and negatively with trust. Moreover, the over-all pattern of correlations between the new 9-item factor, cynical distrust, and other variables assessing hostility, anger, and trust, was similar to the one obtained for our previous sample of students. It is suggested that this new 9-item scale is a shorter and more specific alternative to the longer Cook-Medley scale as a measure of cynical distrust.

This study examined a research model developed to understand psychological burnout among school-based educators. Data were collected from 833 school-based educators using questionnaires completed anonymously. Four groups of predictor variables identified in previous research were considered: individual demographic and situational variables, work stressors, role conflict, and social support. Some support for the model was found. Work stressors were strong predictors of psychological burnout. Individual demographic characteristics, role conflict, and social support had little effect on psychological burnout.

The present investigation examined three issues relevant to Golembiewski's phase model of psychological burnout. These were use of the mean versus median in creating high and low subgroups on Maslach Burnout Inventory subscales, use of different item structures on Maslach subscales, and different sequences of Maslach subscales proposed by Golembiewski and Maslach in the development of psychological burnout. Use of mean versus median, or different item structures on Maslach subscales, made relatively little difference. Golembiewski's ordering of the subscales, compared to Maslach's, produced a more linear progression over the 8 phases, as well as on three antecedents and consequences, but both sequences were related to these three variables in an almost identical fashion.

This longitudinal study examined antecedents and consequences of psychological burnout among 362 teachers and school administrators. Antecedents included red tape, disruptive students and lack of supervisor support. Consequences of burnout included heart symptoms and depressive mood. Respondents completed questionnaires sent to them at their schools at two points in time, one year apart. LISREL analyses indicated that the predictors had significant relationships with burnout levels one year later, and that burnout served as a mediator between the predictors and emotional and physical health outcomes.

The present study was conducted in order to examine the buffering effect on burnout of various forms of social support from different sources. Respondents in the study were female and male teachers. Burnout was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) composed of three subscales: Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization and Lack of Personal Accomplishment. Social support was assessed by a modified version of the Caplan scale. The effects of three types of support were assessed: Informational, practical and emotional support from three sources - the teacher's supervisor, co-workers and friends and family. Examination of multiple regression interaction terms between support and sources of stress indicate that, of the three sources of social support, a teacher's co-workers are the most important buffers of emotional exhaustion. There was a buffering effect of informational support on emotional exhaustion. When emotional support functioned as a buffer, the effects were observed in depersonalization. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of improvement of teachers' quality of life.

AbstractThis study examined the antecedents and consequences of burnout, including the roles of work stressors and social support from supervisors and co-workers, in a sample of 833 teachers at all levels within a Canadian school board. Burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (Maslach and Jackson 1986), which yields scores on three sub-scales; emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. LISREL analysis was used to test a research model in which relationships among burnout sub-scales were examined as well as their relationship to external variables. It was found that greater co-worker support contributed to the prediction of burnout, particularly to decreased depersonalization and increased feelings of accomplishment.

The recent financial crisis has affected most countries. With cutbacks in business, trade and government spending, millions world-wide have lost their jobs, with young people disproportionately affected. This paper synthesizes the thoughts expressed during an interdisciplinary discussion held in July 2013 among economists and psychologists from a variety of countries about the causes and effects of the financial crisis. Strategies for dealing with the effects of the financial crisis are discussed at both the individual and national levels.

In an experiment in which 89 mother-child pairs were employed as Ss, the relationship between maternal communication and ethnicity of the mother was examined. Direct observation of maternal communication was used during 3 discussion tasks in which mother and child were required to reach a consensus. The results of a verbal analysis of maternal communication indicated that Italian immigrant mothers tended to rely on direct imperatives and requests for orientation in addressing their sons and daughters. Canadian mothers relied on more indirect forms of control, and second-generation Italian mothers were most likely to employ justifications, particularly concrete and normative appeals.