Effects on response rates of formal and informal questionnaire follow-up techniques.

Sent humorous, whimsical, and formal follow-ups, and hand-addressed and typed label-addressed follow-ups, to 210 college administrators, 344 faculty members, 2,288 graduate assistants, and 785 undergraduates. Administrators responded more to a formal follow-up than did undergraduates. Graduate assistants responded more to a whimsical follow-up than did undergraduates and more to a humorous follow-up than did faculty. Undergraduates showed greater response to a humorous follow-up than did graduate assistants and to hand-addressed follow-up postcards than to those with typed labels. It is concluded that different techniques are more effective with different groups, and that it is important not to issue universal recommendations for follow-up strategies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of psychosocial features of employment status on emotional distress in chronic pain and healthy comparison samples

This study examined the extent to which measures of psychosocial features of employment status predict emotional distress in chronic pain (n = 83) and healthy comparison (n = 88) samples. Participants completed measures of emotional distress, pain severity, psychosocial features of employment status, and demographic data. After controlling for length of current unemployment, number of pain sites, and level of current pain severity, psychosocial measures (structured and purposeful time use, perceived financial security, skill use, social support form formal sources) were significant predictors of emotional distress in the chronic pain sample. Similar results were obtained for the healthy comparison sample. Structured and purposeful time use emerged as the most significant individual predictor of emotional distress for both samples. Findings are discussed in terms of their potential implications for treating chronic pain patients and the need to develop multidimensional measures that assess features of employment status within chronic pain samples.     

Consistency between maternal employment attitudes and employment status

The stability of mothers' attitudes toward employment, employment status, and consistency between employment attitudes and behavior over a 15-month period was examined. Factors such as family finances, availability of child care, and child's health status that could influence either employment attitudes or employment behavior were explored. Mothers of preterm infants (N = 98) and mothers of full-term, healthy infants (N = 101) completed questionnaires regarding home/employment orientation, choice and satisfaction with the employment decision, and employment behavior as part of a battery of instruments administered when their infants were 3, 9, and 18 months old. Analyses indicated considerable stability in attitudes, behaviors, and consistency over a 15-month period for mothers of both full-term and preterm infants. Consistency groups were created based on employment status (employed versus not employed) and consistency status (consistent versus inconsistent) at each time point. Consistency groups differed on ratings of financial need and availability of child care.     

Role burdens: the impact of employment and family responsibilities on the health status of Latino women

This paper explores the relative effects of employment and family responsibility on the perceived health status of Latino women. The data source analyzed for this study was the 1990 Panel Study of Income Dynamics/Latino National Political Survey (PSID/LNPS) Early-Release File (n = 1,502). Regression analyses were used to investigate the contributions of variables associated with perceived health status, including sociodemographics, Latino ethnicity, language, employment, and family responsibility. The results suggest that annual employment hours, occupation, and family responsibilities, such as child care and weekly housework, significantly affect self-reported health status of employed Latinas. Both social causation and social selection may be underlying the associations found. The results suggest that there is need for the development of public policies that seek to increase Latinas' labor force participation rate since any expansion has the potential to have a positive impact on their health status.     

Attitudes, self-esteem, and learning in formal and informal schools.

Changes in expectations, self-esteem, and learning transfer over a 6-mo period were assessed with questionnaire data obtained from 151 6th graders in 3 formal schools and 68 6th graders in 3 informal schools. Informal school students showed more positive attitudes toward school and teachers and greater transfer of learning to nonschool settings than did formal school students. No differences were found for academic expectations, self-esteem, or performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of Canadian employment selection issues on validation research.

Canadian industrial/organizational psychologists are being challenged to justify the use of employment selection tests to ensure adherence to fair employment practice legislation. The author examines 4 issues related to validation research: the definition of terms, such as validity, test bias, and test fairness; sample size; the adverse impact of employment tests; and the legal responsibilities of test users. Strategies of concurrent validation, validity generalization, synthetic validation, and latent trait theory are discussed. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Postprimary education has little impact on informal reasoning.

Investigated whether postprimary education enhances informal reasoning skills, operationalized as skill in the construction of arguments about everyday issues. Eight groups of 40 Ss were balanced for sex, and contained 1st- and 4th-yr high school students, 1st- and 4th-yr undergraduates, 1st- and 4th-yr graduate students, or nonstudents with and without a bachelor's degree. Each S gave oral arguments on 2 issues; responses were scored for overall quality, number of lines of argument, and other factors. Analysis disclosed a borderline statistically significant impact of high school, college, and graduate school. However, both level of performance and rates of gain with education were much lower than expected. It is argued that present educational practices do little to foster the development of informal reasoning skills; education redesigned for this purpose could have a much greater impact. (31 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Participation in formal and informal campus diversity experiences: Effects on students' racial democratic beliefs.

The authors examined the influence of participation in formal campus diversity experiences (e.g., courses and workshops) and interracial friendships on 2 specific democratic racial beliefs among a racially diverse sample of freshmen (N = 589). Using separate path analyses for each outcome, the authors examined the effects of diversity experiences and friendships on universal diverse orientation (UDO) and color-blind racial ideology over the course of an academic year. While controlling for sex and entrance attitudes, the authors found support across racial groups for models predicting UDO and racial color-blindness. Furthermore, participation in formal diversity experiences and interracial friendships mediated a number of the associations. The authors also tested 2 causal mediation models examining the influence of 1 racial belief at entrance on the other racial belief at follow-up (e.g., UDO at entrance on racial color-blindness at follow-up) and found that the model predicting color-blind racial ideology provided an adequate fit to the data for White, Black, and Latino/a students; participation in formal diversity experiences mediated this association among White students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Use of formal and informal sources of mental health care among older African-American public-housing residents

BACKGROUND: Elderly residents of public housing have high rates of psychiatric disorders, but most of those in need of care do not use any mental health service. This study examines the use of formal and alternative informal sources of mental health care in a sample of elderly African-American public-housing residents. METHOD: Data from an epidemiological survey of six Baltimore public-housing developments for the elderly (weighted N = 818) were analysed to examine the utilization of mental health services by older African-American residents. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine correlates of using formal and informal sources by those needing mental health care. RESULTS: Thirty-five per cent of subjects needed mental health care. Less than half (47%) of those in need received any mental health care in the previous 6 months. Residents in need were more likely to use formal (38.5%) than informal sources (18.6%) for care. The strongest correlates of using formal providers were substance use disorder (OR = 15.62), Medicare insurance (OR = 10.31) and psychological distress (OR = 10.27). The strongest correlates of using informal sources were perceiving little or no support from religious/spiritual beliefs (OR = 21.65), cognitive disorder (OR = 19.71) and having a confidant (OR = 15.07). CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to elderly African-Americans in general, those in public housing rely more on formal than informal sources for mental health problems. Nevertheless, both sources fail to fill the gap between need and met need. Interventions to increase identification, referral and treatment of elderly public-housing residents in need should target general medical providers and clergy and include assertive outreach by mental health specialists.     

The impact of employment and serious illness on grandmothers who are raising their grandchildren

Increasing numbers of children are living in families consisting of grandparents and grandchildren. This paper presents findings of a study in which 123 caregiving grandmothers were interviewed. Fifty-eight percent of these grandmothers were "career caregivers," whose homes were always filled with a child or grandchild. Most of them were in good to excellent physical health and their mental health was at least as good as that of a national sample. Regression analyses found that having a life-threatening physical condition, being younger and white explained psychological anxiety; and having a life-threatening physical condition and not being employed explained psychophysiological mental health symptoms. These findings suggest that some grandmothers are at risk for mental health symptoms and raise questions about the implications of caregiving of grandchildren for women.     

Mentor functions and outcomes: A comparison of men and women in formal and informal mentoring relationships.

The authors examined the effects of the type of mentoring relationship and the gender composition of the relationship on mentoring functions and career outcomes reported by 352 female and 257 male protégés. Protégés of informal mentors viewed their mentors as more effective and received greater compensation than protégés of formal mentors. Protégés with informal mentors also received more career outcomes than nonmentored individuals, but no significant differences were found between nonmentored and formally mentored individuals. The gender composition of the relationship affected mentoring functions and outcomes, and protégé gender interacted with the type of relationship to affect mentoring functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of familial alcoholism on alcohol reactivity in female social drinkers.

Some individuals may have an inherent reactivity to alcohol that facilitates early development of characteristics associated with alcoholism. Although response to alcohol cues has been used to assess this reactivity, few studies have included women or investigated familial alcoholism as a variable. In this study, 23 female college students were divided into groups according to family history of alcoholism (positive or negative). Alcohol reactivity was measured by salivation, skin temperature, heart rate, mood state, and craving for alcohol following presentation of alcohol-related and neutral cues. Results indicate no correlation between salivary reactivity and alcohol craving, which suggests that these variables tap into different domains of cue reactivity. Findings demonstrate that alcohol cue reactivity can be assessed in female social drinkers and that familial alcoholism may influence salivary reactivity to alcohol-related cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Long-range impact of "fair selection" standards on minority employment.

Reviews alternate statistical standards of "fair selection," including the standard that seems to be implicit in the federal employee selection guidelines. A human resource planning model is developed to simulate the impact of each standard on minority employment. In the model, the racial composition of the flows of employees into and through the organization is determined by the "fair selection" standard chosen for simulation. The model is applied to staffing data from an existing organization. Data show that the fairness standard implicit in the federal selection guidelines would have a worse effect on Black employment than would the implicit fairness standard typically used by employers. (60 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of breast feeding patterns on the biometric analysis of infant mortality

A major assumption of the biometric analysis of infant mortality as developed by Bourgeois-Pichat is that the age structure of infant deaths after the first month of life is virtually constant across time and cultures. Reanalysis of results from studies which compare the mortality of infants according to the type of feeding indicated that the relationship between mortality and age within the first year of life followed different patterns for breast fed and artificially fed infants. Historical data for populations with different breast feeding customs reveal similar differences in the age pattern of infant mortality. In populations where breast feeding was uncommon or of very short duration, infant mortality rises particularly steeply during the early months of the first year of life. The age structure of infant mortality in less developed countries where breast feeding is decreasing rapidly may bsimilarly affected. When substantial deviations from the linear relationship are evident, particular caution is required in applying the biometric technique, since in such situations the estimated endogenous mortality is very much affected by the particular set of data points within the first year of life which are chosen for the basis of the estimates.     

The relative contribution of ethnicity versus socioeconomic status in explaining differences in disability and receipt of informal care

Data from a comparative study of 1975 African American, Puerto Rican, and non-Hispanic White persons age 60 and older in a large Northeastern city were used to investigate the relative contribution of ethnicity and socioeconomic status (SES) to explaining differences in the need for and receipt of informal care. It was hypothesized that differences in disability would be related largely to SES, whereas ethnicity would account for most of the differences in the amount of informal care. The results of a path analysis argue in favor of a cultural rather than a socioeconomic explanation for between-group differences. SES had no direct effect on disability when controlling for ethnicity. Ethnicity did explain between-group differences in the amount of care. Even when controlling for disability, elders in the two minority groups received more informal care than did older White persons. The findings illuminate the important role played by ethnicity in explaining an older person's need for and receipt of long-term care assistance.     

The status of employment testing in Canada: A review and evaluation of theory and professional practice.

Employment testing in Canada is reviewed and evaluated, with particular attention to relevant legislation, court/tribunal cases, and shortcomings in current theory and practice. Several issues requiring conceptual clarification and empirical research by Canadian industrial/organizational (I/O) psychologists are discussed: cultural bias, use of minimum cutoff scores, content validation, validity generalization, and utility. It is concluded that psychological testing in employment is at a formative stage in Canada and that the Canadian I/O profession should become more involved in research and policy pronouncements needed to ensure the orderly development of employment testing in this country. Failure to react to human rights concerns about employment testing will shift responsibility for future development of employment testing to segments of society (e.g., public policy makers, human rights tribunals) incapable of resolving the technical issues underlying the use of psychological tests in employment. (French abstract) (65 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)