Workplace accommodations : potential moderators of perceived fairness

This study examined variables that may influence coworkers' acceptance of accommodations made for employees with disabilities. Agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, self-esteem, and emotional intelligence were predicted to affect the relationship between procedural justice and fairness perceptions of accommodations made for disabled workers. Approximately 400 university students read one of four accommodation scenarios and provided fairness ratings in order to test eight hypotheses. Results provided evidence that the presence of procedural justice had a direct influence on participants' fairness perceptions of implemented accommodations. Participants' individual characteristics were also directly related to fairness perceptions. Additionally, conscientiousness was found to moderate the relationship between the presence of procedural justice and fairness perceptions. Findings from this study suggest that organizations should use clear and consistent guidelines and procedures to determine and implement accommodations. Additionally, findings reinforce the importance of keeping individuals informed of the ways in which decisions are made within an organization.

Testing and Expanding an Emotion-Centered Model of Workplace Aggression: The Moderating Effects of Perceived Intensity and Social Support in the Workplace

The purpose of this thesis was to examine the mediating effects of job-related negative emotions on the relationship between workplace aggression and outcomes. Additionally, the moderating effects of workplace social support and intensity of workplace aggression are considered. A total 321 of working individuals participated through an online survey. The results of this thesis suggest that job-related negative emotions are a mediator of the relationship between workplace aggression and outcomes, with full and partial mediation supported. Workplace social support was found to be a buffering variable in the relationship between workplace aggression and outcomes, regardless of the source of aggression (supervisor or co-worker) or the source of the social support. Finally, intensity of aggression was found to be a strong moderator of the relationship between workplace aggression and outcomes.

Low-income first time mothers: Effects on advanced practice nurse (APN) follow up telephone calls on maternal and infant health and health care charges

The United States has over 4 million births annually. Currently healthy women with non-complicated deliveries receive little to no routine postpartum support when discharged from the hospital. This is especially problematic if mothers are first time mothers, poor, have language barriers and little to no social support after giving birth. The purpose of this randomized clinical trial was to compare maternal and infant health outcomes, and health care charges between 2 groups of mothers and newborns. A control ( n = 69) group received routine posthospital discharge care. An intervention group (n = 70) received routine posthospital discharge care plus follow up telephone calls by advanced practice nurses (APNs) on days 3,7,14,21,28 and week 8. Both groups were followed for the first 8 weeks posthospital discharge following delivery to examine maternal health outcomes (perceived maternal stress, social support and perceived maternal physical health), infant health outcomes (routine medical follow up visits immunizations, weight gain), morbidity (urgent care visits, emergency room visits, rehospitalizations), health care charges (urgent care visits, emergency room visits, rehospitalizations) in both groups and charges for APN follow up in the intervention group only. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and two-sample t-tests. Study findings indicated that intervention group had significantly lower perceived maternal stress, significantly higher rating of perceived maternal health and higher levels of social support and by the end of the 2nd month posthospital discharge compared to control group mothers. Infants in the intervention group had: increased number of immunizations; fewer emergency room visits; and 1 infant rehospitalization compared to 3 infant rehospitalizations in the control group. The intervention groups' health care charges were significantly lower compared to the control group $14,333/$497 vs. $70,834/$1,068. These study results indicate that an intervention of APN follow up telephone calls in this sample of first time low-income culturally diverse mothers was an effective, safe, low cost, easy to apply intervention which improved mothers' and infants' health outcomes and reduced healthcare charges.

Perceived Work Status and Turnover Intentions of Casual-Dining Restaurant Employees

The current research examined the effects of perceived work status of hourly employees on the established relationships between turnover intentions and the constructs of autonomy, affective organizational commitment, perceived management concern for employees, and perceived management concern for customers in the casual-dining restaurant industry. Surveys were collected from 296 employees of a multi-unit casual-dining restaurant franchise, part of a large, national, casual-dining restaurant chain. Employeeswith perceived part-time work status revealed a generally negative trend in factors shown to contribute to turnover. Employees who perceived their work status as parttime also showed significantly lower levels of affective organizational commitment than those who perceived their work status as full-time. Additionally, the mean scores of the desirable attributes trended lower for those employees who perceived themselves as part-time. Even more, helping behaviors, so crucial in a casual-dining environment, were lower when employees perceived their work status to be part-time. The current study discusses managerial implications of the research findings and gives suggestions for future research.

The influence of gender on perceived treatment need among a community sample of substance users

Purpose: Most individuals do not perceive a need for substance use treatment despite meeting diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders and they are least likely to pursue treatment voluntarily. There are also those who perceive a need for treatment and yet do not pursue it. This study aimed to understand which factors increase the likelihood of perceiving a need for treatment for individuals who meet diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders in the hopes to better assist with more targeted efforts for gender-specific treatment recruitment and retention. Using Andersen and Newman's (1973/2005) model of individual determinants of healthcare utilization, the central hypothesis of the study was that gender moderates the relationship between substance use problem severity and perceived treatment need, so that women with increasing problems due to their use of substances are more likely than men to perceive a need for treatment. Additional predisposing and enabling factors from Andersen and Newman's (1973/2005) model were included in the study to understand their impact on perceived need. Method: The study was a secondary data analysis of the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) using logistic regression. The weighted sample consisted of a total 20,077,235 American household residents (The unweighted sample was 5,484 participants). Results of the logistic regression were verified using Relogit software for rare events logistic regression due to the rare event of perceived treatment need (King & Zeng, 2001a; 2001b). Results: The moderating effect of female gender was not found. Conversely, men were significantly more likely than women to perceive a need for treatment as substance use problem severity increased. The study also found that a number of factors such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, marital status, education, co-occurring mental health disorders, and prior treatment history differently impacted the likelihood of perceiving a need for treatment among men and women. Conclusion: Perceived treatment need among individuals who meet criteria for substance use disorders is rare, but identifying factors associated with an increased likelihood of perceiving need for treatment can help the development of gender-appropriate outreach and recruitment for social work treatment, and public health messages.

Perceived Risk of Predation Affects Reproductive Life - History Traits in Gambusia holbrooki, but Not in Heterandria formosa

Key to predicting impacts of predation is understanding the mechanisms through which predators impact prey populations. While consumptive effects are well-known, non-consumptive predator effects (risk effects) are increasingly being recognized as important. Studies of risk effects, however, have focused largely on how trade-offs between food and safety affect fitness. Less documented, and appreciated, is the potential for predator presence to directly suppress prey reproduction and affect life-history characteristics. For the first time, we tested the effects of visual predator cues on reproduction of two prey species with different reproductive modes, lecithotrophy (i.e. embryonic development primarily fueled by yolk) and matrotrophy (i.e. energy for embryonic development directly supplied by the mother to the embryo through a vascular connection). Predation risk suppressed reproduction in the lecithotrophic prey (Gambusia holbrokii) but not the matrotroph (Heterandria formosa). Predator stress caused G. holbrooki to reduce clutch size by 43%, and to produce larger and heavier offspring compared to control females. H. formosa, however, did not show any such difference. In G. holbrooki we also found a significantly high percentage (14%) of stillbirths in predator-exposed treatments compared to controls (2%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct empirical evidence of predation stress affecting stillbirths in prey. Our results suggest that matrotrophy, superfetation (clutch overlap), or both decrease the sensitivity of mothers to environmental fluctuation in resource (food) and stress (predation risk) levels compared to lecithotrophy. These mechanisms should be considered both when modeling consequences of perceived risk of predation on prey-predator population dynamics and when seeking to understand the evolution of reproductive modes.

The Influence of Gender on Perceived Treatment Need among a Community Sample of Substance Users

Purpose: Most individuals do not perceive a need for substance use treatment despite meeting diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders and they are least likely to pursue treatment voluntarily. There are also those who perceive a need for treatment and yet do not pursue it. This study aimed to understand which factors increase the likelihood of perceiving a need for treatment for individuals who meet diagnostic criteria for substance use disorders in the hopes to better assist with more targeted efforts for gender-specific treatment recruitment and retention. Using Andersen and Newman’s (1973/2005) model of individual determinants of healthcare utilization, the central hypothesis of the study was that gender moderates the relationship between substance use problem severity and perceived treatment need, so that women with increasing problems due to their use of substances are more likely than men to perceive a need for treatment. Additional predisposing and enabling factors from Andersen and Newman’s (1973/2005) model were included in the study to understand their impact on perceived need. Method: The study was a secondary data analysis of the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) using logistic regression. The weighted sample consisted of a total 20,077,235 American household residents (The unweighted sample was 5,484 participants). Results of the logistic regression were verified using Relogit software for rare events logistic regression due to the rare event of perceived treatment need (King & Zeng, 2001a; 2001b). Results: The moderating effect of female gender was not found. Conversely, men were significantly more likely than women to perceive a need for treatment as substance use problem severity increased. The study also found that a number of factors such as race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, age, marital status, education, co-occurring mental health disorders, and prior treatment history differently impacted the likelihood of perceiving a need for treatment among men and women. Conclusion: Perceived treatment need among individuals who meet criteria for substance use disorders is rare, but identifying factors associated with an increased likelihood of perceiving need for treatment can help the development of gender-appropriate outreach and recruitment for social work treatment, and public health messages.

The academic orientation of first and second generation Nicaraguan immigrant adolescents

The rise in diversity and numbers of U.S. immigrants since 1965 has spawned a number of studies about the education of these immigrants and their children. Most of this research finds that school-age immigrants arriving in the last 20 years have the highest drop-out rates, lowest test scores, and are less likely than their native born peers to go to college. This dissertation examines the experiences of Nicaraguan immigrant youth living in Miami and the factors that make some of these adolescents feel positive about education, while others have negative attitudes about education. The method for this study combined structured and unstructured interviews, participant observation, focus groups, and data collected from a larger data set to understand the academic orientation of 25 Nicaraguan youths over a 4-year period. One of the independent variables is length of time in the United States. During the time of my initial contact with the subjects, 6 had been living in the United States for less than 3 years, 14 had been living in the United States between 6 and 12 years, and 6 had been living in the in the United States most or all of their lives (either they were born in the United States or had resided here for over 12 years). ^ Results are based on the students' particular experiences, which influence the dependent variable, academic orientation. Besides length of time, the independent variables also include ethnic self-identity, perceived discrimination, social capital in Miami, and peer influence. The study finds that those who are very recent arrivals have a “dual frame of reference,” that is, they directly compare their educational opportunities here in the United States, with their prior, often less favorable, situation in their homeland. Many of those who were born in Nicaragua, but have been residing in Miami most of their lives, have a less favorable view of education based on a higher degree of perceived discrimination. However, those who are second generation Nicaraguans deliberately take advantage of the strength inherent in their co-ethnic community unique to Miami. Recognition of this ethnic community prompts them to perceive education as worthwhile. ^

Socioemotional outcomes of children sexually abused during early childhood

This study investigated the nature and impact of the sexual abuse of children ages birth through 6 years. The purpose was to enhance knowledge about this understudied population through examination of: (1) characteristics of the abuse; (2) socioemotional developmental outcomes of young victims; and (3) potential moderating effects of family dynamics. An ecological-developmental theoretical framework was applied. Secondary data analysis was conducted using data collected from the consortium Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). A sample of 250 children was drawn from LONGSCAN data, including children who were sexually abused (n=125) and their nonabused counterparts (n=125), matched on demographic variables. Results revealed that young victims of sexual abuse were disproportionately female (91 girls; 73%). The sexual abuse committed against these youngsters was severe in nature, with 111 children (89%) experiencing contact offenses ranging from fondling to forcible rape. Sixty-two percent of child victims demonstrated borderline, clinical, or less than adequate functioning on normative, expected socioemotional outcomes. Child victims reported low degrees of perceived competence and satisfaction in the social environment. When compared with their nonabused counterparts, child victims demonstrated significantly poorer socioemotional functioning, as evidenced by aggressive behaviors, attention and thought problems. Sexually abused youngsters also reported lower self-perceptions of cognitive and physical competence and maternal acceptance. Family dynamic factors did not significantly moderate the relationships between abuse and socioemotional outcomes, with one exception. The caregivers’ degree of empathy for their children had a significant moderating effect on the children’s social problems. This study contributes to an otherwise scant body of literature on the sexual abuse of preschoolers. Findings provide implications for social work practice, especially in the development of assessment and prevention strategies.

The impact of a family home-learning program on levels of parental/caregiver efficacy

This study sought to determine if participation in a home education learning program would impact the perceived levels of parental self-efficacy of parents/caregivers who participate in the completion of home-learning assignments and increase their levels of home-learning involvement practices. Also, the study examined the relationship between the parental involvement practice of completing interactive home-learning assignments and the reading comprehension achievement of first grade students. A total of 146 students and their parents/caregivers representing a convenience sample of eight first grade classes participated in the study. Four classes (n=74) were selected as the experimental group and four classes (n=72) served as the control group. There were 72 girls in the sample and 74 boys and the median age was 6 years 6 months. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design utilizing eight existing first grade classes. It examined the effects of a home-learning support intervention program on the perceived efficacy levels of the participating parents/caregivers, as measured by the Parent Perceptions of Parent Efficacy Scale (Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Brissie, 1992) administered on a pre/post basis. The amount and type of parent involvement in the completion of home assignments was determined by means of a locally developed instrument, the H.E.L.P. Parent Involvement Home-learning Scale, administered on a pre/post basis. Student achievement in reading comprehension was measured via the reading subtest of the Brigance, CIB-S pre and post. The elementary students and their parents/caregivers participated in an interactive home-learning intervention program for 12 weeks that required parent/caregiver assistance. Results revealed the experimental group of parents/caregivers had a significant increase in their levels of perceived self-efficacy, p<.001, from the pre to post, and also had significantly increased levels of parental involvement in seven home-learning activities, p<.001, than the control group parents/caregivers. The experimental group students demonstrated significantly higher reading levels than the control group students, p<.001. This study provided evidence that interactive home-learning activities improved the levels of parental self-efficacy and parental involvement in home-learning activities, and improved the reading comprehension of the experimental group in comparison to the control.

Does hope matter? The influence of dispositional hope on persistence in a developmental writing course

The purpose of this study was to determine hope’s unique role, if any, in predicting persistence in a developmental writing course. Perceived academic self-efficacy was also included as a variable of interest for comparison because self-efficacy has been more widely studied than hope in terms of its non-cognitive role in predicting academic outcomes. A significant body of research indicates that self-efficacy influences academic motivation to persist and academic performance. Hope, however, is an emerging psychological construct in the study of non-cognitive factors that influence college outcomes and warrants further exploration in higher education. This study examined the predictive value of hope and self-efficacy on persistence in a developmental writing course. The research sample was obtained from a community college in the southeastern United States. Participants were 238 students enrolled in developmental writing courses during their first year of college. Participants were given a questionnaire that included measures for perceived academic self-efficacy and hope. The self-efficacy scale asked participants to self-report on their beliefs about how they cope with different academic tasks in order to be successful. The hope scale asked students to self-report on their beliefs about their capability to initiate action towards a goal (“agency”) and create a plan to attain these goals (“pathways”). This study utilized a correlational research design. A statistical association was estimated between hope and self-efficacy as well as the unique variance contributed by each on course persistence. Correlational analysis confirmed a significant relationship between hope and perceived academic self-efficacy, and a Fisher’s z-transformation confirmed a stronger relationship between the agency component of hope and perceived academic self-efficacy than for the pathways component. A series of multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess if (a) perceived self-efficacy and hope predict course persistence, (b) hope independent of self-efficacy predicts course persistence, and (c) if including the interaction of perceived self-efficacy and hope predicts course persistence. It was found that hope was only significant independent of self-efficacy. Some implications for future research are drawn for those who lead and coordinate academic support initiatives in student and academic affairs.

"You can trust me": An examination of trust -in -the -brand advertising appeals

Using trust-in-the-brand appeals in advertising has been a very common practice However, research has yet to examine the effectiveness of such appeals. Can the use of trust appeals in advertising enhance a product's trustworthiness and help the advertiser gain consumers' trust? Might such appeals lead to more favorable attitudes toward the advertised brand? Given the absence of research that speaks to these questions, this dissertation attempts to fill this void by exploring persuasion outcomes of using trust appeals. Specifically, this research aims to assess whether the use of trust appeals affects persuasion; explicate how such appeals may work; anticipate when an ad containing trust appeals may be more or less effective; and finally conduct and report the results of preliminary empirical tests. ^ A conceptual model is offered in the dissertation describing how trust appeals may affect persuasion outcomes. It is proposed that using trust advertising appeals will result in more trust-related thinking, enhance the perceived trustworthiness of the advertised brand, and finally lead to more favorable brand attitudes and trial intentions. This dissertation also examines the differential effectiveness of alternative trust appeals. Elaborate trust appeals that provide substantiation for trust are expected to perform better than simple trust appeals. An implicit elaborate trust appeal is anticipated to outperform an explicit elaborate appeal. ^ Two experiments were conducted. Including a trust appeal in an ad enhanced the perceived trustworthiness of the advertised brand which, in turn, led to more favorable brand attitudes and greater trial intentions compared to a similar ad without the trust appeal. The results also support the proposed mediating role of perceived trust. The empirical test speaking to the hypothesized differential effect of alternative trust appeals provides support for marketing practitioners' efforts in seeking the most effective use of such appeals. Evidence was obtained in the second study demonstrating that an elaborate trust appeal worked more effectively than a simple trust appeal. Contrary to the expectation, this persuasion advantage held regardless of whether the elaborate appeal was in an explicit form or an implicit form. ^

Employee perceptions of workplace empowerment in relation to self -reported intent to stay on the job

As the nursing profession faces a shortage of nurses, workplace initiatives focused on retaining employees are critical to the United States healthcare industry (Sochalski, 2002). The purpose of this research was to determine whether self-reported intent to stay on the job was related to perceptions of workplace empowerment using Kanter's (1977) theory of organizational empowerment as a framework. ^ The sample consisted of 206 Florida registered nurses. Four self-report scales and a demographic questionnaire were administered by mail. The Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire (CWEQ; Chandler, 1987), Job Activity Scale (JAS; Laschinger, Kutzscher, & Sabiston, 1993), Organizational Relationships Scale (ORS; Laschinger, Sabiston, & Kutzscher, 1993) and an intent to stay instrument (Kim, Price, Mueller & Watson, 1996) were used to measure perceived access to empowerment structures, perceived formal power, perceived informal power, and intent to stay, respectively. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational analysis, and hierarchical regression. ^ Twenty-eight percent of the variance of intent to stay was explained by perceived access to empowerment structures, perceived formal power, and perceived informal power when holding age, gender, education, overall nursing experience, and number of years on current job constant. Perceived access to empowerment structures (CWEQ total score) was the best predictor of self-reported intent to stay for this sample. Of the four components of perceived access to work empowerment structures, perceived access to opportunity and resources were the best predictors of nurses' intent to stay on the job. ^ This study was the first step in establishing the relationship between Kanter's full model and intent to remain on the job, which is a stepping stone for the development of effective retention strategies based on a workplace empowerment model. This knowledge is particularly important in today's healthcare industry where healthcare administrators and human resource development practitioners are ideally positioned to implement organizational strategies to enhance access to work empowerment structures and potentially reduce turnover and mitigate the effects of nursing shortage. ^

Participation in a positive youth development program and multi -problem alternative high school students' transformative goals: An investigation of the theoretical and methodological utility and validity of the Transformative Goal Attainment (TGAS)

There is a growing body of literature that provides evidence for the efficacy of positive youth development programs in general and preliminary empirical support for the efficacy of the Changing Lives Program (CLP) in particular. This dissertation sought to extend previous efforts to develop and preliminarily examine the Transformative Goal Attainment Scale (TGAS) as a measure of participant empowerment in the promotion of positive development. Consistent with recent advances in the use of qualitative research methods, this dissertation sought to further investigate the utility of Relational Data Analysis (RDA) for providing categorizations of qualitative open-ended response data. In particular, a qualitative index of Transformative Goals, TG, was developed to complement the previously developed quantitative index of Transformative Goal Attainment (TGA), and RDA procedures for calculating reliability and content validity were refined. Second, as a Stage I pilot/feasibility study this study preliminarily examined the potentially mediating role of empowerment, as indexed by the TGAS, in the promotion of positive development. ^ Fifty-seven participants took part in this study, forty CLP intervention participants and seventeen control condition participants. All 57 participants were administered the study's measures just prior to and just following the fall 2003 semester. This study thus used a short-term longitudinal quasi-experimental research design with a comparison control group. ^ RDA procedures were refined and applied to the categorization of open-ended response data regarding participants' transformative goals (TG) and future possible selves (PSQ-QE). These analyses revealed relatively strong, indirect evidence for the construct validity of the categories as well as their theoretically meaningful structural organization, thereby providing sufficient support for the utility of RDA procedures in the categorization of qualitative open-ended response data. ^ In addition, transformative goals (TG) and future possible selves (PSQ-QE), and the quantitative index of perceived goal attainment (TGA) were evaluated as potential mediators of positive development by testing their relationships to other indices of positive intervention outcome within a four-step method involving both analysis of variance (ANOVA and RMANOVAs) and regression analysis. Though more limited in scope than the efforts at the development and refinement of the measures of these mediators, the results were also promising. ^

Individuals with mental disabilities: perceptions of work limitations

This research investigates the perceptions that individuals with mental illnesses have about the employment experience as a whole. Survey data from 72 respondents with mental disabilities were used to identify areas of perceived work limitations. Comparisons regarding employee work performance were made between eleven individuals with mental disabilities and their supervisors. Functional limitations identified by respondents with mental disabilities and the characteristic symptoms set forth in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders were compared. Overall findings showed that individuals with mental disabilities in this study had problems in the areas of judgment, initiative, interacting and rapport with co-workers and supervisors, frustration tolerance and coping with job stress, and adapting to changes at work. Comparison of identified work task difficulties with diagnostic criteria indicate active symptomatology to have an effect on job performance. Recommendations regarding occupational therapy assessment approaches and roles to facilitate ADA implementation are presented.