Burnout and work engagement among teachers: an application of the job demands-resources model

The present dissertation focuses on burnout and work engagement among teachers, with especial focus on the Job-Demands Resources Model: Chapter 1 focuses on teacher burnout. It aims to investigate the role of efficacy beliefs using negatively worded inefficacy items instead of positive ones and to establish whether depersonalization and cynism can be considered two different dimensions of the teacher burnout syndrome. Chapter 2 investigates the factorial validity of the instruments used to measure work engagement (i.e. Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, UWES-17 and UWES-9). Moreover, because the current study is partly longitudinal in nature, also the stability across time of engagement can be investigated. Finally, based on cluster-analyses, two groups that differ in levels of engagement are compared as far as their job- and personal resources (i.e. possibilities for personal development, work-life balance, and self-efficacy), positive organizational attitudes and behaviours (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour) and perceived health are concerned. Chapter 3 tests the JD-R model in a longitudinal way, by integrating also the role of personal resources (i.e. self-efficacy). This chapter seeks answers to questions on what are the most important job demands, job and personal resources contributing to discriminate burned-out teachers from non-burned-out teachers, as well as engaged teachers from non-engaged teachers. Chapter 4 uses a diary study to extend knowledge about the dynamic nature of the JD-R model by considering between- and within-person variations with regard to both motivational and health impairment processes.

Work and Family: a complex interplay. An Italian application of the DISC Model on health care workers

The present thesis investigates the issue of work-family conflict and facilitation in a sanitarian contest, using the DISC Model (De Jonge and Dormann, 2003, 2006). The general aim has been declined in two empirical studies reported in this dissertation chapters. Chapter 1 reporting the psychometric properties of the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Questionnaire. Although the empirical evidence on the DISC Model has received a fair amount of attention in literature both for the theoretical principles and for the instrument developed to display them (DISQ; De Jonge, Dormann, Van Vegchel, Von Nordheim, Dollard, Cotton and Van den Tooren, 2007) there are no studies based solely on psychometric investigation of the instrument. In addition, no previous studies have ever used the DISC as a model or measurement instrument in an Italian context. Thus the first chapter of the present dissertation was based on psychometric investigation of the DISQ. Chapter 2 reporting a longitudinal study contribution. The purpose was to examine, using the DISC model, the relationship between emotional job characteristics, work-family interface and emotional exhaustion among a health care population. We started testing the Triple Match Principle of the DISC Model using solely the emotional dimension of the strain-stress process (i.e. emotional demands, emotional resources and emotional exhaustion). Then we investigated the mediator role played by w-f conflict and w-f facilitation in relation to emotional job characteristics and emotional exhaustion. Finally we compared the mediator model across workers involved in chronic illness home demands and workers who are not involved. Finally, a general conclusion, integrated and discussed the main findings of the studies reported in this dissertation.

Immunophenotyping of acute leukemia and lymphoproliferative disorders: a consensus proposal of the European LeukemiaNet Work Package 10

The European LeukemiaNet (ELN), workpackage 10 (WP10) was designed to deal with diagnosis matters using morphology and immunophenotyping. This group aimed at establishing a consensus on the required reagents for proper immunophenotyping of acute leukemia and lymphoproliferative disorders. Animated discussions within WP10, together with the application of the Delphi method of proposals circulation, quickly led to post-consensual immunophenotyping panels for disorders on the ELN website. In this report, we established a comprehensive description of these panels, both mandatory and complementary, for both types of clinical conditions. The reason for using each marker, sustained by relevant literature information, is provided in detail. With the constant development of immunophenotyping techniques in flow cytometry and related software, this work aims at providing useful guidelines to perform the most pertinent exploration at diagnosis and for follow-up, with the best cost benefit in diseases, the treatment of which has a strong impact on health systems.

The Body of Margaret Atwood: Sex Work and Prostitution within Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake, and The Year of the Flood

In this paper, I will argue that Canadian author Margaret Atwood uses fiscal and socially conservative dystopias to show how sex work and prostitution are choices that women would never have to make in a world with true gender equality. In these radically different worlds, women have no agency beyond their sexuality and no ability to express themselves as equals within either society. And while the structures of both societies, the society of The Handmaid’s Tale and that of both Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, are inherently different, they both stem from modern conservative philosophies: for example, the country of Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale holds Christian conservative beliefs on the role of religion in the state and the culturally designated roles of women. I define social conservatism as the idea that government organizations are used to pursue an agenda promoting traditional religious values such as “public morality” and opposing “immoralities” such as abortion, prostitution, and homosexuality. I define fiscal conservatism as an agenda promoting privatization of the market, deregulation and lower taxes. In this paper I argue that because these philosophies are incompatible with gender equality, they drive women to occupations such as sex work. Women find that they have no choices and sex work provides something to “trade.” For Offred, this “trading” is more limited, because she is a sex slave. For Oryx, this trading allows her to travel to the West, yet not before her childhood is marked by prostitution and pornography. Sex work allows for Ren to reclaim some agency over her life, yet she only chooses sex work because she is presented with few other options. All of these issues stem from the philosophies that define these dystopias.