With increasing evidence highlighting the link between psychological factors such as self-esteem, self-efficacy and optimism on employability outcomes, this paper reports an evaluation of a unique student experience initiative called 'Life Design' developed to support the professional and personal development of undergraduate students. First year undergraduates engaged in a two-hour workshop involving interactive exercises designed to foster self-reflection, self-efficacy, and career optimism. The impact of this workshop on validated self-report measures of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and optimism, alongside career-related outcomes was explored using a prospective longitudinal design. Analyses revealed a significant immediate and sustained increase in self-esteem following Life Design, but no impact on self-efficacy or career optimism. Certainty of career developing steps increased at a later follow up, but no changes to career prospect confidence or career choice certainty were reported. This paper highlights the benefits and wider challenges of delivering and engaging students in initiatives designed to enhance employability.
Generic measures of coping fail to capture the process of undergoing specific health processes such as cancer genetic risk assessment. The Genetic Risk Assessment Coping Evaluation (GRACE) has been developed to provide greater specificity of measurement.Based upon previous research findings, the GRACE measures the degree of stress associated with 11 recognised sources of stress for individuals undergoing the early stages of cancer genetic risk assessment, and the use of up to eight coping strategies they may elicit. This paper reports preliminary data from the piloting of the GRACE within a randomised trial of a coping intervention.Of the 265 participants who completed and returned their baseline questionnaire (prior to being informed of their level of genetic risk), 257 completed the GRACE. The most highly endorsed sources of stress involved concerns relating to family members, endorsed by over 60% of respondents, and concerns about how the participants would cope if found to be at increased risk (59%). Participants made use of multiple coping strategies across different sources of stress. The most frequently reported coping strategies were emotion-focused, which may reflect the stage of the assessment process.The completion rates for the matrix and specificity of responses provided suggest that the GRACE may be an acceptable measurement tool. Further data collection and validation is ongoing.
Engaging in nature-based activities is recognised as providing the basis for easily accessible, cost-effective interventions which can have other important physical and psychological health outcomes.The aim of the reported feasibility study was to explore the acceptability and potential psychological benefits of a simple ecotherapy-based intervention for individuals affected by cancer.A total of seven women from an existing breast cancer support group agreed to take part in the study by cultivating and customising a garden bowl for three months, maintaining a diary, and participating in a focus group at the end of the project.The analysis of the focus group data revealed four main themes that suggested that the women found engaging with the intervention to be therapeutic on a number of different levels: reflecting their cancer journey, a source of positivity, making meaning through memories, and a sense of control provided by engagement with the intervention.Engagement with the diary-writing element of the intervention, however, was not as widely endorsed by the group, as participants were even reluctant to make use of an online forum to share experiences of engaging with the intervention.Overall, the study suggests that the flexibility of level of engagement with an intervention is an important factor in developing acceptable interventions, and that the value of targeted recruitment to improve engagement with novel interventions is paramount.
Abstract Sustainable human resource management is gaining importance in organizations due to its role in developing a sustainable work environment and well‐being. This paper discusses the relationship between employee perceptions of sustainable human resource management and job satisfaction in 54 countries. We propose that sustainable HRM is positively associated with job satisfaction but that this relationship is moderated by employees' identification with the organization and country‐level individualism–collectivism. Thus, we suggest national culture functions as a second‐level moderator of the relationship of sustainable HRM with organizational identification on job satisfaction. Findings from the multi‐level analyses using data from 14,502 employees nested within 54 countries provided support for our hypotheses, namely that employee perceptions of sustainable HRM were positively associated with job satisfaction and that this relationship was more pronounced for employees with lower levels compared to higher levels of organizational identification in individualistic rather than collectivistic countries. These findings bear important implications for both theory and practice.
Individuals undergoing cancer genetic risk assessment have been found to have a poor understanding of the process, which may affect how well they cope with learning their risk. This paper reports free‐text data from questionnaires completed by women undergoing a randomised controlled trial of a psychological intervention. Of the 268 women undergoing genetic assessment for familial breast/ovarian cancer risk who were invited to take part in the trial, 157 women returned research questionnaires. Of these, 97 women provided free‐text comments upon referral to a cancer genetics clinic, 62 provided comments whilst waiting for risk information (average, moderate or high), and 36 women provided comments following notification of risk. This paper reports a thematic analysis of the free‐text data. Themes reflected individuals’ poor knowledge and uncertainty about genetic risk assessment. How well individuals responded to learning their risk depended upon whether expectations had been met. Regardless of risk, individuals undergoing cancer genetic risk assessment are likely to benefit from increased information about its process and timescales, and access to increased psychological support. Free‐text comments can provide valuable data about individuals’ expectations and knowledge of genetics services.
This study explored the emotional and coping responses of women referred for cancer genetic risk assessment and the acceptability of a written distraction-based coping intervention. Fifteen women recently referred into the Cancer Genetics Service for Wales (CGSW) took part in a focus group study. The women were divided into two groups, each of which met twice. During the first session, each group discussed their psychological responses to the referral and how they coped with their worries. Women discussed the potential role of the intervention in minimising distress. Analysis of the transcripts revealed that most women welcomed the referral to CGSW and that it did not create distress. However, there was concern for family members and anxiety about subsequent stages of the assessment process. The intervention was considered appropriate and potentially effective.
Football, also known as soccer or association football, is popular but has a potential link with dementia developing in retired players. The FA and soccer regulators in the USA have imposed guidelines limiting players exposure to heading, despite controversy whether this dementia is caused by heading the ball, a form of mild repetitive head injury (RHI), over many years. Substantial data exist showing that many ex-North American Football players develop a specific neurodegenerative disease: chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neuropathological disorder of boxers. In the United Kingdom evidence for the neuropathological basis of footballers' dementia has been slow to emerge. A 2017 study revealed that in six ex-soccer players four had CTE with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and two had AD. A 2019 study showed that ex-footballers were 3.5 times more likely to die from dementia or other neuro-degenerative diseases than matched controls. We argue that in childhood and adolescence the brain is vulnerable to heading, predicated on its disproportionate size and developmental immaturity. RHI in young individuals is associated with early neuroinflammation, a potential trigger for promoting neurodegeneration in later life. Evidence is available to support the guidelines limiting heading for players of all ages, while professional and non-players should be included in prospective studies to investigate the link between soccer and dementia.
The turmoil caused by COVID-19 saw academics and students in Higher Education (HE) institutions across the UK, and worldwide, facing the sudden and unplanned move to online or blended delivery.It left pre-pandemic operational models in need of evolving, leading to an opportunity to develop and test innovative architectural and spatial programming design strategies for 'knowledge work' spaces as academic staff and students returned to campus.The aim of this inter-disciplinary longitudinal study was to evaluate and validate a unique mixed-method approach, which combines extended reality, user experience (UX) and psychological research methodologies with architectural design strategies, to understand how people feel at work; how the environment influences their performance, health and wellbeing; and how to maximise spatial usage.Results were obtained by triangulating data collected from co-creation workshops, an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) survey, and a final usability virtual reality (VR) evaluation.Results imply that there is no ideal layout that would fulfil every user's needs, instead new strategies need to be developed for workspaces to be redesigned creatively following longer-term usability and healthy architecture standards.This includes the mixed-method approach in this study that successfully creates a link between disciplines and user groups: UX and psychological researchers, architects, estates managers and end-users.
We used insurance claims from enrollees in the Rand Health Insurance Experiment to determine the amount of selected components of preventive care received by a representative sample of the non-aged population in the United States and to determine whether insurance coverage was an important determinant of that amount. Only 45 percent of infants received timely immunization for DPT and polio; 93 per cent received some well child care by 18 months of age. In the three-year experimental period, only 4 per cent of adults had a tetanus shot, 66 per cent of women aged 17-44 and 57 per cent aged 45-65 received a Pap smear, and 2 per cent of women aged 45-65 had a mammogram. Cost sharing was associated with even less preventive care: 60 per cent of children on the free plan and 49 per cent on cost sharing plans received preventive care of any type. For adults, women on the free plan received more preventive care of several kinds, and those aged 45-65 received more Pap smears than those on cost-sharing plans. Even with free care, most enrollees did not receive adequate preventive care. Thus, free care alone, while significant, is not a sufficient incentive to providing recommended levels of preventive care. The average per person insurance charge for increasing the amount of preventive care to a level consistent with that recommended would be $22 for a complete set of immunizations by age 18 months, $9 for a Pap smear every three years, and $97 for a Pap test and mammogram every three years.
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