This study documented the creation and initial validation of the Perceived Adolescent Social Support: Cystic Fibrosis (PASS-CF) inventory. The inventory was developed from semi-structured interviews of adolescents with cystic fibrosis (CF) and measured both supportive and non-supportive behaviors provided to adolescents by their family and friends. This study reports the findings from these interviews, results of the pilot testing of the measure, exploratory analyses of the utility of individual items, and the relationships between supportive and non-supportive behaviors and important clinical outcomes, such as treatment adherence, health-related quality of life (HRQoL), and other health outcomes. In particular, the study compared two measurement models suggested by popular definitions of social support. The "perceived support" model emphasized adolescents' cognitive appraisals of the support provided to them by family and friends, and the functional support model emphasized the utility of specific behaviors in managing CF. Results provided support for both models and provided insights into important next steps in the study of social support in adolescents with CF.

For parents, the birth of their first child sparks rapid change for each partner and for their romantic relationship. With the stress of the transition to parenthood, many couples experience declining marital satisfaction. However, previous studies have reported wide variation in the magnitude and time course of this decline. The present study sought to determine the trajectory of marital satisfaction across the first 2 years of parenthood. The study also examined the role of anxious and avoidant attachment, as well as relationship dynamics that prevent or augment declines in satisfaction for anxious and avoidant individuals. Data were collected from couples in five assessment waves: 6 weeks before the birth of the first child, and 6, 12, 18, and 24 months postbirth. Both partners completed self-report measures of attachment orientations and relevant situational stressors. It was hypothesized that, for insecurely attached partners, declines in marital satisfaction would be associated with the inability to pursue attachment-related goals. Thus, satisfaction should decline when: 1) anxious individuals are unable to increase proximity to their partners; and 2) avoidant individuals are unable to increase distance from their partners. Growth curve models examined changes in satisfaction over time, moderated by gender, attachment orientation (anxiety or avoidance), and situational stressors. Results yielded three key findings, which largely supported the hypotheses. First, for highly anxious individuals, satisfaction was lower or declined when they perceived their partners as less supportive and more negative toward them, and when they felt their babies interfered more in their romantic relationship. Second, for highly avoidant individuals, satisfaction was lower or declined when they felt their babies interfered more in leisure activities, and when they perceived more work-family conflict and more demands from their families. Third, an interesting pattern of gender differences emerged, such that satisfaction often declined more steeply in insecure men than women. Exploratory analyses revealed additional moderators of the attachment-satisfaction relationship. These are discussed as they relate to the goals of insecurely attached individuals. Findings suggest that attachment insecurities predict dissatisfaction in new parents primarily when situational stressors block the pursuit of secondary attachment goals.

The treatment that women get from health care staff can influence the experience of the abortion and how women manage to coping the experience emotionally. The aim of this study was to illuminate women’s experiences in connection with an abortion. The findings show that the women’s social situation led them to the decision of abortion. When the women had the pregnancy confirmed many felt unreality. Several women experienced the situation as a crisis. After the abortion most of the women experienced relief, but also guilt towards the abortion. Some knew that they had made the right decision, while others felt regret. Most of the women experienced that the nursing staff treated them well, but some women experienced that the staff was negative, insensitive and ignoring. Most of the women was satisfied with the total support from significant others. To make a satisfying nursing care possible for each woman who seeks abortion, more research is needed about women’s experiences of nursing staff’s treatment.

Tidigare forskning har visat att kvinnor uppsöker professionell hjälp oftare än män, detta sägs bero på att kvinnor har lättare att erkänna sig själva som svaga. Syftet var att undersöka om det fanns någon skillnad i hur män och kvinnor bedömde en kollegas arbetsrelaterade stress samt om kollegans kön påverkade bedömningen. Ett urval på 108 yrkesarbetande män och kvinnor från två sektorer valdes ut, deltagarna läste tre vinjetter om en stressad man eller kvinna vars hälsa gradvis försämras på grund av ökad arbetsbelastning. En flervägs mixed ANOVA gjordes med bedömningen av målpersonens arbetsbörda, ohälsa och hjälpbehov som beroendevariabler. Resultaten visade att män uppfattade en kvinnlig kollegas ohälsa och hjälpbehov som större än en manlig kollegas. Kvinnor gjorde ingen skillnad på manliga eller kvinnliga kollegor. Män och kvinnor uppfattade det motsatta könets arbetsbörda som större än det egna. Kvinnliga eller manliga kollegor kan vara avgörande för när individen blir erbjuden hjälp.

Revenue Management (RM) is an important tool for matching supply and demand by segmenting customers into different segments based on their willingness-to-pay and allocating scarce capacity to the different segments in a way that maximizes firm revenues. The benefits of RM are well accepted in the hospitality industry, and the technical aspects of RM form a rich analytical research stream. However, the research is missing a holistic examination of important elements of effective RM. The literature shows that market segmentation, pricing, forecasting, capacity allocation, IT use, organizational focus, aligned incentives, organizational structure, and education and training contribute to effective RM. We group these elements into two concepts: RM technical capability and RM social support capability and propose that these nine elements positively impact RM performance. We develop scales to measure our constructs and collect responses in the hotel industry. Our survey yields interesting results. In line with expectations, we find evidence that forecasting and organizational focus positively impact RM performance. On the other hand, the results show evidence that improved organizational structure negatively impacts RM performance. We provide a few explanations for this non-intuitive result and proposals for future research.

This research is aimed to look into the relevance between job stress and job performance of Kaohsiung City Government employees, and to observe whether social support will have an effect on this. This research will serve as a reference for people in charge of making policies. Documents will serve as the basis for research, as well as some statistical methods such as conducting the poll through questionnaires, factor analysis, descriptive statistic, T test, ANOVA, correlation analysis, regression analysis and other relevant analyses. There are several discoveries based on these analyses and studies: 1. The job stress of the employees of Kaohsiung City Government comes from the nature of work and structural specialty. 2. The highest level within the various levels of the job performance of Kaohsiung City Government employees is the mission efficiency, which shows the same result as the opinion poll does. 3. Gender serves as an obvious difference when it comes to job stress, which shows that female feels more about that than male. 4. Schooling record also serves as an obvious difference when it comes to job stress. In the part of structural specialty, employees owning master or higher degree usually have a bigger job stress than those owning senior or vocational high school diploma or below. 5. Social support and job stress have statistically negative influence, which means that more social support will reduce the causes of job stress. This view is also concurred by many scholars. 6. Job stress and job performance have statistically negative influence. This is also concurred by many scholars such as Schuler. 7. Social support does not have an influential effect between job stress and job performance, which means that social support does not have the effect of stress buffer as some scholars III such as Fenlason & Beehr claim. 8. The condition of marriage has an influential effect between job stress and job performance. Those who are married tend to have the phenomenon that the more job stress they have, the less job performance they achieve. It is the first time that this report is aimed to study the job stress of Kaohsiung City Government employees, and it affirms that social support, especially the support from the senior officer, will have the effect of decreasing job stress. The result of this research may serve as a policy reference for Kaohsiung City Government to raise the job performance of its employees.

No description available.

Childhood cancer has obvious impacts on the children themselves, but also has impacts on their families and siblings. While studies have been conducted on the impacts of cancer on children and their parents, there has been limited consideration of the impacts of cancer on healthy siblings. Some studies have suggested that siblings of children with cancer are the most emotionally disregarded and distressed of all family members as a result of their sibling having cancer. Exposure to stress has a negative impact on the immune system and places siblings at risk for health problems. Thus, finding mechanisms to ameliorate stress are critical. Early intervention and treatment may serve as protective factors against risky behavior and lead to more normative child development and well-being. One method of improving the psychosocial adjustment of siblings of children with cancer has been through interventions such as camp experiences that include opportunities for campers to experience social support. There is a need to better understand the efficacy of intervention programs designed to reduce stress across a variety of settings. The focus of this study was if campers experience social support (emotional, informational, and instrumental) at a three and one-half day residential camp, and the elements of camp campers' identified as leading to social support. Participant observations of camp and semi-structured interviews with selected campers were used to help gain insights concerning the impact of the camp experience on siblings of children with cancer. Coding of responses was undertaken, which led to the identification of themes and subthemes. Findings provided a narrative description of how campers perceived social support. In addition, social comparison was identified as a critical mechanism for meeting camper's biological, physiological and behavioral needs. Overarching perceptions of campers were that people at camp were nice and staff was instrumental in facilitating universality and a cycle of reciprocity. Implications of this study suggest intentionally designed camps have the ability to impact a broad range of attitudes and behaviors. The study also supports theory of how structures and processes of social relationships work in relation to good health; and can be applied to a camp setting.

As refresher courses are getting popular in Taiwan, it is good news for those who want to continue their studies at the same time of working. However, an individual social role will be getting more complicated during this situation of inter-role conflicts. While a full-time worker also needs to act as a student after work, will he encounter the inter-role conflicts of learning and working? This study aims on students who are taking refresher courses at public or private two-year junior college, two-year college, and university in Kaohsiung. We try to discuss the relationship between inter-role conflicts, social support and learning burnout of students who are taking refresher courses. We indicate the relationship between inter-role conflicts, social support and learning burnout due to different background characteristics of respondents. The study result is supported by empirical data and provides some suggestions for those who want to take refresher courses and further researchers. We send out 800 questionnaires and get 602 returned ones. The final valid questionnaires are 589 and the return rate is 76.62%. The result is indicated as below: 1. Most of respondents in this study are female, single, and study in national two-year junior college right now. Their tenure in current company is 1-5 years. Most of them have strong motivation of self actualization even they all play different social roles now. The age of most respondents is between 31-40 and most of them work in manufacturing industries and would prefer to study at school in short distance. 2. The result indicates the inter-role conflicts that learning interferes working or learning and working interfere each other have strong impact on learning attitude. Besides, the inter-role conflicts that learning interferes working or learning and working interfere each other have strong impact on interpersonal relationship alienation. The three kinds of inter-role conflicts all have strong impact on low learning emotion. Furthermore, the inter-role conflicts which learning and working interfere each other have strong impact on emotion burnout. 3. The moderation effects of families¡¦ support, managers¡¦ support, colleagues¡¦ support and classmates¡¦ support are partially supported in this study.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-124).