Across the world, job insecurity plays a critical role in organisations. This insecurity affects not only the individual, but also the organisation. In South Africa, the Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998), and the Broad-Based Socio-Economic Empowerment Charter for the South African Mining Industry (Mining Charter), brought changes to the mining industry policies and decision-making process in terms of selection and recruitment, which could in turn lead to feelings of job insecurity. Other factors such as the availability of gold left to be mined, restructuring and strikes increase work-related stress. The objectives of this study were to investigate the role of job insecurity in predicting health related behaviours, and to determine whether coping moderates the effect of job insecurity on health behaviours for a group of managers in a South African gold mining company. A cross-sectional design was used. The study population (n = 206) consisted of managers in a gold mining company in South Africa The Job Insecurity Scale, Cybernetic Coping Scale and Health Complaints Questionnaire were used as measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test for the hypothesized moderating effect of coping on the relation between job insecurity and health-related behaviours. The results of the regression analyses showed that qualitative job insecurity was a significant predictor of health complaints. Qualitative job insecurity was also a significant predictor of health complaints in employees who smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol, and exercised at least once a week. Quantitative job insecurity did not play a role in predicting health-related behaviour. Coping did not moderate the effects of job insecurity for employees with health complaints. Rather, it is suggested that using negative coping behaviours may actually contribute to health complaints. Recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Across the world, job insecurity plays a critical role in organisations. This insecurity affects not only the individual, but also the organisation. In South Africa, the Employment Equity Act (No. 55 of 1998), and the Broad-Based Socio-Economic Empowerment Charter for the South African Mining Industry (Mining Charter), brought changes to the mining industry policies and decision-making process in terms of selection and recruitment, which could in turn lead to feelings of job insecurity. Other factors such as the availability of gold left to be mined, restructuring and strikes increase work-related stress. The objectives of this study were to investigate the role of job insecurity in predicting health related behaviours, and to determine whether coping moderates the effect of job insecurity on health behaviours for a group of managers in a South African gold mining company. A cross-sectional design was used. The study population (n = 206) consisted of managers in a gold mining company in South Africa The Job Insecurity Scale, Cybernetic Coping Scale and Health Complaints Questionnaire were used as measuring instruments. Descriptive statistics (e.g. means, standard deviations and kurtosis) were used to analyse the data. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to test for the hypothesized moderating effect of coping on the relation between job insecurity and health-related behaviours. The results of the regression analyses showed that qualitative job insecurity was a significant predictor of health complaints. Qualitative job insecurity was also a significant predictor of health complaints in employees who smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol, and exercised at least once a week. Quantitative job insecurity did not play a role in predicting health-related behaviour. Coping did not moderate the effects of job insecurity for employees with health complaints. Rather, it is suggested that using negative coping behaviours may actually contribute to health complaints. Recommendations for future research are made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

Chronic diseases are usually the result of complex interactions between various lifestyle factors, physiological processes and societal factors. While some of these factors are not modifiable, modification of several of these factors have, to a large extent, demonstrated preventative properties against the development or further development of various chronic diseases. Health-related behaviours are modifiable factors. Behaviour plays an important role in both the development and the management of chronic diseases. One way of investigating this role is to evaluate the impact of health-related behaviours on health. Positive health-related behaviours include eating a healthy diet, regularly engaging in physical exercise, having regular screenings and checkups, not smoking, moderate alcohol use, getting vaccinations and seat belt use. Negative health-related behaviours include eating an unhealthy diet, leading a sedentary life style, not having regular screenings and checkups, smoking, excessive alcohol use and irresponsible driving. Various models of health-related behaviour use social cognitive factors as proximal determinants of health-related behaviours. A social cognitive factor that has received little attention in relation to health-related behaviour, that is sense of coherence (SOC), was used in this study. Although personality factors tend to be only distally associated with health-related behaviour, they do however seem to contribute to a better understanding of these behaviours. Trait emotional intelligence (EI) as a lower order personality trait was used in this study. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of the relationships between SOC, trait EI and health-related behaviours. A cross-sectional, correlational research design was used. Participants were selected based on convenient and easy access. Participants completed an online questionnaire that consisted of a health behaviour survey as well as the short form of the Orientation to Life Questionnaire and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire. The health behaviour survey assessed some aspects of people's health-related behaviour, including diet, sleep and preventive behaviours, alcohol use, exercise and smoking. Health behaviour correlated significantly with both SOC and Trait EI. SOC and Trait EI were also significantly correlated. When controlling for a third variable, neither SOC nor trait EI correlated significantly with health behaviour. Although none of the predictors made significant contributions to the prediction of health behaviour, the basic regression model reached statistical significance. Trait EI made a significant contribution to the prediction of health behaviour in a more parsimonious regression model, which also reached statistical significance. / Dissertation (MA (Research Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / unrestricted

This dissertation contains three distinct chapters considering different challenges faced by a developing country; India. Chapter 1. Food price spikes induced by hot weather could be a threat to food security, human health and poverty. It could exacerbate the health status of households by reducing the nutrient food choices, particularly among the vulnerable groups who already have a more frail status. This paper examines the first possible causal link between milk average market price and hot weather in the short run at the household level in India. Using Human Development Survey data, it is empirically showed that hot weather has a significant adverse impact on the price in rural India. The impacts are more pronounced for non-poor families in both rural and urban areas. The effects are robust to alternative heat metrics. The paper further investigates the effect of hot weather on households' milk consumption. Evidence suggests that low-income (poor) families with purchased consumption, both in rural and urban areas, are significantly adversely affected compared to those with homegrown product. Chapter 2. Health-related behaviour and, in particular, attending antenatal care during pregnancy is essential to reduce the risk of pregnancy complications, stillbirth, and maternal mortality. This paper estimates the causal effect of years of formal education on the likelihood that a pregnant woman in India attends natal care and screening services. Despite the importance, insufficient documents exist on the determinants of natal care usage in developing countries. The current study investigates for the first time the hypothesis that women’s schooling attainments might have a causal impact on natal care usage in India. Drawing on the nationally representative India Human Development Survey (IHDS-II) and instrumenting for years of schooling with plausibly exogenous variation in age at first menarche, I find that delayed age at menarche significantly increases formal education. Further, evidence suggests that an additional year of schooling significantly enhances the likelihood of uptaking the antenatal checkups. However, attending a sonogram/ultrasound does not appear to be significant. Chapter 3. Adolescent girls are amongst the vulnerable groups exposed to the risks that challenge their healthy development into young women. India's Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (SABLA) program was designed to address such challenges by building health awareness and encouraging decision-making autonomy as the first steps towards real change in women’s development. Using data from the nationally representative India Demographic and Health Survey (IDHS), with plausibly exogenous variation in the program’s rollout across districts and birth cohorts, we provide evidence that exposure to SABLA increases the likelihood of having knowledge of family planning and diarrhoea treatment, using contraception, and autonomy in personal financial decision-making for exposed women. The effects are more pronounced for women residing in urban areas, for women who have secondary education or higher, and primarily for Muslim women.