The U.S. military has downsized since the early 2000s and has plans to continue to decrease their forces. There are negative implications many veterans experience after discharge. Using the transition theory as the framework for this study, the purpose of this between-groups study was to explore the differences in life satisfaction scores between voluntarily- and involuntarily-discharged U.S. service members and the associations between educational attainment, social support, and length of service. The participants were honorable discharged U.S. service members. A total of 182 participants were included in this study; 141 were voluntarily discharged and 41 were involuntarily discharged. The participants were recruited through Walden's participant pool, flyers, and Facebook. The Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, and a demographic questionnaire were used to identify participants' life satisfaction scores, amount of perceived social support, and personal information. Based on the results of t tests and hierarchical linear regressions, there were no differences in life satisfaction scores between voluntarily and involuntarily discharged service members. Social support and educational attainment were statistically significant predictors of life satisfaction for discharged service members. The positive social change implications of this study include increasing mental health workers' awareness of U.S. service members and the factors that affect life satisfaction after discharge.

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80–20 rule, is the observation that 20% of input (e.g., workers) produce 80% of the results. Consistent with this principle, previous research has identified a group (20%) of families, the Vital Few, who provide a disproportionate amount of foster care and are more willing to foster children with special needs. The ability to predict the emergence of these families has important implications for recruitment, support and placement stability, as well as longevity of foster families. This study replicated and extended previous research by conducting a follow-up study of 107 families (90% response rate) 17 years after pre-service training. Consistent with previous research we found a small proportion (10%) of families who provide a disproportionate amount of care in terms of length of service and number of children fostered, approved to foster, adopted, and removed at families’ request. At the completion of pre-service training Vital Few families were more likely to have had previous foster parent experience and one or more children in their homes; mothers and fathers in the Vital Few were older, and fathers reported less education. Also, at pre-service training more Vital Few families said they would foster sibling groups (100 vs. 64%), but there were no other differences in terms of willingness to foster children with special needs. This study further validates the utility of the Pareto Principle for understanding foster families and, by extension, has important implications for the well-being and stability of foster children.

There is a small, methodologically diverse body of research indicating that approximately 20% of families provide disproportionate amounts of foster caregiving, place fewer restrictions on characteristics of children they are willing to foster and actually do foster, and provide caregiving environments as good as or better than those provided by other foster families. Cherry and Orme (2013) conceptualized this phenomenon in terms of the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80-20 rule or the Vital Few, and they refer to these 20% of families as the Vital Few and the remaining 80% as the Useful Many. This review will examine and synthesize the available research on Vital Few foster families and explore next steps in the development of this body of research.

The aim of this study was to investigate employees' work satisfaction at a construction company and if the employees' working position, age and length of service were the basis for differences in work satisfaction. The participants in this study included all employees (N = 116) at a Swedish medium-sized construction company and the respondents were selected through a convenience sample. To collect data, the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (Weiss, Dawis, England & Lofqvist, 1967) was used and it consists of three subscales: intrinsic, extrinsic and general work satisfaction. The study's reliability was ensured by Cronbach’s Alpha, which showed .83. Continuously, the result was obtained through a one-way ANOVA analysis for all variables. The results showed that the work position had a significant impact on intrinsic work satisfaction (p = .004) and general work satisfaction (p = .036), and that age had a significant impact on intrinsic work satisfaction (p = .009) and general work satisfaction (p = .020). The study concluded that length of service did not have a significant impact on work satisfaction (p = .550, n.s.). This suggests that work position and age are relevant factors in relation to employee's work satisfaction and since previous research has shown that work satisfaction contributes to countless benefits, these factors should not be neglected by organisations.