Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Hospitals and policymakers acknowledge the importance of the family in improved healthcare outcomes. Although there has been an increase in policies and research to bring families into planning, delivery, and evaluation of healthcare, there has not been a means to assess health-focused perceived support and communication behaviors. Without a means of assessing these factors, healthcare professionals cannot succinctly evaluate support and communication in a family system or provide recommendations for engaging family members in providing beneficial health-focused support and communication. This study involved the creation of the Inventory for Family Health-Focused Perceived Support and Communication Behaviors (Family HF-PSCB). Informed by family systems theory, social support literature, and health communication behaviors research, this three-phase study consisted of (a) generating items for the Family HF-PSCB, (b) establishing test-retest reliability, and (c) establishing a factor structure and convergent validity. Because of the increase of chronic disease in the United States, the Family HF-PSCB was created and tested with samples of individuals having chronic disease(s). Using a mixed methods approach, in-depth interviews with 12 participants generated 91 items for psychometric analysis. These items were tested through expert content review, and in pilot testing (n = 23), the remaining 84 items demonstrated test- retest and internal reliability. Through factor analysis (n = 209), two factors emerged to explain 72.1% of the variance. The final Family HF-PSCB contains 13 items, which indicates an individual’s perception of family health-focused support and communication behaviors. The factor explaining 63.2% of the variance has 8 items demonstrating healthfocused communication behaviors, and the second factor has 5 items demonstrating health-focused instrumental support. The developed scale suggests that family healthfocused communication behaviors may be a more explanatory variable in the family system for someone with chronic disease(s). The 13-item Family HF-PSCB demonstrates convergent validity through significant correlations with the Perceived Social Support Family Scale and the General Functioning Scale of the McMaster Family Assessment Device. Future studies should explore the correlation of the Family HF-PSCB with health outcomes attributed to symptom management in populations of chronic disease patients.

Previous research has implicated social support in a wide range of contexts, yet despite the extensive quantity of research, we are yet to fully understand the underlying mechanisms. Research into these mechanisms will not only have theoretical implications but also applied implications. This thesis examined the mechanisms underpinning social support in an achievement context. It is presented as series of three interrelated chapters, which comprise the four studies conducted. These are preceded by an introduction, and succeeded by a general discussion. The studies focused upon social support: the first examining the effects of a social support intervention within a performance context, the remaining three studies investigating perceived support and performance-related outcome variables within the coach-athlete relationship. The first study examined social support in a performance context assessing the influences of support upon the stress response. A neurocognitive approach found that when compared to participants in a non-support group, individuals who were given support showed less brain activations in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region associated with the initial stress response. However, results displayed that participants did not perceive support in the same way; not all participants who were given the support manipulation reported being supported. Studies two and three used multivariate generalisability theory to examine the relationship between perceived support and various outcome variables at the perceiver, target and relational levels of analysis. A univariate analysis revealed that the relational component was the most influential followed by the perceiver. Social support was positively associated with self-confidence, self-efficacy and positive emotions at the relational level of analysis. The fourth study used qualitative methods in order to delve further into how athletes judge the supportiveness of their coaches and the antecedents of perceived support. The study found that the relationship between a coach and an athlete was the biggest contributing factor in perceived support judgements. This judgement relied heavily on the previous experiences that the athlete had shared with the coach. Overall, this thesis demonstrates that to understand the mechanisms underlying how social support effects various outcome variables, studies need to be conducted investigating how individuals develop their perceptions of support. This thesis has demonstrated that individuals perceived support in different ways. The final three studies showed that the supportiveness of one coach may be viewed differently by different athletes. Thus, coaches will not be viewed as supportive by every athlete that they work with. Consequently, interventions aimed at increasing levels of perceived support may not be successful unless the coach and athlete are optimally matched to create a highly supportive relationship. Theoretical and applied implications, in addition to future research are discussed throughout this thesis.

This longitudinal study examined factors that contribute to change in attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance over the transition to parenthood. Participants were a community sample of 98 heterosexual couples expecting their first child who were recruited through maternity resources in the Victoria, B.C. area. Specifically, this study considered whether prenatal perceived stress levels predicted change in adult attachment security. For men, higher stress levels predicted more change in attachment security. We also examined whether increases in stress levels from the prenatal to the postnatal period predicted changes in attachment security and found that increases in stress from the prenatal to postnatal period were associated with more change in attachment for men; results were marginally significant for women. In addition to examining the impact of stress on the absolute value of change in attachment, this study considered perceived support and perceived anger as moderators of the relationship between stress and directional change in attachment. Measures of general support and perceived anger did not moderate this relationship. Observational ratings of partner’s positive and negative support behaviours during support-seeking interactions were examined as potential moderators. The interaction between stress and positive emotional support predicted decreasing avoidance for women. Interactions between stress and negative affect marginally predicted increasing anxiety for men and women. Dyadic analyses were also used to clarify how changes in participants’ attachment security over time were influenced by their partners’ prenatal attachment security. For women, partner levels of attachment avoidance at the prenatal period predicted increasing attachment anxiety. These findings emphasize that adult attachment exists in the context of interpersonal relationships, and demonstrate the importance of using dyadic and longitudinal data to study attachment. Implications for attachment theory and intervention are discussed. / Graduate / 0451 / 0621 / 0622 / taracg@uvic.ca

This study explored the generalizability of citizenship behavior, support, and fit to the occupational domain. In doing so, arguments to include occupation constructs in organizational analyses were offered, reliability and validity testing of the occupation constructs was performed, and relationships among the occupation constructs, their respective organizational counterparts, occupation-related outcomes, and organization-related outcomes were explored. Results of the assessments demonstrated that occupational citizenship behavior, perceived occupational support, and person-occupation fit are distinguishable from their organizational counterparts and that occupation constructs and organization constructs contributed independently to occupational activity and work place behavior. Overall findings from the study suggest inclusion of occupation constructs in organizational analyses can enrich, complement and/or supplement our understanding of organizational behavior. / Business Administration

社會支持是個人調節壓力的重要資源，過去研究顯示知覺支持高的人對支持行為記憶較好、較正向地詮釋社會訊息。本研究假設感恩心應是影響知覺支持的因素，感恩心的認知風格使人注意、憶念得自他人的照顧與關愛，提高對知覺支持的滿意；感恩的人單純地對人親善、回報他人，建立較多社會資源，因而支持人數較多。本研究共進行二部分研究： 研究一編制感恩心量表，探索感恩心的因素、內涵與類型。以118位大學生為預試樣本、341位大學生為正式樣本。結果顯示感恩心的因素包括「對人事物的感恩感受與認知習慣」、「對人感恩與報恩」、「感恩負向人事」。第一、二因素共同隱涵「不把一切視為理所當然」的核心信念、追本溯源的歸因能力，以及經常注意、記憶益處或給予者的認知習慣。第二因素涉及同理他人內心情感的能力；也包含報恩，個人感到被照顧、關愛而有感恩情緒，進而促發個人希望回報對方。第三因素注意到自己的成長來自於負面狀況提供了機會，雖然給予者無正向意圖。三個因素共同的認知風格是辨認出人事物對自己的正向經驗和結果有貢獻，將益處被評估為正向且將益處歸因於他者，而產生感恩的愉悅情緒。且所有受試者在上述三個因素分數上，可分成七種類型。 研究二探討不同背景變項大學生在感恩心分數上的差異，及感恩心和知覺支持的關係，以341位大學生為問卷施測正式樣本。結果顯示只有感恩心、對人感恩與報恩、對人事物的感恩感受與認知風格對支持人數、支持滿意度有預測力。感恩心高的人在注意、歸因、同理、記憶上的認知風格使他容易辨認出別人對自己正向結果的貢獻與善意，知覺支持滿意度較高，也建立較多社會資源而支持人數較多。 研究結果顯示：協助大學生培養感恩心，應可擴大知覺支持，使之回復到應有的份量，進而緩衝壓力，也促使學生有回報他人的向社會行為，增加社會資源。根據感恩心因素、內涵，本研究針對大學生個人、諮商人員、父母提出培養感恩心的數點建議。 / Social support is one of the important resources for individuals to moderate stress. Past researches showed that people who perceive more support recall other’s supportive behaviors better and interpreter social information more positive. This research hypothesized that gratitude influences perceived support. The grateful cognitive style makes people attend to the kindness of others and remember it well. Grateful persons are kind toward others, and are good to others for appreciation. Thus, they build more social resources, and have more available supporters. Study 1 created Gratitude Inventory, and explored the factors, implication, and styles of gratitude. 341 college students completed the Gratitude Inventory. The major findings were summarized as follows : First, the factor of gratitude includes : 1. The grateful feeling and cognitive habits toward people, events and things. 2. Gratitude and return kindness toward people. 3. Gratitude toward negative events and people. Second, there are seven kinds of gratitude styles. Study 2 investigated the relationship between gratitude and perceived support. 341college students completed the Gratitude Inventory, Social Support Questionnaire and Social Desirability Inventory. The result showed that grateful feeling and cognitive habits toward people, events and things and Gratitude and return kindness toward people are effective predictors to the numbers of available supporter and the satisfaction of perceived support. These findings showed that, helping college students developing gratitude will enlarge their perceived support, thus buffer the effect of stress. It will also make students behave more prosocially, thus build more social resources. According to the conclusions of the main findings, several suggestions are provided for college students, parents, counselors in the Universities, and future research.

Sedan behovet av att skaffa sig konkurrensfördelar uppstod har organisationer utvecklat mer flexibla organisationsformer. Projektkontor är ett sådant exempel. De är komplexa så till vida att de kan organiseras på olika sätt, på olika organisatoriska nivåer och inrymma ett spektrum av funktioner. Projektkontor har historiskt etablerats utan att inventera organisationens behov. Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att undersöka medarbetares upplevelser av behov av stöd i sin projektledarroll. Detta för att göra det möjligt att ta fram förslag på funktioner som bör inkluderas vid etablering av ett stödjande projektkontor inom den undersökta organisationen. Åtta semi-strukturerade intervjuer har genomförts och data har bearbetats genom tematisk analys. Detta resulterade i fyra teman som beskriver projektledarnas upplevelser av behov av stöd: förankring från början till slut, ökad projektmognad inom organisationen, bollplank som är tillgängligt efter projektledarens behov samt initialt stöd via personliga möten. Studiens fyra teman diskuterades sedan utifrån Hobbs och Aubrys modell från 2007, med 27 projektkontorsfunktioner indelade i fem funktionsgrupper. Detta ledde fram till ett antal konkreta förslag kring stödfunktioner som bör inkluderas vid etablering av projektkontor inom den studerade organisationen. / Since the need to gain competitive advantage, organizations have developed more flexible organizational forms. Project management offices are such an example. They are complex to the extent that they can be organized in different ways, at different organizational levels and contain a spectrum of functions. Project management offices have, historically, been established without inventing the organization’s needs. The purpose of this thesis has been to investigate employee perceived needs for support in their project management role. This is to enable proposals for functions that should be included when establishing a supporting project management office within the studied organization. Eight semi-structured interviews have been conducted and data has been processed through thematic analysis. This resulted in four themes that describe the perceived needs of project managers: anchoring from start to finish, increased project maturity within the organization, coach available according to project manager’s needs and initial support through personal meetings. The four themes of the study were then discussed based on the model of Hobbs and Aubry from 2007, containing 27 project office functions, divided into five groups of functions. This lead to a number of concrete suggestions on support functions that should be included when establishing a project management office within the studied organization.

The aim of this thesis was to examine the association between family structures and adolescents' externalising and internalising problems. This study also explored if adolescents' perceived parental support and teacher support might differ across different type of family structures. It further assessed whether the association between family structures, externalising and internalising problems among adolescents might be attributed to the individual level of parental and teacher support. The data was derived from the Stockholm School Survey carried out by the Stockholm City Administration in 2014. A total of 5,569 students age 15-17 from both public and private schools in the municipalities of Stockholm was included in this study. This study showed that lower perceived parental and teacher support was found among those living in stepparents and single parent families. Results from linear regression also indicated that adolescents from non-nuclear families were at higher risk of developing externalising and internalising problems. As this study found that those associations were attributed to individual level of parental and teacher support, the findings of this thesis bring together the evidence on the need for spesific programs given by the school for prevention and intervention of externalising and internalising problems among adolescents. Moreover, this study also highlights the importance of family policy as an instrument to attain a healthy work-life balance that may enable parents to increase their support towards their children.

The purpose of this research is to examine how the ethical decision making of a salesperson is influenced by job characteristics, and how ethical decision making then influences job outcomes. This research is important because the field of ethics draws from diverse disciplines that have minimal agreement with each other. While calls have been made for a uniform standard of ethics, a better decision may be for each discipline to look internally to determine both what ethics is and how it functions in relation to other variables on in each disciplines unique field. This study examines first how the exogenous job characteristic variables of perceived organizational support, sales force control system and ethical values of the salesperson affect ethical decision making. Perceived organizational support and the behavioral-based sales force control system are hypothesized to positively influence ethical decision making. The link between perceived organizational support and ethical decision making has been observed in the field of accounting, and sales research has found that perceived organizational support leads to organizational citizenship behavior, which contains ethical decision making under its umbrella. Behavior-based sales force control systems are predicted to lead to ethical decision making because this type of control system has been shown to both lead to increased affective organizational commitment and reduce the benefits of acting unethically. The ethical values of the salesperson are predicted to moderate the relationships between the independent variables and ethical decision making. Ethical values and the independent variables in the study are influenced by similar antecedent constructs. The study also examines how ethical decision making influences the endogenous job outcomes variables of affective organizational commitment and salesperson performance. Ethical decision making is hypothesized to positively influence both performance and commitment. Ethical climates have been found to increase commitment, and performance is considered a key outcome of ethical decision making. Azjen’s (1985) theory of planned behavior ties the hypotheses together.

Abstract Many women who survived sex trafficking continue to suffer from severe and persistent psychological distress even after the traditional treatment and rehabilitation program. The lingering psychological symptoms that these survivors suffer make reintegration into their families and communities difficult. This phenomenological study identified the restorative factors that helped some women who were earlier engaged in sex trafficking to recover, readjust, and reintegrate into their families and communities. Six female survivors of human trafficking and six program directors/counselors at different rehabilitation centers were individually interviewed in in-depth with semi-structured questionnaires and audio recorded. I kept diary of my readings and observation of the participants during the interviews to maintain the rigor and established trustworthiness of the study. With NVivo 11 plus Software, the information were coded to identify the different patterns. The Manen's hermeneutic descriptive phenomenological interpretative approach was employed to sort out the emerging themes. The findings were grouped under the perspectives of survivors and program directors/counselors. Both survivors and program directors/counselors agreed that factors such as supports from family/friends, medical treatments, counseling, and individual characteristics promoted recovery. The theories of social support, self-efficacy, and resilience guided the understanding of the recovery process of the survivors. For positive social change, this study provides information that families, communities, and society can become more aware of the ways to improve survivors' support systems and build a sustainable community that cares and supports survivors for a successful integration into families and communities.

Studien undersöker flerspråkiga föräldrars erfarenheter av upplevt socialt stöd i föräldrarollen till ett barn med kommunikationsnedsättningar. Forskningsfrågorna berör även vilken betydelse stödet får för kontakten med barnet. Metoden som använts är en sekventiell mixad metod (enkätundersökning och fokusgruppsintervjuer) som utgår från en transformativ strategi. Studiens vetenskapsteoretiska ansats grundar sig i Benno Herzogs teori om social diskursiv exkludering och analysen utgår från Barreras samt Hellers och Swindles grundantaganden om upplevt socialt stöd. Respondenterna deltog i utbildningarna TAKK på Modersmålet och FAMN som anordnades av Projekt TAKK för Språket i Göteborg. Resultaten visar att föräldrarna i studien upplevde socialt stöd utifrån att utbildningarna anpassades och erbjöd: språkstöd på modersmålet, samtal kring användning av alternativ och kompletterade kommunikation (AKK) tillsammans med modersmålet samt samtal om funktionsnedsättningar och samhällstöd. Därutöver visar resultaten att föräldrarna, genom dessa anpassningar, upplever en ökad förståelse för stöddiskursen och stärkt självförtroende. Detta, i sin tur, leder till att föräldrarna upplever större handlingsutrymme i stressrelaterade situationer och en ökad benägenhet att söka och ta emot stöd. / The study examines multilingual parents' experiences of perceived social support when parenting a child with communication impairments. Research questions also deal with the importance of perceived social support for the contact between parents and child. The method used is a sequential mixed methodology (survey and focus group interviews) based on a transformative strategy. The study's scientific theoretical approach is based on Benno Herzog's theory of social discursive exclusion and the analysis starts from Barrera´s and from Heller´s and Swindle´s basic assumptions about perceived social support. The respondents participated in the parenting programs TAKK på Modersmålet and FAMN, that focused the use was of AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) together with the mother tongue, which was organized by the project TAKK för Språket (AAC for multilingualism) in Gothenburg. The results show that the parents in the study perceived social support when the education programs were adapted and offered language support in the mother tongue, discussions about the use of AAC together with the mother tongue (AAC) and information about disabilities as well as information about society’s support system. In addition, the results show that parents, through these adjustments, experience an increased understanding of support discourse and strengthened confidence. This, in turn, leads to parents´ experience of greater freedom of action in stress-related situations and therefor an increased inclination to seek and receive support. / El estudio examina las experiencias de apoyo social percibido por los padres multilingües en relacion al cuidado de un niño con problemas de comunicación. Las preguntas de investigación también se ocupan de la importancia del apoyo social percibido para el establecimiento del contacto entre padres e hijos. El método utilizado es una metodología mixta secuencial (encuesta y grupos de enfoque) basado en una estrategia transformadora. El enfoque teórico científico del estudio se basa en la teoría de la exclusión social discursiva de Benno Herzog y el análisis parte de los conceptos de apoyo social percibido que Barrera y Heller & Swindle describen. Los participantes formaron parte de los cursos para padres TAKK på Modersmålet y FAMN, que enfatizaron el uso de la CAA (comunicación aumentativa y alternativa) junto con la lengua materna, los cuales fueron organizados por el proyecto TAKK för Språket (AAC para el multilingüismo) en Gotemburgo, Suecia. Los resultados muestran que los padres de familia en el estudio perciben apoyo social a partir de que el contenido de los cursos para padres ofrecieron: apoyo en el idioma materno, discusiones sobre el uso de la AAC junto con la lengua materna, información acerca de diferentes discapacidades e información sobre el sistema de apoyo social en Suecia. Además, los resultados muestran que los padres, a través de estos ajustes, experimentan una mayor comprensión del discurso de apoyo a la comunicación lo cual refuerza su autoconfianza. Esto, a su vez, ayudo a los padres a experimentar una mayor libertad de acción ante situaciones estresantes, lo cual aumento la propensión de los padres a buscar y aceptar apoyo.