Current research identifies gender, age, and ethnic patterns for the healthy immigrant effect related to mental health, but little research explores what determines immigrants’ mental health and how mental health deterioration occurs. This dissertation investigates the ‘what’ and the ‘how’ questions by applying the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) Perspective and the Stress Process Model. To answer the ‘what’ question, this dissertation draws on the SDOH framework to examine potential social determinants—in the form of structural conditions, behavioral risks and psychosocial demands—affecting long-term immigrants’ lower mental health status. To approach the ‘how’ question, it employs the Stress Process Model to investigate the differential exposure to behavioral risks and psychosocial demands between recent and long-term immigrants. The analysis of the data from the Canadian Community Health Survey-Mental Health 2012 and the General Social Survey-Social Identity 2013 indicates that structural conditions, behavioral risks, and psychosocial demands co-influence immigrants' mental health to some extent. Behavioral risks have independent contributions to mental health, but the contributions are small. Psychosocial resources and demands, however, have the greatest impact on mental health. An examination of the relationships between length of migration and psychosocial resources indicates that, compared to recent immigrants, long-term immigrants are in the state of 'high support and high strain,’ and the differences in these psychosocial resources and demands translate into mental health differences (the so-called healthy immigrant effect) between long-term and recent immigrants. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The phenomenal feminisation of the South African labour force since the first democratic elections in 1994 is a result of the new democratic government’s efforts to transform South African society into a just, non-discriminatory and non-sexist society. This has, however, heightened several serious psychosocial problems facing working women, especially single working mothers, as they struggle to balance work and home responsibilities. The study was undertaken, firstly, to develop a valid and reliable measuring instrument to survey the problems and pressures experienced by single mothers in management and professional occupations in South Africa and, secondly, to obtain data on single working mothers’ perceptions about the resources they believe would assist them to mitigate the negative effects of the work-home conflict. To achieve these objectives, an exploratory, sequential, mixed method design was employed within a feminist perspective: First, based on the information obtained from theoretical and empirical data about the problems and perceived support of working mothers, semistructured interviews were held with 17 women in management and professional occupations (ten women in dual-career families and seven single working mothers). Then, on the basis of the interviews, a questionnaire was developed that was piloted among 30 experts and developed according to Lawshe’s principles. This questionnaire was called the Work-Family Pressure and Support Questionnaire (W-FPSQ). It was used in conjunction with the Overall Stress Index (OSI) and the Coping Behaviour Index (CBI) to determine the relationship and effect of supportive resources and coping behaviour on the work-family pressure and stress experienced by a purposive convenience sample of 104 single and 101 dual-career mothers (n=205). For the purposes of this study, descriptive, comparative, associational and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data, using SPSS for Windows, Release 17. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA), with varimax rotation, was employed to explore the internal structure and validity of the W-FPSQ, the OSI, and the CBI. The reliability of the questionnaires was determined by calculating Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for each scale of the measures. The results indicated that the three questionnaires were sufficiently reliable and valid to capture the present sample of working mothers’ experience of work-family pressures and stress and to discover the resources they perceived as supporting them in coping with work and family demands. The comparison of the 104 single working mothers with the 101 married working mothers showed that the single mothers’ mean rank scores were significantly lower than those of their married counterparts on the five support scales and on the coping behaviour scale, and significantly higher on the workfamily pressure and stress scales. The computed logistic regression model indicated that management support, organisational flexibility, time for family interaction, work-family pressure and stress were a set of variables that distinguished reliably between the single and married mothers in the sample. The study has clearly confirmed Gill and Davidson’s (2001:397) proposition that single working mothers are a ‘distinct group facing unique problems and pressures, and deserve to be recognized as such’. The problems they face as captured in this study demand a multi-pronged approach requiring organisations to provide management support, opportunities for personal growth and career development, work flexibility, time for family interaction and childcare facilities. These resources and a work-family-friendly environment will improve their work attitudes, job performance and well-being. Considering the proportion of single mothers in the society and the impact of their status on their children’s development, the issue of single working mothers and their needs deserves urgent attention. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Human Resource Management / unrestricted

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2002. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

The diploma thesis focuses on the possibilities of predicting employees' psychological capital in times of Covid-19. The theoretical part describes psychological capital (its structure, importance in the context of work environment and methods of its measurement and development). It also deals with mental health in the workplace and with selected factors of mental health (team social support, engagement, stress, qualitative and quantitative job insecurity). The empirical part of the thesis aims to verify whether selected factors of mental health can be evaluated as significant predictors of psychological capital. The research sample includes 127 employees of the business organization. The following methods were used to measure the analyzed variables: Psychological Capital Questionnaire - 12 (PCQ-12), The Team Performance Inventory (TPI - only the items "Trust, safety and support" of subscale "Participation"), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), Perceived Stress Scale - 10 (PSS- 10), Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (QUAL-JIS) and Job Insecurity Scale (JIS). The results of multiple linear regression analysis show that in our study subjectively perceived level of stress (ß = -.4078, 95% CI = [-.6006, -.215], p < .001) is the strongest predictor of psychological capital. The analysis further shows...