Abstract Teachers in the City of Kaohsiung affected by this transformation were surveyed with the goal of achieving the following objectives: (1) To identify the general reactions of teachers to the change. (2) To explore the added role pressure experienced by the teachers as a result of the transformation and the related burnout issues. Furthermore, to understand which types of role pressure and burnouts are considered to be the most severe. (3) To understand the relationship between the role pressure and the sense of burnout experienced by the teachers. (4) To investigate the intervening effect role pressure plays between burnout and the organizational transformation. (5) To explore the effects that societal support has on the level of burnout experienced by the teachers. The survey used in this research targets teachers who have been affected by the change in status of vocational high schools into general purpose college-preparatory high schools in the city of Kaohsiung. A total of 490 surveys were delivered, with 416 of them returned from the recipients. The response rate is 84.9%. The survey responses were analyzed by the SPSS10.0 statistical software package for mean, standard deviation,one-way ANOVA,T ¡VTest cronbach £\, reliability analysis, factor analysis, pearson of correlation, regression analysis: Assumptions: (1) The high school teachers possess an above average understanding of the organizational transformation process. (2)The high school teachers experience larger than average level of role pressure and burnout as a result of the transformation. (3)That there is a positive correlation between role pressure and burnout (4) That role pressure plays an intervening role between the transformation and burnout. (5) That social support has an influence on role pressure and burnout.

In the development of knowledge economy, knowledge is recognized as the most important resource for enhancing or sustaining competition advantage. It is also a key factor for maintaining the long-term success of organizations. The beginning and an important stage of knowledge management is knowledge sharing which is the key to organization creation, learning, performance, and the prediction of successful knowledge management. It will increase the accumulation of organizational knowledge and advance the organizational ability. Knowledge management is traditionally dominated by the viewpoint of information technology. Researchers have emphasized the importance of information technology infrastructure and application in knowledge delivery. However, while explicit knowledge sharing is depended on the utilization of information technology, studies also indicated that tacit knowledge sharing is mainly depended on informal interaction between co-workers¡¦ emotional and the degree of trust. Drawing on the perspective of social exchange theory, this research considers knowledge sharing as a social activity which is an exchange relationship between knowledge contributors and knowledge recipients¡]refer to team-member exchange, TMX¡^. In addition, the interaction between knowledge contributors and knowledge recipients is affected by the relationship between organization-member exchange¡]OMX¡^and leader-member exchange¡]LMX¡^. Therefore, this article investigates the factors which affect the willingness of knowledge sharing by considering the interaction and exchange relationship among individuals and organizations, managers, and other members in organizations. The individual and organization exchange relationship includes the challenging job characteristic and incentive system which provide by the organizations to motivate employees¡¦ knowledge sharing. Moreover, the inter-personal social exchange includes the interaction between co-workers and the interaction between individuals and managers. Employees would share their knowledge if they perceived the benefit of the interaction (either intrinsic or extrinsic) exceeded the cost (losing the power of holding the critical knowledge) of sharing the knowledge. This research investigated how organizational factors (including job characteristics and incentive system), inter-personal factors (including trust and social support between co-workers and leader-member interaction), and team commitment effect the willingness of knowledge sharing. Further, the article also took the team commitment as the mediator and the account of the knowledge characteristics (both importance and taciturnity) into consideration as the moderators. The hypotheses were tested using a sample of R&D team members who work at Hsinchu Science Park or Southern Taiwan Science Park. The twenty-eight technology firms were selected using convenience sampling. Out of the 1,220 questionnaires had been sent, the 650 of them were completed. The data were tested using one way ANOVA, correlation, and hierarchical multiple regression. The results indicated that organizational factors, inter-personal factors, and team commitment have positively related to the willingness of knowledge sharing. The team commitment fully mediated the relationship between willingness of knowledge sharing and incentive system, and leader-member interaction. The team commitment partially mediated the relationship between willingness of knowledge sharing and job characteristics, and co-worker interaction. In addition, the article also found that job characteristics, co-worker interaction, leader-member interaction, and team commitment were more strongly, positively related to the willingness of knowledge sharing when knowledge importance and taciturnity were being driven.

Abstract The advent of knowledge economy era signifies the importance of knowledge, and knowledge management is drawing great attention. The success of knowledge management depends on the willingness of employees to share knowledge. This research studies whether organization support and social support will affect employee's commitment to organization, and whether more commitment will make employees more willing to share knowledge for the benefit of the organization. Furthermore, this research will verify the mediating effect of organizational commitment on the interaction among organization support, social support and knowledge sharing willingness. This research uses questionnaires for experiment and verification, total 550 questionnaires are sent to traditional manufacturer and communication service companies located in Southern Taiwan, which are randomly selected from the top 1000 manufacturers and the top 500 companies according Business Week 2006, and 486 questionnaires returned. The effective questionnaires return rate is 88.4%. The results of this research is following: (1) The profession support and mission support had positively effect to the organization commitment, and the first had more effect than the second. (2) In the society support, the emotional support and the tool support had positively effect to the organization commitment, and the first had more effect than the second. Also the supervisor's support had more effect than the family and friend's support. (3) In the organization commitment, emotion had positively effect to the knowledge sharing willingness, but the persistent promise did not. (4)The supervisor and senior employee had more organization commitment and knowledge sharing willingness than other employees.

The main purpose of this study is to investigate if bloggers¡¦ attachment style would affect their self-disclosure. In addition, the study also examines if bloggers¡¦ social support would affect blogger¡¦s self-efficacy to self-disclose, if self-disclosure would affect Internet interpersonal satisfaction. The results show that social support has positive effect on blogger¡¦s self-efficacy to self-disclosure, and blogger¡¦s self-efficacy to self-disclose has positive effect on self-disclosure and Internet interpersonal satisfaction. The results also show that bloggers of the secure attachment style have higher score than avoidant and anxious attachment styles on self-efficacy, self-disclosure, and Internet interpersonal satisfaction.

Recent evidence suggests that victims of dating violence consume alcohol at greater rates than their non-victimized peers, placing them at risk for the negative consequences produced by alcohol use. Thus, research is needed that examines factors that protect victims from consuming alcohol. Toward this end, the present study sought to examine if perceived and enacted support served as stress-buffering variables of the relationship between dating violence victimization and alcohol problems among a sample of currently dating college students. Partial support was found for the stress-buffering effect of perceived support, but findings did not support enacted support as a traditional stress-buffering variable. Implications of these findings for dating violence prevention programming are discussed.

While up to 45% of women quit smoking during pregnancy, nearly 80% return to smoking within a year after delivery. Current interventions to prevent this return have had limited success. The aim of this study was to use the Theory of Planned Behavior to understand the factors influencing intention to resume smoking postpartum, specifically focusing on the role of subjective norms, or the social environment. During the postpartum hospital stay, we conducted in-depth, individual interviews with 24 women who had quit smoking during pregnancy. Over 300 pages of transcripts were analyzed by all four investigators using qualitative methods to identify common themes facilitated by Atlas.ti software. Respondents were predominately white (63%) and primipara (54%) with a mean age of 26. When reflecting on their experiences of being a smoker, the women emphasized the importance of their social relationships. Common themes were: 1) virtually all were embedded in large, complex social networks of smokers (partners, family, friends, co-workers) that influenced their smoking behavior, 2) the subjective norm (the perceived social pressure) for many women was that, while smoking during pregnancy is unacceptable, smoking after pregnancy is tolerable, and 3) partners were particularly influential on these womens smoking behaviors. In conclusion, we found that social environment played a large role in these women's past smoking behavior and future intentions. Thus, this factor may continue to influence their behavior after pregnancy. Further research is needed to establish the generalizability of these findings; however, our study suggests that the influence of the social environment should be integrated into postpartum smoking interventions.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Bakgrund: I hemsjukvården ges den patientnära omsorgen vanligen av en anhörigvårdare och utan dem skulle befolkningens omsorgsbehov inte kunna tillgodoses. Anhörigvårdare upplever sig behöva kontinuerligt stöd från sjukvården. Det sociala stödet är en viktig del av vad som upprätthåller individen men det är omtvistat huruvida socialt stöd ska komma från hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal. Syftet var att genom en begreppsanalys förtydliga begreppet socialt stöd med inriktning mot användning och betydelse för anhörigvårdare. Metod: Begreppsanalysen följer Rodgers Evolutionary Concept Analysis. Artikelsökning genomfördes i 20 databaser. Det slutliga urvalet bestod av 38 artiklar ur vilka synonyma/relaterade termer, antecedenter, kännetecken, konsekvenser och exempel av socialt stöd identifierades. Resultat: Resultatet visar att större delen av det sociala stödet kommer från resurser utanför hälso- och sjukvården men samtidigt att vissa stödinsatser var verkningslösa om de inte kom från utbildad personal. Resultatet diskuterades utifrån Husted och Husteds omvårdnadsteori The Symphonological Bioethical Theory och den vidare analysfasen. Konklusion och implikation: Socialt stöd finns och erbjuds anhörigvårdare men behöver anpassas utifrån anhörigvårdarens situation för att få avsedd verkan. Resultatet kan hjälpa distriktssköterskor att konkret stödja anhörigvårdare och därigenom minska risken för ohälsa kopplad till att vara anhörigvårdare. Vidare studier behövs för att ta ett bredare grepp på ämnet och utreda hur anpassningen kan ske så att anhörigvårdarna både kan erbjudas och ta emot det sociala stödet. / Background: Within home nursing most of the care is carried out by a family caregiver and without them the needs of the citizens would not be met. Caregivers feel they need continuous support from health care professionals. Social support is an important part of what sustains the individual but it is disputed whether the social support should come from health professionals. The aim was to, through a conceptual analysis, clarify the concept of social support with focus on the use and importance of caregivers. Method: The study follows Rodgers’ evolutionary method of concept analysis. Searches were made in 20 databases and the final sample consisted of 38 articles from which surrogate/related terms, antecedents, attributes, consequences and examples from social support were identified. Results: The results shows that the greater part of social support comes from outside the health care but that at the same time, some support measures were ineffective if they did not come from trained personnel. The results are discussed based on Husted and Husteds’ Symphonological Bioethical Theory and the further analysis phase. Conclusion and implication: Social support to caregivers needs to be tailored to the caregivers’ needs in order to have the intended effect. This result can help district nurses to understand how to support caregivers and thereby lessen their risk of health detoriation. Further research is needed to take a broader perspective on the subject and examine how social support can best be adapted so that carers can both be offered and receive social support.

Abstract Sickle cell disease is the most common genetic disorder in the United States. Approximately 90% of the hospitalizations in this patient population occur due to the most common complication, pain crises. Prevention of these crises is therefore essential and requires the patient to assume an active role in his or her disease management. Studies suggest that further research is needed to examine the self-care management process and to identify factors influencing self-care behaviors. The relationships among these factors must be clearly defined before interventions to improve self-care management can be determined. The aims of the study were threefold. The first aim was to evaluate the relationships among psychosocial variables (SCD self-efficacy and social support) and socio-demographic variables (age, gender, education, employment status, income, and living situation) in understanding individual differences in self-care management variables (perceived self-care ability and self-care actions). It was hypothesized that higher SCD self-efficacy, greater social support, being employed, living with family or friends, increased age, more years of education, higher income, and being male are each associated with having higher perceived self-care ability and more frequent self-care actions. The second aim was to evaluate the relationships among psychosocial variables (SCD self-efficacy and social support), socio-demographic variables (age, gender, education, employment status, income, and living situation), and self-care management variables (perceived self-care ability and self-care actions) in understanding hospital visits for crises. It was hypothesized that higher perceived self-care ability and more frequent self-care actions are associated with fewer hospital visits for crises. The third aim was to evaluate the mediational role of perceived self-care ability and self-care actions in the relationships among psychosocial variables (SCD self-efficacy and social support), socio-demographic variables (age, gender, education, employment status, income, and living situation), and the number of hospital visits for crises. It was hypothesized that SCD self-efficacy, social support, and the socio-demographic variables have both a direct and an indirect relationship with the number of hospital visits for crises. In 103 young Black adults (ages 18-30) with sickle cell disease (SCD), an exploratory , correlational study was conducted, via secondary analysis of data, to examine the relationships among SCD self-efficacy, social support, socio-demographic variables, self-care management (self-care ability and self-care actions), and the number of hospital visits for crises. Bivariate correlations and regression analyses were conducted to evaluate the relationships among the variables and to examine the mediational role of self-care management. Sickle cell disease self-efficacy, social support, years of education, and income were significantly related to perceived self-care ability and self-care actions. Social support accounted for the majority of the variance in each self-care management variable. The hypothesis that higher SCD self-efficacy and greater social support are associated with higher perceived self-care ability and more frequent self-care actions was supported. Education was also associated with higher perceived self-care ability and self-care actions as hypothesized. The overall model with SCD self-efficacy, social support, years of education, income, perceived self-care ability, and self-care actions was not significant in predicting the number of hospital visits for crises. There were no significant associations noted among age, annual household income, living situation, employment status, and the self-care management variables. The hypothesis that higher perceived self-care ability and more frequent self-care actions are associated with fewer hospital visits for crises was not supported. Further, there was no adequate evidence to support a direct relationship between SCD self-efficacy, social support, years of education, and the number of hospital visits for crises. The indirect relationship, through self-care management, among the variables was also non-significant. There was however a significant direct relationship noted between income and the number of hospital visits for crises. The outcomes of the study may be important for clinical care, patient education, and health outcomes in the SCD population. Findings may be used to conduct larger confirmatory studies and to develop interventions that may be used to supplement therapy in the clinical setting and to enhance patient self-care management at home. Additional studies are needed, however, to clarify what additional variables may affect the number of hospital visits for crises and to identify specific pain prevention and management strategies used by SCD patients.

Canterbury, New Zealand, was struck by two major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Using a dyadic and developmental perspective, the current thesis first aimed to determine how the experience of earthquake-related stressors (including loss of material resources, trauma exposure, and ongoing earthquake-related stressors) and stress (posttraumatic stress symptoms) impacted individuals’ intimate relationship quality (Part 1). Data were collected from a sample of 99 couples at four time points over a period of approximately 15 months, with Time 1 completed 14 months after the 2010 earthquake (eight months post the 2011 earthquake). Data were analysed using moderated growth curve modelling in an Actor-Partner Interdependence Model framework. In line with expectations, posttraumatic stress symptoms were the strongest predictors of relationship quality. More specifically, individuals’ (actor) posttraumatic stress symptoms and their partner’s posttraumatic stress symptoms had an adverse effect on their relationship quality at Time 1. Demonstrating the importance of taking a developmental perspective, the effect of partner posttraumatic stress symptoms changed over time. Although higher partner posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with worse relationship quality in individuals (actors) at Time 1, this was no longer the case at Time 4. Differences were also found between men and women’s actor posttraumatic stress symptom slopes across time. Using the same data and analyses, Part 2 built on these findings by investigating the role of a possible posttrauma resource available within the relationship – support exchanges. Overall, results showed that individuals were protected from any adverse effects that posttraumatic stress symptoms had on relationship quality if they had more frequent support exchanges in the relationship, however, differences between men and women and slopes across time were found. Although not the case initially, individuals’ relationship quality was worse in the longer-term if their partner reported receiving lower support from them when they were experiencing high posttraumatic stress symptoms. Results also suggested that although women coped better (as evidenced through slightly better relationship quality) with higher symptoms and lower support than men initially, these efforts diminished over time. Furthermore, men appeared to be less able to cope (i.e., had worse relationship quality) with their partner’s stress when they were not receiving frequent support. Contrary to expectations, negative exchanges in the relationship did not exacerbate any adverse effects that posttraumatic stress symptoms (experienced by either individuals or their partner) had on an individuals’ relationship quality. The theoretical and practical implications and applications of these findings are discussed.