This dissertation consists of three essays examining the determinants of child developmental outcomes using the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY). The first essay estimates the relationship between birth weight and cognitive and behavioral outcomes for children aged 0 to 13. Using family fixed effects models to control for household heterogeneity, I find that every ounce counts; additional birth weight for infants born weighing less than 2,500 grams (low birth weight infants) is related to better outcomes for measures of math ability, pro-social behavior and property offense. Additional birth weight for those born weighing 2,500 grams or more is related to higher scores of motor and social development and verbal competence for young children. The second essay, using a sample of Canadian boys and girls aged 10 to 15 in dual-earner families, finds that parental work schedules play an important role in adolescents’ engagement in risky behaviour, especially for boys. Non-standard parental work schedules (i.e. work during evenings, nights, weekends and rotating shifts) are positively related to fighting, drinking and trying drugs among boys and fighting among girls. In the third essay, I investigate relationships between symptoms of hyperactivity-inattention and being read to for a sample of children aged 2 to 4. The main finding, based on family fixed effects estimates, is that children who have higher hyperactivity-inattention are read to less. However, results from interactions suggest that this relationship is only present when the person most knowledgeable of the child (usually the biological mother) has less than a post-secondary degree or diploma.

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<p>This study is aimed at empirically examining health seeking behaviours in terms of illness response on household level at South Africa using 2007 General Household Survey and other<br /> relevant secondary sources. It provides an assessment of health seeking behaviours at the household level using individuals as unit of analysis by exploring the type of health care provider sought, the reason for delay in health seeking and the cause for not consulting. This study also assesses the extent of dissatisfaction among households using medical centres and this factor in health care utilisation is considered as the main reason for not consulting health care services. All the demographic and health seeking variables utilised in this study are controlled for medical aid cover because it is a critical variable in health care seeking. Therefore this study makes distinction on illness reporting and they type of health care consulted by medical aid holders and non medical aid holders. Statistical analyses are conducted to explore and predict the way in which demographic variables and socio economic variables affect health care seeking behaviours.</p>

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

While the literature surrounding the negative effects of stress on health and well-being is plentiful, there is a distinct lack of research applying stress frameworks to an organisational safety context. This study investigated the impact of stressors and strains on safety in the workplace, using the Job Demand-Control model as a research framework. In order to maintain a proactive approach to safety management, safety climate, safety compliance and safety participation were used as study variables as they have been established as antecedents to accidents and injuries in the workplace. From questionnaire data from employees with regular safety issues it was found that a positive relationship exists between safety climate and safety behaviours. Satisfaction was found to mediate the relationship between safety climate and one dimension of the safety compliance measure used. Providing support for the buffer hypothesis of the Job Demand-Control model, safety control moderated the relationship between safety climate and safety participation. Control over work scheduling, and decision latitude moderated the relationship between safety climate and safety participation but were indicative of an enhancing effect, rather than a buffering effect. The results suggest that control is an important variable to consider in terms of safety.

Introduction: Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) accounts for the vast majority of all paediatric TBI cases. It is an important public health concern, yet the long-term psychiatric and behavioural outcomes remain imperfectly understood. Aim. This study aims to examine the association between paediatric mTBI and psychiatric and offending outcomes in adulthood, while considering the impact of sex, age at injury and duration since injury on outcome. Participants: Participants with mTBI (n=57) were compared to those with moderate/severe TBI (n=62) and to orthopaedic injury controls (n=42). All participants were injured at age 17 or younger and were 18 years or older at the time of assessment. Outcome measures: Based on the DSM-IV-TR criteria, structured interviews were used to assess participants’ experience of symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders (including generalised anxiety disorder, panic attacks and panic disorder, agoraphobia, social phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and specific phobia), and substance abuse and/or dependence. Participants’ were asked to report on their lifetime involvement with offending, arrests, and diversions and/or convictions. Results: At age 18-31, participants with a paediatric mTBI were significantly more likely than orthopaedic injury controls to endorse symptoms consistent with major depressive disorder by 3.17 times, anxiety disorders by 5.81 times, and internalising disorders in general by 5.80 times and the risk in the mTBI group was greater than that for those with moderate/severe TBI. Females with mTBI were significantly more likely than males, by five times, to endorse an internalising disorder. Paediatric mTBI was not significantly associated with externalising problems when compared with controls; however, males with mTBI were 6.57 times more likely to endorse externalising behaviours than females. Conclusions: Paediatric mTBI is a risk factor for internalising disorders in adulthood, particularly for females. Such findings have implications for assessment and treatment of problems associated with paediatric mTBI.

Climate change is a serious global issue that poses one of the greatest challenges facing human kind (Kazdin, 2009; Stern, 2011; Swim et al., 2011). Given that organizations are often cited as the largest contributors to climate change (Trudeau and Canada West Foundation, 2007), research needs to investigate how organizations can positively affect climate change. Accordingly, the purpose of this dissertation is to investigate how organizations can positively affect climate change through workplace pro-environmental behaviors. To this end, three studies were conducted. The first study investigated the influence of leaders’ environmentally-specific transformational leadership and their own workplace pro-environmental behaviors on employees’ workplace pro-environmental behaviors. The second study examined if environmentally-specific and general transformational leadership are empirically distinct but related, whether environmentally-specific transformational leadership evokes higher levels of workplace pro-environmental behaviors than general transformational leadership, and if so, examined through mediation why this is the case. The third and final study conceptualizes and defines workplace pro-environmental behaviors as a form of organizational citizenship behaviors that are targeted at benefiting the natural environment (OCBE), and subsequently, developed and refined a measure of OCBE and assessed the measure’s psychometric validity. This dissertation concludes with a general discussion and highlights areas for future research. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2014-02-12 16:26:52.658

This study utilized longitudinal correlational and regression analyses to examine children’s internalizing behaviour problems, while focusing on the predictive function of peer victimization, the quality of the teacher-child relationship and child gender in early school years. Given the relationship between peer victimization and internalizing problems, the teacher-child relationship and gender was hypothesized to influence the strength and/or direction of this relationship. Participants included children in pre-kindergarten (n = 258) to grade one (n = 272) from twelve schools in an Australian city. Parent reports were used to assess child internalizing problems and peer victimization, and teachers reported on the teacher-child relationship and peer victimization. A significant main effect was found for child gender and kindergarten teacher-child conflict on internalizing behaviours in grade one, whereas no main effect was found for grade one internalizing behaviours for parent-rated peer victimization and teacher-child warmth. The quality of the teacher-child relationship was not found to moderate the relationship between peer victimization and internalizing problems, while child gender did moderate the influence of teacher-child relationship conflict on internalizing problems a year later. The results of the present study indicated that the relationship between teacher-child conflict and internalizing problems a year later differs for boys and girls. The importance of specific microsystems (i.e., teacher-child relationships) over time on children’s behavioural development is discussed, and implications for future research and teacher-child interventions are presented. / Graduate / 0518 / 0525 / 0530 / zerffm@gmail.com

In the 21st century, the mobility of world population has posed greater challenges to healthcare practitioners, since they are facing an increasingly diverse patient population from all over the world. At the same time, patients also find it difficult to access and utilize quality health care services in a culturally diverse context. This study examines the role of culture in Chinese international students’ health-seeking behaviours in Canada. The study explores any barriers/perceived barriers that Chinese international students may confront when accessing health care which can prevent them from obtaining quality health care services in Canada. To this end, an intercultural health communication model was employed as a theoretical framework, and semi-structured interviews were used as a data collection tool. While contributing to existing literature on health communication and culture, this study also hopes to contribute to providing Canadian universities and institutions important information regarding Chinese international students’ access to and utilization of health care services with the hope of enhancing the quality of ethnic health care and promoting better health outcomes.