Work motivation has most often been defined operationally as job satisfaction, but this dimension has shown to be unrelated to job performance. Therefore, a new measure of work motivation defined as willingness to work was developed. Two main questions were investigated in this thesis. Three work groups were included in the studies. The first purpose was to explore willingness to work and related variables for two groups, people employed in pre-schools (Study1) and employees of an insurance company (Study 2). The variance in willingness to work was explained to 59% for the pre-school employees, and to 69% for the employees in an insurance company. Work interest, affective organizational commitment, perceived competence and risk burden were predictors of willingness to work in both of the groups. Other factors related to willingness to work in this study were, for the employees in pre-schools, positive evaluation of the job, normative organizational commitment, general intrinsic motivation and accepted risks. Additional factors that contributed to the explanation of the variance in willingness to work for the employees in an insurance company were job satisfaction, spontaneous creativity, work environment and opinions about one’s job. A second purpose was to investigate the construct validity of willingness to work dimension by examining its relationships with absenteeism, number of hours worked, intention to quit, and job performance. In Study 1 and Study 2, the relationship between absenteeism, number of hours worked, intention to quit and willingness to work was examined. The result showed that willingness to work was strongly related to intention to quit and number of hours worked in both of the studies. The relationship between willingness to work and job performance (subjective and objective) was also investigated. Participants in this study were insurance sales people. The correlation of willingness to work and objective as well as subjective job performance was quite high (r=.41 and .57, respectively). According to the results, the work motivation measure could be considered as being a quite valid assessment of work motivation. / Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk., 2001

Syftet var att beskriva hur sjuksköterskan kan stödja föräldrar och syskon till barn som vårdas på sjukhus. De ingående artiklarnas kvalitet redovisades utifrån de metodologiska aspekterna urval och bortfall. En beskrivande litteraturstudie genomfördes där författarna granskade tolv vetenskapliga artiklar som var relevanta, dessa söktes i databaserna PubMed och Cinahl. Resultatet visade att sjuksköterskan genom att leverera korrekt, individanpassat stöd kunde främja hela familjens hälsa. God kommunikation och tydlig information från sjuksköterskan bidrog till ökad trygghet hos föräldrarna. När sjuksköterskan visade tålamod, var lättillgänglig, gav tid för samtal, lyssnade och var ärlig kände föräldrarna förtroende vilket var grunden för att en god relation skulle utvecklas. Sjuksköterskan kunde också stödja föräldrarna genom att låta dem vara delaktiga i omvårdnaden av sitt sjuka barn samt stötta dem i detta både praktiskt och emotionellt. Syskonen blev även de tryggare när de involverades i omvårdnaden och fick tydlig information angående sitt sjuka syskons prognos. Ökad kunskap minskade syskonens oro och ängslan och hjälpte dem att bättre hantera situationen. Kvalitén i studiens ingående artiklar avseende urval och bortfall varierade men bedömdes överlag vara hög. Slutsatsen är att sjuksköterskans genom tydlig information och kommunikation kan stödja föräldrar och syskon att hantera situationen samt hjälpa dem att bli ett bättre stöd för det sjuka barnet. / The aim of this study was to describe how the nurse may support the parents and the siblings of a hospitalized child. The quality of the articles was reported by the methodological aspects of selection and non-response. A descriptive literature study was conducted. Twelve scientific articles were found in the databases PubMed and Cinahl. The result showed that the nurse, by deliver a proper, individually adapted support might promote the health of the entire family. Proper communication and a distinct information from the nurse contributed to an increased perceived security. When the nurse demonstrated patience, was available, spent time for dialogue, listened and was honest, the parents felt trust which formed the foundation for the development of a good relationship. The nurse could also support the parents by letting them participate in the nursing care of their sick child and encourage them both practically and emotionally. The siblings also felt more confident when they were involved in the care and got distinct information about the prognosis of their sibling. The quality of selection and non-response in the examined studies had variation but were over all considered high. The conclusion is that the nurses, through clear information and communication, can support and help parents and siblings to cope with the situation and help them to become a better support for the sick child.

This thesis contributes to the fields of Public Economics and Development Economics by studying human capital formation under three scenarios. Each scenario is represented in an individual paper between Chapters 2 to 4 of this thesis. Chapter 2 examines the effect of child care financing, through human capital formation, on growth and welfare. There is an extensive literature on the benefits of child care affordability on labour market participation. The overall inference that can be drawn is that the availability and affordability of appropriate child care may enhance parental time spent outside the home in furthering their economic opportunities. In another front, the endogenous growth literature exemplifies the merits of subsidizing human capital in generating growth. Again, other contributions demonstrate the negative implications of taxes on the returns from human capital on long run growth and welfare. This paper assesses the long run welfare implications of child care subsidies financed by proportional income taxes when human capital serves as the engine of growth. More specifically, using an overlapping-generations framework (OLG) with endogenous labour choice, we study the implications of a distortionary wage income tax on growth and welfare. When the revenues from proportional income taxes are channelled towards improving economic opportunities for both work and schooling investments in the form of child care subsidies, long run physical and human capital stock may increase. A higher level of growth may ensue leading to higher welfare. Chapter 3 answers the question of how child care subsidization works in the interest of skill formation, and specifically, whether child care subsidization policies can work to the effect of human capital subsidies. Ample studies have highlighted the significance of early childhood learning through child care in determining the child’s longer-term outcomes. The general conclusion has been that the quality of life for a child, higher earnings during later life, as well as the contributions the child makes to society as an adult can be traced back to exposures during the first few years of life. Early childhood education obtained through child care has been found to play a pivotal role in the human capital base amongst children that can benefit them in the long run. Based on this premise, the paper develops a simple Overlapping Generations Model (OLG) to find out the implications of early learning on future investments in human capital. It is shown that higher costs of child care will reduce skill investments of parents. Also, for some positive child care cost, higher human capital obtained through early childhood education can induce further skill investments amongst individuals with a higher willingness to substitute consumption intertemporally. Finally, intervention that can internalize the intra-generational human capital externalities arising from parental time spent outside the home - for which care/early learning is required to be purchased for the child - can unambiguously lead to higher skill investments by all individuals. Chapter 3 therefore proposes policy intervention, such as child care subsidization, as the effect of such will be akin to a human capital subsidy. The objective of Chapter 4 is to understand the implications of inter-regional mobility on higher educational investments of individuals and to study in detail the impact of mobility on government spending for education under two particular scenarios – one in which human capital externalities are non-localized and spill over to other regions (e.g. in the form of R&D), and another in which the externalities are localized and remain within the region. It is shown that mobility enhances private investments in education, and all else equal, welfare should be higher with increased migration. The impacts on government educational expenditures are studied and some policy implications are drawn. In general, with non-localized externalities, all public expenditures decline under full-migration. Finally under localized externalities, the paper finds that governments will increase their financing of education to increasingly mobile individuals only when agglomeration benefits outweigh congestion costs from increases in regional population.

In Canada and internationally, policy makers are moving towards more comprehensive and integrated service delivery models for early learning that include parent involvement and support as integral to their design. The current study was part of an ongoing evaluation of the Best Start project in Peel Region, a municipality in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Best Start aims to integrate preschool, junior/senior kindergarten, child care, public health and parenting programs into a seamless, easily accessible early child development system. This study examined whether parents with kindergarten children enrolled in Best Start schools, where kindergarten and child care were co-located and service integration was underway, would report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to parents of children in demographically similar schools where there was no service integration. Parental perceptions about hassles specific to child care and early learning settings were measured using the Early Childhood-Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (EC-PDH) (Arimura, 2008). Three areas of parenting stress that could potentially be reduced through service integration were explored: (1) seamless day – seamless access to care, education and family support; (2) connectedness – parents feeling involved and connected to their child’s school; and (3) parenting capacity – parents feeling confident in their parenting role. The study also combined hassles scores from Best Start and comparison schools to examine all parents’ involvement in the early learning and care system and the hassles they may or may not face on a daily basis as a function of parent demographics and program usage. Parents from 369 families in 10 schools were included in this study. Although Best Start parents did not report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to comparison parents, qualitative analyses at Best Start sites where parents used child care suggested that parents were feeling supported and they were forging positive relationships with staff. The positive relationships reported among parents and ECEs or other staff were not as frequent between parents and kindergarten teachers. Combined data indicated that all parents seemed to be experiencing the greatest hassles in the parenting capacity domain. Results are discussed in terms of policy implications for parent involvement in integrated full-day early learning programs such as full-day kindergarten.

In Canada and internationally, policy makers are moving towards more comprehensive and integrated service delivery models for early learning that include parent involvement and support as integral to their design. The current study was part of an ongoing evaluation of the Best Start project in Peel Region, a municipality in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA). Best Start aims to integrate preschool, junior/senior kindergarten, child care, public health and parenting programs into a seamless, easily accessible early child development system. This study examined whether parents with kindergarten children enrolled in Best Start schools, where kindergarten and child care were co-located and service integration was underway, would report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to parents of children in demographically similar schools where there was no service integration. Parental perceptions about hassles specific to child care and early learning settings were measured using the Early Childhood-Parenting Daily Hassles Scale (EC-PDH) (Arimura, 2008). Three areas of parenting stress that could potentially be reduced through service integration were explored: (1) seamless day – seamless access to care, education and family support; (2) connectedness – parents feeling involved and connected to their child’s school; and (3) parenting capacity – parents feeling confident in their parenting role. The study also combined hassles scores from Best Start and comparison schools to examine all parents’ involvement in the early learning and care system and the hassles they may or may not face on a daily basis as a function of parent demographics and program usage. Parents from 369 families in 10 schools were included in this study. Although Best Start parents did not report lower levels of parenting daily hassles compared to comparison parents, qualitative analyses at Best Start sites where parents used child care suggested that parents were feeling supported and they were forging positive relationships with staff. The positive relationships reported among parents and ECEs or other staff were not as frequent between parents and kindergarten teachers. Combined data indicated that all parents seemed to be experiencing the greatest hassles in the parenting capacity domain. Results are discussed in terms of policy implications for parent involvement in integrated full-day early learning programs such as full-day kindergarten.

This thesis contributes to the fields of Public Economics and Development Economics by studying human capital formation under three scenarios. Each scenario is represented in an individual paper between Chapters 2 to 4 of this thesis. Chapter 2 examines the effect of child care financing, through human capital formation, on growth and welfare. There is an extensive literature on the benefits of child care affordability on labour market participation. The overall inference that can be drawn is that the availability and affordability of appropriate child care may enhance parental time spent outside the home in furthering their economic opportunities. In another front, the endogenous growth literature exemplifies the merits of subsidizing human capital in generating growth. Again, other contributions demonstrate the negative implications of taxes on the returns from human capital on long run growth and welfare. This paper assesses the long run welfare implications of child care subsidies financed by proportional income taxes when human capital serves as the engine of growth. More specifically, using an overlapping-generations framework (OLG) with endogenous labour choice, we study the implications of a distortionary wage income tax on growth and welfare. When the revenues from proportional income taxes are channelled towards improving economic opportunities for both work and schooling investments in the form of child care subsidies, long run physical and human capital stock may increase. A higher level of growth may ensue leading to higher welfare. Chapter 3 answers the question of how child care subsidization works in the interest of skill formation, and specifically, whether child care subsidization policies can work to the effect of human capital subsidies. Ample studies have highlighted the significance of early childhood learning through child care in determining the child’s longer-term outcomes. The general conclusion has been that the quality of life for a child, higher earnings during later life, as well as the contributions the child makes to society as an adult can be traced back to exposures during the first few years of life. Early childhood education obtained through child care has been found to play a pivotal role in the human capital base amongst children that can benefit them in the long run. Based on this premise, the paper develops a simple Overlapping Generations Model (OLG) to find out the implications of early learning on future investments in human capital. It is shown that higher costs of child care will reduce skill investments of parents. Also, for some positive child care cost, higher human capital obtained through early childhood education can induce further skill investments amongst individuals with a higher willingness to substitute consumption intertemporally. Finally, intervention that can internalize the intra-generational human capital externalities arising from parental time spent outside the home - for which care/early learning is required to be purchased for the child - can unambiguously lead to higher skill investments by all individuals. Chapter 3 therefore proposes policy intervention, such as child care subsidization, as the effect of such will be akin to a human capital subsidy. The objective of Chapter 4 is to understand the implications of inter-regional mobility on higher educational investments of individuals and to study in detail the impact of mobility on government spending for education under two particular scenarios – one in which human capital externalities are non-localized and spill over to other regions (e.g. in the form of R&D), and another in which the externalities are localized and remain within the region. It is shown that mobility enhances private investments in education, and all else equal, welfare should be higher with increased migration. The impacts on government educational expenditures are studied and some policy implications are drawn. In general, with non-localized externalities, all public expenditures decline under full-migration. Finally under localized externalities, the paper finds that governments will increase their financing of education to increasingly mobile individuals only when agglomeration benefits outweigh congestion costs from increases in regional population.

This study, a document analysis with a qualitative approach, explores children, under 18years, who have been subject to measures of child welfare in the city of Malmö during theyears 1935-1937. It also explores the school's role in this context. The questions that the studyis guided by is: How was children described in the Child Welfare documents in Malmö duringthe years 1935-1937? And what role did the school have in Child Welfare work and whatmotivated this? The theoretical approaches are Foucaults theories of power, control anddisciplining.It appears from the study that the school and child welfare authorities had a close cooperationwith the purpose to control the upbringing and disciplining of the children. It was through theupbringing that the deviant child would become a "normal", docile and good, industriouscitizen. The school, as well as the board, had to shoulder a part of the upbringing when theparents skills in their upbringing of the children was questioned by society.This study can hopefully provide knowledge and understanding of our social history, it mayhelp us to understand the great changes that have occurred and what is still unchanged.

This is a study about children’s welfare and the Child Care Board way of working in Malmö city. We decided to make this a narrative and document analyses where the main focus have been the interactions between human beings, which means everything from the interaction between parents and child as well as the interaction between families and society. We wanted to investigate any possible alterations within the working system between 1931–1940. Our analysis showed that there hasn’t been a big change with the Swedish legislation. There had however been a slight change in the reasons as to why parents and society got in touch with Social services and reported any mistreatment in the families. There were many people especially from the lower working class that couldn’t afford proper apartments or provide child care for their children. This was the main reason for them to apply to the Child Care Board. Many young single mothers who didn’t have any family to care for them applied to join their infants at the protective homes, this was a special home which was often used as a nursery if the children’s parents where at hospital or for some other reason couldn’t care for them. If Social services found the home situation as bad as to impede the Child development, the secure homes would be used as a safe place until a suitable foster home could be found. The closer we got to the 1940s we saw that the reasoning behind society applying to Social services where mostly illness within the family. Tuberculosis had Malmö in an iron fist and both adults and children got the dreaded disease. The World War II started in 1939 which also automatically forced the male population leave their homes, wives and children. This caused problems within the individual families. It meant that a lot of mothers now had to start working in order to support the rest of the family until their husbands returned home. For many of them the only way to survive during time was to allow the children to be taken into foster care.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-123). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2001. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-123). Also available on the Internet.