Death is the new sex, last great taboo in Western society and Western medicine, as Richard Smith discusses in his editorial (p 129). In the trinity of births, marriages, and deaths, only death does not have glossy magazines devoted to stylish consumption at the attendant ceremonies. On the web, of course, …

Death and dying

Despite numerous studies that report the preponderance of domestic violence is perpetrated by men against women, other empirical studies suggest that rates of domestic violence by women and men are equivalent. This article explores these claims of gender symmetry in intimate partners'use of violence by reviewing the empirical foundations of the research and critiquing existing sources of data on domestic violence. The author suggests methods to reconcile the disparate data and encourages researchers and practitioners to acknowledge women's use of violence while understanding why it tends to be very different from violence by men toward their female partners.

“Gender Symmetry” in Domestic Violence A Substantive and Methodological Research Review

This book was first published in 1982. Unemployment is perhaps one of the most serious social problems. In economic terms the cost of unemployment, both to the individual and to the collective, is extremely high. But unemployment has other effects too. In this book Marie Jahoda looks beyond the obvious economic consequences, to explore the psychological meaning of employment and unemployment. The book is an accessible and nontechnical account of the contribution which social psychology can make to understanding unemployment and clearly reveals the limitations of an exclusive concentration on its economic aspects. Professor Jahoda shows that the psychological impact is hugely destructive, throwing doubt on the popular diagnosis that the work ethic is disappearing. She also analyses the experience of unemployment in the context of the experience of employment and argues that one of the socially destructive consequences of large-scale unemployment is that it detracts from the need to humanise employment.

Employment and Unemployment

A modified version of a process model of psychological burnout proposed by Cherniss (1980) was used to study the relationship between job satisfaction and burnout. The research involved a secondary analysis of longitudinal data collected from 245 school-based educators from a single Board of Education. The results showed that negative work setting characteristics and marital dissatisfaction were associated with greater work stressors, which in turn were associated with increased burnout, which in turn resulted in decreased job satisfaction. When the longitudinal design was employed, psychological burnout appeared to have a causal relationship to job satisfaction, not vice versa.

Is Job Satisfaction an Antecedent or a Consequence of Psychological Burnout

Work-family research has demonstrated that a significant proportion of employed parents experience some or a great deal of difficulty coordinating employment and family demands (see review by Friedman, 1987; Hughes & Galinsky, 1988). Coordinating employment and family life appears to be particularly difficult for employed mothers with preschool age children. When compared with employed mothers of older children, employed mothers with younger children are more likely to experience greater work-family interference (Hughes & Galinsky, 1988). In addition, employed mothers of preschoolers have been found to report significantly greater work-family role strain and more health-related symptoms than their male counterparts (Greenberger, Goldberg, Hamill, O'Neil, & Payne, 1983). Research attention has been directed to ways of coping with work-family difficulties; however, such research typically focuses on how individuals and families manipulate employment and family demands in an attempt to create patterns of relationships and activities that are manageable (see reviews by Hansen, 1991; Menaghan & Parcel, 1990). Although these types of coping strategies may be effective in helping employed parents balance employment and family roles, such solutions have been considered "unsatisfying," as they fail to fully address the complete nature of the difficulties (Menaghan & Parcel, 1930,p. 1089). Instead of focusing exclusively on what individuals and families can do to cope with employment and family life, increasing attention is being directed to the role that the workplace can play in generating solutions to work-family difficulties. This area of research seeks to answer the question, "What can the workplace do to facilitate the integration of employment and family life for employed parents?" LITERATURE REVIEW Although no integrated theory of work-family relationships exists (Voydanoff, 1989), Kelly and Voydanoff (1985) propose an inductive model of work-family role strain that acknowledges "multiple levels of social structure and process" (p. 368). According to the model, work-family role strain is the result of the combined influence of demands and coping resources derived from individual, family, and work-related sources. The authors posit that, whereas the cumulative demands of multiple roles can result in role strain, available resources may prevent or reduce role strain by enabling individuals to cope with these demands. Empirical investigations of work-family outcomes have typically focused on individual, family, and work-related sources of demands (cf. Voydanoff, 1987), as well as individual and family sources of coping resources (see reviews by Hansen, 1991; Menaghan & Parcel, 1990). Although the potential benefits of various work-related coping resources have been discussed, few studies have analyzed the influence of this type of resource on work-family role strain or have simultaneously identified demands and coping resources from the work setting. The review that follows identifies previous research on work-related sources of coping resources and demands that may combine to influence perceived levels of work-family role strain. Work-Related coping Resources Emerging literature on workplace support proposes that workplaces can play an important role in assisting employees with the coordination of employment and family roles (Bowen, 1988; Kamerman & Kahn, 1987; McCroskey, 1982; Voydanoff, 1987). Discussions of supportive or "family-friendly" workplaces typically focus on three types of coping resources that may be valuable to employees: (a) family-friendly organizational culture, (b) supportive supervisory practices, and (c) available family-oriented benefits. Organizational culture. Organizational culture refers to the philosophy or set of expectations or beliefs characteristic of the business organization. The classification of an organization's culture as family friendly implies that its over-arching philosophy or belief structure is sensitive to the family needs of its employees and is supportive of employees who are combining paid work and family roles. …

The Impact of Workplace Support on Work-Family Role Strain

Domestic violence, like all violence, is a human issue. It is not merely a gender issue. Classifying spousal and partner violence as a women's issue, rather than a human issue, is erroneous. In domestic relations, women are as inclined as men to engage in physically abusive acts. Yet most reports appearing in the popular press, and in scholarly journals, have framed the issue as essentially a masculine form of assaultive behavior, thereby imbedding into the national consciousness a false and inaccurate view of the problem. This article presents the results of selected empirical studies that contradict the popular view of domestic violence, briefly focuses on the phenomenon as it relates to race, offers several elucidating case accounts, and suggests that the popular view of domestic violence not only contributes to men's increasing legal and social defenselessness, it also leads to social policies that obstruct efforts to address the problem of domestic violence successfully.

Is domestic violence a gender issue, or a human issue?

Age and Job Satisfaction In Human Service Employment

Specified organizational dimensions hypothesized to bear strongly upon the job satisfaction of human service workers are detailed. A conceptual framework is advanced focusing upon the salience of decision-making modes, performance guides, interpersonal relations, and the division of labor as explanators of both overall and intrinsic work satisfaction. Findings support the proposition that human service workers are affected substantially by these factors.

Organizational Patterns and Work Satisfaction in a Comprehensive Human Service Agency: An Empirical Test

This article reports findings intended to aid family life specialists and others interested in identifying companies most receptive to the adoption of innovative programs that enhance the "balance" between work and family life. Officials of 276 Wisconsin companies answered a structured 76-item mail questionnaire designed to survey the prevalence to which selected employer sponsored nontraditional services were offered to employees and the attitudes of nonproviding company officials to the establishment of these services in their firms. More than 2/5 reported that female employees amounted to no more than 25% of their total work forces 28.9% indicated that females comprised between 26% and 50% of all workers and 25.8% had work forces wherein the majority of workers were female. A comparatively high percentage 35.1% of the companies offered flextime options to employees. Nearly 40% permitted employees to take leave to care for sick children and another 30.1% indicated that it was either under consideration or could be considered. The strongest opposition was in response to the provision of on-site child care with 80.% indication that they would not consider providing this service. 54% agreed that child care focused work/family programs involving tax benefits to the employer offer substantive incentives for serious consideration. Small companies compared to medium and large companies were the least likely to have contracted with outside agencies to provide child care services to offer resource or referral services or to offer or consider offering flextime benefits. The findings suggest that employers are likely to be most receptive to proposals involving flextime and part-time work options sick child leave maternity leave and the distribution of printed materials. Change agents working with companies to promote the diffusion of innovations may wish to focus initially on proposals involving these options at least until sufficient credibility has been developed creating opportunities for the proposal of other innovations.

R. L. McNeely

Papers

Is domestic violence a gender issue, or a human issue?

Age and Job Satisfaction In Human Service Employment

Organizational Patterns and Work Satisfaction in a Comprehensive Human Service Agency: An Empirical Test

Balancing Parenthood and Employment: Factors Affecting Company Receptiveness to Family-Related Innovations in the Workplace.

Race and Job Satisfaction in Human Service Employment