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Quality of working life has been defined as the part of overall quality of life that is influenced by work. We developed a mediation model where home-work interface, job and career satisfaction, control at work, and working conditions are considered to be positively related to employee commitment and to the absence of stress at work. These two variables were ultimately related to general well-being. We considered possible differences between workers with different contract types (permanent vs. temporary), as well as the roles of tenure and average position of the University in the UK rankings. Quantitative survey data from 510 academics and researchers working in 8 British Universities were analysed via a multi-group analysis with structural equation modelling. Our model presented a good fit, and a bootstrapping analysis confirmed the significance of indirect effects. Significant differences were found between permanent and temporary workers and striking results were found regarding tenure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the evidence base for coaching develops, so there is increasing expectation that coaching practitioners evaluate their work. Coaches require relevant, valid and reliable measures. Some assessments will do more than just measure change - they can help better understand a client's circumstances and so assist in identification of appropriate strategies for intervention. We will argue that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual's Quality of Working Life (QoWL) may offer a framework for part, at least, of that evaluative process. This article briefly reviews evaluation in the coaching context, introduces the concept of QoWL, and then presents a freely available measure of QoWL by way of illustration: the Work-Related Quality of Life scale (WRQoL). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Content and Focus: Whilst counselling psychologists providing services to individuals referred through employer funded employee assistance schemes and similar can routinely use established assessments of mood, or behaviours indicative of psychological distress, it may also be useful and relevant to evaluate effects on the individual's experience of and at work. It may be the case that a broader range of outcomes should appropriately be evaluated to allow assessment at both an individual case level and at a broader service evaluation level in the work setting. This paper proposes that pre- and post-assessment of key aspects of an individual's Quality of Working Life (QoWL) can make a valuable contribution to the evaluation of workbased counselling and psychological therapy. Further we argue that such an evaluation can assist in the process of formulation, and thereby the effective targeting of interventions. This article briefly reviews the concept of QoWL, and goes on to discuss the relevance of this concept in the work-based counselling and psychological therapy setting. Finally, a freely available measure of QoWL, the Work Related Quality of Life Scale, is reviewed by way of illustration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study is part of a programme of research aiming to develop a quantitative measure of quality of life for children with communication needs. It builds on the preliminary findings of Markham and Dean (2006), which described some of the perception's parents and carers of children with speech language and communication needs had regarding children's experience of quality of life. However, this earlier study did not observe and evaluate the perceptions of children themselves and consequently left a vital gap in the evidence. The study reported here seeks to address this by describing the quality of life experiences reported by children and young people themselves. Aims: The study aimed to provide a qualitative, child-centred, description of the quality of life experiences of children and young people with speech language and communication needs. Methods & Procedures: The study used a qualitative methodology to provide a credible and thick description of the quality of life experiences of children and young people with speech language and communication needs. Children and young people participating in the study were selected to represent a range of speech and language pathologies, according to their capacity to comprehend and participate within the data-collection activities. A modified focus group technique was used as a method of data collection and data were analysed according to the principles of Grounded Theory and Framework analysis. Outcomes & Results: Seven focus group interviews were conducted with a range of children and young people in full-time education and in receipt of speech and language therapy. The data showed a number of key themes regarding children's quality of life experiences. These themes ranged from the participant's perceptions of what improves their daily lives to the difficulties they experience and consequently the negative impacts perceived on their quality of life. Conclusions & Implications: This study illuminates the quality of life experiences of children with speech language and communication needs. The findings are of direct benefit to clinicians, researchers, and policy-makers alike as they broaden the understanding of children's speech and language difficulties. Despite the potential bias inherent in qualitative research with children, the findings provide support for the development of a quality of life scale for children with speech language and communication needs. Such an outcome measure would enable clinicians and researchers to quantify children's quality of life, thereby broadening the range of clinical outcomes available. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To evaluate which of three color coding methods (monochrome, maximally discriminable, and visual layering) used to code four types of control room display format (bars, tables, trend, mimic) was superior in two classes of task (search, compare). Background: It has recently been shown that color coding of visual layers, as used in cartography, may be used to color code any type of information display, but this has yet to be fully evaluated. Method: Twenty-four people took part in a 2 (task) x 3 (coding method) x 4 (format) wholly repeated measures design. The dependent variables assessed were target location reaction time, error rates, workload, and subjective feedback. Results: Overall, the visual layers coding method produced significantly faster reaction times than did the maximally discriminable and the monochrome methods for both the search and compare tasks. No significant difference in errors was observed between conditions for either task type. Significantly less perceived workload was experienced with the visual layers coding method, which was also rated more highly than the other coding methods on a 14-item visual display quality questionnaire. Conclusion: The visual layers coding method is superior to other color coding methods for control room displays when the method supports the user's task. Application: The visual layers color coding method has wide applicability to the design of all complex information displays utilizing color coding, from the most maplike (e.g., air traffic control) to the most abstract (e.g., abstracted ecological display). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eighteen people participated in an experiment in which they were asked to search for targets on control room like displays which had been produced using three different coding methods. The monochrome coding method displayed the information in black and white only, the maximally discriminable method contained colours chosen for their high perceptual discriminability, the visual layers method contained colours developed from psychological and cartographic principles which grouped information into a perceptual hierarchy. The visual layers method produced significantly faster search times than the other two coding methods which did not differ significantly from each other. Search time also differed significantly for presentation order and for the method x order interaction. There was no significant difference between the methods in the number of errors made. Participants clearly preferred the visual layers coding method. Proposals are made for the design of experiments to further test and develop the visual layers colour coding methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents the results of a survey on the experiences of lecturers at the University of Portsmouth in England in providing informal counseling to students in distress. Specific problems reported or dealt with by lecturers; Estimations of the number of times problems were encountered in the last year; Opinions on helping distressed students.

Presents a survey of experiences and opinions of lecturers in a British higher education institution regarding helping distressed students. Sample characteristics; Extent of problems reported to lecturers; Opinions on helping distressed students.

While academic jobs generally provide a good degree of flexibility, academics also tend to work extra hours which can then lead to a poorer work-life balance. In this study, we compare academic versus nonacademic staff and anticipate that academics will generally report a poorer quality of working life, a broad conceptualization of the overall work experience of employees. Second, we investigate whether the negative relationships between being an academic and quality of working life variables are made worse by working extra hours, and moderated by the perception of having a balanced work-life interface. Our sample consisted of 1,474 academic and 1,953 nonacademic staff working for 9 higher education institutions (HEIs) in the United Kingdom. Data were analyzed via structural equation modeling. Results showed that academics tend to report a poorer quality of working life than nonacademics within HEIs, and this is exacerbated by their higher reported number of extra hours worked per week. The work-life balance of employees was found to moderate the negative relationships between academics (vs. nonacademics) in variables such as perceived working conditions and employee commitment. We additionally found curvilinear relationships where employees who worked up to 10 extra hours were more satisfied with their job and career and had more control at work than those who either did not work extra hours or worked for a higher number of extra hours. These results extend previous research and provide new insights on work-life balance among academics and nonacademics, which in turn may be relevant for the well-being practices of HEIs and wider HE policymaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Opinion. Comments on studies on the psychophysics of nontrivial constraints on color categorization. Rejection of color theory; Need for further research; Call for a radical rethinking of the color theory; Lack of agreement about generally held theories.

Given that the higher-level goals or ‘orientations’ of second language learners impact their motivation to learn, they are of consequent interest to researchers. Once conceptualized simply as either ‘integrative’ or ‘instrumental’, these orientations are increasingly understood to be more complex, particularly since the L2 in question is often English; as a global lingua franca, English is extending its range of functions around the world, while also becoming ‘deterritorialized’. In contexts such as Japan and Pakistan, the latter the setting for this study, new orientations have recently been identified. However, research methods employed have not always included factor analytic techniques, which are particularly valuable for finding underlying structures in complex data. 500 postgraduates in a public university in North-Western Pakistan were surveyed and their responses subjected to factor analysis. 11 factors were identified: ‘Education-Prestige’, ‘Identification’, ‘Receptive L2 Use for Non-Professional Purposes’, ‘Further Study-Work Abroad’, ‘Media-Instrumental’, ‘Travel-Friendship’, ‘Extrinsic-Ideal L2 Self’, ‘Business’, ‘National Interest’, ‘Intrinsic’, ‘International Posture and Learning L2 for Local Purposes’. Findings confirm the newly-discovered ‘National Interest’ orientation in this context and point towards the emergence of an ‘L2 Indigenous Integrative’ orientation that relates to using L2 for local purposes. Theoretical, methodological and pedagogical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To cite this article: MacKenzie H, Roberts G, Van Laar D, Dean T. A new quality of life scale for teenagers with food hypersensitivity. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2012: 23: 404-411. Abstract Background: A disease-specific health-related quality of life (HRQL) scale enables the impact of current and new interventions on the HRQL of teenagers with food hypersensitivity (FHS) to be evaluated. No such scale exists for teenagers with FHS living in the UK. This research aimed to develop and validate a disease-specific HRQL scale for this group, thus facilitating HRQL measurement in this population. Methods: A preliminary 51-item questionnaire was generated from interviews with 21 teenagers with FHS, the coverage and acceptability of which was refined in pre- and pilot testing (N = 102). On the basis of the field test data (N = 299), principal components analysis identified those items best measuring HRQL. Results: The final 34-item You and Your Food Allergy scale covered five domains: social well-being and independence, support, day-to-day activities, family relations and emotional well-being. The whole scale displayed excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.92) and test-retest reliability (ICC = 0.87). The scale correlated as hypothesised with a generic HRQL scale (PedsQL) and discriminated by disease severity, providing evidence for its construct validity. Conclusions: The You and Your Food Allergy scale is the first HRQL scale to have been developed and validated with UK teenagers with FHS. Subject to further evaluation of its psychometric properties, its development has important applications in future research into the HRQL of teenagers with FHS. Short and easy-to-complete, the scale has been designed to appeal to teenagers and is likely to be useful to facilitate discussion of HRQL issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

MacKenzie H, Roberts G, Van Laar D, Dean T. Teenagers’ experiences of living with food hypersensitivity: A qualitative study. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2010: 21: 595–602. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons A/S Teenagers are a high-risk group for food-hypersensitivity fatalities, engage in risk-taking behaviours and may experience impaired quality of life. Understanding their experience is important to inform their care. This study aimed to describe the lived experiences of teenagers with food hypersensitivity. Individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with 21 teenagers (13–18 yr) with food hypersensitivity to a variety of foods and analysed using a phenomenological approach. Teenagers described living with (or coming to know) food hypersensitivity (FHS) as a way of life but still found living with food hypersensitivity to be burdensome. A necessary part of living with food hypersensitivity was coping with associated burden; a variety of coping strategies were employed to this effect. Teenagers described ways in which the burden of living with food hypersensitivity was alleviated or exacerbated by others. Management of food hypersensitivity was based on an assessment of acceptable risk resulting in varying levels of precaution taking. Teenagers’ understanding of their FHS and ability to cope with it needs to be regularly assessed. Educational support may be required to ensure they take an appropriate level of precautions to minimize the chance of future reactions while not over compromising their quality of life. Psychological support may be required to help them to utilize healthy adaptive strategies to cope with the stresses of living with FHS. This approach is also likely to facilitate the smooth handover of responsibility from parent to teenager. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous tools have been developed that attempt to measure work-related stress and working conditions, but few practical instruments in the literature have been found to have a reliable psychometric factor structure. In the UK, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Management Standards (MS) Indicator Tool is increasingly used by organizations to monitor working conditions that can lead to stress. In Health and Safety Executive (2004), a factor analysis was conducted demonstrating the reliability of the scales. However, the authors acknowledged that direct reassessment of the same factor structure was impossible as the questionnaire was split into two separate modules for data collection. Furthermore, the tool is designed to enable comparisons between as well as within organizations to take place, yet reliability has only previously been tested at the individual level. The current study is the first to examine the factor structure of the HSE MS Indicator Tool using organizational-level data. Data collected from 39 UK organizations (N=26,382) was used to perform a first-order Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on the original 35-item seven-factor measurement scale. The results showed an acceptable fit to the data for the instrument. A second-order CFA was also performed to test if the Indicator Tool contains a higher order uni-dimensional measure of work-related stress. These findings also revealed an acceptable fit to the data, suggesting that it may be possible to derive a single measure of work-related stress. Normative data comprising tables of percentiles from the organizational data are provided to enable employers to compare their organizational averages against national benchmarks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective:The dominant theoretical perspective that guides treatment evaluations in addiction assumes linearity in the relationship between treatment and outcomes, viewing behaviour change as a ‘before and after event’. In this study we aim to examine how the direction of the trajectory of the process from addiction to recovery is constructed in personal narratives of active and recovering users. Design:21 life stories from individuals at different stages of recovery and active use were collected and analysed following the principles of narrative analysis. Results:Personal trajectories were constructed in discontinuous, non-linear and long lasting patterns of repeated, and interchangeable, episodes of relapse and abstinence. Relapse appeared to be described as an integral part of a learning process through which knowledge leading to recovery was gradually obtained. Conclusion:The findings show that long-term recovery is represented as being preceded by periods of discontinuity before change is stabilised. Such periods are presented to be lasting longer than most short-term pre-post intervention designs can capture and suggest the need to rethink how change is defined and measured. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We aimed to develop a concise psychometric scale to assess athletes' in-competition emotions, which would reduce the practical and conceptual limitations of previous measures. Four studies were designed to develop and assess the validity of the new Brief In-Competition Emotion (BICE) scale. In Study 1, the content validity of 39 emotion adjectives was investigated using expert analysis, 9 adjectives were subsequently removed. In Study 2, 402 university athletes used the remaining 30 adjectives to record their in-competition emotions and confirmatory factor analyses and a reliability removal method was used to create the 10-item BICE scale. Study 3 (N = 109) and Study 4 (N = 74) consisted of both concurrent and predictive validity assessments of the BICE scale. Construct validity, reliability and confirmatory factor analyses completed during Study 1 and Study 2 resulted in the development of the 10-item BICE scale, consisting of five composite emotion factors: anger, anxiety, excitement, dejection and happiness. The findings from Study 3 and Study 4 showed that the BICE scale presented acceptable levels of concurrent and predictive validity. The BICE scale is a rigorously developed parsimonious scale which offers researchers new opportunities for investigation and provides applied practitioners with a new method of evaluating in-competition intervention efficacies. • The development of a unique scale to assess athletes' in-competition emotions • The BICE Scale factors correlated with comparable factors from other emotion scales • Athlete in-competition emotion was related to objective and subjective performance [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]