Positive Affect Over Time and Emotion Regulation Strategies: Exploring Trajectories With Latent Growth Mixture Model Analysis

The influence of Positive Affect (PA) on people\u2019s well-being and happiness and the related positive consequences on everyday life have been extensively described by positive psychology in the past decades. This study shows an application of Latent Growth Mixture Modeling (LGMM) to explore the existence of different trajectories of variation of PA over time, corresponding to different groups of people, and to observe the effect of emotion regulation strategies on these trajectories. We involved 108 undergraduates in a 1-week daily on-line survey, assessing their PA. We also measured their emotion regulation strategies before the survey. We identified three trajectories of PA over time: a constantly high PA profile, an increasing PA profile, and a decreasing PA profile. Considering emotion regulation strategies as covariates, reappraisal showed an effect on trajectories and class membership, whereas suppression regulation strategy did not

A Participatory Interior Design Approach for a Restorative Work Environment: A Research-Intervention

Exposure to environmental stressors has physical and psychological consequences. A demanding physical environment involves the allocation of additional attentional resources and an increase in psycho-physical stress. This study illustrates the process of a research-intervention aimed at designing a workplace, using a participatory design approach, and considering the beneficial effect of restorative environments in reducing stressful elements and improving well-being at work. Stressful situations occur daily, compromising proper functioning while causing the occurrence of physiological and/or psychological disorders. To be able to safeguard their psycho-physical well-being, people normally adopt coping strategies, i.e., remedies that allow them to cope and manage situations that generate stress. One of these strategies is the exposure to natural environments, which promotes recovery and sustains psycho-physical well-being. The restorative properties of natural environments have been scientifically proven. However, even built spaces can be thought of as restorative environments, in particular when certain conditions are granted. An applied science, known as biophilic design, provides useful indications from this perspective. This project involved 57 employees of the Italian site of an international non-governmental organization, in the transition from a site no longer adequate to a new site requiring renovation. In a first phase, a survey was conducted, to verify the perceived quality of the current workplace and to detect the unmet workers’ needs, and to assess some other important psychological constructs connected with perception of restorativeness and well-being. In a second phase, the findings emerged from the survey was analyzed in depth through a participatory interior design process, together with an interdisciplinary team of architects, technicians of the organization and environmental psychology researchers. The team, together with some representatives of employees, worked together through possible scenarios, adopting a biophilic design approach, to design the new workplace. At the end, the same survey of the first phase was conducted, to detect differences in perceived quality in the new workplace compared to the previous one

On the Reciprocal Relationship between Quantitative and Qualitative Job Insecurity and Outcomes. Testing a Cross-Lagged Longitudinal Mediation Model

Prior cross-sectional research indicates that the negative effects of quantitative job insecurity (i.e., threat to job loss) on employees’ wellbeing are fully mediated by qualitative job insecurity (i.e., threat to job characteristics). In the current longitudinal study, we replicated and further extended this view to include a direct effect of qualitative job insecurity on quantitative job insecurity. We explored these reciprocal relations in the context of their concurrent effects on work related outcomes by means of dual-mediation modelling. We identified a wide range of the outcomes, classified as: job strains (i.e., exhaustion, emotional and cognitive impairment), psychological coping reactions (i.e., job satisfaction, work engagement, turnover intention), and behavioral coping reactions (i.e., in-role and extra role performance, counterproductive behavior). We employed a threewave panel design and surveyed 2003 Flemish employees. The results showed that the dual-mediation model had the best fit to the data. However, whereas qualitative job insecurity predicted an increase in quantitative job insecurity and the outcome variables six months later, quantitative job insecurity did not affect qualitative job insecurity or the outcomes over time. The study demonstrates the importance of qualitative job insecurity not only as a severe work stressor but also as an antecedent of quantitative job insecurity. Herewith, we stress the need for further research on the causal relations between both dimensions of job insecurity

A Person-Centered Approach to Job Insecurity: Is There a Reciprocal Relationship between the Quantitative and Qualitative Dimensions of Job Insecurity?

Radical transformations in the current work model induce qualitative job insecurity (i.e., a threat to job characteristics) and strengthen quantitative job insecurity (i.e., a threat to job loss). Both dimensions are separate yet interdependent work stressors. Although organisational changes are often the core source for both types of job insecurity, it is predominantly a subjective experience— individual perception ultimately determines the risk and the consequences of these threats. So far, the between-person analysis suggests that the relationship between the two dimensions is in both directions. However, it is not clear whether these associations also reflect within-person processes. This study proposes and tests the reciprocal relationship between quantitative and qualitative job insecurity at the within-person level. We employed a multiple indicator random-intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) to test these associations within-person while controlling for between-person differences. We used three-wave longitudinal data (6 months’ time lag) collected from a Belgian working population (N = 3694). The results suggest a unidirectional relationship (from quantitative to qualitative job insecurity). Furthermore, the results reveal significant within-person carry-over effects of quantitative job insecurity but not for qualitative job insecurity. Overall, these results suggest that a change in the experience of threats to job loss (i.e., higher-than-usual quantitative job insecurity) not only anticipates higher-than-usual threats to job loss (autoregressive paths) but also higher-than-usual threats to job characteristics (i.e., qualitative job insecurity), six months later. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on how job insecurity dimensions influence each other. Given these results and the continuous changes to how we work, we call for further research to better understand the within-person processes of job insecurity development

Evaluation of the state of the art of psychological variables among exercisers at different levels

There is growing interest in the field of sport psychology to measure psychological variables among exercisers at different levels and between exercisers and non-exercisers, in order to identify beneficial activities in non-clinical and clinical groups (such as patients with metabolic diseases or osteoarticular disorders) and to implement psychological drivers for the promotion of greater athletic achievement and healthier lifestyles. [Clemente et al. 2019; Bernstein et al 2019; Zur et al. 2019]. The populations involved in these studies are highly heterogeneous and vary from professional athletes to laypeople, including fragile populations, such as the elderly, and people with chronic diseases, such as diabetes or obesity, who can benefit from physical activity [Kosteli et al. 2018; Ku et al. 2017; Matson et al. 2019]. Variables such as self-efficacy and self-regulation, depression, emotion, stress, and affect have been analysed and compared among athletes of various levels. Furthermore, a correlation of these variables with physical activity has been demonstrated [Zur et al. 2019; Myers et al 2017; Looyestyn et al. 2018]. Among different sport populations (e.g. athletes, semi-professional sport performers, and amateurs), psychological variables are assessed through validated scales and questionnaires and can be correlated with sport performance using objectively measured physical parameters (e.g. resting muscle tension, skin conductance, and respiration rate) through biofeedback technology [Myers et al 2017]. Novel technologies, including the use of computerised tests or online surveys, the involvement of participants using social media, the use of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) including wearables devices and sensor systems (such as global positioning systems - GPS, accelerometers, and heart rate monitoring sensors) appear promising for collection of relevant physical parameters [Lutz et al. 2019] and can be used both in regular exercise performers and laypeople [Looyestyn et al. 2018; Lin et al. 2018; Myers et al 2017]

Work-Related Stress Mediates the Impact of Safety Climate on Safety Outcomes

WORK-RELATED STRESS MEDIATES THE IMPACT OF SAFETY CLIMATE ON SAFETY OUTCOMES The risk of work related injuries and accidents is still one of the main issues in the world of work in Italy. In 2011 there were 726,000 accidents in the workplace, 930 of which were fatal. These figures have been steadily declining since 2007, although this trend seems to be more related to the economic crisis than to a real improvement in working conditions. During the last few years the approach to prevention of injury has focused more on the human factor, in particular highlighting the important role that work-related stress, safety climate and safety culture can play in preventing work accidents. In this context, this research aims to investigate the relationship between safety climate in the work environment and safety performance and also to analyse how work-related stress may affect this interaction. Safety climate has been defined as shared perceptions regarding the policies, procedures and practices. These provide a series of regulations regarding behaviour in the work environment and mean that it is possible to determine performance in terms of safety of workers. This in turn leads to a positive climate which enhances safer behaviour, whereas in a negative climate unsafe behaviour increases. There is therefore a close connection between safety climate and the occurrence of accidents and injuries. Psychological distress directly affects individual psychophysical well-being and behaviour and can affect performance in terms of safety procedures (Melià 2008; Zohar 2005). The presence of a safety climate, safety performance and the risk of work-related stress were assessed in 175 metal and mechanical workers employed in two different companies in the north-east of Italy. The workers were all men, divided into 6 age groups: 4 workers (2.3%) were aged 19 to 25 years, 36 (20.6%) were from 26 to 35 years, 79 (45.1%) were from 36 to 45 years, 45 (25.7%) were from 46 to 55 years and 8 (4.6%) were more than 55 years. 3 subjects (1.7%) did not provide information about their demographic status. The validated Integrated Organizational Safety Climate Questionnaire was used to assess three safety climate measures (Organizational, Supervisor and Co-worker) (Brondino, Pasini and Silva 2011). Each item has a 7-point scale that ranges from 1 = never to 7 = always. Organizational safety climate (OSC) is measured with a 12-item scale, in which the worker is asked to judge the safety climate of the entire organization. Supervisor's safety climate (SSC) is measured with a 10-item scale, in which the workers had to judge the real importance given to safety by their direct supervisor in the work-group. Co-workers' safety climate (CSC) is measured with a 12-item scale in which the workers rate the degree to which safety is a real priority of their colleagues. Safety performance are measured with a 4-item scale which refers to individual performance of safety compliance. The scale is an adjusted version of Griffin & Neal scale about safety behaviour (2000). Responses were given on a 7-point Likert scale, from 1 = “not at all” to 7 = “very much”. The GHQ-12 questionnaire, which is widely used to assess levels of psychological distress, was also employed. The Italian version of the HSE Management Standards Indicator Tool was used to asses work related stress. It consists of 35 items that identify six organizational dimensions. These are: demands (including issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment), control (how much say the person has in the way they do their work), support (including the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation, line management and colleagues), relationships (whether the organisation promotes positive working to avoid conflict and deals with unacceptable behaviour), role (whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles) and change (how organisational change is managed and communicated in the organisation). Data were analysed using the AMOS package, a software package designed to create structural equation modelling (SEM). The results of the study seem to confirm that work related stress, connected with psychological distress, mediate the relationship between safety climate and safety performance

Dissociating the influence of familiarity and meaningfulness from word frequency in naming and lexical decision performance

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Exploring Perceived and Objective Measures of the Neighborhood Environment and Associations with Physical Activity among Adults: A Review and a Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Model

There is an urgent need to understand factors that promote physical activities (PA) because it is one of the modifiable risk factors for global mortality. None of the previous reviews considered both perceived and objective characteristics of the same environment. The first aim was to review the literature on studies investigating the relationship between PA behavior of adults and perceived and objective physical environment measures. The second aim was to verify the potential mediational role of the perceived measure in the relationship between the objective measure of the environment and PA using meta-analytic SEM. Only 15 studies reported a relationship between PA and both environmental measures. One of the most studied characteristics of the physical environment is the accessibility to recreational/PA facilities. Both objective and subjective measures of accessibility to PA facilities are associated with PA. Meta-SEM results suggest a significant effect of the objective accessibility to facilities on PA behavior ( = 0.15) and on the perceived measure ( = 0.10), but the indirect effect was not significant. No significant effect was found for the perceived measure on PA, suggesting that individuals’ level of awareness about their environments may have played a role. This prompts a need to create awareness campaigns

The effect of a safety climate training on safety performance. A longitudinal study on the use of individual protective devises

The aim of this study is to explore the effectiveness on safety performance and particularly on the use of individual protective devises at work of a training concerning safety climate. Safety climate and culture research developed successfully in the last decades, showing how safety climate is a robust predictor of safety subjective outcomes, such as safety behaviour, and of objective outcomes, such as accidents and injuries. Literature shows ambiguous findings on the effectiveness of safety training and interventions to improve safety performance of employees and highlights some methodological criticality. The idea of the present study was to test the effect of a training focused on the improvement of safety climate with a longitudinal design. Data collection involved 1495 blue-collars from 6 Italian manufacturing companies. Two different types of safety climate trainings for supervisors were performed and in some cases no training was performed. A long training was scheduled in 6 weekly meetings of 4 hours each and a short one was scheduled in only one meeting of 3 hours. In 3 companies of the sample safety climate and safety performance were measured twice, one before the training and one about 12 months after it. In all the companies monitoring activities on the use of individual protective devises were conducted. The research evidenced that safety climate training does not always help to reduce the number of unsafe behaviours, but a moderation effect of safety climate seems to inflect the relation between training and performance. Particularly, in work-groups with a high safety climate a positive effect of the training always was found