The relationship of job satisfaction to role ambiguity and role conflict among school counselors

Elementary and secondary school counselors in the 16 smaller school districts in Nevada, excluding Clark County, were chosen for a study which investigated the nature and extent to which school counselors were experiencing role ambiguity and role conflict. It also investigated the extent to which these factors were related to counselors overall job satisfaction. A written instrument consisting of The Role Questionnaire (Rizzo, 1970) and the Teacher Job Satisfaction Questionnaire (Lester, 1984) was used with selected full-time K--12 counselors to measure role ambiguity and role conflict and their relationship to job satisfaction specifically in the areas of: colleagues, supervision, responsibility, recognition, working conditions and work itself; The results showed that as the job satisfaction of school counselors, elementary and secondary, increased the amount of role conflict and role ambiguity decreased. One area of job satisfaction, responsibility, appeared to have no relationship with role ambiguity or role conflict. Voluntary comments from the counselors indicated elementary counselors had concern in the areas of supervision and colleagues while secondary counselors had concern in the areas of paperwork and clerical duties

Explaining Attitudes Toward and Experiences with Social Media among Public Information Officers through Adaptive Structuration Theory

This study set out to explore similarities and differences between firefighting organizations using and not using social media for crisis/emergency situations. Using Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST), our exploratory survey results from 129 first responders suggest social media innovations are outpacing PIOs’ abilities to effectively adopt and utilize social media strategies. Of those who do not use social media, they have considered using it for information-dissemination purposes only; the main differences between those who do and don’t use social media is their perception of the obstacles to implementing it (training, time, resources) and whether they use it in their personal lives

COMMON AND RARE LOWER PLIOCENE AGGLUTINATED FORAMINIFERS OF PIEDMONT (NORTHWESTERN ITALY): DISTRIBUTION, TAXONOMY AND PALEOENVIRONMENT

Agglutinated foraminiferal taxa from five stratigraphic sections and eightheen small outcrops of Lower Pliocene deposits were quantitatively analyzed for paleoenvironmental purposes. The studied area is located in Piedmont, northwestern Italy, and includes the northeastern Monferrato, the southern margins of the Turin Hill, the Astigiano, the Albese and part of the Langhe. Studied samples were mainly collected in the marine Argille Azzurre (AA) Formation, and cover a time interval ranging from the MPl1 zone to the MPl4a subzone in the Pliocene Mediterranean Foraminiferal Zonation. Most of the agglutinated assemblages are dominated, or exclusively made, by calc-agglutinated infaunal species of elongated tapered or subcylindrical shape, mainly represented by Bigenerina nodosaria and Martinottiella communis. The deep-water infaunal Cylindroclavulina rudis, Eggerella bradyi and Martinottiella perparva characterized the open-sea basinal facies deposited in the central part of the Piedmont region during the earliest Pliocene. These taxa progressively decreased in abundance until to disappear, and were replaced in the upper silty succession by shelf taxa, dominated by Bannerella gibbosa and Textularia aciculata. In particular, T. aciculata showed its highest abundances in infralittoral to shallow circalittoral muddy sediments of probable fluvial origin, widespread in the Astigiano area, and could be suggested as a typical species of shallow marine delta deposits. Among the 42 agglutinated species here determined, Cyclammina cancellata and Reophax scorpiurus were seldom reported in previous works, Ammobaculites agglutinans, Ammoscalaria spp., Cribrostomoides subglobosus subglobosus, Haplophragmoides canariensis, Psammosphaera spp., and Psammolingulina papillosa were not previously found. The occurrence of these rare taxa could be the proxy of particular sea-floor conditions during the MPl3 zone, characterized by a locally active bottom circulation and mesotrophic waters

Identifying wellbeing challenges and solutions in the police service using the World Café method

Police work presents risks to mental and physical health for officers and civilian staff. We report a project that involved police employees in identifying wellbeing challenges and potential solutions. We facilitated ‘World Café’ events in which approximately 180 officers and civilian staff participated. Qualitative data were collected and thematically analysed drawing upon the Job Demands-Resources model. We identified themes relating to workload, management practices, occupational health processes, and continuing mental health stigma. Our analyses suggest an environment in which resources are insufficient to meet demands. The resulting pressures may contribute to management behaviours that can impair subordinate wellbeing

Teacher Immediacy Behaviors and Students’ Public Speaking Anxiety: More and Less Helpful than Anticipated

Public speaking anxiety inhibits students in the basic course classroom, whether face-to-face, hybrid or online, and beyond. Equipping instructors with the tools necessary to empower students to manage that anxiety and excel in their basic communication course is a goal of scholars and practitioners. In this study, the researchers examine applying and testing a math anxiety model (i.e., Kelly at al., 2015) to the challenge of public speaking anxiety. We expanded the original model by examining instructor verbal immediate behaviors alongside their nonverbal immediate behaviors. We also tested the Instructional Beliefs Model (IBM; Weber et al., 2011), which indicates that student beliefs (i.e., perceived immediacy mediates the relationship between student characteristics (i.e., intrinsic motivation) and instructor behaviors (i.e., verbal and nonverbal immediate behaviors) and the instructional outcome (i.e., public speaking anxiety) The data best fit the adapted math anxiety model; however, the influences were extremely low. This calls into question whether instructor immediate behaviors and student public speaking anxiety have been examined together many times before, but never published due to statistically insignificant results or low effect sizes

“Break a Leg – It’s all in the mind”: Police officers’ attitudes towards colleagues with mental health issues

Much has been written about police officer attitudes and interactions with members of the public experiencing mental health issues. However, little has been written or researched regarding police officers attitudes to colleagues with mental health issues. Within policing there is a culture that makes it difficult to discuss psychological injury and mental health with colleagues and managers. To do so is often seen as career destroying. The inherent cynicism associated with policing, lack of empathy, and macho culture further impedes discussion and ultimately access to support services. Austerity has reduced police training. Inadequate training results in officers not understanding mental health issues. There is an argument that personnel policies and systems victimizes officers and fails to understand their needs

FORAMINIFERI ATTUALI IN SEDIMENTI INFRALITORALI E CIRCALITORALI A NORD DI MESSINA (SICILIA, ITALIA)

Quantitative micropaleontological analyses are carried out on eleven samples from inner neritic to outer neritic sands of the sicilian coast, north of Messina. Three groups are described: 1) fossil taxa, mainly from Pliocene sediments in the terrigenous discharges, 2) live and 3) dead specimens of recent species. The distribution of benthic specimens seems largely controlled by the amounts and the sites of terrigenous sediments deposition and by the patchiness of algal biocoenoses. Percentages of live forms are higher in the northern samples, less affected by reworked or winnowed sediments: sessile foraminifers (Glabratellidae, Discorbidae) are dominant. On the contrary, dead specimens of miliolids, elphidiids, rare rotaliids ecc. are common in the thanatocoenoses of the southern and deeper samples