Darren L. Bowring, Vasiliki Totsika, Richard P. Hastings and Sandy Toogood
The Behavior Problems Inventory-Short Form (BPI-S) is a shorter version of the Behavior Problems Inventory-01. In this paper, BPI-S population norms are reported from a total…
Abstract
Purpose
The Behavior Problems Inventory-Short Form (BPI-S) is a shorter version of the Behavior Problems Inventory-01. In this paper, BPI-S population norms are reported from a total administrative population of adults with intellectual disability (ID). To facilitate the use of the BPI-S in clinical services to assess behavior change, the purpose of this paper is to describe how to use BPI-S clinically significant and reliable change (RC) scores.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were gathered on 265 adults with ID known to services. Proxy informants completed the BPI-S on challenging behaviors over the previous six months. Clinically significant cut-off values and RC scores were calculated using the Jacobson and Truax’s (1991) method.
Findings
BPI-S clinical reference data are presented to provide benchmarks for individual and group comparisons regarding challenging behavior. Examples demonstrate how to use clinical norms to determine change.
Practical implications
Behavior change is a major goal of researchers and practitioners. Data from the present study can make the BPI-S a valuable tool for determining change in challenging behavior following service input or intervention.
Originality/value
Whilst well used in research, the BPI-S may be less extensively used in practice. This present study provides data to enable researchers and practitioners to use the BPI-S more widely in assessing clinical outcomes, such as intervention research and service evaluation.
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Sima Siami-Namini and Darren Hudson
The purpose of this paper is to investigate both linear and/or nonlinear effects of inflation on income inequality and to test the Kuznets hypothesis using panel data of 24…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate both linear and/or nonlinear effects of inflation on income inequality and to test the Kuznets hypothesis using panel data of 24 developed countries (DCs) and 66 developing countries (LDCs) observed over the period of 1990–2014.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper explores the short- and long-run Granger causality relationship between inflation and income inequality using the Toda and Yamamoto (1995) procedure and a Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) approach. The existence of a nonlinear relationship between inflation and income inequality is confirmed implying as inflation rises income inequality decreases. Income inequality then reaches a minimum and then starts rising again. The findings of this paper show the existence of Kuznets “U-shaped” hypothesis between income inequality and real GDP per capita in DCs group, and the existence of Kuznets’ inverted “U-shaped” hypothesis for LDCs group.
Findings
The results indicate that there is no bi-directional Granger causality between inflation and income inequality in the short-run, but, there is bi-directional Granger causality in the long-run for both the DCs and LDCs group. The results help us to assess the effectiveness of monetary policy in reducing income inequality in both the DCs and LDCs group. As a policy implication, monetary policy is often aimed at controlling the annual rate of inflation in the long-run with a short-run focus on reducing output gaps and creating employment. However, managing inflation may have implications for income inequality.
Originality/value
This is original research paper which analyzes the “U-shaped” and inverted “U-shaped” paths of income inequality and real GDP per capita for large sample of two group countries including developed and developing countries, respectively. Also, this paper analyzes the nonlinear relationship between inflation and income inequality in two groups. Furthermore, this paper investigates the short- and long-run relationship between variables. The results are important for policy makers.
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Elizabeth Sullivan, Paul Hassal and Darren Rowlands
This paper describes how a group of prisoners at HMP Grendon Therapeutic Community undertook to survey staff and prisoners about unmet needs relating to abstinence from substance…
Abstract
This paper describes how a group of prisoners at HMP Grendon Therapeutic Community undertook to survey staff and prisoners about unmet needs relating to abstinence from substance misuse. Participatory action research (PAR) principles helped to focus the energy and enthusiasm of the group, who sought to test their hypothesis that therapy could not meet the needs of everyone in relation to relapse prevention. With help, the group developed and analysed a survey, wrote or contributed to interim and final reports, evaluated the Relapse Prevention Taster Course that was commissioned as a result and contributed to this paper. The group processes are described, and two of the members describe what they got from participating.
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Michael Oshiro and Pamela Valera
This article examines how contact with the police led to the death of Michael Brown (an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager from Ferguson, Missouri, who was shot and killed during…
Abstract
This article examines how contact with the police led to the death of Michael Brown (an unarmed 18-year-old Black teenager from Ferguson, Missouri, who was shot and killed during an altercation with a police officer). And, how Darren Wilson (the White police officer from the Ferguson Police Department who shot and killed Michael Brown) was portrayed in mainstream newspaper articles covering the story of Brown’s death.
Using both frame analysis and Hall’s framework of discursive domains for organizing and making sense of events in social life, we analyzed news coverage of Brown in three of the top circulating daily newspapers in the US: The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post. The Lexis Nexis database was used to retrieve a set of newspapers using the search term “Michael Brown.” Articles from the three leading newspapers were collected from the day the event occurred, August 9, 2014, through the end of the year, December 31, 2014.
The news articles used in this study were mostly written with an episodic frame. The articles presenting the socioeconomic background of Brown and Wilson were described as profiles on each individual and the neighborhood they came from, rather than a discussion about where they fell on the economic structure of this country and the larger, upstream forces that might influence those positions. The feelings and attitudes of the reader are also likely to be influenced by details included in the articles and how they were presented.
The findings contribute to the broader literature looking at the relationships between police and Black communities. Public health can play a role in advocating and facilitating programs that build better linkages between police and community. The public health field can take a leadership role in holding the news media accountable when they are engaging in frenetic inaction. Only by having difficult and challenging conversations that examines the upstream causes of violence and deaths like Brown’s, can we make progress in preventing them.
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Norian A. Caporale-Berkowitz, Brittany P. Boyer, Christopher J. Lyddy, Darren J. Good, Aaron B. Rochlen and Michael C. Parent
Workplace mindfulness training has many benefits, but designing programs to reach a wide audience effectively and efficiently remains a challenge. The purpose of this study is to…
Abstract
Purpose
Workplace mindfulness training has many benefits, but designing programs to reach a wide audience effectively and efficiently remains a challenge. The purpose of this study is to assess the effects of a widely adopted workplace mindfulness program on the mindfulness, active listening skill, emotional intelligence, and burnout of employees in a large, multinational internet company.
Design/methodology/approach
The study sample included 123 employees across three company offices who completed the two‐day Search Inside Yourself (SIY) program. Data were collected using self‐report measures pre‐, post‐, and four‐weeks post‐intervention and were analyzed using paired samples t-tests.
Findings
Significant increases were detected in mindfulness and the “awareness of emotion” components of emotional intelligence four weeks post-course. No significant changes were found in participants' self-reported levels of burnout, active listening skill or the “management of emotion” components of emotional intelligence.
Practical implications
Teaching workplace mindfulness and emotional intelligence skills through a highly applied, condensed course format may be effective for increasing mindfulness and the “awareness” components of emotional intelligence. Longer courses with more applied practice may be necessary to help participants build emotional management and listening skills and to reduce burnout.
Originality/value
The present study is, to the authors’ knowledge, the first academic, peer-reviewed assessment of SIY, a workplace mindfulness training program that has been taught to over 50,000 people worldwide.
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Wayne Ferson, Darren Kisgen and Tyler Henry
We evaluate the performance of fixed income mutual funds using stochastic discount factors motivated by continuous-time term structure models. Time-aggregation of these models for…
Abstract
We evaluate the performance of fixed income mutual funds using stochastic discount factors motivated by continuous-time term structure models. Time-aggregation of these models for discrete returns generates new empirical “factors,” and these factors contribute significant explanatory power to the models. We provide a conditional performance evaluation for US fixed income mutual funds, conditioning on a variety of discrete ex-ante characterizations of the states of the economy. During 1985–1999 we find that fixed income funds return less on average than passive benchmarks that do not pay expenses, but not in all economic states. Fixed income funds typically do poorly when short-term interest rates or industrial capacity utilization rates are high, and offer higher returns when quality-related credit spreads are high. We find more heterogeneity across fund styles than across characteristics-based fund groups. Mortgage funds underperform a GNMA index in all economic states. These excess returns are reduced, and typically become insignificant, when we adjust for risk using the models.
Aileen O’Brien, Julia Hutchinson, Nik Bin Fauzi, Michael Abbott, James Railton, Darren Bell, Sarah White, Jared Smith and Simon Riches
There is evidence that both hypnotherapy and virtual reality (VR) can be helpful in reducing perceived stress in the general population. This is a feasibility and acceptability…
Abstract
Purpose
There is evidence that both hypnotherapy and virtual reality (VR) can be helpful in reducing perceived stress in the general population. This is a feasibility and acceptability trial of an intervention combining hypnotherapy and VR to establish its acceptability in students. This study aims to establish whether students found the experience acceptable, described any adverse effects and whether they reported feeling calmer after the experience.
Design/methodology/approach
The study was testing the hypothesis that students would attend the sessions and find the experience acceptable. A secondary hypothesis was that preliminary qualitative and quantitative evaluation of measures of stress and wellbeing would signal potential improvements.
Findings
All participants completed all three sessions. No side effects were reported. Visual analogue scales recorded each day assessing the immediate effect improved. At the end of the intervention, there was an increase in wellbeing of 2.40 (95% CI: 1.33, 3.53, p = 0.006), and a decrease in depression of 0.73 (95% CI: 0.40, 1.07, p = 0.010), reflecting large effect sizes of 0.76 and 0.83, respectively. Qualitative feedback was generally very positive.
Research limitations/implications
This study is small with just 15 students and was over a short period of time. The recruitment method meant there was no way to establish whether the volunteer students were representative of the general student population in terms of mental wellbeing. There was no control arm.
Practical implications
The preliminary results suggest that a larger controlled trial is justified.
Social implications
This VR experience may have benefit to university students and to the wider population.
Originality/value
This described the evaluation of a novel intervention for perceived stress combining hypnotherapy and virtual reality in a group of healthcare students, with promising results suggesting further evaluation is needed.
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Kelly Chermack, Erin L. Kelly, Phyllis Moen and Samantha K. Ammons
The purpose of this chapter was to examine the implementation of a flexible work initiative that attempted to challenge two institutionalized precepts of contemporary white-collar…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this chapter was to examine the implementation of a flexible work initiative that attempted to challenge two institutionalized precepts of contemporary white-collar workplaces: the gendered ideal worker norm, with its expectation of the primacy of paid work over family and personal life, and the assumption of managerial control over employees’ schedules and work location.
Methodology/approach
Using ethnographic and interview data, how the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) was experienced by employees in four different teams within the Best Buy, Co., Inc. corporate headquarters was explored.
Findings
Comparing more and less successful implementation across teams, results suggested that collective institutional work is required for the emergence of new norms, expectations, and legitimated practices. Findings indicated that managers’ task-specific knowledge – their deep experience with the tasks that the team is charged with completing – is a structural condition that facilitates managers’ trust in employees and encourages team experimentation with new practices.
Research limitations
Data for this study was limited to one organization and four teams. Future research should include similar organizational change efforts in other organizations and in larger teams.
Practical/social implications
These findings may promote a better understanding, among researchers and practitioners, of the importance of manager knowledge and background and how this appears to be key to achieving institutional change.
Originality/value
This research is an example of an innovative approach to workplace flexibility and applies an institutional theory lens to investigate variation in the implementation of organizational change.
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Stephanie A. Peak, Emily J. Hanson, Fade R. Eadeh and Alan J. Lambert
In a diverse society, empathy would intuitively seem to represent a powerful force for social good. In particular, we expect empathic people to tolerate (rather than reject…
Abstract
In a diverse society, empathy would intuitively seem to represent a powerful force for social good. In particular, we expect empathic people to tolerate (rather than reject) attitudes that might be different from their own, and to resolve and/or avoid (rather than escalate) potential disagreements with others. Some research supports this benign view of empathy, but somewhat surprisingly, there is a “dark” side to empathy, one that can sometimes exacerbate attitudinal conflict. That is, empathy can often be parochial, in the sense that people are inclined to reserve their compassion for others only when they are deemed to be worthy of such support. In this chapter we review classic and contemporary research on the light and dark side of empathy, and consider its implications for the kinds of dynamics that could potentially emerge when people encounter people and ideas that are different from their own.