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The study reported here aimed to evaluate the impact on parenting and the home environment of community volunteer home visiting offered during or soon after pregnancy to potentially vulnerable mothers. A cluster‐randomised study allocated Home‐Start schemes to intervention or comparison (existing services) conditions. Mothers were screened at routine health checks. Families in intervention and comparison areas were assessed at two and 12 months. The results showed that comparing families receiving support and those in comparison areas, there were few differences. There was a greater reduction in parent‐child relationship difficulties for supported families, but they offered their children fewer healthy foods. There was no evidence of enhanced parenting, organisation of the home environment or more appropriate use of health services. Comparing families receiving support with a second comparison group, living in intervention areas but not receiving support, no differences were found. The article concludes that a more structured approach may be required to make changes in parenting behaviour and the home environment.

This paper aims to examine the impact of vocational training on unemployed workers not typically studied: women enrolled in engineering or computer programming training and high school dropouts.

Using data from New Jersey's Individual Training Grant (ITG) program and a quasi‐experimental design, the study compares the ITG groups' re‐employment and wage recovery rates with a matched comparison group.

The article finds that women enrolled in the male‐dominated fields of engineering or computer programming experience re‐employment rates that are lower than or similar to those in the comparison group, but they experience higher wage recovery in 8th and 12th quarters after claiming unemployment insurance (UI). Hispanic high school dropouts experience both higher re‐employment and wage recovery rates than their comparison group, but the wage recovery advantage disappears when those enrolled in truck driving training are removed from the sample. Further, white and black high school dropouts experience no re‐employment or wage recovery advantage. For all participants, the study finds participants experience a higher re‐employment rate than the comparison group beginning in the fifth quarter and experience no wage recovery advantage.

To address the concern of selection bias, a difference‐in‐difference wage model controls for time‐variant differences in unobservables and an employment regression model controls for remaining differences in the matching variables.

These results suggest that training improves re‐employment chances and that type of training matters with respect to wage recovery. In this sample, those enrolled in truck driving training, engineering, and computer programming tended to experience higher wage recovery than their comparison group.

This paper examines the impact of vocational training on unemployed workers not typically studied.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of prison‐based cognitive skills programmes in England and Wales in reducing reconviction. Two‐year reconviction rates were compared for adult male offenders who had participated in a cognitive skills programme between 1996 and 1998 (N = 649) and matched adult male offenders who had not participated (N = 1,947). There were no significant differences in the rates of reconviction between the treatment and matched comparisons. This contrasts with a previous study of prison‐based cognitive skills programmes. Possible explanations for the current finding are discussed. For example, these results may merely reflect expected variation; international experience mirrors the variable reductions in reconviction rates found so far in the evaluation of prison‐based programmes. This evaluation relates to a period when programmes were expanded rapidly, and this may have affected the quality of programme delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of gender and strength of gender identification on employees’ perception of gender discrimination. It also explores whether gender comparison and perceived gender bias against women act as mediators in the above relationships. It aims to advance the understanding of the processes leading to individual’s perception of gender discrimination in the Chinese workplace.

Data were collected from 362 workers via an employee survey in three large companies in China. The human resource staff helped us to distribute a self-administered questionnaire to the employees, and the authors assured them of confidentiality and protected their anonymity. To test the hypotheses, the authors employed structural equation modeling. The authors first conducted confirmatory factor analysis on the measurement model, and then the authors estimated three nested structural models to test the mediating hypotheses.

The results reveal that gender and strength of gender identification are related to perceived gender discrimination. The authors further found that gender comparison and perceived gender bias against women partially mediated the relationship between gender and perceived gender discrimination, while gender comparison fully mediated the relationship between strength of gender identification and perceived gender discrimination.

The study helps managers understand why and how their subordinates form perceptions of gender discrimination. Given the findings, they should be aware of the importance of gender identity, gender comparison, and gender bias in organizational practices in affecting such perceptions.

This study is the first exploration of the complex relationships among gender, gender identification, gender comparison, perceived gender bias against women, and perceived gender discrimination. It shows the salient role of gender comparison and gender bias against women in shaping employees’ perceptions of gender discrimination, apart from the direct effects of gender and strength of gender identification.

There is growing evidence of the efficacy and effectiveness of targeted parenting programmes but the evidence for universal parenting programmes is much less developed. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of Parent Gym, a parenting programme delivered in schools.

In this paper a quasi-experimental design was utilised. Parents were recruited to the Parent Gym programme comprising six two-hour weekly sessions. Parents completed measures of their parenting efficacy, parenting satisfaction, interest in parenting and mental well-being at pre- and post-course. Comparative data were derived from a retrospectively-defined randomly selected group of non-participant parents at two time points, equivalent to the length of the Parent Gym course.

Changes in the Parent Gym group were compared with the comparison group using repeated measures mixed 2×2 ANOVAs, which accounted for the potential effect of demographic characteristics (parent gender, ethnicity, parent age, parent education level and single parent status), and their potential interaction with group membership. Parenting satisfaction showed a significantly greater increase for the Parent Gym group with a large effect size (d=0.80). Regarding parenting efficacy, there was a significant time × group interaction indicating efficacy scores increased in the Parent Gym group but decreased in the comparison group (d=1.93). Mental well-being also improved for the Parent Gym group from below the national norm before the course (d=−0.26) to significantly greater than the national norm at post-course (d=0.29).

A limitation of the present study is the absence of data on outcomes for children. Second, the administration of the research at local level, primarily the distribution and collection of the measures and return to the research team for analysis, is a potential source of data loss: both pre- and post-programme data were available on 55 per cent of Parent Gym parents, similar to other community studies. Third, the present study did not include a longer term follow-up after the programme ended. Future research is required to examine the sustainability of effects produced from community implemented programmes.

Findings from the present study indicate that a universal programme, Parent Gym, was effective in aiding the positive development of aspects of parenting behaviour, namely parents’ self-efficacy, parenting satisfaction and mental well-being, when delivered in community settings. This demonstrates its potential as part of a regular service delivery option of evidence-based support for parents.

Successful parenting requires both the development of parenting skills and a positive relationship between parent and child. Parents vary in the resources (e.g. family) available to develop positively. Evidence-based parenting programmes have an important role in aiding parenting development, both those targeted at parents with most challenges and those (universal) aimed across the population. This study demonstrated that the universal Parent Gym programme is effective across a wide range of parents and has the potential to be a positive social resource for community delivery.

This is the first rigorous study of Parent Gym. It adds to the limited evidence about parenting programmes delivered outside of trials, as part of normal service delivery. With this evidence, parent choice of a suitable evidence-based programme is increased.

In this paper, the authors examine the role of idiocentric and allocentric cultural orientations in employees’ preference for relationship help and for emotional help from third parties in two cross-cultural samples. The purpose of this paper is to clarify the psychological dynamics of cultural dimensions in relation to cross-cultural conflict intervention.

The authors tested the theoretical assumptions by using questionnaire survey in two cross-cultural samples. Study 1 is a cross-cultural comparison within a country, including 83 Dutch employees and 106 Turkish immigrants in the Netherlands. Study 2 is a comparison between countries, including 123 Germany-based German employees and 101 Pakistan-based Pakistani employees.

The results show that employees’ allocentric orientation, but not idiocentric orientation, explains the differences in preference for relationship help in both the within-country comparison (Study 1: individualistic Dutch culture vs collectivistic Turkish culture) and the between-country comparison (Study 2: individualistic German culture vs collectivistic Pakistani culture). However, only in the between-country comparison (Study 2), the findings reveal that the difference in preference for emotional help between individualistic German culture and collectivistic Pakistani culture is mediated by idiocentric orientation (not by allocentric orientation).

The study confirms that the extent to which disputants’ preference for third-party help regarding social and personal aspects does differ across national cultures, and supports that the argument that social relationship is one of the paramount concerns in conflict handling in the collectivistic cultures. In addition, the study signals an alternative way of conducting two culture comparisons and expands our view on the cultural dimension of individualism-collectivism.

The findings have practical implications both for third-party intervention and for managing cultural diversity in the workplace.

In general, this study contributes to our understanding on how culture influences conflict handling and provides suggestions for third parties to be culturally adaptive.

The research demonstrates that culture plays an important role in determining the extent to which disputants favour relationship help and emotional help from third parties. The research is also valuable in terms of reliability. The authors tested the hypotheses in two cross-cultural samples both within a country and between countries.

The purpose of this paper is to apply social comparison theory to the study of managerial careers. It is proposed that how managers evaluate their career progression in comparison with the accomplishments of others will affect how they feel about their careers and organizations.

Male and female managers who were similar in age (±5 years) and from the same organization, functional area, management level, and region were asked to participate in the study. Data from 392 managers from lower and middle levels were used to test the study hypotheses. Respondents completed measures of upward comparisons, downward comparisons, enacted aspirations, competitiveness of work group, career satisfaction and turnover intentions.

Study results showed that social comparisons influence managers' turnover intentions and career satisfaction. Upward comparisons were found to be positively related to turnover intentions and career satisfaction. Downward comparisons were found to be negatively related to turnover intentions and positively related to career satisfaction. In addition, the competitiveness of the managers' work group and their enacted aspirations were found to be significant moderators. These findings emphasize the importance of relative standards in predicting managerial career attitudes.

The measures created to assess the degree to which individuals make downward and upward social comparisons when assessing their career progress should be tested in additional occupations and studies. Future research should investigate how social comparisons influence career attitudes beyond considering feelings of relative deprivation. In particular, researchers should aim to understand when upward comparisons are threatening or motivating.

The findings demonstrate that social comparisons can be quite prevalent within organizations and that the competitiveness of the organizational climate can have a significant impact on how social comparisons affect managers' career satisfaction. Therefore, organizations should be mindful of the climates they endorse. Furthermore, findings suggest that organizations should encourage managers to participate in career strategies since career strategies associated with enacted aspirations were found to enhance the effects of the social comparison process, leading to an increase in managers' career satisfaction and a decrease in their turnover intentions.

This is the first known study to empirically examine how upward and downward comparisons affect managers' turnover intentions and career satisfaction.

This study explores aspects of entrepreneurial social identity that are made salient in communication, and that are related to positive group distinctiveness.

The study employs a thematic analysis methodology, and the analysis is sensitized by social identity theory and related concepts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 entrepreneurs in several US cities. The women and men discussed the nature of their entrepreneurial identities, and the relationship of past intra- and intergroup conversations to their realizations of a positively-distinct entrepreneurial identity. Open and axial coding of the entrepreneurs' verbal conversational content was conducted.

The analyses revealed four themes (and nine accompanying sub-themes) that represented dimensions of entrepreneurial social identity that were related to positive group distinctiveness.

Findings may prove useful for mutual understanding among current and aspiring entrepreneurs, and for educators and managers with an interest in encouraging entrepreneurial mindsets through training program development.

This study is unique not only in its adoption of an intergroup comparison approach to entrepreneurship that integrates recalled past communication, but also in its focus on positive in-group distinctiveness. The desire for this psychological state may be one motivating force guiding the content of entrepreneurial identity, and it may, for some individuals, be one factor that drives the pursuit of entrepreneurship itself. This study offers themes that break new ground in illuminating dimensions derived from recalled conversational content that entrepreneurs considered key to positive identity salience.

The purpose of this paper is to add to the overall body of literature regarding mental health implications related to fire service membership; in particular, to look specifically at the implications of volunteer membership and to compare results with previous research looking at paid‐professional members.

Responses to the Impact of Event Scale‐Revised (IES‐R), the Neuroticism‐Extroversion‐Openness Personality Inventory (NEO‐PI) and the Symptom checklist (SCL)‐90R were collected from a sample of volunteer firefighters (n=64), as well as from a similar comparison sample (n=103).

Volunteer fire service members reported significantly higher rates of posttraumatic stress symptomatology when compared to a similar group of comparison participants. In contrast, no differences were found in other types of mental health symptomatology between the volunteer fire fighters and comparison group. Additionally, there appeared to be few differences in the patterns regarding prediction of mental health symptomatology from individual personality characteristics for the two groups. Generally, the authors’ results suggested that, regardless of group, neuroticism was a predictor of mental health symptomatology in many domains.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the only available study to have as its primary intent to describe the mental health implications of volunteer fire service membership, as opposed to a similar comparison sample. In addition, the authors’ data provide some meaningful comparison with previously published results found in a paid‐professional sample; such comparison, to this point, has been unavailable.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the Healthy Retirement Program's effectiveness toward skills improvement and evaluate changes in subjective health.

A quasi-experimental, pre and posttest of the comparison groups was conducted. Teachers who were going to retire within one year were recruited into the experimental (n = 47) and the comparison groups (n = 43). Questionnaires were administered at baseline, posttest and at the 6-months follow-up. An independent t-test and Mann–Whitney U test were applied to determine the differences in outcomes between groups.

The results revealed different effects regarding teachers' health status. In those who had no chronic disease, the experimental group had higher skills to understand health information at posttest and at follow-up (p = 0.036, 0.028). Skills to apply health information was also greater at follow-up (p = 0.042). Among those suffering from a chronic disease, skills to access and apply health information were significantly higher in the experimental group than that of the comparison at follow-up (p = 0.011, 0.046). Greater perceived health of the experimental group was also indicated (p = 0.032).

While the health conditions of teachers at the preretirement period are inconsistent, healthy lifestyle management after retirement is a crucial skill for retirement adjustment. Supporting teachers to be health literate should be included in the retirement planning program which emphasizes preretiree's ability to understand and take control of their health.