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This project tests two mechanisms for controlling and reversing unwanted status effects of the characteristic gender. Previous interventions have been developed regarding a number of status characteristics and have been tested and implemented to varying degrees. Theoretically based interventions, such as those I am testing here, hold great promise in alleviating status-based disadvantages faced unequally by different groups within society.

An experiment is described using the standard experimental setting for expectation states and status characteristics theory testing.

Results indicate that the theory’s predictions about reversing gender’s status effects are correct. The theory explains 87% of the variation in the observed data.

This work extends prior analytic work in developing and assessing theoretically guided interventions to overcome status disadvantages.

This study aims to determine the impact of nutrition education intervention on nutritional status of undernourished children aged 6-24 months in the East Mamprusi district of Ghana.

This was a pre-post interventional study. In all, 153 undernourished children of age 6-24 months and their mothers were recruited from five communities. Underweight, stunting, wasting, mid upper arm circumference (MUAC) and haemoglobin (Hb) levels were determined at baseline and after intervention. Nutrition education was given to the mothers for three months based on the nutrition problems identified at baseline assessment.

There were improvements in underweight, wasting, MUAC and Hb levels among the children after the nutrition education intervention. The level of improvement at post-intervention differed significantly for underweight (−2.4 ± 0.4, −2.2 ± 0.4; p = 0. 001), wasting (−2.2 ± 0.6, −1.9 ± 0.6; p = 0. 001), MUAC (12.3 ± 0.5, 12.9 ± 0.6; p = 0. 001) and Hb level (10.0 ± 1.4, 10.5 ± 1.4; p = 0. 001) of the children compared to pre-intervention (−1.4 ± 1.8, −1.3 ± 1.7; p = 0.314).

There was significant improvement in the nutritional status of the undernourished children after the nutrition education intervention. Community nutritionists and stakeholders involved in nutrition and health issues concerning infants and young children should consider nutrition education, as it could be an inexpensive and effective strategy in combating childhood undernutrition in resource-poor settings.

Findings of this study provide evidence, suggesting nutrition education as a potential strategy to curb the high rates of child undernutrition in resource-poor communities in Ghana. This study provides insight for larger studies on the effectiveness of nutrition education in curbing child malnutrition in deprived communities in Ghana.

This study examines whether there are unintended consequences that emerge from status interventions in task groups in relation to cohesion and solidarity. Past theorists have argued that inconsistent status structures produce weaker levels of cohesion and solidarity in comparison to consistent status structures.

Data come from an online experiment involving mixed-sex dyads interacting in one of three conditions. Participants individually completed an ambiguous problem-solving task and then worked together over Zoom audio to form a group decision. In the three conditions, participants were either given no performance feedback before the problem-solving task or were informed the male or the female participant performed better on a pretest related to the task. The conversations were recorded and analyzed using measures related to paraverbal synchronization and accommodation.

In terms of self-reported cohesion, there appeared to be a difference, albeit a weak one, in only the inconsistent-status condition, with female participants reporting higher levels of cohesion in comparison to males. However, in terms of solidarity, there was no significant difference between the conditions.

Although inconsistent status structures were associated with weaker perceptions of cohesion, it did not appear to impact solidarity like theorists have suggested. Status structures do not appear to impact group solidarity.

The nature of group membership in conjunction with status consistency/inconsistency may produce the significant differences in solidarity that theorists have suggested.

To date, there has been little empirical examination of how status consistency affects cohesion and solidarity. Relatedly, the current study advances the research on vocal accommodation by analyzing status and solidarity simultaneously.

The objective of this paper is to assess the effect of the socio‐economic status (SES) on long‐term outcomes of a family‐based obesity treatment intervention in prepubertal children. A total of 52 overweight and 26 normal weight children were investigated. Nutritional status, intake of fruit, vegetables and low fat foods, in‐between meals, sports club membership, frequency of exercise and daily television viewing were measured before intervention (t₀ and after a mean period of 1.3 years (t₁. The result obtained indicate that a low SES may serve as a barrier against family‐based intervention. The data provide evidence for the idea that there is need for social stratification of future measures of health promotion within families.

To use a behavioral measure of legitimacy to study how differences in negotiating style and status affect the legitimacy of persons in high-power network positions. Predictions include (1) that powerful network actors who negotiate using a pro-group style will maintain legitimacy better than will those who negotiate selfishly and (2) those higher in status will be granted more legitimacy both before and after exchange than powerful actors lower in status.

An experimental study in which participants were connected in networks to powerful partners who were portrayed as consistently high or low on several status characteristics. Both before and after exchange, participants evaluated partners on a number of dimensions and made decisions on whether to vote to join a coalition to take the partner's power away, a direct behavioral indicator of legitimacy.

High-power partners lost legitimacy over the course of exchange irrespective of whether they negotiated in pro-group or selfish ways, and irrespective of whether they were high or low in status. This effect was pronounced for partners who negotiated selfishly. Although partner status predicted legitimacy prior to exchange, legitimacy evaluations after exchange appeared entirely driven by the partner's negotiating style (how the power was used) and not by status.

The project introduces a new behavioral measure of legitimacy that correlated highly with self-report items and should be of value in future research. The study also indicates promising directions for future research that might disentangle effects of power and status on legitimacy, along with adjudicating among explanations for why this study did not find status effects on legitimacy.

The purpose of this chapter is to suggest a general framework for assessing the efficiency of health care in general, and health care interventions specifically. We begin with a three-pronged overview of assessing performance in health care which begins with what we call the budget or cost side model relating budgets and costs to treatments. Next we proceed to describing an intermediate outputs specification which relates hospital resources to medical outcomes, and we conclude with a final outcomes model which relates the medical outcomes to patient health outcomes. The third model is illustrated with an application to data from Swedish cataract patients.

Micro-enterprises have a vital role in the development of a nation by creating employment, encouraging entrepreneurship, balancing social income and educating the workforce. Yet, micro-enterprises face significant operational challenges such as low productivity, high production costs and long changeover times. These challenges are often overlooked by researchers and practitioners but have a drastic impact on micro-enterprises' operational performance. With over 95% of the economy consisting of micro-enterprises, it is vital to improve operational performance and competitiveness of the micro-enterprises.

Considering the data availability and practical challenges of gathering data from micro-enterprises, an action research methodology was selected as a suitable research method. Following the initial diagnostic visits, planned interventions were prepared and results were observed to gather data and draw conclusions.

Findings suggest that commonly adapted performance improvement initiatives by large enterprises cannot be directly applied in micro-enterprises to enhance operational performance. Micro-enterprises lack the critical resources and company culture to easily adapt these initiatives. On the other hand, when these performance improvement initiatives are filtered according to specific needs of micro-enterprises, continuous improvement initiatives were often found to be effective in improving operational performance. Specifically, 5S, single-minute exchange of dies (SMED), suggestion schemes, layout improvements, management coaching, visual management, empowerment were found to be useful and suitable to address command and control culture, low productivity, unorganised workspace, undelegated authority, low skilled employees and unwillingness to take responsibility problems.

Further research is required to investigate the specific factors that affect the adaptation of continuous improvement initiatives such as culture and industry type.

This research extends and contributes the current literature on continuous improvement initiatives by revealing how performance improvement initiatives need to be filtered according to the specific needs of micro-enterprises, and how these initiatives can be used to address specific problems to improve operational efficiency. It provides a conceptual framework to guide the decision-making process on operational performance improvement in micro-enterprises.

Purpose – This chapter explores claims of social problem workers in criminal justice and mental health with regard to how to manage males who are identified as or self-identify as both victims and perpetrators (V/Ps) of sexual abuse. We also examine the claims of V/Ps with regard to how they manage their dual status.

Methodology – This chapter is based on an action research project on intervention services for V/Ps in Ontario, Canada. Our data include literature reviews, interviews with intervention professionals, V/P narratives, and a transcription of a stake-holder's workshop.

Findings – Intervention workers whose mandate is offender risk management state they give little attention to victimization-related issues of V/Ps, whereas workers in victims’ services often state that adult V/Ps are not covered under their mandate. This suggests that the status of offender is the master status for adult V/Ps. Our V/P narratives recount efforts at self-management and some V/Ps and intervention professionals have expressed interest in the possibility of developing programs specially designed for V/Ps.

Practical Implications – An examination of issues related to the dual status of sexual abuse V/Ps suggests that V/Ps may require special services that cannot be provided by existing programs for perpetrators and victims.

Originality/Value of Paper – Studies of social problem work might benefit from considering not only professionals’ viewpoints but also those of their clients. This chapter explores new intervention models (GLM and RJ) that incorporate ethical concerns based on a rights perspective (“moral repair”) and the experiential concerns of V/Ps.

Little research directly examines leader self-development among marginalized workers. The authors offer a framework to explain the role of internalized prejudice in limiting leader self-development, and the authors use that framework to suggest organizational interventions aimed at enhancing leader self-development among marginalized workers.

The framework is grounded in the incompleteness thesis with its attention to the mutual shaping of culture and mind, and the interventions are drawn from principles of social movements with their focus on changing culture and the minds of individuals. The framework and interventions address the role of status in internalized prejudice.

Status-related experiences in culture shape status-related thoughts in the mind, resulting in internalized prejudice. Internalized prejudice reduces the status-related behavior of leader self-development, which serves to shape status in the culture. This repeats in an ongoing, recursive process that can be disrupted through organizational interventions. The social movement principles of common purpose and networking can provide new status-related experiences to reduce internalized prejudice, and habit-breaking can stop automatic self-limiting behaviors that can arise from internalized prejudice.

By focusing on status, the authors provide a framework that allows integration of literature across marginalized groups, providing a guide for understanding both commonality and uniqueness of experience. The authors bring principles of social movement to the discussion of leader self-development among marginalized workers as a guide for developing organizational interventions.

This study examined the effectiveness of the Triple P‐Positive Parenting Program in a government child health service delivery context with Chinese parents in Hong Kong. Specifically, the study sought to identify pre‐intervention variables that might predict programme outcomes such as level of clinical improvement and programme completion. Participants were 661 parents of pre‐school and primary aged children participating in a group version of the Triple P‐Positive Parenting Program. There were significant decreases in disruptive child behaviours, levels of parenting stress, general stress and anxiety and an increase in parenting sense of competence. Greater change in reports of child behaviour problems was related to lower levels of family income, new immigrant family status, and higher pre‐intervention levels of parenting stress. The present study provides a profile of parents who are most likely to benefit from parent training programmes.