Frequent Job Changes Research Articles

Stresseurs professionnels et troubles mentaux courants : quels liens de causalité ?

According to the World Health Organization, depression has become the leading cause of disability in the world, contributing significantly to the burden of health issues especially in the industrialized countries. This is a major public health problem, with potential impact on work climates, productivity at work and the continued existence of the organizations. Some recent studies have examined potential links between professional factors and common mental health disorders, but none have demonstrated a direct causal link. ObjectiveIn the present study, we explored possible links between work-related stressors and common mental health disorders, with the objective of determining priority mental health prevention axes. MethodThe study used a life trajectory method. We compared professional stressors and difficulties present in other spheres of life in the last five years between two groups: a group of 29 participants with common mental health disorders during the last five years (depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders, pathological gambling), and a group of 29 participants who have not experienced a mental health disorder in the last five years. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews with the participants using a life course analysis method. Each participant was interviewed during two or three meetings of two to three hour duration. Questions regarding difficulties in different spheres of life and mental health were asked. More precisely, data were collected with regards to the presence or absence of mental health disorders in the last five years and the nature of mental health disorders and difficulties. Moreover, we collected data pertaining to the most important positive and negative events in different spheres of life that were present in the last five years, including family life, romantic relationships, social life, academic difficulties, losses and separations, episodes of personal difficulties, financial difficulties as well as protective factors. Regarding professional difficulties present in the last five years, data were collected on different kinds of adversities such as difficulties in finding a job, periods of unemployment, frequent job changes, difficult working conditions, discrimination, difficult working relationships with colleagues and with employers, moral harassment and family–work conflicts. ResultsParticipants with common mental health disorders are more concerned about having general professional difficulties at work and about having difficult working relationships with employers. However, difficulties related to other spheres of life do not differentiate the two groups. ConclusionIt is possible that the work environment is linked to common mental health disorders. In particular, having general professional stressors at the work place and having difficult relationships with employers can impact the occurrence of common mental health disorders. Inversely, these stressors at work can be the consequence of a common mental health disorder. Complementary studies are of interest. Professional stressors can constitute an essential part in the occurrence of common mental health disorders. Thus, the workplace seems a priority environment for deploying effective mental health prevention strategies. Moreover, this can be a strategy for organizations to improve the work climate and to increase productivity.

Can genes play a role in explaining frequent job changes? An examination of gene-environment interaction from human capital theory.

This study examined how a dopamine genetic marker, DRD4 7 Repeat allele, interacted with early life environmental factors (i.e., family socioeconomic status, and neighborhood poverty) to influence job change frequency in adulthood using a national representative sample from the United States. The dopamine gene played a moderating role in the relationship between early life environments and later job change behaviors, which was meditated through educational achievement. In particular, higher family socioeconomic status was associated with higher educational achievement, and thereafter higher frequency of voluntary job changes and lower frequency of involuntary job changes; such relationships were stronger (i.e., more positive or negative) for individuals with more DRD4 7R alleles. In contrast, higher neighborhood poverty was associated with lower educational achievement, and thereafter lower frequency of voluntary job change and higher frequency of involuntary job change; such relationships were again stronger (i.e., more positive or negative) for individuals with more DRD4 7R alleles. The results demonstrated that molecular genetics using DNA information, along with early life environmental factors, can bring new insights to enhance our understanding of job change frequency in individuals' early career development. (PsycINFO Database Record

Editor’s Choice: Understanding others and oneself

This week Deborah Kirkham describes some of the challenges facing doctors in training as they try to develop management and leadership skills (http://careers.bmj.com/careers/advice/view-article.html?id=20020642). Frequent job changes mean that trainee doctors do not have long enough in each role to develop positions as leaders or to acquire the followers required to fulfil the role of a leader. The lack of experience …

Job History, Work Attitude, and Employability

We study whether employment history can provide information about a worker’s non-cognitive skills - in particular, about “work attitude,” or the ability to work well and cooperatively with others. We conjecture that, holding all else equal, a worker’s frequent job changes can indicate poorer work attitude, and that this information is transmitted in labor markets through employment histories. We provide support for this hypothesis across three studies that employ complementary lab, field, and survey experiments. First, a laboratory labor market, in which the only valuable characteristic of workers is their reliability in cooperating with an employer’s effort requests, demonstrates that prior employment information allows employers to screen for such reliability and allows high-reliability workers to obtain better employment outcomes. Second, we conduct a field experiment that varies the frequency of job changes in fictitious job applicants’ resumes. Those applicants with fewer job changes receive substantially more callbacks from prospective employers. Finally, a survey experiment with human resource professionals confirms that the resume manipulations in the field study create different perceptions of work attitude and that these account for the callback differences. Our work highlights the potential importance of job history as a signal of worker characteristics, and points to a cost for workers of frequent job changes.

Female Junior College Graduates’ Understanding of their Work Experiences

In light of the recent unemployment crisis facing university graduates, more junior college graduates will look for jobs, and employment prospects for female junior college graduates in particular are becoming more unclear. Given the circumstances, female junior college graduates are more likely to be placed in temporary job positions despite their educational achievements. This study investigated the characteristics of jobs held by female junior college graduates, and what kind of occupational prospects they faced and identities they formed while adapting to those jobs through in-depth interviews with women in their 20s and 30s of various majors backgrounds and career paths. Research findings show that female junior college graduates are still experiencing occupational segregation based on gender despite the improvements in employment practices. They are entering the labor market with low job stability through different job-searching channels from men, and are experiencing frequent job changes. In order to adapt to such positions, women work the same amount as men and accept a male-dominated labor culture, but on the other hand, they aggressively and actively decided to seek better jobs. In addition, through self-initiated career management considering life events such as marriage and childbirth, they established long-term career goals and tried to enhance their employability.

Does policy matter? The effect of increasing child care subsidy policy generosity on program outcomes

A dramatic change in the generosity of one state's child care subsidy policy provides an opportunity to study the relationship between subsidy policy generosity and program outcomes. We find positive effects of policy generosity on child care usage and continuity in the program. We also find these outcomes affected by employment characteristics of participating parents. Unstable employment as evidenced by frequent employment losses, job changes, and periods of unemployment, challenge the ability of a parent to remain in a program tightly linked to being employed. Generosity of subsidy policy is positively related to achievement of Child Care and Development Fund program goals of continuity and parental access to care that meets the developmental needs of their child.

Barriers to Performing Stretching Exercises Among Korean‐Chinese Female Migrant Workers in Korea

The purpose of this study was to investigate the barriers to performing stretching exercise experienced by Korean-Chinese female migrant workers during a community-based 12-week stretching exercise intervention trial. Qualitative secondary data analysis was conducted using telephone counseling interview transcripts from 27 middle-aged, Korean-Chinese migrant women workers. A semistructured interview question asking barriers to performing stretching exercise was given to women who did not adhere to recommended stretching exercise. During the 12-week home-based stretching exercise intervention trial, six telephone calls were made to participants biweekly to elicit barriers to performing stretching exercise. Directed content analysis approach was utilized using three barrier categories: intrapersonal, interpersonal, and work-related environmental factors based on the ecological model. Participants experienced an average of 2.5 barriers during the study period. Intrapersonal barriers included lack of time and lack of motivation, and interpersonal barriers included no family to provide support and also a feeling resistance from coworkers. Work-related environmental barriers included frequent job changes, long working hours, lack of rest time, and unpredictable job demands. The findings highlight that migrant workers in Korea face unique work-related difficulties which present barriers to exercise.

Career development: Preparation, integration, and collaboration

Although outcomes for adults with disabilities are improving, many do not have the same quality of life experienced by their peers without disabilities; they are unemployed, underemployed, have frequent job changes, and may not enjoy friendships or social interactions. To diminish the gap between students with disabilities and their non-disabled peers demands career development and transition planning from high school to post school activities. Students with support from their families, contacts, schools, and agencies can plan, prepare, and organize reasonable and efficient connections to employment, education and independent living options. This article will guide the reader through (a) the history and impact of career development, (b) a discussion about models of career development, (c) essential components and (d) how career development can be integrated into academic and community arenas. Finally, ideas for collaborative efforts that promote and enhance career development and transition are presented.

The effects of career plateaued workers on in-group members’ perceptions of P-O fit

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects on in-group members of an influential worker's response to being in a state of career plateau. Design/methodology/approach – Using the concepts of the career plateau, person-organization fit, and organizational climate, a set of propositions is presented and discussed relative to the influential worker's response. A model is presented to illustrate the effects and the components involved. Findings – An influential career plateaued worker can affect the in-group he or she is associated with. An ineffectively plateaued worker is not only low in productivity, but also resorts to such negative behavior as absenteeism, withdrawal, and frequent job changes. When noticed by other in-group members, such behavior can affect their attitudes and behaviors. Practical implications – The organizational socialization process can counter the effects of the otherwise influential ineffectively career plateaued person's response. This is possible if the socialization process is strong enough to overcome (or complement) certain personal characteristics of the in-group members and their association with the career plateaued person by creating an environment where career progress, performance expectations, and role expectations are clear. Originality/value – The paper develops an original model based on a set of theory-based propositions that is of value to both academicians and practitioners.

Employment Factors Influencing Food Stamp Program Participation

Employment Factors Influencing Food Stamp Program Participation

Entrepreneurial teaching & entrepreneurial faculty members for creating new Steve Jobs in every subject area

Education is the most important issue for nations. Higher education, among the educational process, is the most important determiner for the future of Nations. The ability of the nations to prosper and to thrive in an increasingly knowledge-based global society and economy largely depends on having a progressively well-educated population. The profound changes in the economy and the labor market in the past ten years and, consequently, in the competencies required by employers, have begun to have a serious impact on higher education institutions, whose primary mission is to qualify students by equipping them to meet the challenges ahead, both life and work. Challenges posed by globalization, fierce competition, frequent job changes, the growing need to create one's own job or to work outside one's home province or country, the importance of the appropriate behavior, new technologies, knowledge of English which is considered to be the medium of international communication and/or a second or third language became sine qua non which cannot be ignored by educational institutions and students. Close relationship between economics and the education for work force emerged as a result of this massive change caused in paying more emphasis to the philosophy of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial culture and became one of the indispensable values of educational systems. Considering the "silo" type of education and teaching common in our schools, it becomes clearer how far we are away from the realities of the present time. This article discusses the basic topics such as: what is entrepreneurship? Why is entrepreneurship important? Is entrepreneurship a teachable skill? Why do we need entrepreneurial teaching and Faculty members?

Adult education as an factor for the realisation of the flexicurity concept

The term, more frequently occurring in the last few years in the European documents dealing with different aspects and possible development trends of employment policy primarly aimed at reducing the growing unemployment rate, is ''flexicurity''. The essence of this concept, which is becoming more and more current with the world economic crisis, is the employees, in order to maintain this status, have to express, meaning that they have to be trained for flexibility reflected in readiness for, and thus largely for the possibility for frequent job changes and changes of institutions and organisations in which they work, as well as for continuous knowledge acqusition and development of skills and competences. In addition, the flexicurity concept also emphasises the necessity of providing security, through the role of the state in the form of providing sufficient job position, enabling the emloyment of a larger number of people under good conditions and providing strong support in case of unployment. The subject of this paper is studying the role of adult education in implementing the flexicurity concept. As a manifestation of lifelong learning, adult education has a key role in acquiring knowledge, skills and competences, which is why it has long become a strong factor of economic development, increase of competitiveness, employability and employment. In line with the aforementioned subject, the aim of this paper is to, by analysis of the relevant literature and European documents devoted in different ways and in varying degrees to the flexicurity concept, explore the role of adult education in implementing this concept.

UNCERTAINTY IN EARLY OCCUPATIONAL ASPIRATIONS: ROLE EXPLORATION OR AIMLESSNESS?

Many youth in the United States lack clear occupational aspirations. This uncertainty in achievement ambitions may benefit socioeconomic attainment if it signifies "role exploration," characterized by career development, continued education, and enduring partnerships. By contrast, uncertainty may diminish attainment if it instead leads to "aimlessness," involving prolonged education without the acquisition of a degree, residential dependence, and frequent job changes. We use nationally representative data from the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS) to examine how uncertainty in occupational aspirations in adolescence (age 16) affects wage attainments in young adulthood (age 26). Results suggest that youth with uncertain career ambitions earn significantly lower hourly wages in young adulthood than youth with professional and non-professional aspirations, supporting the view that uncertainty heightens the risk of labor-market problems.

S110 Employment histories of people with asthma in the 1958 birth cohort

Reports suggest that people with asthma experience frequent job changes, perhaps to avoid working environments that worsen their asthma. The aim of this analysis is to compare the number of...

Recurrent Factitious Subcutaneous Emphysema: Report of a Complex Case in a Young Woman and a Literature Review

Subcutaneous emphysema (SE) can be caused by antecedent trauma, surgery, rupture of visceral organs or serious infection from gas-forming microorganisms. Factitious SE is very rare; only about a dozen cases have been reported. Most patients had an underlying psychiatric condition or relevant history. The diagnosis and management of factitious SE are challenging. We report a new case of factitious SE with a very complex clinical course. A 29-year-old woman was seen at consultation for recurrent attacks of painful soft tissue swelling, affecting her chest wall, abdomen and neck over several months. Factitious disease was suspected because of the negative medical history of identifiable visceral perforations or gas-forming infections and the presence of multiple bizarre linear scars on the arm. This was supported by finding multiple recent puncture marks on the neck, chest and upper extremities on close inspection. The patient's history was remarkable for multiple stressful events in her life, frequent job changes, substance abuse and suicide attempts. Psychiatric evaluation revealed adjustment disorder with depression and anxiety, cluster B personality with bipolar II disorder and substance abuse. During the 1-year period, she had 20 visits to our ER for attacks of SE affecting various parts of her body. This case illustrates that self-infliction should be suspected in a patient presenting with medically unexplained recurrent SE and a hollow history, and one should search for puncture marks to support the diagnosis.

Permanentemente temporário: dekasseguis brasileiros no Japão

Este texto apresenta os resultados de parte de um projeto empreendido pela ABD (Associação Brasileira de Dekasseguis) sobre os dekasseguis, particularmente a partir dos dados do questionário aplicado a esses migrantes brasileiros no Japão, em janeiro de 2004. Uma grande barreira à adaptação dos dekasseguis no Japão está relacionada à língua e aos costumes. A maior parte, embora apresente um fenótipo de nativo japonês e possua ancestrais japoneses razoavelmente próximos, não se comporta mais como japonês. Esta aparente contradição entre o ser e o parecer gera conflitos de adaptação dos migrantes e de aceitação pelos nativos. Este conflito de identidade já existia no Brasil, mas a ida ao Japão só reforça o sentimento de não pertinência a este país e, conseqüentemente, reforça a identidade brasileira, expressa pela grande proporção de indivíduos que declaram "saudades do Brasil" como o problema que enfrenta no Japão. A pesquisa apontou que a motivação da ida ao Japão está ligada principalmente a questões econômicas, o que explica também a maior proporção de homens que viajam sozinhos e os reiterados retornos no caso de insucesso no Brasil, principalmente para o pessoal de mais baixa escolaridade. A situação dos dekasseguis com reiteradas idas e vindas no eixo Brasil-Japão, migrações internas freqüentes, bem como mudanças de emprego e passagens por períodos de desemprego no Japão (ainda que possivelmente curtos), tipificam o movimento dekassegui.

Getting Hired: The Civil Service Act of 1857

In 1857 the Province of Canada passed the Civil Service Act which made a first attempt to define uniform personnel policies for the emerging bureaucracy. Analysis of applications, examination results and appointments to the inside service between September 1857, when applicants first sat for examination, and the end of 1861, when the government undertook an internal survey of public employees, demonstrates that the reform potential of the Act was only partially realized. The introduction of the examination system strongly favoured applicants who resided in the provincial capital. Applicants were most frequently urban middle-class men born either in the United Kingdom or in Canada East. Many were young, although a significant number were over 30 years of age and had extensive labour market experience. Analysis of the employment histories of applicants shows that middle-class careers commonly involved frequent job changes in which workers moved from one employer to another and often back and forth between salaried employment and independence. The Civil Service examination proved elementary, yet it tested basic skills appropriate for the work of most public employees. Although examination results were sufficiently discrete to be used as a competitive examination, decision-makers treated the exercise as a qualifying examination and paid little attention to examination results. Very few successful candidates found employment in the Civil Service; those few were employed at all ranks within the service. Analysis of public employees in 1861 also demonstrates that, although experience was an important factor, seniority did not govern hiring, promotion or salary decisions. The evidence also suggests that patronage played at best a limited role in hiring decisions within the inside service while nepotism continued to exist. In the end The Civil Service Act proved a modest attempt to reform the bureaucracy by creating uniformity in ranks, procedures for appointment and promotion, and, most importantly, salary structures. Its successes proved even more modest.

Job Mobility and Early Career Wage Growth of White, African‐American, and Hispanic Women*

Objective. This article examines whether and how young women's job mobility influences racial and ethnic wage‐growth differentials during the first eight years after leaving school.Methods. We use the NLSY‐79 Work History File to simulate the influence of job mobility on the wages of skilled and unskilled workers.Results. African‐American and Hispanic women average less job mobility than white women, especially if they did not attend college. Unskilled women who experience frequent job changes during the first four postschool years reap positive wage returns, but turnover beyond the shopping period incurs wage penalties. Job mobility does not appear to boost wage growth for college‐educated women.Conclusions. Among unskilled women, race and ethnic wage disparities partly derive from group differences in the frequency of job changes, but unequal returns to job mobility drive the wage gaps for skilled women. We discuss several explanations for these disparities.

Health coverage instability for mothers in working families.

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, the authors examined the health insurance coverage stability of 1,667 women in working families over a three-year period (1995-1997). Findings revealed that coverage instability is common. Nearly one-half of low-income women experienced health coverage instability over the three-year study period, and low-income women with poor education, single marital status, low work hours, and frequent job changes were at even greater risk of coverage instability. The findings also imply that women affected by recent welfare reforms are likely to experience widespread health coverage problems. The implications for health care policy development, social work administration, and social work practice are discussed.

Neural substrates underlying impulsivity.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder whose three main symptoms are impulsiveness, inattention, and hyperactivity. Although ADHD is an early developmental disorder, it may persist into adulthood, resulting in deficits associated with poor academic performance, frequent job changes, poor and unstable marriages, and increases in motor vehicle accidents. Of the three primary symptoms of ADHD, deficits in impulse control are the most challenging to the social network and the judicial system. While the etiology of ADHD remains unknown, recent work suggests that the central deficits in ADHD may be due to poor response inhibition that is linked to monoamine and prefrontal lobe deficiencies. In the past, preclinical studies designed to understand the lack of impulse control have generally been relegated to studies linked to aggression and drug abuse. With the use of innovative noninvasive techniques, like anatomical and functional magnetic resonance imaging, selective neurochemical and behavioral paradigms have converged with preclinical reports and lend support to the premise that monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems and the cortico-striatal circuitry are essential to impulse control. Furthermore, new emerging data on neural substrates underlying impulsivity have incorporated brain regions involved in reinforcement, reward, and decision making such as the nucleus accumbens, cerebellum, and amygdala. As noninvasive brain imaging, neurochemical, and behavioral approaches are combined, our knowledge of the neural networks underlying impulsivity will hopefully give rise to therapeutic approaches aimed at alleviating this disorder.