Teacher stress linked with higher risk of student suspensions
Study examines impact of teacher burnout on student behavior, discipline issues
September 15, 2020
Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia
Just how stressed are teachers? A recent Gallup poll found teachers are tied with nurses for the most stressful occupation in America today. Unfortunately, that stress can have a trickle-down effect on their students, leading to disruptive behavior that results in student suspensions.
One of those overburdened teachers is Jennifer Lloyd, a high school English teacher in Maryland and a graduate student at the University of Missouri. She has noticed how perceptive her students are to her mood and their ability to feed off of her energy, for better or worse.
"If I come into class from a rough meeting or a stressful morning and I bring those feelings into the classroom environment, the kids notice," Lloyd said. "Sometimes they will give that negative energy right back to me, and we all end up having a bad day."
To examine the impact of teacher burnout on student behavior outcomes, Lloyd's sister, Colleen Eddy, a doctoral student in the MU College of Education, and her colleagues with the Missouri Prevention Science Institute, conducted teacher surveys and classroom observations in nine Missouri elementary schools. They found when teachers are highly stressed and emotionally exhausted, students in their classrooms are at a higher risk of being suspended or disciplined by school administrators.
"Removing students from the classroom environment as a form of punishment can be really harmful, as research has shown it not only reduces student achievement but also increases the risk of dropout," Eddy said. "If we want to make schools a positive place for student learning, we first need to ensure it is a positive workplace for teachers. By giving teachers strategies to better manage disruptive student behavior, they will have more time for instruction and building those positive relationships with students."
Strategies for managing teacher stress include personal coping mechanisms, such as reflecting on things to be grateful for, as well as collaborating with school administrators to identify ways to reduce some of the demands placed on overburdened and under supported teachers.
"Teachers have the potential to impact the lives of so many students in their classrooms," Eddy said. "Therefore, supporting them with the skills they need in classroom management and stress management is really important because it will have a positive impact on their students in the long run."
As the sister of a teacher, Eddy has seen firsthand the influence Lloyd can have on her students and their long-term life trajectories.
"The students have told me that it is so helpful to know they have someone who is in their corner and supporting them, and when students don't have that, we have seen higher absence rates and lower assignment completion," Lloyd said. "They don't want to be engaged if they feel like no one in the building cares about them, so if they do feel cared for and supported in the school environment, they are much more likely to remain in school and be a part of the learning experience."
Since nearly half of all new teachers leave the profession within their first five years, creating a support system to help manage teacher stress can reduce teacher burnout and improve student outcomes.
"Our research is focused on identifying what we can shift in students' environments to improve their learning and behavioral outcomes," Eddy said. "Teachers are so important and their influence on students is immense. They are superstars and deserve all the support we can give them."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200915105929.htm
Exposure to workplace sexual harassment linked to an increased risk of suicidal behavior
Measures targeting inappropriate behaviours in the social work environment could help reduce suicide, say researchers
Science Daily/September 2, 2020
BMJ
Workers who have been exposed to sexual harassment in their workplace are at greater risk of suicide and attempting suicide, finds a study published by The BMJ today.
The authors say their findings suggest that workplace interventions focusing on the social side of the work environment could help reduce suicide.
The "Me Too" movement has brought a lot of attention to work-related sexual harassment in recent years, and the impact it can have on businesses and society, but most importantly on individuals.
While previous research has found that sexual harassment in the workplace is linked to physical health symptoms, sickness absence, and poorer mental health, such as psychological distress, depression, and anxiety, little research has been carried out on its impact on suicidal behaviour.
So a team of researchers set out to determine how exposure to workplace sexual harassment is associated with suicidal behaviour in a large population of Swedish workers.
The study included 85,205 men and women of working age in paid work who completed a questionnaire between 1995 and 2013 which included questions about exposure to work related sexual harassment.
Workers were asked if they had been subjected to sexual harassment in their workplace in the past 12 months either from superiors or fellow workers, or from "other people", such as patients, clients, passengers and students.
Sexual harassment was defined as "undesirable advances or offensive references to what is generally associated with sexual relations."
Any suicides or suicide attempts by these workers over an average follow up period of 13 years were identified from administrative registers.
Overall, 4.8% of the workers reported workplace sexual harassment during the previous 12 months: 1.9% of all men and 7.5% of all women. Those exposed were more likely to be younger, single, divorced, and in low paid but high strain jobs (high demands but low control), and born outside of Europe.
A total of 125 people died from suicide and 816 made a suicide attempt during the follow-up period, which translates to a rate of 0.1 suicides per 1000 person years and rate 0.8 attempted suicides per 1000 person years.
After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, exposure to workplace sexual harassment was found to be associated with a 2.82 times greater risk of suicide and 1.59 times greater risk of attempted suicide. The increased risk estimates remained significant after adjusting for health and work characteristics, and there were no significant differences in rates between the sexes.
Sexual harassment from others was found to be more strongly associated with suicide than sexual harassment from superiors or fellow workers
This is an observational study, so can't establish cause, and the authors point out that their results may have been undermined by underreporting of sexual harassment because of varied attitudes towards what represents an incident, or some respondents including incidents they had witnessed.
Nevertheless they say workplace sexual harassment may "represent an important risk factor for suicidal behaviour. This suggests that workplace interventions focusing on the social work environment and behaviours could contribute to a decreased burden of suicide."
More research is needed to determine causality and risk factors for workplace sexual harassment and the mechanisms explaining the association between work related sexual harassment and suicidal behaviour, they add.
This study underscores the need to consider workplace sexual harassment as both an occupational hazard and a significant public health problem, say US researchers in a linked editorial.
Yet given that the most common approaches to prevention (sexual harassment training) and to mitigation (reporting or grievance procedures) have been shown to do more harm than good, new ways to prevent and address workplace sexual harassment are urgently needed, they write.
"We believe no workplace can be considered safe unless it is free of harassment, and this issue cannot be sidelined any longer," they say.
"Promising, evidence-based solutions exist and should be widely implemented and evaluated. Victims of sexual harassment should receive mental health screening and treatment to mitigate risks for subsequent mental health concerns and suicidality," they conclude.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902185524.htm
Being a selfish jerk doesn't get you ahead
August 31, 2020
Science Daily/University of California - Berkeley Haas School of Business
Two studies provide empirical evidence to settle the question of whether being aggressively Machiavellian helps people get ahead. The studies concluded that being a jerk provides no advantage in career advancement. Any power boost disagreeable people get from being intimidating is offset by their poor interpersonal relationships, the studies concluded.
The evidence is in: Nice guys and gals don't finish last, and being a selfish jerk doesn't get you ahead.
That's the clear conclusion from research that tracked disagreeable people from college or graduate school to where they landed in their careers about 14 years later.
"I was surprised by the consistency of the findings. No matter the individual or the context, disagreeableness did not give people an advantage in the competition for power -- even in more cutthroat, 'dog-eat-dog' organizational cultures," said Berkeley Haas Prof. Cameron Anderson, who co-authored the study with Berkeley Psychology Prof. Oliver P. John, doctoral student Daron L. Sharps, and Assoc. Prof. Christopher J. Soto of Colby College.
The paper was published August 31 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The researchers conducted two studies of people who had completed personality assessments as undergraduates or MBA students at three universities. They surveyed the same people more than a decade later, asking about their power and rank in their workplaces, as well as the culture of their organizations. They also asked their co-workers to rate the study participants' rank and workplace behavior. Across the board, they found those with selfish, deceitful, and aggressive personality traits were not more likely to have attained power than those who were generous, trustworthy, and generally nice.
That's not to say that jerks don't reach positions of power. It's just that they didn't get ahead faster than others, and being a jerk simply didn't help, Anderson said. That's because any power boost they get from being intimidating is offset by their poor interpersonal relationships, the researchers found. In contrast, the researchers found that extroverts were the most likely to have advanced in their organizations, based on their sociability, energy, and assertiveness -- backing up prior research.
"The bad news here is that organizations do place disagreeable individuals in charge just as often as agreeable people," Anderson said. "In other words, they allow jerks to gain power at the same rate as anyone else, even though jerks in power can do serious damage to the organization."
The age-old question of whether being aggressively Machiavellian helps people get ahead has long interested Anderson, who studies social status. It's a critical question for managers, because ample research has shown that jerks in positions of power are abusive, prioritize their own self-interest, create corrupt cultures, and ultimately cause their organizations to fail. They also serve as toxic role models for society at large.
For example, people who read former-Apple CEO Steve Jobs' biography might think, "Maybe if I become an even bigger asshole I'll be successful like Steve," the authors note in their paper. "My advice to managers would be to pay attention to agreeableness as an important qualification for positions of power and leadership," Anderson said. "Prior research is clear: agreeable people in power produce better outcomes."
While there's clearly no shortage of jerks in power, there's been little empirical research to settle the question of whether being disagreeable actually helped them get there, or is simply incidental to their success. Anderson and his co-authors set out to create a research design that would clear up the debate.
What defines a jerk? The participants had all completed the Big Five Inventory (BFI), an assessment based on general consensus among psychologists of the five fundamental personality dimensions: openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, neuroticism, and agreeableness. It was developed by Anderson's co-author John, who directs the Berkeley Personality Lab. In addition, some of the participants also completed a second personality assessment, the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (NEO PI-R).
"Disagreeableness is a relatively stable aspect of personality that involves the tendency to behave in quarrelsome, cold, callous, and selfish ways," the researchers explained. ." ..Disagreeable people tend to be hostile and abusive to others, deceive and manipulate others for their own gain, and ignore others' concerns or welfare."
In the first study, which involved 457 participants, the researchers found no relationship between power and disagreeableness, no matter whether the person had scored high or low on those traits. That was true regardless of gender, race or ethnicity, industry, or the cultural norms in the organization.
The second study went deeper, looking at the four main ways people attain power: through dominant-aggressive behavior, or using fear and intimidation; political behavior, or building alliances with influential people; communal behavior, or helping others; and competent behavior, or being good at one's job. They also asked the subjects' co-workers to rate their place in the hierarchy, as well as their workplace behavior (interestingly, the co-workers' ratings largely matched the subjects' self-assessments).
This allowed the researchers to better understand why disagreeable people do not get ahead faster than others. Even though jerks tend to engage in dominant behavior, their lack of communal behavior cancels out any advantage their aggressiveness gives them, they concluded.
Anderson noted that the findings don't directly speak to whether disagreeableness helps or hurts people attain power in the realm of electoral politics, where the power dynamics are different than in organizations. But there are some likely parallels. "Having a strong set of alliances is generally important to power in all areas of life," he said. "Disagreeable politicians might have more difficulty maintaining necessary alliances because of their toxic behavior."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200831154408.htm
A coffee and catnap keep you sharp on the nightshift
August 28, 2020
Science Daily/University of South Australia
A simple coffee and a quick catnap could be the cure for staying alert on the nightshift as new research from the University of South Australia shows that this unlikely combination can improve attention and reduce sleep inertia.
In Australia, more than 1.4 million people are employed in shift work, with more than 200,000 regularly working night or evening shifts.
Lead researcher, Dr Stephanie Centofanti from UniSA Online and the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory at UniSA says the finding could help counteract the kind of sleep inertia that is experienced by many shiftworkers.
"Shift workers are often chronically sleep-deprived because they have disrupted and irregular sleep patterns," Dr Centofanti says.
"As a result, they commonly use a range of strategies to try to boost their alertness while on the nightshift, and these can include taking power naps and drinking coffee -- yet it's important to understand that there are disadvantages for both.
"Many workers nap during a night shift because they get so tired. But the downside is that they can experience 'sleep inertia' -- that grogginess you have just after you wake up -- and this can impair their performance and mood for up to an hour after their nap.
"Caffeine is also used by many people to stay awake and alert. But again, if you have too much coffee it can harm your overall sleep and health. And, if you use it to perk you up after a nap, it can take a good 20-30 minutes to kick in, so there's a significant time delay before you feel the desired effect.
"A 'caffeine-nap' (or 'caff-nap') could be a viable alternative -- by drinking a coffee before taking a nap, shiftworkers can gain the benefits of a 20-30-minute nap then the perk of the caffeine when they wake. It's a win-win."
The small pilot study tested the impact of 200 mg of caffeine (equivalent to 1-2 regular cups of coffee) consumed by participants just before a 3.30am 30-minute nap, comparing results with a group that took a placebo.
Participants taking a 'caffeine-nap' showed marked improvements in both performance and alertness, indicating the potential of a 'caffeine-nap' to counteract sleep grogginess.
Dr Centofanti says this shows a promising fatigue countermeasure for shift workers. She says the next move is to test the new finding on more people.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200828115401.htm
Nurses burned out and want to quit
August 28, 2020
Science Daily/European Society of Cardiology
A survey of nurses caring for children with heart problems has revealed that more than half are emotionally exhausted. The analysis, presented today at ESC Congress 2020, also found that good working environments were linked with less burnout.
"Nurses' wellbeing is central to ensuring the best outcomes for patients," said study author Dr. Annamaria Bagnasco of the University of Genoa, Italy. "When wards have poor leadership and fragmented teams with no development prospects for nurses this should raise an alarm that there is a risk of burnout."
Previous research has shown that burnout rates are higher in paediatrics than in other specialties, and that burnout is connected to patient safety. Strategies to reduce burnout and its impact on patient safety are needed.
This study examined emotional exhaustion in nurses providing routine care on paediatric cardiology wards and whether it was related to the working environment.
Data were obtained from the RN4CAST@ITPed study. A web survey was distributed to 2,769 nurses working in children's hospitals throughout Italy between September 2017 and January 2018. A total of 2,205 (80%) nurses responded, of whom 85 worked in cardiology wards and intensive care units (ICUs). Additional data were collected from hospital administrations. Topics included workload, skill mix, work environment, and emotional exhaustion.
The following definitions were used: Workload referred to how many patients each nurse was caring for (nurse-patient ratio). Skill mix included both the education level of nurses working in one unit and the number of nursing assistants providing support during each shift.
Work environment was measured with the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index (PES-NWI), which covers issues such as: having a nurse manager or immediate supervisor who is a good manager and leader; opportunities for advancement; opportunities to participate in policy decisions; and collaboration between nurses and doctors.
Emotional exhaustion was investigated using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which measures feelings about work. For example, feeling emotionally drained, used up, fatigued in the morning, burned out, frustrated, working too hard, stressed, or "at the end of my rope."
This analysis focused on responses from the 85 nurses working in cardiology wards and ICUs at five hospitals. Interviews were also conducted with these nurses. More than half (58%) were emotionally exhausted. The main causes were related to working conditions, including being responsible for high numbers of patients and the complexity of caring for sick children.
"The most important consequence was that 30% of the nurses we interviewed wanted to either go and work in another hospital or even change their career," said Dr. Bagnasco.
The researchers then analysed the relationship between emotional exhaustion and the working environment. Improving the workplace environment was associated with an 81% fall in emotional exhaustion -- even with the same skill mix and nurse-patient ratio.
"Our study shows that nurses value good leadership, being involved in decision-making, having chances to develop their career, and team working," said Dr. Bagnasco. "The lack of these conditions is connected to burnout, which we know from prior research could compromise patient safety."
Dr. Bagnasco noted that paediatric cardiac nurses must collaborate with children and their families, who often feel concerned and afraid. She said: "Establishing a trusting relationship is essential but burned out nurses may find it 'too heavy' to bear emotionally. If the working environment is positive for the nurses who work in it, children and their families will receive better and safer care."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200828081037.htm
Women less likely to receive pay for college internships
August 18, 2020
Science Daily Binghamton University
The odds of women receiving pay for a college internship are 34% lower than for men, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.
A team of researchers led by Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Student Affairs Administration John Zilvinskis sought to find out whether women and other underserved groups were more or less likely to participate in paid or unpaid internships in college compared with their peers. They were prompted to examine this issue given that paid internships often lead to higher paying positions post-graduation and that women continue to earn less than men for the same position despite their level of education.
Using data from a 2018 experimental itemset of the National Survey of Student Engagement, the researchers examined the relationship between student identity and academic major to the outcome of receiving pay for an internship. Of the 2,410 seniors who participated in internships, 58% of men received pay during their internships, whereas only 35% of women received pay. After controlling for background and major, the odds of women receiving pay for their internship were almost 34% lower than for men.
"This finding aligns with general scholarship regarding inequity in compensation, and our findings demonstrate that discrepancies by gender can occur in the college internship process as well," said Zilvinskis.
Also contributing to this research from Binghamton University were Professor of Psychology Jennifer Gillis and Assistant Vice President for Student Success Kelli Smith.
"Although tremendous strides have been made for women in the workplace, we must continue to identify points of inequality," said Gillis.
To move toward equity in pay for college internships for female students, Smith recommends implicit bias training for those within university settings who advise students on career decision making, whether faculty or career advisors; having universities analyze and be transparent in sharing pay data disaggregated by gender; working with employers to ensure awareness; and providing educational sessions for students on internship seeking and salary negotiation.
"Since career advising and support is everyone's business within a university setting -- not just career centers -- it is important that all members directly serving students be informed of such findings to effect change," said Smith. "Career centers can play a leading role with both training for campus staff, faculty and employer partners, and designing relevant student educational content and programming."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200818094024.htm
New study suggests ADHD- like behavior helps spur entrepreneurial activity
August 12, 2020
Science Daily University of Central Florida
Many people have experienced a few nights of bad sleep that resulted in shifting attention spans, impulsive tendencies and hyperactivity the next day -- all behaviors resembling ADHD. A new study found that this dynamic may also be linked to increased entrepreneurial behavior.
"We're not advocating depriving yourself of sleep to get ahead," said Jeff Gish, a professor of business at the University of Central Florida and co-author of the paper. "We're saying that there appears to be an interesting link between sleep and entrepreneurship. ADHD-like tendencies can be a benefit, rather than a hindrance in spurring ventures. But there is a potential downside. Even though sleep problems might lure an individual to an entrepreneurial career, if the sleep problems persist they can subsequently leave the individual without the cognitive and emotional competency to be an effective entrepreneur in-practice."
This paper suggests that sleep problems might nudge aspiring entrepreneurs to enter self-employment, but does not test the efficacy of subsequent venturing efforts.
Anecdotal information would appear to support the idea. According to multiple media reports, Bill Gates, Walt Disney, Richard Branson, Cisco Systems CEO John T. Chambers, actor Jim Carrey and Hollywood personality Howie Mandel all have ADHD. They are recognized impresarios who have significantly impacted their industries.
The results of the study published today in the journal Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice complement previous research that links sleep deprivation with lower productivity, lethargy and the hindrance of the longer-term success by suggesting that unhealthy sleep may have a limited upside.
Although the findings may engender contrasts to recent work advocating for adequate sleep, the results may also "contribute to the de-stigmatization of individuals whose social or personal circumstances place healthy sleep out of reach, [contributing to] greater social acceptance of diversity in sleep patterns."
The authors reached their findings by conducting four distinct studies that connected the dots from sleep quality to temporary ADHD-like tendencies and then to entrepreneurial intentions.
Sleep Deprivation and ADHD-like Tendencies
The first study, an experiment with 350 participants, had them fill out pre-experiment surveys. The participants were asked about their sleep and ADHD tendencies in the past six months. Questions aimed to gauge ADHD-like tendencies included things like:
How often do you have trouble wrapping up the fine details of a project, once the challenging parts have been done?
· How often do you have difficulty getting things in order when you have to do a task that requires organization?
To gauge entrepreneurial intention, they were asked about their intention to start or acquire a business in the next 5-10 years.
Then the group was split into two and they filled out additional surveys under two conditions. One group had an uninterrupted night of sleep and woke up the next day to fill out the survey, which asked questions about their sleep quality, ADHD-like tendencies and intent to start a new business.
The second group filled out a total of 10 surveys beginning at 10 pm one night and every hour on the hour until 7 am the following day. This was to elicit sleep deprivation.
The results provided experimental evidence for a causal relationship between sleep problems and ADHD-like tendencies. "Our results suggest that disrupted sleep may help nudge people toward acting on their entrepreneurial ideas rather than continuing to ponder them," said Brian Gunia, a coauthor and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.
Sleep, ADHD-like Tendencies, and Entrepreneurial Intentions: Studies 2-3
About 300 people filled out surveys that measured entrepreneurial intentions, followed by measures of ADHD-like tendencies, and sleep problems. Finally, they completed some demographic questions. The results were similar.
Poor sleep quality was associated with heightened ADHD-like tendencies, which was associated with heightened entrepreneurial intentions; poor sleep quality was also directly associated with heightened entrepreneurial intentions.
Extension to Practicing Entrepreneurs: Study 4
The previous studies looked at general populations, but the researchers wanted to see whether their predictions extended to practicing entrepreneurs. So, they surveyed a multi-national panel of 176 practicing entrepreneurs recruited from a mailing list maintained by a business planning software company on the U.S. West Coast. The participants in this group on average were 43 years-old, had started about two businesses and had been self-employed for at least seven years. Slightly more than half were men. They had the participants fill out similar surveys on sleep, ADHD behavior and their intent to start another business.
The results: Impermanent sleep problems elicit ADHD-like tendencies and can spur on entrepreneurial intent even among practicing entrepreneurs.
"We were surprised that sleep problems so consistently influenced the entrepreneurial intentions of people who know the challenges of starting a business," says Brian C. Gunia, an associate professor at John Hopkins University's Carey Business School and co-author of the paper.
The paper concludes by saying that we need to carefully weigh the costs and benefits of sleep problems. On the one hand, they may nudge people toward entrepreneurship. On the other, they may undermine entrepreneurial performance if they continue unabated.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200812164926.htm