Peer support as a bridge for participation in prison activities and services: A qualitative study with foreign national prisoners

This paper investigates the role of informal peer support as a bridge for participation by foreign national prisoners in prison activities (e.g. education, work, sports activities, library) and services (e.g. psychologist, doctor). A total of 51 individual interviews, following an appreciative inquiry perspective, were conducted with foreign nationals in four prisons in Flanders (Belgium). In terms of leading foreign nationals to prison activities and services, the findings reveal four types of informal peer support: informational support, instrumental support, emotional support, and social companionship. Moreover, during participation in these prison activities and services, three types of informal peer support emerged: informational support, instrumental support, and social companionship. Peer support seems to be a ‘form of survival’ for foreign nationals to overcome barriers experienced in accessing prison activities and services and difficulties during participation in such prison activities and services.

İş Yaşamında Yalnızlığın Örgütsel Ses Üzerindeki Etkisi

Organizational voice and silence are multidimensional concepts located at two different poles. While there are studies in the literature examining the relationship between organizational silence and loneliness, there are not enough studies on the relationship between organizational voice and loneliness. Within the scope of the “exit, voice and loyalty” model of Hirschman (1970), employees give various reactions to negativities. In this study, the effects of loneliness in the workplace on organizational voice were examined within the scope of the responses of the employees. In line with the purpose of the study, a questionnaire was applied to 330 employees working in Ankara using the convenience sampling method. In the study, "Workplace Loneliness Scale" and "Organizational Voice Scale" were used. Within the scope of the study, the data were analyzed using SPSS 24 and AMOS 24 programs. It was determined that the fit values of the model (CMIN\DF=2.192; GFI=0.879; AGFI=0.848; IFI=0.927; RMSEA=0.060) were found to be between acceptable values. As a result of the analyzes, the emotional deprivation sub-dimension has a positive relationship on the defensive voice (β=.624, p<0.001), while social companionship sub-dimension has a negative relationship on the acquiescent voice (β=-.434, p<0.001) and prosocial voice (β = -.787, p<0.001). In addition, significant differences between variables according to demographic characteristics were examined and recommendations were made for future studies. Key Words: Loneliness in the Workplace, Organizational Voice

Basic Needs in Horses?—A Literature Review

Every animal species has particular environmental requirements that are essential for its welfare, and when these so-called “basic needs” are not fulfilled, the animals suffer. The basic needs of horses have been claimed to be social contact, social companionship, free movement and access to roughage. To assess whether horses suffer when one or more of the four proposed basic needs are restricted, we examined several studies (n = 38) that reported behavioural and physiological reactions to these restrictions. We assigned the studies according to the four types of responses investigated: (a) Stress, (b) Active, (c) Passive, and (d) Abnormal Behaviour. Furthermore, the number of studies indicating that horses reacted to the restrictions were compared with the number of studies reporting no reaction. The limited number of studies available on single management restrictions did not allow conclusions to be drawn on the effect of each restriction separately, especially in the case of social companionship. However, when combinations of social contact, free movement and access to roughage were restricted, many of the horses had developed responses consistent with suffering. Passive Responses, indicating acute suffering, and Abnormal Behaviour, indicating suffering currently or at some time in the past, were especially clearly demonstrated. This provides further evidence of the usefulness of assessing behavioural parameters in combination with physiological measurements when evaluating horse welfare. This meta-analysis of the literature confirms that it is justified to claim that social contact, free movement and access to roughage are basic needs in horses.

Associations Between Childhood Abuse and COVID-19 Hyperarousal in Adulthood: The Role of Social Environment

BackgroundChildhood abuse increases risk for high levels of distress in response to future stressors. Interpersonal social support is protective for health, particularly during stress, and may be particularly beneficial for individuals who experienced childhood abuse.ObjectiveInvestigate whether childhood abuse predicts levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and test whether the perceived availability of social companionship preceding the pandemic moderates this relationship.MethodsDuring Phase 1, adults (N = 120; Age M[SD] = 19.4 [0.94]) completed a retrospective measure of childhood adversity along with a measure of perceived availability of opportunities for social engagement immediately preceding the pandemic. Two weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic declaration, participants completed the Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) with respect to the pandemic. Hierarchical linear regression analyses examined the interaction between childhood abuse and the perceived availability of social companionship preceding the pandemic as a predictor of PTSD symptoms.ResultsAdjusting for covariates, the interaction between childhood abuse and perceived availability of others to engage with before the onset of the pandemic was a significant predictor of IES-hyperarousal (β = −0.19, t = −2.06, p = 0.04, ΔR2 = 0.032, CI: [−0.31 to −0.01]).ConclusionLevels of perceived opportunities for social companionship before the pandemic associates with levels of hyperarousal related to the pandemic, particularly for individuals who experienced high levels of childhood abuse. More research is needed to understand how to mitigate the higher levels of distress related to the pandemic for these individuals in order to reduce risk for future psychiatric disorders.

Key animal welfare issues in commercially raised dairy calves: social environment, nutrition, and painful procedures

Dairy calf welfare concerns are growing and new evidence suggests that the early life environment influences appropriate physical, behavioral, and cognitive development lasting into adulthood. This review highlights key evidence for the impacts of housing, diets, and painful procedures on calf welfare. We argue that these topics are currently critical welfare concerns, but are not the only points of concern. In addition to environmental requirements to maintain optimal health, dairy calves experience other challenges including social and nutritional restrictions. Individual housing is associated with impaired behavioral development and cognitive ability. Pair and group housing can mitigate some of these negative effects and should be encouraged. Restrictive milk allowances (<15% of body weight) lead to poor growth and hunger; these welfare concerns can be addressed with proper enhanced milk allowances and gradual weaning programs. Finally, dehorning is a critical animal welfare issue when pain control is withheld; calves show negative behavioral, physiological, and emotional responses during and after dehorning. The combined use of local anaesthetics and analgesics can mitigate these effects. An industry shift toward providing social companionship, enhanced milk allowances, and pain control during painful procedures would help to improve the welfare of dairy calves in intensive commercial rearing facilities.

Enhancing Problem- and Emotion-Focused Coping in Menopausal Women Through Yoga

In varying degrees, all women experience menopause, the condition of infertility due to altered reproductive hormones. The menopausal transition includes three phases—perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause—each associated with physical and psychological symptoms that can negatively affect women's successful functioning in everyday life. In addition to conventional therapies intended to decrease the frequency and severity of symptoms, menopausal women are in need of coping mechanisms to assist in managing symptoms as they occur. Using a deductive approach, a secondary analysis of 12 individuals' qualitative journal entries and semi-structured interviews obtained from a mixed-methods embedded research study was conducted to determine whether data exist to support yoga as a means for coping as presented by Lazarus and Folkman's transactional theory of stress and coping and by Iwasaki and Mannell's leisure stress coping conceptual framework. Results indicate that yoga has the potential for serving as a coping mechanism for women between the ages of 40 and 65 who are experiencing menopause and want to improve their health and/or enhance their ability to manage life's stressors. More specifically, findings discussed in this article advocate yoga as being a leisure activity in which problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies can develop, including mechanisms necessary for palliative coping, mood enhancement, and social companionship. To the authors' knowledge, data reported in this manuscript are the first to support the conceptual framework of Crowe, Van Puymbroeck, and Schmid, aimed at explaining yoga as a viable leisure coping strategy. Additional research focused on the psychosocial benefits of yoga, including yoga as coping, is recommended.

Alcohol Use and Harm to Children by Parents and Other Adults

This study used mixed methods to examine parent-reported harm to children (lack of supervision or physical harm) due to alcohol use by themselves or someone else as well as parent beliefs about alcohol, parenting, and harms to children. We conducted a cross-sectional general population survey of 1,599 parents who were primary caregivers to a child aged 10 or younger and follow-up interviews with 23 parents who responded “yes” to one of the questions about alcohol use causing harm their child. Survey data were analyzed using multilevel logistic models. Compared to abstainers, parents who drank at least once a year were less likely to report that someone else’s drinking caused a lack of supervision or physical harm to their child. Higher continued volumes of drinking were related to fewer reports of not watching a child closely enough. Social companionship support (having people to go out with) was related to greater odds that a parent’s drinking would cause physical harm to his or her child(ren). In the qualitative analysis, four relevant themes emerged: perceived effects of alcohol use, tangible support and child supervision, immediate and distal harm, and turning points in drinking behaviors.

Mammals and mammal-like robots

Mammals are warm-blooded tetrapod vertebrates that evolved from reptilian ancestors during the late Triassic period around 225 million years ago. This chapter focuses on some of the most distinctive mammalian characteristics and on integrated robotic systems that seek to capture these capabilities in biomimetic artifacts. Topics covered include the mammalian brain, novel sensory systems, agile locomotion, dextrous grasp, and social cognition. Attempts to build integrated robotic systems that broadly match the behaviour and appearance of specific mammalian species have focused most strongly on humans, on quadrupeds such as cats and dogs, and on rodents. The goal of creating robots that resemble mammals will be encouraged by interest in mammal-like robots that can emulate some of the capacities for social companionship provided by domesticated mammals such as rabbits, dogs, and cats.

Loneliness among Shift Workers: An Analysis through Organizational Culture, Interpersonal Communication and Dealing with Emotions

Web Finance Incorporation (2016) explains work shift as a work schedule in which a group of workers rotate through set periods of time. Shift work is well recognized in Customer Service and Hotel Industry. These shift employees often complain of emotional, psychological and physiological difficulties. Against this background, the objective of the present study was to analyze the differences between 160 Day and Night Shift employees (selected through non-probability sampling) working in Customer Service (n=80) and Hotel Industry (n=80).The study also aimed at identifying predictors of Loneliness at Workplace. The Organizational Culture Profile (Pareek, 2011), Interpersonal Communication Inventory (Bienvenu, 1971), Dealing with Emotions (Pareek, 2011) and Loneliness at Workplace (Wright, Burt &amp; Strongman, 2006) were administered to measure the respective variables. The statistical analysis revealed a significant difference between Customer Service and Hotel Industry employees in terms of trust, authenticity, collaboration, experimentation, rumination and social companionship (p&lt;0.05). Significant differences in openness, experimentation, coping with feelings, emotional deprivation and social companionship were observed between Day and Night Shift employees (p&lt;0.05). Results further revealed that among Customer Service employees the major predictors of emotional deprivation were interpersonal communication, proaction and flow and of social companionship were interpersonal communication, proaction, self-expression and openness and among Hotel Industry employees the main predictors of emotional deprivation were proaction, rumination, experimentation, interpersonal communication and perceived acceptance and of social companionship were rumination, experimentation and clarity (p&lt;0.05). The current study highlight the importance of organizational and interpersonal values, companies should promote and uphold in order to build healthy working conditions for their employees eventually culminating into their own success.