Social Workers’ Causal Attributions for Poverty: Does the Level of Spatial Concentration of Disadvantages Matter?

Social workers may play an important role in the implementation of welfare policies targeted at the poor. Their norms, beliefs, and attitudes form local anti-poverty programmes and affect discretionary practices with their clients. Despite this, we know little about how social workers’ exposure to poverty shapes their attitudes towards poverty and their causal attributions for poverty. This study investigates social workers’ poverty explanations and the extent to which they depend on the level of local poverty. Data from a survey conducted among Hungarian social workers were analysed using multilevel linear regression models. To measure local poverty, we used a composite index of poverty, as well as a subjective measure of exposure to poverty. Our analysis revealed that most social workers explained poverty with structural causes, but individual blame was also frequent. Contrary to our hypothesis, the level of local poverty did not significantly increase the adoption of structural explanations but did raise the occurrence of individualistic ones. However, the effect of local poverty was non-linear: social workers tended to blame the poor for their poverty in the poorest municipalities, where multiple disadvantages are concentrated, while moderate poverty did not lead to such opinions. Our results suggest that efforts should be made to improve the poverty indicator framework to better understand the phenomenon of spatial concentration of multiple disadvantages and its consequences for the poor.

The Market and Investors Reactions to Mariana’s and Brumadinho’s Environmental Disasters: Sentimental or Rational Decisions?

This research carried out event studies to analyze the reactions of the market and investors in Vale S.A. to the collapses of the Mariana and Brumadinho dams. It also assessed the extent to which the causes attributed to the market reactions to major disasters in previous research has helped to explain the reactions of the market and investors to the collapses of these dams. The analyses have shown that, in the case of the Fundão dam, there was a relevant reduction in the abnormal cumulative returns of common stocks and ADRs at the end of the eleven days of the collapse, despite the fact that the daily abnormal returns were not statistically significant. However, the abnormal trading volumes of these securities in the eleven days after the dam failure were generally negative and all statistically significant. In contrast, concerning the collapse of the Brumadinho dam, the abnormal returns on common stocks and ADRs were negative, relevant, and statistically significant, and, after the eleven days, the losses were considerable. The abnormal trading volumes of the securities were all positive and statistically significant, but the reactions of ADR investors were more intense than those of investors in common stocks. Examining the causal attributions made previously, there are indications that the market and investor reactions to the failures of the two dams were probably derived from the expectation that Vale and the other companies involved would incur severe losses and high contracting costs in political processes that would follow to the disasters, and from the difficulty the investors have had to assess the magnitude of these losses and costs.

Responses to Offense at Work and the Impact of Hierarchical Status: The Fault of the Leader, Causal Attributions, and Social Support During the Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis

The study explores the mechanism by which unadapted causal attributions and the perception of social support stimulate revenge and reconciliation at the social and professional level in the context of the current pandemic. In particular, the purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between the accused, the victim and offender status and the search for revenge or reconciliation following a personal offense. To test the suggested research model, we analyzed the data collected by 167 (m = 28.52; SD = 8.98) employees in different organizations using a multifactorial experimental design. The results support the influence of attributional predictions in forming revenge and reconciliation and show that they are involved in the decision to carry out revenge, but especially in the way the employee interprets the trigger situation. In conclusion, the revenge is based on a negative attributional mechanism that produces the greatest deficit of adaptation to the situation and a weakening of the perception of social support, while reconciliation seems to be based on a much more complex socio-occupational mechanism. Leaders should pay attention to organizational communication during a crisis as they could encourage hopelessness depression. Adjusting crisis communication is crucial to ensuring job satisfaction that could mitigate negative effects.

Causal attributions for success and failure among athletes: Validation of the Croatian version of the revised Causal dimension scale (CDS-II)

Background and Study Aim. Researchers since the late 1970s have been interested in finding out the reasons attributed to outcomes. To facilitate attribution research in Croatia we translated and validated The Revised Causal Dimension Scale (CDS-II) and examined its invariance when attributing most and least successful competition performances. Materials and methods. To achieve our stated aim, 384 kinesiology students completed the translated CDS-II. To test the latent structure of the questionnaire, we used CFA and tested two alternative models (orthogonal solution and model with correlated latent variables). Additionally, we examined the CDS-II invariance when attributing the most and the least successful competition performance in sport using longitudinal CFA. The reliability was tested using Cronbach alpha coefficients. Lastly, we tested differences in latent means between most and least successful performance using pairwise t-test. Results. Similar to the originally published findings, CFA indicated the CDS-II structure with correlated latent variables had an adequate and better fit than the orthogonal solution in both situations. Furthermore, we confirmed configural, metric and scalar invariance, as well as partial strict invariance since one item’s residuals differed significantly from the others. Cronbach alpha coefficients were adequate across both situations. Lastly, athletes attributed their most successful performances to more internal, stable and controllable reasons than their least successful performances. Conclusions. We confirmed that the Croatian version of the CDS-II has adequate psychometric properties and is therefore suitable for research in sport situations.

Adjustment Mechanisms in the Acute Phase of Myocardial Infarction in Men

Aim Stress and Coping Model and Post-Traumatic Growth Theory indicate adjustment procedures concepts after a crisis. The objective of this study was to assess the relationships between causal attributions, coping strategies and post-traumatic growth in male patients with acute myocardial infarction and variable cardiac function severity. Methods Seventy-eight male patients surviving a myocardial infarction, were divided into two sub-groups based on left ventricular ejection fraction measurements [Group A (left ventricular ejection fraction: <45%, n = 34), Group B (left ventricular ejection fraction: ≥45%, n = 44)] and were interviewed after the acute phase of myocardial infarction, on the last day of their coronary unit stay. Medical data was obtained from their medical records. Causal Attributions’ List, Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced and Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory were used. Results Causal attributions were found to be related to active coping, emotional support, religious coping and self-blame in both groups. Planning, positive reinterpretation and active coping were the strategies associated positively with most of the post-traumatic inventory subscales in total data analyses. Conclusions Diverse coping strategies were associated with posttraumatic growth factors. It is important to assess adjustment mechanisms in the acute phase of myocardial infarction. A tailored scheme therapy, considering patient’s needs, has to be planned.