This study examines the determinants of job satisfaction for women and men working in self-managed work teams. The data used are from a 1990 survey sample of 99 production employees in an electronics manufacturing plant.

While research focusing on the retirement intentions of individuals within the general population has been undertaken, only two empirical studies have examined the retirement intentions of professional workers. This study expands the small, existing body of literature focusing on this topic by presenting eighteen hypotheses, grouped into five categories of factors, and testing them with the National Longitudinal Surveys of Labor Market Experience.

Battered women's perceptions of gender roles within the family were studied. Twenty white, working-class women who were victims of domestic violence were interviewed. It was determined that battered women have very traditional views of gender roles in the family and these views affected the choices that they made within their relationships and their ability to escape these abusive relationships.

This descriptive case study of the transformation in medical care at the community level was carried out with a triangulation approach. Data from documents and surveys using both semi-structured and unstructured interviews were gathered to evaluate and explain how medical care delivery changed from a primarily public system to one predominantly private.

Women as a group hold little power in the social system which increases women's vulnerability to domestic violence. According to Merton (1970), social problems may be revealed through the disaster recovery process. A coraHunity1s organizational response to social problems such as wife abuse depends upon organizational members' perceptions. The data suggest that organizational perceptions of domestic violence largely depend upon the setting or environment in which an organization exists and operates. A second factor that greatly determines an organization's perception of domestic violence after disaster is organizational type. Organizations which provide services to domestic violence victims pre-disaster are more likely to perceive domestic violence following disaster than organizations which do not provide domestic violence related services prior to disaster.

This study investigates the effects of a participative-type management approach termed self-managed work teams (SMWTs) and work spillover into the family environment. The perspective of isomorphism by Aldous (1969), and Rapoport and Rapoport (1965), was used as a paradigm to examine both positive and negative effects of the work-family relationship. A total of 76 employees from the Department of Defense's Quality Division was used in the regression analysis, due to recent transitions into SMWTs. Results reported overwhelming support for the perspective of isomorphism: over 40% of the variation in positive work spillover was explained by SWMT characteristics. Communication with other teams was the single most important factor found to have a significant effect on positive work spillover.

The study is a contextual analysis of flood victimization. Victimization is defined as the social, psychological, and physiological aftermath experienced by victims of a disaster. Disaster researchers concentrate on the victims' characteristics to explain the varying degrees of their victimization, providing only ambiguous results. Theorists such as Kreps, Wildavsky, and Douglas contend that the outcomes of disasters are contingent upon social structure. This analysis treats victimization as one such outcome. The condition and behavior of individuals can be explained by the presence of disaster and the conditions of social organization. A model explains victimization based on individual's attributes (individual resources), his social environment, and the disaster characteristics. This study uses the 1984 Mingo Creek Flood Victims Survey data to test the model. The data contain information measuring victimization. The survey data are linked with 1980 Census tract data. The tract data provide indicators of the social networks. This tract information, the contextual variables, taps the social conditions, including poverty, unemployment, geographic mobility, and family patterns. This study uses factor analysis to identify the dimensions of victimization. Regression tests the relationship between the contextual variables, the individual resource variables, the disaster characteristic variables, and victimization. The results of the analysis show …

The accessibility, predictors, and use of health care and social services among developmentally disabled elderly adults in Canada were examined using a nationally representative social survey. The first research hypothesis is that the independent variables will contribute significantly to the prediction of the dependent variables. A second hypothesis is that the slope of any given independent variable will not equal zero. The results of this research show that the illness (need) variables are the most predictive correlate of the utilization of health care and social services. The predisposing variables have secondary explanatory power, with the enabling variables accounting for the least amount of variance. The hypotheses were tested by step-wise multiple regression analysis using SPSS-X.

This dissertation breaks new ground. It examines the perceptions of older adults towards AIDS prevention. Using the National Health Interview Survey, 1988: AIDS Knowledge and Attitudes Supplement, a modified Health Belief Model is developed. Despite the low number of older adults 55+ with AIDS, some extenuating circumstances increase their risk of AIDS contraction. Older adults have lower levels of knowledge about AIDS, weaker immune systems and receive more blood transfusions. Societal influences include educational neglect at the hands of physicians, healthcare workers and social service personnel. The first stage of the dissertation involved establishing older adults as an at-risk population through an extensive literature review. Next, the data was described utilizing frequencies, correlations and factor analysis. Frequencies clearly indicated that older adults in the data set had low levels of AIDS knowledge and did not view themselves at risk for AIDS contraction. Correlations between the variables were minimal. A modified Health Belief Model was developed and tested. Multiple regression determined that minimal variation in the two dependent variables, "Perceived Effectiveness of Effective Methods to Prevent AIDS Contraction" and "Perceived Effectiveness of Ineffective Methods to Prevent AIDS Contraction" was accounted for by the independent variables. Although F ratios allowed rejection of …

Two primary sources of data were utilized: official church records, and a questionnaire survey administered to a random sample of Anglo and African-American United Methodists in the North Texas area. Questions covered socio-demographic and theological matters as well as perceptions of racism in the church. Ministers and lay members were surveyed separately.

Semi-structured interviews were administered to 16 married couples in Central Appalachia. Questions addressed power relations and division of labor in marriage.