Darren Van Laar

A new quality of life scale for teenagers with food hypersensitivity

To cite this article: MacKenzie H, Roberts G, Van Laar D, Dean T. A new quality of life scale for teenagers with food hypersensitivity. Pediatr Allergy Immunol 2012: 23: 404–411.

User manual of the Work-Related Quality of Life (WRQoL) Scale:a measure of quality of working life

The Work-Related Quality of Life (WRQoL) scale is a 23-item psychometric scale used to gauge the perceived quality of life of employees as measured through six psychosocial sub-factors. The WRQoL scale has been used in many types of organisation across the world and has been translated into several languages. The WRQoL scale is used by individuals, organisations and consultants as well as researchers as an aid to assessing and understanding the quality of working life of working people.

Planting the seeds of change: Directionality in the narrative construction of recovery from addiction

Objective: The dominant theoretical perspective that guides treatment evaluations in addiction assumes linearity in the relationship between treatment and outcomes, viewing behaviour change as a ‘before and after event’. In this study we aim to examine how the direction of the trajectory of the process from addiction to recovery is constructed in personal narratives of active and recovering users. Design: 21 life stories from individuals at different stages of recovery and active use were collected and analysed following the principles of narrative analysis. Results: Personal trajectories were constructed in discontinuous, non-linear and long lasting patterns of repeated, and interchangeable, episodes of relapse and abstinence. Relapse appeared to be described as an integral part of a learning process through which knowledge leading to recovery was gradually obtained. Conclusion: The findings show that long-term recovery is represented as being preceded by periods of discontinuity before change is stabilised. Such periods are presented to be lasting longer than most short-term pre-post intervention designs can capture and suggest the need to rethink how change is defined and measured.

Development of a quality of life measure for children and young people with speech, language, and communication needs

Childrens speech and language difficulties affect more than their communication skills, impacting on their experience at school, relationships, and later employment opportunities. These wider sequelae, arguably, contribute to a childs quality of life (QoL), which is routinely measured in the care and research of other childhood conditions, but no measures exist for childrens communication needs. Using a psychometric approach, a new QoL measure for children with speech, language, and communication needs was developed. Pretesting produced a clinically acceptable measure, which was then completed by 303 children and young people with speech, language, and communication needs (SLCNs) in a field test. This field test provided a psychometric basis for the reduction of items in the measure into statistically coherent subscales. The “Paediatric Speech and Language QoL” Scale (Ped SaL QoL) appears to be an acceptable, reliable, and valid measure of condition specific QoL for children with SLCNs. It would seem to have potential for use in both clinical practice and investigations of treatments in speech and language therapy. Further testing in larger, more representative samples of children with SLCNs is needed to further establish its reliability and validity and its potential for use as an outcome measure in clinical trials. Source of funding: The research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Grant RDA 01/05. The research was conducted according to the Declaration of Helsinki and received a favorable opinion from a National Health Service Research Committee (Rec. No. Q1701/47).

QoWL （Quality of Working Life） What, How, and Why？

The term “QoWL” (quality of work life) has been used in academic literature for over 50 years and usually refers to aspects of the broader concept of quality of life that relates to the work setting. Typically, the conceptualisation of QoWL has incorporated job satisfaction and stress, but agreement on what else should be included among key facets has been hard to achieve. We provide here a brief overview of the development of the concept of QoWL, before considering evidence relating to its relevance in the workplace. We then describe the WRQoL (work-related quality of life) scale and provide an overview of the development of this measure and the psychometric properties of the six subscales. We go on to review evidence which indicates that, having defined and identified a method of measuring QoWL, how attention to this aspect of the work setting may lead to a range of benefits. Lastly, we discuss issues relating to the future development and refinement of the application of the WRQoL scale and how it might be of benefit a broad range of individuals and organisations.

Quality of working life of academics and researchers in the UK: the roles of contract type, tenure and university ranking

Quality of working life has been defined as the part of overall quality of life that is influenced by work. We developed a mediation model where home–work interface, job and career satisfaction, control at work, and working conditions are considered to be positively related to employee commitment and to the absence of stress at work. These two variables were ultimately related to general well-being. We considered possible differences between workers with different contract types (permanent vs. temporary), as well as the roles of tenure and average position of the University in the UK rankings. Quantitative survey data from 510 academics and researchers working in 8 British Universities were analysed via a multi-group analysis with structural equation modelling. Our model presented a good fit, and a bootstrapping analysis confirmed the significance of indirect effects. Significant differences were found between permanent and temporary workers and striking results were found regarding tenure.

Assessing Quality of Working Life Among Malaysian Workers.

The Work-Related Quality of Life Scale–2 (WRQLS-2) has been used to measure quality of working life (QOWL) in the United Kingdom. In this study, the scale was translated and normalized into Malay. The scale was translated using the back-translation method, pretesting, and pilot testing. It was conducted among health care and office workers. It was tested in 3 stages; confirmatory factor analysis at stages 1 and 3 and exploratory factor analysis at stage 2. The Malaysian WRQLS-2 had 5 factors: “General Well-Being,” “Job and Career Satisfaction,” “Employee Engagement,” “Home-Work Interface,” and “Stress at Work.” The scale showed good convergent and construct validity and also reliability. Perception of good QOWL may differ because of cultural influences and varying work environments. The validated Malaysian WRQLS-2 can be used to determine the QOWL of Malaysian office and health care workers.

The assessment of quality of working life in career guidance and counselling

Effective career guidance interventions can have many benefits for individuals seeking assistance. Potential outcomes of interventions by career guidance counselors include the improvement of employment opportunities and the experience of employment, improvement in someone’s quality of life, and the broader fostering of economic growth. While there has been debate about the relevance of various goals and aims in career guidance and counseling, and concern has been expressed that some suggested goals could be more practically relevant, it can be argued that assessment of any changes in an individual’s experience of work should be the focus of any such endeavors. As has been previously proposed, interventions in this sphere could be assessed in terms of their effect on the client’s quality of working life (QoWL), which refers to the broader experience of employment, taking into account aspects such as job satisfaction, stress at work, and the home-work balance. Until recently, however, there have been few valid and reliable measures of someone’s QoWL.