Lauren A. Murphy

The impact of background television on parent-child interaction.

This study investigated the hypothesis that background television affects interactions between parents and very young children. Fifty-one 12-, 24-, and 36-month-old children, each accompanied by 1 parent, were observed for 1 hr of free play in a laboratory space resembling a family room. For half of the hour, an adult-directed television program played in the background on a monaural television set. During the other half hour, the television was not on. Both the quantity and quality of parent-child interaction decreased in the presence of background television. These findings suggest one way in which early, chronic exposure to television may have a negative impact on development.

Risk factors for a suboptimal response to gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist trigger during in vitro fertilization cycles

OBJECTIVE To identify risk factors for a suboptimal response to gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist trigger in in vitro fertilization (IVF) cycles. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Academic medical center. PATIENT(S) All 424 patients undergoing fresh IVF cycles (n = 500) between August 2007 and June 2013 in whom a GnRH agonist was used as all or part of the ovulation trigger. INTERVENTION(S) GnRH-antagonist-based IVF cycles triggered with leuprolide acetate alone or in combination with low-dose human chorionic gonadotropin. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Suboptimal response to GnRH-agonist trigger, as defined by a serum luteinizing hormone (LH) level <15 mIU/mL on the morning after trigger. RESULT(S) The rate of suboptimal response to the GnRH-agonist trigger was 5.2%. Patients with a suboptimal hormone response had lower follicle-stimulating hormone (<0.1 vs. 3.48) and LH (<0.1 vs. 2.51) levels on day 2 of the cycle start, lower LH (0.109 vs. 0.596) on the day of trigger, and required longer stimulation and more gonadotropins than those with an adequate response. Suboptimal responders were also more likely to have irregular menses and be on long-term oral contraception. Patients with an undetectable LH on the day of trigger had a 25% chance of a suboptimal LH surge. In our study cohort, limiting the use of the GnRH-agonist trigger alone to patients with a trigger day LH ≥0.5 would have reduced the rate of suboptimal response from 5.2% to 0.2%. CONCLUSION(S) Long-term hormonal contraception use is an independent risk factor for suboptimal response to GnRH-agonist trigger. Patients with very low endogenous serum LH levels on the day of LH trigger are at increased risk for a suboptimal GnRH-agonist trigger response. Understanding the at-risk phenotype and using trigger day LH as a marker for increased risk of suboptimal GnRH-agonist trigger response can be helpful for individualizing treatment and selecting a safe and efficacious trigger medication for patients undergoing IVF.

External validity of a generic safety climate scale for lone workers across different industries and companies

PURPOSE The goal of this study was to examine the external validity of a 12-item generic safety climate scale for lone workers in order to evaluate the appropriateness of generalized use of the scale in the measurement of safety climate across various lone work settings. External validity evidence was established by investigating the measurement equivalence (ME) across different industries and companies. METHOD Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)-based and item response theory (IRT)-based perspectives were adopted to examine the ME of the generic safety climate scale for lone workers across 11 companies from the trucking, electrical utility, and cable television industries. RESULTS Fairly strong evidence of ME was observed for both organization- and group-level generic safety climate sub-scales. Although significant invariance was observed in the item intercepts across the different lone work settings, absolute model fit indices remained satisfactory in the most robust step of CFA-based ME testing. IRT-based ME testing identified only one differentially functioning item from the organization-level generic safety climate sub-scale, but its impact was minimal and strong ME was supported. IMPLICATIONS The generic safety climate scale for lone workers reported good external validity and supported the presence of a common feature of safety climate among lone workers. The scale can be used as an effective safety evaluation tool in various lone work situations.

A sociotechnical systems approach to enhance safety climate in the trucking industry: Results of an in-depth investigation

The purpose of this study was to develop a methodology that extends safety climate beyond an overall score by using the framework of macroergonomics to examine the entire system in a more comprehensive manner. The study is discussed in two papers: one paper describes the study methodology in detail (Murphy, Robertson, Huang, Jeffries, & Dainoff, in press), and the current paper describes the results of the study. Multiple methods were combined to create a systems approach, and those methods include the critical incident technique, contextual inquiries with functional role diagrams, and affinity mapping. Key informants in the trucking industry identified 19 themes that affect safety. The themes ranged from balancing work and family/personal time, the companys policy vs. practice, respecting the job of the driver, and active listening and meaningful feedback. The most prominent themes were related to the workers and their activities; the internal environment, including psychosocial job design elements; and organizational design. Such information can be used to design interventions to change the safety climate of an organization in order to reduce negative safety outcomes.

The Influence of Organizational Structure on Safety Climate in the Trucking Industry

While it has been well established that safety climate is a leading indicator of accidents and injuries, the antecedents of safety climate are rarely examined in the safety literature. Structural factors of an organization, like company size, haul type, and geographic location, may contribute to the perception workers have of their organization’s safety climate. Especially in the trucking industry, in which drivers work alone for long periods of time with little social interaction among coworkers and supervisors, it is important to understand different factors that will influence safety climate. Some understanding of which organizational characteristics impact safety climate may help organizations to focus on specific areas to counter the effects of structure in order to improve safety.

Designing an Organizational Readiness Survey for Total Worker Health® Workplace Initiatives

The aim of the present study was to develop a means to assess organizational readiness for a Total Worker Health® initiative, a comprehensive approach for improving employee safety health and wellbeing. A systematic literature review was conducted to integrate past multidisciplinary peer-reviewed theoretical and empirical work. Although the initial search of the organizational change literature revealed nearly 300,000 related titles, there was considerable conceptual ambiguity and only a limited number were focused on major occupational health and safety initiatives. A revised set of inclusion criteria identified 30 relevant publications that yielded the following eight key organizational characteristics and predictors: (1) culture, (2) communication, (3) leadership, (4) change history, (5) job design, (6) teams and relationships, (7) flexible organizational practices and policies, and (8) positive organizational climate. The findings from this review of the literature and our subsequent conceptual model provide the foundation for developing an organizational readiness assessment tool that researchers and practitioners will be able to use prior to implementing comprehensive workplace safety, health and wellbeing initiatives.

Association between positive and negative affect and musculoskeletal pain among US home health aides

ABSTRACT As the US population ages, there is an expected increase in demand for home health aides (HHAs); therefore, it is important to ensure their occupational well-being. Previous studies have demonstrated associations between negative emotions and musculoskeletal pain. Using survey data collected from 285 HHAs, we characterize the association between affect and musculoskeletal pain. Affect was measured using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule, while musculoskeletal pain was measured using the Brief Pain Inventory. We found that as positive affect composite score increased, musculoskeletal pain decreased [β = –0.57, t(124) = –7.01, p < .001]. There was no significant association between the negative affect composite score and musculoskeletal pain. However, several individual moods were associated with decreased or increased pain. These data suggest that some moods may buffer against musculoskeletal pain, while others may predispose HHAs to musculoskeletal pain.

Development and Validation of Safety Climate Scales for the Utility/Electric Power Industry

The purpose of the current study is to design reliable and valid safety climate scales for the utility/electric power industry. The scales have the following innovations: (a) industry-specific content regarding competing demands and design indicators tailored specifically to the utility/electric power industry in addition to general items across industries and (b) a multi-level approach affording individual respondents the opportunity to assess their perceptions of how immediate supervisors and higher level managers would react to specific safety climate issues–extending the multi-level approach to the remote-worker situation. Findings and implications are discussed.

Measurement Equivalence of Trucking Industry- Specific Safety Climate Scales

Precise measurement and understanding of employees’ safety climate perception is critical in promotion of a safe environment in an organization. The current study aimed at testing measurement equivalence (ME) of trucking industry-specific safety climate scales. ME refers to whether a psychological assessment system has consistent wording, scaling, and construct scoring across different measurement conditions and consequently can measure the same attributes. For both organization- and group-level safety climate scales, ME was supported to the configural, metric, and partial scalar invariance levels. The findings suggest that the safety climate scales’ measurement structure holds consistent meaning across different trucking companies and the scale scores can be used for comparison of safety climate across different companies and safety climate interventions.