Burnout is a condition that exacts a heavy toll on organizational effectiveness. Conditions that contribute to burnout in human service organizations are lack of funds, lack of flexibility, lack of decision-making power of middle managers, task overload, little recognition for efforts, and nature of client population. Strategies to prevent burnout…

Do depressed people interpret guilt-provoking situations differently than nondepressed people? Cognitive-behavioral theories of psychopathology would predict that they do, since a major premise of such theories is that maladaptive emotional patterns are mirrored in distinct cognitive responses. Highly depressed subjects in an exploratory study of…

This paper describes the use of loss workshops in the classroom to address the needs of students experiencing grief from loss, as a result of death, divorce, relocation, or other severed relationships. The goals of the Loss program are briefly reviewed, i.e., to facilitate acceptance of loss, and to promote personal growth and mental health.…

The role played by stress in the prognosis of schizophrenia is not entirely clear. It has been suggested that high premorbid stress levels before first-time psychiatric admission for schizophrenia will be related to better outcome. Subjects, first-time psychiatric admissions classified as schizophrenic by either Schneider's First Rank Symptoms,…

The phenomenon of "burn-out" is most frequently experienced by people who, in the course of their jobs, work with other people such as students, patients, or clients in situations that involve intense personal interaction. The complex symptoms of the burn-out syndrome are described in this paper. The most common of these symptoms is a change of…

Burnout in education is described in terms of system stress. Systems and their relationships are viewed at four levels: somatic, psychological, social, and cultural. "Burnout" is defined as a reduction of the function of an organism or living system. Changes in the state of a system create increased demands for adaptation. Stress is a general…

This collection of 11 articles focuses on various kinds of change that children face, and ways that adults can help nurture the development of coping strategies. Situations of change covered are crises of death, divorce, imprisonment, or hospitalization of family members, new environments such as entering school, the birth of a new sibling, and…

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the relationship between self-esteem and achievement and to explain why changes in self-esteem have not resulted in changes in achievement. It is postulated that self-esteem affects achievement indirectly through the medium of coping skills. Data from a study of 1657 students in 53 sixth grade classrooms in…

Critical assumptions affecting the design of research and intervention for single-parent, mother-headed families of handicapped children involve: extent of father involvement; contribution to child-rearing of persons other than parents; socioeconomic differences between one-parent and two-parent families; heterogeneity of single-parent families;…

High-masculinity subjects, compared to low-masculinity persons, scored significantly lower on self-report measures of depression, state anxiety, and trait anxiety. No differences in distress were found as a function of sex or of the femininity dimension. High-masculine subjects also rated their problem-solving ability as more effective.…

Spouses and adult children caring for their frail aged have been largely overlooked by the human services community, often experiencing feelings of alienation, helplessness, and frustration while shouldering their caregiving burdens. Describes the development of a video outreach Family Training and Guidance Program in Israel which has created…

A discussion of some of the problems teacher supervisors face includes a description of some of the coping strategy skills they employ (staging, screening, signaling, and systems) and suggests that the problems supervisors typically face must be considered when assigning personnel to field supervision or preparing supervisors. (CB)

A study of 34 lesbian women in an informal helping network in a rural community found that nearly half were uninvolved in heterosexual social networks. For help with personal problems, respondents turned to other lesbian women and nongay friends who knew of their affectional status. (JHZ)

Proposes a time management framework for those working within social service institutions such as schools. Explains three sequential and interdependent groups of recommendations: (1) self-awareness and self-discipline; (2) organizational awareness and a synchronization of both the institution and the individual; and (3) planning, timetabling,…

After summarizing research into the sources and correlates of teacher stress, this article defines and proposes a model of work-related stress in school, incorporating current concepts and research findings. Strategies for coping with the buildup of environmental stressors are developed for application at various administrative levels within the…