Migrant workers trapped between individualism and collectivism: The formation of union-based workplace collectivism

Transnational labour migration challenges collectivism as well as migrant workers’ labour market rights, due to employers’ strategies such as segregating workers, and the migrant workers’ individualistic strategies. This article, arguing that there are no intrinsic impediments to creating (instrumental) collectivist solutions encompassing both migrants and host-country workers, develops a dynamic, conceptual framework of four preconditions – workers’ closeness, feeling of unity, shared problem perception and reference groups – which are necessary for migrant workers to develop collective labour market strategies. The article then utilises the framework in three empirical cases to illustrate how the framework, combined with union strategies, helps explain the different degrees of migrant workers’ labour market inclusion and to help understand why gaps between migrant workers and host-country workers may form.

Influences on help-seeking decisions for behavioral child sleep problems: Why parents do and do not seek help

Objectives: Behavioral sleep problems affect 25% of children and impact functioning, but little is known about help-seeking for these problems. We identified (1) predictors for sleep problem perception and help-seeking, using nested-logit regression and (2) reasons why parents did not seek professional help for sleep problems, using chi-square. Methods: Parents ( N = 407) of children (2–10-years-old) completed the study online. Parents indicated whether their child had no sleep problem, a mild problem, or a moderate-to-severe problem and completed additional questionnaires on parent/child functioning. Results: Overall, 5.4% ± 2.2% of parents sought professional help for a child sleep problem. Greater child sleep problem severity and greater child socioemotional problems were significant predictors of parents perceiving a sleep problem. Among parents who perceived a sleep problem, greater parental socioemotional problems significantly predicted professional help-seeking. Parents who perceived no problem or a mild sleep problem reported not needing professional help as the main reason for not seeking help; parents who perceived a moderate-to-severe problem reported logistic barriers most often (e.g. treatment unavailability, cost). Conclusions: Problem perception and help-seeking predictors resemble the children’s mental health literature. Differences in barriers, based on problem severity, suggest differential help-seeking interventions are needed (e.g. education vs access).

DESIGN PROBLEM PERCEPTION IN ENGINEERING DESIGN TEAMS

– Engineering design is a decision making process that needs a good perception of the design problem to be solved. Design problems are usually solved in a team. Teams need the existence of a good design problem perception to create design solutions. This study provides an approach for elaborating a descriptive model to describe how the perception process works within a design team. This study is going to propose an approach for integrating a theoretical model of design creativity with team mental models, so they can be used for elaborating the descriptive model of perception in design teams. The NSERC Chair in Aerospace Design Engineering (NCADE) at Concordia University holds a capstone project which will be considered to be used as a test bed for validating proposed model through experimental analysis. Proposed experiments and further research are introduced at the end of paper.

Environmental Problem Perception of 6th Grade Students

This study aims to examine and compare the 6th grade students’ perception of environmental issues through different techniques. For this purpose, we have tried to establish the students' perception of environmental issues by studying the pictures they drew and the written texts they wrote. In this study, where we have conducted with 62 students in two different secondary schools in Duzce central during the 1st semester of the 2014-2015 academic year, we have employed a phenomenological pattern. The obtained data has been analyzed using content analysis method. As a result of the study, the themes of air pollution, water pollution, soil pollution, visual pollution, endangerment of species, noise pollution, natural disasters, biological pollution and radioactive pollution in the students’ perception of environmental issues have been identified. When the themes of environmental problems, obtained through two different techniques, have been compared, it has been established that the number of themes expressed in the written texts were higher than the ones in the pictures.