The aim of this study was to examine laissez-faire leadership as a predictor of role ambiguity in the workplace. It also endeavoured to uncover whether occupational self-efficacy and competence uncertainty moderated this relationship. In a sample of 386 Norwegian employees who were also students at Folkeuniversitetet, laissez-faire leadership showed a significant association with role ambiguity. Hierarchical multiple regression was used in the analysis of the possible moderating effects occupational self-efficacy and competence uncertainty had on this relationship. We found a significant interaction effect of occupational self-efficacy on the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity. Specifically, the positive relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity proved stronger at low levels of occupational self-efficacy. Contrary to our predictions, the analysis showed no significant interaction effect of competence uncertainty on the same relationship. Demonstrating that the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role ambiguity can be moderated by individual characteristics asserts the need for further research on how organisations can establish measures to strengthen employees’ personal resources, in addition to preventing the occurrence of laissez-faire leadership.

Why do victims of different sorts of sexual harassment and abuse feel shame? In this essay, I apply the autoethnographic method to reflect on the debate about the #MeToo movement in Norway. Using my personal experiences and practice as a social worker and my interaction with other women who have taken part in the #MeToo movement, I reflect on the different aspects in the debate that can lead to shamefulness for the victims. Women bear the responsibility for being harassed or assaulted in cultures characterized by male dominance in a number of areas. Women have themselves to blame when they are victimized. In such a climate, victims seem to harbor a sense of shame when they don’t manage to avoid harassment. Blame and shame switch from the harasser to the victim. This essay contributes new knowledge and insight through experiences with sexual harassment and storytelling in the #MeToo movement.

This article is based on a qualitative research project examining collaboration among practitioners in Norwegian substance use services. Even if the need for interprofessional collaboration is thoroughly described in white papers, research, and the governmental Escalation Plan for substance use services in Norway, little knowledge exists about how professionals experience collaboration. Therefore, our research question was: “How do practitioners experience interprofessional collaboration within substance use services?” The project consisted of semi-structured interviews with five professionals. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyze the data, and four findings were identified: (1) energy and discomfort, (2) problematic organizational structures, (3) closeness and distance in relation to service users, and (4) the experienced collaborator. The discussion is based on Norwegian guidelines as well as systemic and social constructionist theory. This research gives insights into not only the current status of collaborative practice in substance use services but also facilitators and barriers for collaborative practice that may be universal or contextual.»/><meta name=

Musicians report a considerably higher prevalence of insomnia symptoms compared to community samples in the general workforce. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between insomnia and health, work-related, and lifestyle factors among musicians. A total of 645 full-time musicians completed a questionnaire measuring insomnia symptoms: personality, psychosocial factors (perceived job demands, job control, effort-reward imbalance, and general social support), and lifestyle (smoking, marijuana use, alcohol use, and physical activity). Multiple regression analysis showed that higher scores on neuroticism and extraversion and on perception of greater work demands were positively related to insomnia symptoms. In contrast, the experience of social support was negatively related to insomnia symptoms in the final model. In sum, neuroticism was the single strongest variable associated with insomnia. Extraversion, however, also seemed to add something unique to the explanation of insomnia among full-time musicians when controlling for work environment variables. Moreover, demands and social support may be more important for musicians’ sleep than control and effort-reward imbalance. Given that our study is cross-sectional, longitudinal studies are still needed to clarify the causal relationships among personal, psychosocial, and lifestyle variables and insomnia.

The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes toward and experience with kinky sexual activities in younger adults in Norway. In 2013, the polling organization Ipsos MMI sent an online questionnaire survey to a representative national web sample of 2,090 persons aged 18–29 years. Of those polled, 27.2% responded (n = 568). Sixty-two percent reported no kinky sexual experience, 20.8% had experienced one such activity, 10.4% took part in two such activities, and 6.4% had participated in three such activities. The most commonly reported activities were bondage (27.5%), sex that includes consensual roughness and/or pain (18.1%), and sexual role play (15.5%), herein defined as the three dependent variables. Hierarchical regression analyses were carried out to study the relationship between the three different lifetime experiences of kinky sexual activity and social background factors (step 1), attitudes towards different expressions of sexuality (step 2), and previous sexual experience (step 3). Social background variables explained a small percentage of the variance in all three dependent variables. In step 2, attitudes contributed significantly to the prediction for all three dependent variables after controlling for social background. An additional 15.1% of sexual role play experience, 22.1% of bondage experience, and 27.9% of experience with consensual dominance and submission was thus explained. Previous sexual behavior (step 3) added significantly to the percentage of explained variance for all three dependent variables. The included predictors explained 22.5% of the variance in experience with sexual role play, 30.2% of the bondage experience, and 35.5% of the variance in dominance and submission games. Kinky sexual activities generally seem quite common in and accepted by Norwegian young adults.

Few studies have examined the long-term mental health effects of loss of a child in a terror attack. This longitudinal study examined the level of self-reported posttraumatic stress reactions, complicated grief reactions, and functional impairment among parents bereaved by the mass shooting at Utoya Island in 2011. The findings show an overall slight reduction in both posttraumatic stress and complicated grief from 18 to 40 months after the attack. Mothers show a slower recovery than fathers do. At 40 months, the majority still scored above the cutoff for probable posttraumatic stress disorder and/or complicated grief. Also, half of the parents reported that they were either partly or totally out of work at 40 months post loss and had significantly reduced social functioning. Potential explanations of these findings are discussed.

A program that included three types of interventions in separate modules was developed to reduce the negative effects of complicated grief. Since the participating support organizations would not allow randomization to an intervention and control group, the design is a pre-post test design without a control group. Ninety-three parents who lost a child to different causes took part in the first module, where information on normal reactions to grief was in focus. Based on the selection criteria (cut-off scores on certain measures), 37 participants were offered the second module: therapeutic weekend gatherings. The analyses are based on the 21 people who agreed to participate. The last module, individual psychotherapy, was offered to the 11 participants with the highest level of traumatic grief and psychic distress, and eight accepted. Participants answered the Impact of Event Scale (IES), the Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) before the first module, within a few weeks of completing the second module and nine months after the second module. Scores on all measures dropped significantly from the first to the second measurement, and some scores dropped from the second to the third. It was concluded that participation in the intervention probably led to the decline in psychological symptoms.