news 2014

Almost 31 million days of work were lost last year due to back, neck and muscle problems The University of Liverpool and the University of Southampton have announced a major new research centre to tackle the impact of musculoskeletal disorders on people's ability to work. Researchers at the £1.4m Arthritis Research UK/MRC Centre for Musculoskeletal  Health and Work aim to find cost-effective ways of reducing the impact of conditions that affect the muscles, joints and bones on people's employment and productivity.

A study led by Oxford University shows that, contrary to what is widely supposed, there has been no decline in social mobility in Britain over recent decades but rather than going up as in the past, more of us are moving down the social ladder. The study by Oxford University, with the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, is published in the early online issue of the British Journal of Sociology .

Enhancing and Embedding Staff Engagement in the NHS: Putting Theory into Practice The NHS has published today, 3 November 2014, a series of engagement guides and a toolkit on enhancing and embedding staff engagement, which stem from a research project led by Prof Katie Bailey. The project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research, undertook a rapid review of the evidence-base relating to employee engagement.

Press release issued: 22 October 2014 Those who self-harm as teenagers are more at risk of developing mental health and substance misuse problems as adults, new research from the biggest study of its kind in the UK has revealed. Researchers at the University of Bristol, working together with colleagues from the University of Oxford and University College London, collected data from 4,799 adolescents as part of Children of the 90s - one of the world's largest population studies - to examine the outcomes of self-harm for the first time.

Research by the University of Liverpool suggests that, contrary to popular opinion, it can be good to feel bad at work, whilst feeling good in the workplace can also lead to negative outcomes. In a Special Issue published in Human Relations , Dr Dirk Lindebaum from the University's Management School , together with his co-author Professor Peter Jordan, developed a new line of study, and commissioned research to further explore the role of emotions in the workplace.

Research shows that a mother's self-identity impacts on the amount of time her partner spends on childcare - with strong professional identity in women creating a more equal childcare balance in a couple. A father's self-identity, however, has no bearing on a mother's time with children.

The Beatles' song A Hard Day's Night was released 50 years ago today. Its runaway success in the charts overlapped with a major sociological study of the newly-affluent working class that features in Lennon and McCartney's lyrics. Cambridge historian Dr Jon Lawrence discusses what this study reveals about perceptions of class identity in 1960s Britain.

In what's thought to be the biggest review of academic literature into whether home care visits provide benefits for the elderly, researchers conclude there is 'no consistent evidence' to show they lead to the elderly living longer or having more independent lives than those without any visits.

In what's thought to be the biggest review of academic literature into whether home visits provide benefits for the elderly, researchers conclude there is 'no consistent evidence' to show they lead to the elderly living longer or having more independent lives than those without any visits. Researchers from University College London (UCL) and the University of Oxford analysed 64 randomised controlled trials (RCTs), mainly in the United States, Canada and the UK.

An abundance of the sex hormone testosterone is associated with being self-employed, a study from the University of Birmingham, University of Surrey and the University of Adelaide study has found. Researchers from the three universities found that in a study of Australian men, those individuals with higher testosterone levels were more likely to be self-employed than either employed or not working.

Lesbian, gay and bisexual workers are more than twice as likely to experience discrimination at work as their heterosexual colleagues, a national study has revealed. More than 1,200 employees were interviewed by academics from Plymouth University and the Manchester Business School, with the results showing one in 10 LGBs had been subjected to discrimination in the last 12 months, as opposed to one in 20 heterosexuals.

Child victims of online sexual abuse may not be getting the right protection or support because training for child workers has not kept pace with technological advances, according to new research out today. A survey of health, education and children’s services workers across England revealed a black hole in the knowledge and capabilities of professionals charged with assisting children who have been abused through the internet.