Phase 4: Making the Decision to Accept a Job

This phase seemed to be the time when family members were least involved. Family members were influential in whether or not the individual chose to work, but less involved in the job search and helping a person decide whether to take a particular job. During Phase 4, family may be able to help make a job possible by supporting transportation, or helping the person make sure that a potential job would be a good fit.

Tips for families when supporting individuals to make a decision to accept a job:

Accepting a job is a choice. Help your family member make a list of the pros and cons for accepting a position s/he is considering. Some questions to think about:

• What about this job will make you happy?
• Is this job a good fit for your skills and your interests?
• What might be difficult about this job?
• How easy is it to get to? How will you get there?
• What other opportunities might this job lead you to?

Sometimes choosing to not take a job offer is the right thing. Be careful to keep all job options open.

Conclusion

Having family members involved is important throughout a person's life. In the early years, parents can introduce the idea of work, be role models, and set the expectation of work for the future. While a person is searching for a job, families can help them explore their options, extend their networks, and make informed decisions about jobs. This should be done together with employment staff. Acknowledging everyone's expertise and building relationships between the family, individual, and employment staff will help individuals to use all of the resources available to them to find meaningful and fulfilling jobs.

Rosenburg (1965) states that high self esteem consists of an individual

respecting himself and considering himself worthy. Low selfesteem consists of

self-dissatisfaction, self-rejection, and self-contempt in an individual (Gecas &

Schwalbe, 1986). Parental behavior has been reported to relate to a child's self

esteem and is known to be as one of the reactions or consequences of

psychological maltreatment (Gross & Keller, 1992). Hart and Brassard (1987)

Abuse Consequences 6

suggest that psychological maltreatment is associated with many other

consequences such as emotional maladjustment, dependency, depression, suicide,

aggression, and conduct disorders. A discussion on several of these consequences

will be discussed in a later section. Rohner and Rohner (1980) also agree that

emotionally abusive behaviors will lower a child's self esteem, self-adequacy, and

sense ofself-worth (Nicholas & Bieber, 1996). According to Gross and Keller

(1992), children considered to be psychologically abused showed signs of

depression and low esteem. The results of their study also indicated that children

exposed to psychological abuse experience depression and lower self esteem in

adulthood.

Evidence suggests that parental loving behaviors such as support,

acceptance, and nurturance build a child's selfesteem and sense of competence

(Gecas & Schwalbe, 1986; Buri, Kirchner, & Walsh, 1987). Parental acceptance,

approval, and support are significantly important in the development of American

children's self esteem. (Buri et aI., 1987). Gender differences associated with

these issues have been found. When a child is being abused either by a mother or

father, the child will view the mother as being a failure in providing protection

and nurturance. They will not view the father this way even if he is the

perpetrator (Nicholas & Bieber, 1996). Boys' self esteem has been found to

mainly be affected by parental support, especially ofthe father. Girls' self esteem

seems to be most strongly affected by parental support, that of both the mother

and the father (Gecas & Schwalbe, 1986). It is surprising that selfesteem of

adolescent boys is more affected than girls by parental behaviors. Also the

finding that fathers have a greater influence than mothers on adolescent self

esteem is interesting (Gecas & Schwalbe, 1986). Loving and emotionally abusive

parental behaviors have also been found to influence the amount of hostility,

Abuse Consequences 7

anger, shame, and aggression a child possesses (Hoglund & Nicholas, 1995;

Rohner & Rohner, 1980).

Emotional Abuse and Shame Guilt Anger and Hostility

Individuals who report high levels of emotional abuse, report higher levels

of shame (Hoglund & Nicholas, 1995). Feelings ofshame may consist of viewing

the self as inferior or helpless. In their study, Hoglund and Nicholas (1995) found

that even individuals experiencing low levels of emotional abuse experienced

significant levels ofshame. No significant relationship was found between guilt

and emotional abuse. Emotional abuse was also found to be related to hostility,

anger, and aggression. Individuals exposed to high emotional abuse scored higher

on hostility and expressed their anger covertly: either physically or verbally

(Hoglund & Nicholas, 1995). In contrast, Briere and Runtz (1990) did not find

evidence that emotional abuse was related to aggression and anger. Even low

levels of emotional abuse result in hostility (Nicholas & Bieber, 1995). A

rejected or emotionally abused child tends to be more hostile and aggressive than

an accepted child (Rohner & Rohner, 1980).

Date: 2015-12-17; view: 1060