We conducted this realist evaluation study of an organizational health intervention involving 421 low-skilled workers (50% female), half of whom were immigrants, in three companies over six months. Non-profit agencies implemented peer-mentoring and taught peer-mentors and line managers how to enhance social support in order to improve workers’ work situation in a participative way. We formulated five mechanisms of change: the company management encouragement mechanism, the role model mechanism, the peer-mentor support mechanism, the line manager support mechanism, and the participative work improvement mechanism. We combined realist evaluation with a quasi-experimental design and process evaluation in a multi-methods approach. Results of multiple group latent change models and qualitative research showed that intervention-group workers perceived increases in peer-mentor support but not in line manager support. Peer-mentors managed to initiate high-quality improvements at work. Intervention-group workers showed significant reductions in blood pressure. Control-group workers experienced more psychosomatic complaints over time in significant contrast to intervention-group workers. Our results suggest that peer-mentoring offers an effective way for low-skilled workers and immigrants to achieve better health. To improve such health effects, a greater focus on line managers’ work situations is needed to help them provide support.

Differences in physical aggression among 114 male !Kung San (bushmen) from Namibia were investigated with regard to sex hormone levels, body dimensions, consumption of alcohol, and degree of acculturation. Subjects were classified from injuries resulting from prior conflicts with mutual physical aggression between the opponents as either violent or nonviolent. The comparison of mean sex hormone values (total serum testosterone, Tser; serum 5α‐dihydrotestosterone, DHT; serum estradiol 17β, E2; “free,” non‐SHBG‐bound salivary testosterone, Tsal) and hormone ratios (Tsal/Tser; DHT/Tser) did not yield any significant differences between the violent and nonviolent group. However, correlation coefficients of sex hormone levels with the frequency of violent behavior within the group of physically aggressive San men were significantly positive for DHT, Tsal, and Tsal/Tser (P < .05) while Tser, E2, and DHT/Tser showed only weak positive correlations. Moreover, the violent men exhibit higher mean values in certain measures of physical robustness which may point to a possible pathway of indirect androgen action on human aggression. When the probands were classified according to their drinking habits, usually abstinent men had shown significantly less violent behavior in the past than men who habitually consume alcohol.

SummaryThe study examines the impact of body build on differential fertility patterns in 93 !Kung San and 85 Kavango females from northern Namibia. In both groups shorter females had more offspring, but also more dead offspring, than taller females. The interaction between body weight and fertility was different in both groups and may be due to different nursing behaviour. There was a positive relationship between the typical pedomorphy and fertility in the! Kung San, and directional selection processes may be important.

In this study, the authors analyze leadership behaviors as potential health-promoting resources for low-skilled workers in a highly culturally diverse work setting. The authors hypothesize that subordinates' and supervisors' individual power distance orientations will moderate the effect of subordinates' perceptions of leadership behavior and the subsequent effects on their well-being. Multilevel modeling is used to analyze a sample of data from 474 low-skilled employees (50% immigrants) and 35 direct supervisors from three German companies. Supporting the hypotheses, social support, task-related communication, and positive feedback, as expressions of esteem, are found to positively impact subordinates' well-being, but individual consideration shows no significant effects. Furthermore, results confirm that supervisors' power distance orientation moderates employees' perceptions about supervisors' positive feedback and the subsequent well-being effects. The moderating effect fails to hold for employees' power distance orientation. Results indicate that supervisors can most effectively promote the health of low-skilled workers by showing esteem through positive feedback, but if the supervisor has high individual power distance orientation, the effect is attenuated.

About 16% of the German workforce is low skilled (Lyly-Yrjänäinen, 2008), including formally qualified employees who work in positions that do not require formal training. These educated employees in the low-skilled workforce are often immigrants with meager German language skills or workers who lack an occupational qualification that is accepted in Germany. Therefore, low-skilled workforces are characterized by a high proportion of immigrant workers (Hoppe, 2011;Seebaß & Siegert, 2011). On the other hand, workers who have completed their vocational educations are also often employed in low-skilled jobs due to poor employment opportunities in their regular professions. Low-skilled jobs have comparatively unfavorable general working conditions such as high physical demands, job insecurity, rotating shift work, and time pressure (e.g.,