Divine relations, social relations, and well-being

The social support literature focuses on the effects of networks composed of "real" or concrete individuals on psychological well-being. Persons interact in imagination, however, with a wide range of others who may or may not actually exist. In modern societies as in traditional societies, persons experience, interact with, and appeal to spiritual or divine beings. Using data from the NORC General Social Survey, this study examines the extent to which relationships with "divine others" affect psychological well-being. Regression analysis reveals that divine relationships have a significant effect on several measures of well-being (controlling for sociodemographic background variables and church attendance). Hypotheses regarding the impact of stress, social relationships, cognitive resources, and images of the divine on the effect of divine relationships are also considered.     

Surviving the swamp: Using cognitive behavioural therapy in a social work setting

This paper explores the attempts of an adolescent support team working for South Gloucestershire Social Services, to integrate Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) into its practice. We explain how we, as a team, undertook a year-long course of study in CBT and discuss the advantages and difficulties we encountered. Then, beginning with a case study, we draw out the limitations of trying to use CBT in a social work setting. We focus specifically on how the complications of wider family systems will often compromise individual therapeutic work with young people and conclude that a more pragmatic approach to CBT is required in social work, rather than attempts to replicate work carried out in the clinical setting.     

Young people,social workers and social work education: the role of digital skills

ABSTRACT

This paper addresses a key issue in the development of youth-focused social work: the role of digital skills in the relationship between young people and social workers who work with these native digital users. To this end, we analysed data from the International Digital Economy and Society Index 2019 and Eurostat. Information from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey and a survey conducted by the Social Care Institute for Excellence and the British Association of Social Workers supported the empirical analysis. The main findings reveal a gap between the level of digital skills required in the labour market and the actual level of digital skills in both young people and social workers, despite efforts by both groups to improve their skills. Initiatives to foster digital skills are therefore recommended to bridge this digital divide. Lastly, it was concluded that both groups could act as mutual drivers of digital transformation.     

The social contract revisited: a re-examination of the influence individualistic and collectivistic value systems have on the psychological wellbeing of young people

ABSTRACT

The prevalence of psychological health problems experienced by young people living in Western societies is increasing. Evidence suggests the cultural dynamism of individualism may play a role in this, but this evidence is conflicting. Here, we focus on both the concepts of individualism and collectivism, distinguishing between their horizontal and vertical dimensions. We examine the influence of these dimensions on the psychological wellbeing of a sample of 507 Australian emerging adults (aged 18–25). We found that orientations towards vertical (but not horizontal) individualism predicted lower levels of psychological wellbeing, while orientations towards horizontal (but not vertical) collectivism predicted higher psychological wellbeing. These findings add clarity to the way in which key Western social values play an understated role in the increasing prevalence of psychological health problems experienced by young people today. They also provide an understanding of how various traits embedded within these concepts relate to psychological wellbeing.     

Unemployment and Identity in Adolescence: A Social Comparison Perspective

This study (a) assesses whether employed young people, unemployed school-leavers, and unemployed young people who have working experience differ in their psychological well-being, that is stress, depression, and general feelings of happiness; (b) examines the effects of these three work conditions on development and structure of identity; and (c) investigates the effects of identity structure on psychological well-being. The favorability hypothesis of social comparison theory seems fit to explain the relation between identity structure and psychological well-being.     

Young people and social networking sites: exploring the views and training opportunities of CAMHS social workers in Ireland

ABSTRACT

Social Networking Sites (SNS) (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) have become a fundamental part of the daily lives of many young people. SNS engagement has been associated with a number of risks and benefits, some of which are particularly relevant to young people who access child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Consequently, understanding how and why young people engage with SNS, and the associated risks and benefits, may become an increasingly important part of CAMHS social work.

This small-scale study (n = 15) utilised an online survey to explore the importance that a sample of Irish CAMHS social workers attribute to maintaining an awareness of how young people use SNS, whether they, in their professional lives, have been offered the opportunity to learn about SNS engagement among young people, and whether they have taken it upon themselves to learn about this topic.

Findings suggest that participants consider an understanding of SNS to be an important part of CAMHS practice. However, participants report that they do not feel sufficiently aware of SNS trends among young people, suggesting that there is scope for SNS-focused training/learning opportunities among this sample of CAMHS social workers. Implications for practice and suggestions for future research are outlined.     

青年压力来源与社会支持系统优化策略

现代社会给青年提供了前所未有的发展机遇，也使青年承受着超出以往任何时代的生存压力．2011年，对山东城市在业青年进行的社会心态调查显示：当前青年的压力主要来自经济压力、工作压力、子女教育压力三个方面。研究表明：传统的家庭支持系统是青年应对经济压力和人生重大选择的主要支持力量，非正式社会支持系统和家庭共同构成青年情感支持的主要力量，正式的社会支持系统对青年的支持作用尚未得到充分发挥。建立相对完备的社会支持系统，需要从社会保障、组织覆盖、舆论影响、心理疏导等方面提升优化。     

Social housing mediation: education path for social workers

ABSTRACT

Social mediation constitutes an alternative method to legal proceedings, providing effective support for the management and resolution of the most common types of conflicts between individuals, within families and among neighbours, as well as other types of disputes that can arise from interactions between people. Over the last 20 years, urban areas in Italy with high concentrations of public housing have gradually become zones of social disadvantage in which conflict is widespread, due to a number of different factors. On the local level, some municipalities have started promoting innovative initiatives, thanks in part to the sharing of successful practices, both nationally and internationally. This paper presents the methodology and results of an innovative intervention of social mediation in public housing contexts, carried out in a number of municipalities in the Marche Region with financing provided under two projects of the European Fund for the Integration of non-EU Immigrants. Particular attention is given to training courses for social workers, as well as to actions carried out in public housing neighbourhoods, together with the public housing tenants, in order to manage the various issues related to housing and to prevent and deal with conflicts by reinforcing relations between neighbours.     

Facets of dispositional mindfulness versus sources of social support predicting college students’ psychological adjustment

Abstract

Objective: This study examined the relative contribution of five dispositional mindfulness (DM) facets and two aspects of social support along with sex in predicting psychological adjustment. Participants: Three hundred fifty-three undergraduates (72% female; M?=?18.82?years) participated with data collected from September 2014 through March 2016. Methods: Self-report measures of DM, social support, perceived stress, and emotional well-being were completed. Results: Sex and higher scores on specific mindfulness facets (ie, nonreactivity, nonjudging) predicted lower stress and greater emotional well-being. Higher family support predicted lower stress, whereas friend support predicted greater emotional well-being. The mindfulness facets were stronger predictors of adjustment than the social support domains. Females reported higher perceived stress and lower emotional well-being than males, and males scored significantly higher on total mindfulness, nonjudging, and nonreactivity. Conclusions: Results have implications for mindfulness-based interventions with college students such that focusing on the nonjudging and nonreactivity facets may enhance effectiveness.     

The social reality of youth and social work: between visibility and invisibility

ABSTRACT

Social work has a long history of study and intervention in at-risk or vulnerable groups. Due to their diversity, the visibility or invisibility of such groups has varied over the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The work presented here is focused on determining the place youth occupies in social work as a field of study and intervention. Demographic reality has shown a decreasing attention to young people when compare to other age groups, while its social relevance has been maintained or even increased. However, their social situation does not seem to be in accordance with this statement. Such imbalance may be the baseline of the actual-limited recognition of youth in current welfare policies, and with them, of Social Work. To confirm this loss of representation, International Social Work conferences were examined. Research lines, thematic areas and intervention models on youth were gathered as well as scientific work from two databases. The presented results show how social work, without losing its primary focus on social exclusion maintains a line of work with youth, but still understanding it as a problem rather than a resource.     

Relationship-based thinking and practice in social work

Abstract

Relationships with the users of social work are increasingly seen in procedural, legal and administrative terms. However, research studies examining both client satisfaction and intervention effectiveness regularly find that the psychosocial qualities of the worker-client relationship are a major component in the success or otherwise of the service offered. The case is made that the psychological selves of both practitioners and users acquire many of their characteristics, including personality, esteem, efficacy and defensive behaviours, within relationships throughout the lifespan. The level of social understanding and social competence that people develop depends on the quality of their relationship history. If poor relationships are where psychosocial competences go awry, then good relationships are where they are likely to recover. This observation has major implications for the quality, character and skill of the relationship experiences offered to clients by social workers     

The role of the partner in social support networks in Spain

Social support influences the subject’s well-being through various mechanisms. Literature shows that the partner is one of the main sources of social support. Nevertheless, sometimes people do not ask their partners first for help. Our aim is to determine what factors (values related to the family, personal characteristics and availability of resources) influence this decision. We use Spanish representative samples from International Social Survey Programme (2001) and Spain’s Center for Sociological Research (2010). Data show that family solidarity is widespread in Spanish society. The determinants for not turning first to the partner are the availability and frequent contact with immediate kin, whereas family values and personal characteristics are less relevant.     

'Tell me in your own words': disabling barriers and social exclusion in young persons

This article summarizes two research studies carried out in the University of Cantabria and the University of Sevilla with young persons at risk of social exclusion (underprivileged socio-economic groups, ethnic/cultural minorities and disabled people). We uphold the need to study exclusion as a socially constructed process, which allows us to discuss barriers to social participation (following the social model of disability) while ruling out the essentialist and psychological explanations of inequality and social oppression. We aim to know the barriers young persons have encountered in social and school participation through their own words. We have used several biographical/narrative techniques which have an emancipating interest. Such techniques allow us to learn from the discourses of the young women or men that participated in the research and to discover the fundamental milestones that have shaped their excluded identities.     

Characteristics of social smoking among college students

Social smoking is a newly identified phenomenon in the young adult population that is poorly understood. We investigated differences in social smoking (smoking most commonly while partying or socializing) and other smoking within a convenience sample of college smokers (n = 351) from a large midwestern university. Results revealed that 70% of 351 current (past 30-day) smokers reported social smoking. No significant difference was found in motivation to quit between smoking groups. However, a significant difference was found between groups in confidence to quit, the number of days smoked, and the number of cigarettes smoked on those days. More social smokers than expected did not perceive themselves as smokers. Logistic regression analysis revealed that lower physical and psychological dependence and higher social support scores predicted social smoking.     

Analysis of social innovation on social networking services

ABSTRACT

Social network services are allowing more social connectivity and making possible sharing information and knowledge of a different nature. This article analyses if social workers related to active social policies from Malaga province (Spain) are using social network services to share information and knowledge and if there is a mirror between online and offline relationships. Since it is an experimental model, through virtual ethnography and through social network analysis methodology, we observed the presence, connectivity and analysed the structure of relationships that keep 235 professionals from 52 organizations in Facebook®. Moreover, the model uses the statistical technique of modularity for detecting online communities, which are compared with distribution of professionals in their organizations. Results show how social network services applied to social intervention are massively and frequently used by professionals. On the other hand, the detected communities reflect existence of analogy between online and offline relationships. The online structure shows a high degree of cohesion and how certain professionals have higher capacity of influence and diffusion depending on position in the online structure. It argues about the opportunity to incorporate social network services towards social intervention as a manner of social innovation to improve cooperation and diffusion of information and knowledge.     

The role of social networks in the care of young children

SUMMARY. From birth, children develop, play and work within extensive social networks; yet little systematic research has been carried out to examine these relationships. This article summarises findings about the network relationships of young children from a study undertaken to explore the diverse ways in which their parents made childcare and babysitting arrangements. The different experiences of the children were found to be closely linked to parental beliefs and values, as well as the nature of the local neighbourhoods and network patterns. They were also associated with varied evolutionary sequences in the social relationships of both adults and children     

Let's do it! Advocacy,young people and social work education

This paper evaluates a pilot project that aimed to promote the participation of young people in the education and training of social care professionals. An accredited training programme for young people was developed and delivered. The young people involved then participated as educators in a Diploma in Social Work programme. The paper draws on the experiences of project staff, the young people and the social work students, and locates its analysis within the literature on citizenship, children's rights, advocacy and empowerment.     

Belonging to the library: humanising the space for social work education

Abstract

This article describes the running of four Living Libraries on a UK postgraduate social work course. A Living Library is a metaphoric remodelling of a conventional library where people, as authors of their experiences, provide specialist knowledge based on authorial areas of expertise. In the Living Libraries discussed here, ‘Living Books’ carried stories of social work—their narratives were of lived experiences as people using social care services; as carers in personal relationships with others who use social care services; or, as social work practitioners. The focus of this article is on those Living Libraries involving the participation of the first two of these groups. Drawing on social psychology, phenomenology and human geography, we propose that a Living Library can act as a connective space within social work education by engendering a discursive forum where all participants—people with experiences of services, students, practitioners and social work educators—are given both the freedom and obligation to talk openly about their differential experiences, fears and hopes for social work. Through this process, opportunities are created to consider how improvements that meet all stakeholders’ interests may be achieved.     

Adolescents from Stepfamilies,Single-Parent Families and (In) Stable Intact Families in The Netherlands

This aiticle 'examines the effects on intimate relation- ships, relational attitudes, and well-being of growing up in: stepfami- lies after divorce, single-parent families, instable intact families, and stable intact families. Data are used from the national panel study USAD (Utrecht Study of Adolescence Development), a study of de- velopments as they occur in the life course of young people during h e 1990s. Results are presented from 2,064 respondents between 15 and 25 years of age, about their well-being and their development in inti- mate relationships and their views on (marriage) relationships. On a number of topics their parents are interviewed as well. From the analysis, it is clear that young people who lived in single- parent families and in stepfamilies significantly differ from young people who lived in stable intact families. Young people from single- parent families are more likely to start their relational career sooner and reported more problems with intimate relations than youngsters from stable intact families. Youngsters from stepfamilies have more modem views on relations than people from intact families. Adolescents from instable intact families have moderate scores. Most of these effects re- main when the results are adjustdfor differences in social class, family income and the parental views on family life.