Self-efficacy and psychological well-being of nursing home residents in China: the mediating role of social engagement

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of self-efficacy and social engagement in psychological well-being of Chinese nursing home residents. A total of 307 residents completed the measurement of social engagement, self-efficacy and psychological well-being. The results showed that satisfaction with physical environment, social support, social activity engagement and self-efficacy were all positively correlated with psychological well-being. At the same time, social engagement partially mediated the effect of self-efficacy on psychological well-being. The results of this study should indicate additional actions for managers of nursing homes and social workers to improve the psychological well-being of older adults.     

Retirement and health benefits for Mexican migrant workers returning from the United States

In the absence of a bilateral agreement for the portability and totalization of social security contributions between the United States and Mexico, this article examines the access to pension and health insurance benefits and employment status of older Mexican return migrants. We find that return migrants who have spent less than a year in the United States have a similar level of access to social security benefits as non‐migrants. Return migrants who have spent at least a year in the United States are less likely to have public health insurance or social security benefits, and could be more vulnerable to poverty in old age. These results inform the debate on a bilateral social security agreement between the United States and Mexico to improve return migrants' social security.     

Coexisting disadvantages across the adult age span: A comparison of older and younger age groups in the Swedish welfare state

Heap J, Lennartsson C, Thorslund M. Coexisting disadvantages across the adult age span: a comparison of older and younger age groups in the Swedish welfare state To experience coexisting disadvantages – the simultaneous lack of several different welfare resources – implies a hampered ability to manage one's living conditions. Here, we study coexisting disadvantages in the oldest population compared with younger age groups in Sweden, by drawing on two linked, nationally representative surveys (n = 5,392). The measurement of coexisting disadvantages included physical health, psychological health, frequency of social contact, cash margin and political resources. The highest odds of coexisting disadvantages were found after age 75 – age groups that are frequently excluded from studies of coexisting disadvantages. This pattern persisted when controlling for socio‐demographic and socio‐economic characteristics. The age pattern was partly driven by the high prevalence of physical health problems in the older population. However, even when excluding physical health problems, the odds of coexisting disadvantages were highest among people older than 85 – the fastest‐growing segment of the population in many Western countries.     

Presenting a new defamilization and familization framework for investigating the residualization of old‐age income security measures—The case study of Hong Kong

Familization and defamilization studies are increasingly seen as an important component of welfare research. They are concerned with the threats to the welfare of individuals caused by involuntary participation in the unwanted family relationship. Moreover, they address the idea that governments have the potential to reduce these threats through the provision of welfare measures. This article contributes to the familization and defamilizaion studies with the focus on the link between these studies and the studies of residualization strategies. It carries out three analytical tasks. The first is to present a new defamilization and familization framework. The second is to demonstrate the usefulness of this framework in analyzing the problem of employing the residualization strategies to reform the old‐age income security system. Our focus is particularly on the insufficient sensitivity of these strategies to women's (and men's) diverse preferences relating to ways of organizing their family life. The third is to demonstrate the empirical significance of this framework. To meet this objective, we apply the framework to the investigation of two old‐age income security measures in Hong Kong—the Mandatory Provident Fund and the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme.     

Old‐age protection for women in the Spanish pension system

The example of Spain confirms the common view that contributory pension systems reproduce inequalities between the sexes that result from the nature of labour market structures and the sharing of family responsibilities. In general, women who stay at home are not entitled to their own pensions and are dependent on benefits of lower value such as survivors' pensions (derived entitlements) or non‐contributory pensions. In turn, women who work outside the home accrue lower entitlements than men and, consequently, lower old‐age or disability pensions (personal entitlements). The purpose of this article is to examine the figures for pension distribution by sex in Spain, review some of the pension policies that have been implemented since 2000, and propose direct action for progress in the transition from derived entitlements to personal entitlements. These proposals are designed to promote sex equality, defined as the right to equal well‐being and financial security in old age.     

Poverty alleviation,coverage and fiscal sustainability: Investigating the effect of a new social pension in Hong Kong

This article synthesises the characteristics of social pensions across Asia and evaluates the effect of a new social pension in the Hong Kong SAR, the Old Age Living Allowance (OALA), on poverty alleviation, coverage rates and fiscal sustainability. We found that the effectiveness of the OALA in reducing old‐age poverty was limited, although it has led to an increase of retirement pension coverage by 6%. The OALA is projected to face substantial cost increases in the medium and longer term. Increasing the level of OALA benefits would be a direct means to enhance its poverty alleviation effect but may potentially be hampered by concerns about the fiscal sustainability of such changes. More obfuscated alternatives for Hong Kong policy makers to affect old‐age poverty alleviation include adjusting the indexing rules of benefit level payments and the eligibility criteria to reduce the stigma attached to the current policy choices.     

Mental health and social support: a pioneering study on the physically disabled in southern China

This is a pioneering study examining the effect of different types of social support on the mental health of the physically disabled in mainland China. With a random sample of 204 physically disabled people in Guangzhou, the biggest metropolis in southern China, results of this study showed that perceived social support was more effective in maintaining the mental health of the physically disabled than received social support. With respect to received social support, the attitude of the supporters, satisfaction with the support, the reciprocity of support relationships and the personal agency of the support recipients were found to be predictive of mental health. However, received daily-care support unexpectedly showed a significantly negative effect on mental health, while received economic and emotional support appeared to be irrelevant to the mental health of the physically disabled.     

Towards better preparation and support for health and social care practitioners conducting specialised assessments in remote Indigenous contexts

Remote health professionals encounter many challenges associated with delivering care in poorly serviced remote locations and working across cultures. Despite an identified need for the assessment practices of health and social care professionals to accommodate cultural differences, and for staff training in the area, deficits in preparing the remote workforce for assessment remain. This paper combines the results of two qualitative studies to consider current and improved approaches to preparing and supporting staff for conducting assessments in remote and Indigenous settings. Study A focused on aged care assessment practices within the remote Aboriginal context of Central Australia, and Study B focused on the practice for assessing cognition among Aboriginal Australians in the Northern Territory. Our secondary analysis of these combined data sets provides valuable information to improve planning of approaches to preparing staff for assessments in these contexts. We report themes relating to three categories: the assessment workforce, current approaches to preparing assessment staff, and cross‐cultural knowledge/skill. We discuss which areas require more detailed attention to prepare staff for this work – such as critical reflection and cultural safety – as well as how this may best be achieved – such as through the inclusion of cultural supervisors in practitioners' supervision models, and in follow‐up components to workshop models.     

Family policy and social order – comparing the dynamics of family policy-making in Scandinavia and Confucian Asia

This article compares family policies in two Scandinavian and three Confucian Asian countries. Through a general survey on schemes of child allowance and parental leave, it seeks explaining factors for cross-regime diversity of the welfare systems. In focus are the agents affecting the family policy-making process, including social classes, the state, women and families. In order to assess the roles these agents have played, this study retraces the preconditions of family policy development and its associated socio-cultural backgrounds. Results from such an examination will illustrate how the social order determines the patterns of family policy, which offers a new path to travel to these different cultural 'worlds'. Taking the Confucian Asian states into its frame of reference, the study will take a fresh look at Scandinavian welfare systems, which still have some general implications for the study of the dynamics, model and outcome of family policy in an international context.     

Risk groups for parasuicide – a survey of unselected people who attempt suicide treated in hospital

A registration survey of parasuicide patients seeking hospital care in a defined catchment area was conducted over 24 months (1989-1990). In 1989, 475 individuals registered as residents in the catchment area were given care on 541 occasions, and in 1990, 382 individuals received care on 426 occasions as as a result of parasuicide. The parasuicide rates for the overall population in the catchment area were estimated by means of demographic variables. Parasuicide rates were highest among women 25-39 years old and among men 30-39 years old, i.e., in older age groups than previous studies (from the 1970s) have shown. Parasuicide rates are 3 times as high for single men as for married men and twice as high for single women as for married women. Among single men and women, divorcé(e)s show the highest parasuicide rates, especially in the 15-34 age group. The number of parasuicides among women decreased significantly between 1989 and 1990, which had the effect of evening out the female: male parasuicide ratio (1.28:1). Moreover, for the first time it becomes clear that the Finnish citizens in Sweden, both men and women, show a high risk for parasuicide compared with the Swedish population. These results focus attention on deficient psychic and social wellbeing of Finns in Sweden.     

Institutional evolution and abrupt change: Reforming the administration of social assistance in Finland

Historical institutionalist studies have explained institutional change as resulting from critical junctures that interrupt long periods of stability or from endogenous, incremental evolution. Building on these theories, discursive institutionalists have focused on the roles of agency, ideas and discourse as explainers of change. Combining these approaches, this article analyses Finland’s decision in 2014 to transfer the administration of basic social assistance from municipalities to the central government. This study demonstrates that institutional change can be both abrupt and evolutionary. Due to sudden, exceptional political circumstances, the decision in question was made quickly and under pressure, circumventing possible veto players. However, it was possible only because of the incremental, endogenous change that had occurred in the way in which social assistance was administered at the municipal level. It enabled a change in political discourse, which eroded the credibility of the ideational frames that policy actors had previously utilised to reject the centralised model.     

我国高等教育资源配置存在的问题及解决对策

随着我国高等教育办学规模的不断扩大,高等教育资源相对不足的现实逐渐凸显出来,主要表现在人才资源特别是教师资源匮乏、各种物质资源供应不足。这其中,既存在着结构性短缺的问题,叉存在着结构性浪费的问题。鉴于此,应力求做到优化资源配置,做到人、财、物等各种资源共享,从而使高等教育资源配置逐步趋于合理和完善。     

Medicine on the line? Computer‐mediated social support and advice for people with diabetes

The advent of thousands of Usenet groups on the Internet, covering a vast range of medical and welfare issues and ostensibly devoted to the mutual social support of participating members, has raised the potential for the development of new forms of 'virtual' health care. This article critically analyses the use by people with diabetes of one such Usenet group. It seeks to establish, first, the extent to which such a site provides some demonstrable measure of social support to its participants. This is approached by undertaking a structural analysis of the site to identify the extent of usage, and the nature of supporting interventions using a fivefold classification (instrumental, informational, esteem and social companionship and other). Second, the article attempts to identify any disparity between the lay health-knowledge in evidence and biomedical opinions proffered by the use of a panel of consultant diabetiologists. The results of the analysis suggest that the diabetes newsgroup provides an example of an active forum for largely well-informed participants who routinely use the media as an aid to the reflexive management of their medical condition. It also raises the prospect of a renegotiated relationship between medical knowledge and lay experience based upon shared learning     

The Associations between income,informal social networks,and health among older adults in South Korea: A multi‐group analysis based on the level of age‐friendly environments

The aim of the present study was to empirically investigate the role of age‐friendly environments (AFE) on the associations between income, informal social networks, and health among South Korean older adults. We used data from the “2017 Age Integration Survey” collected nationally and ultimately analyzed 615 older adults over 50 years of age. Structural equation modeling and multi‐group analysis were used to test the hypothesis. Specifically, two groups of perceived levels of AFE (top 25%, bottom 25%) were compared in order to examine the moderating effects. The results indicated that poor income and scarce informal social networks each had a significantly adverse impact on health. However, the effect of income on health was no longer significant for older adults living in environments that were more age‐friendly. In both groups, the presence of fewer informal social networks adversely impacted health, although the sizes of the effects decreased when the level of AFE perceived by older adults was improved. Finally, several implications of the study findings were discussed.     

The experience of older people of entering into the phase of asking for public home help – a qualitative study

The aim of this qualitative study was to explore older persons' (n = 28, 75–96 years of age) experience of becoming in need of public home help, their experience of participation and of having influence on the needs assessment procedure and the decisions made about public home help. A content analysis revealed a broad overarching category, labelled: experiencing discontinuity in life as a whole – the countdown has begun . In addition, four principal categories emerged from the data: comparing the past with the present and losing parts of oneself and connectedness; worrying about the losses and what they will bring about; struggling against losing abilities to avoid dependency and home help; and struggling with conflicting feelings about being/becoming in need of help, and from whom. That older people can so perceive their life situation needs to be recognised if they are to be empowered to become involved in and exert influence on the assessment process and its outcome as well as on their life situation as a whole.     

Resilience among older caregivers in rural Namibia: The role of financial status,social support and health

Background: Namibia has one of the highest human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevalence rates and one of the highest rates of orphanhood in the world, and older caregivers provide much of the care to Namibians living with HIV and acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) (UNAIDS, 2014). In this study, the authors explore how financial status, social support, and health were related to the resilience of caregivers caring for people affected by HIV and AIDS in rural northern Namibia, Africa. Method: Data were collected through a structured interview from (N = 147) caregivers from the Zambezi region. Results: Findings from this study show that employment and physical health were significantly associated with increased resilience in older caregivers. Discussion: Our findings point to the need for employment assistance and health services to improve the resilience of caregivers caring for people living with HIV and AIDS. We conclude that there is a need for more vigorous concerted efforts from public and private sector practitioners and policy makers to create more sustained formal employment opportunities and intervention programs aimed at improving the overall health of older HIV caregivers, especially those residing in rural HIV endemic communities in developing countries.     

Traces of Norwegian influence in the development of social services in Minnesota, USA, 1890–1920

This article explores areas where Norwegian Americans contributed to the burgeoning social welfare system being established in Minnesota from 1890 to 1920. The array of services developed was due in part to the belief among native-born Americans that immigrant groups should establish their own helping networks and care for themselves. The Lutheran Church played a central part in this development by initiating and sponsoring new undertakings. Issues discussed during this period are found to be still central among both immigrant groups and 'natives' today. Concerns regarding mother tongue, religion, integration in schools and use of existing welfare systems continue to stir up 'natives' and 'settlers' alike.     

Income support for Australian carers since 1983: social justice,social investment and the cloak of gender neutrality

Income support for carers has been available in Australia since the early 1980s. In contrast to most other forms of income support, eligibility for Carer Payment has been progressively expanded in recent years, and increasing numbers of carers are claiming the payment as a result. This article examines the history of income support for carers by reviewing changes in eligibility criteria in the social security legislation and considering how those changes were framed. We argue that reforms to carers' income support have developed within competing frames of social justice and social investment, with an increasing emphasis on a social investment discourse, which prioritises paid work over care. Neither of the dominant frames addresses gender equality, and in practice, income support policy has reinforced familial (women's) responsibility for caring. Given the gendered nature of caring in Australia, gender equality issues must be considered in future policy reforms to ensure that the competing pressures on women to care and to engage in paid work do not lead to greater disadvantage and inequality for women and the people for whom they care.     

Immigrants’ support for social spending,self‐interest and the role of the group: A comparative study of immigrants in The Netherlands

This study examined immigrants’ support for social spending. We tested the dominant self‐interest hypothesis for a number of immigrant groups in the Netherlands with highly varying socio‐economic positions. We additionally examined the effect of immigrants’ group interest by testing the relevance of in‐group immigrant benefit participation rates and their effect on support for social spending. In this article, we discuss how immigrants’ sense of belonging to a group affects the association between immigrants’ self‐ and group interests in welfare and their support for social spending. We found that self‐interest has explanatory relevance, but that this is strongly correlated with level of income. Results showed weak support for the effect of group interest. Instead of the expected moderation effects of sense of belonging on the self‐ and group‐interest explanations of support for social spending, the results showed a direct effect of sense of belonging on support for social spending.