The social dimensions of happiness and life satisfaction of Australians: Evidence from the World Values Survey

Relatively short‐term verbal therapies and other forms of intervention may help people to overcome difficult passages in life, but studies in recent decades have pointed to the salience of social and economic conditions in shaping life satisfaction and happiness. The present study contributes to our knowledge of this field by extending the range of social factors considered, but also, crucially, by the employment of statistical analyses that serve to disentangle the often overlapping variables associated with life satisfaction and happiness. Our results support previous ‘demographic’ findings as well as new results including education, marriage, children, human rights and, particularly in the context of Australian society, perceived choice in life. Establishing what the major contributing factors are can assist the formulation of social policy. Moreover, it can alert practitioners to the value of consolidating their work by encouraging service users to utilise community sources that enhance life satisfaction and/or happiness. Key Practitioner Message: ● The informed linking of service users to sources of life satisfaction and happiness can ‘value add’ direct service interventions; ● The salience of exercising individual choice to achieving life satisfaction reinforces the importance of the practice principle of self‐determination; ● A person's sense of physical wellbeing is a relevant part of social assessment and subsequent planned actions.     

Improving the Mental Health Outcomes of LGBTQ Youth and Young Adults: A Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this groundbreaking study was to evaluate outcomes of 482 LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning) youth and young adults who received services and supports through the Comprehensive Community Mental Health Services for Children with Serious Emotional Disturbances Program (CMHI). This study was a secondary data analysis using data from a larger study of 3208 LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ youth ages 11 through 21 who had a serious emotional disturbance (SED). This study is significant in that it evaluates functional outcomes for young people identified as LGBTQ based on a specialized service framework (i.e., system of care approach). In essence, do LGBTQ youth with SED benefit from a specific approach to intervention? In addition, a comparison at intake on suicidality, bullying and victimization was conducted between the LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ identifying youth from the larger sample. The youth and a caregiver were interviewed face-to-face separately at intake, 6-months, and 12-months. Significant improvements were found across all of the dependent variables, supporting the viability of SOC for improving outcomes for LGBTQ youth. Future research should continue to build on this study by adding to the design a control group to improve internal validity of the findings.     

Relationship between quality of work life and organizational commitment among lecturers in a Malaysian public research university

Committed employees are known as a fundamental and vital resource for the success performance of organizations. In this regard, quality of work life is being as one of the interest subject as a fundamental issues on fostering employees’ commitment. By the same token, this study aimed to investigate the level and relationship between quality of work life and organizational commitment amongst academic staff in a public research university in Klang Valley, Malaysia. This study was designed based on quantitative methods. The population of current research was consisted about 2,902 lecturers of the examined university according to the university's official website. For the purpose of data collection, 330 sets of questionnaire were distributed among the academic staffs of all faculties and a total of 315 questionnaires were used for statistical analysis. The obtained results via correlation and linear regression showed that there is a high significant relationship between quality of work life and organizational commitment. This study contributes to the existing literature and suggests some human resource development strategies on how the related ministry and universities could improve their employees’ commitment.     

试论中国青年党的民族理论及其策略

中国青年党是中国现代史上仅次于共产党和国民党的第三大政党。然而关于青年党的研究却极其薄弱。在有限的研究文章中,还没有文章对青年党的国家主义理论进行深入探讨者。青年党的国家主义理论来源于欧洲浪漫主义思想家。主张以感情、文化认同作为民族主义的基础。因此,青年党反对阶级斗争理论、反对无限制的民族自决理论,也不认同国际主义。青年党关于阶级斗争等问题的看法虽然偏颇,甚至反动,但是它主张以感情、文化认同作为民族主义基础的理论还是有深刻合理性。     

Dangerous Futures: Social Exclusion and Youth Work in Late Modernity

The paper contrasts the role and structure of youth work in modern and late modern societies. Modern societies linked citizenship to inclusion in production and youth work helped the transition of young people from childhood to inclusion into the labour market and citizenship. When postwar full employment eased these transition processes then youth work concentrated on leisure provision and dealing with the small numbers of excluded young people. Late modern societies redefine citizenship in terms of market choices but also create increasing risks, which a declining state can no longer manage, and a growing use of social exclusion as a form of social control. These changes demand a new role and structure for youth work.     

Examining the relationship between religiosity and happiness in Medan,Indonesia: The mediating role of self-control,self-regulation,and life satisfaction

Social harmony and community wellbeing can be addressed by promoting life satisfaction and happiness within society. As part of the attempts to understand and promote life satisfaction and happiness within society, this study examined how religiosity can contribute to these two outcome variables. More specifically, this study examined the mediating effect of self-control, self-regulation, and life satisfaction on the relationship between religiosity and happiness. Six hundred and twenty-eight middle (628) adults from Medan, Indonesia were recruited through stratified sampling. They completed five self-report scales on Subjective Happiness Scale; Satisfaction with Life Scale; Centrality of Religiosity Scale; brief Self-control Scale and Self-regulation Scale. Data were analyzed by applying Structural Equation Model (using the LISREL software 8.80), which provides simultaneous examination of variance between endogenous and exogenous variables. Results revealed that people who reported higher level of religiosity also scored high on self-control and self-regulation scales, life satisfaction, which, in turn, are related to more happiness. The finding provides evidence for more specific mechanism in which religiosity contributes to life satisfaction and happiness of the individuals and consequently society wellbeing. Theoretical and practical implications related to the findings are discussed.     

Rapid-Assessment Instruments for Evaluating Practice With Children and Youth

Few assessment instruments seem practical for use in daily social work practice with children and youth. This article reviews a class of easy to use evaluation measures called rapid-assessment instruments (RAIs). The article focuses exclusively upon RAIs that may be completed by children or youth with or without worker assistance. A case example illustrates the use of RAIs in social work practice.     

Promoting Prevention: Targeting Family-Based Risk and Protective Factors for Drug Use and Youth Offending in Swansea

The multi-agency, multiple-intervention Promoting Preventioninitiative to prevent youth offending in Swansea was evaluatedwith a computer-based interactive questionnaire with five hundredand eighty young people (aged eleven to eighteen years). Resultsindicate that multiple exposure to risk factors within the familydomain significantly increases the likelihood that a young personwill become involved in school exclusion, drug-taking and offending,whilst exposure to multiple protective factors decrease thelikelihood of these problem behaviours. The evaluation processindicates that Promoting Prevention’s cross-cutting andconsultative methodology is an empowering and engaging way oftargeting family-based interventions.     

日常仪式化行为：以知青为例的研究

一、导论仪式(ritual),虽然早在19世纪就进入了社会科学的视野,然而关于日常仪式化行为的研究却是近些年的成果。对日常仪式化行为的关注延续了将仪式从起初集中于神圣的、宗教的、神秘的活动拓宽至世俗的、日常的活动的传统,从而将现代社会中具体的、日常的具有象征性意义的活动也纳入仪式的研究领域(Gusfield&Michalowicz,1984)。在日常仪式化行为的研究中,关于日常仪式化行为的功能及意义的研究占据了主要地位。这与传统仪式研究的特征有关(Roth,1995),也与日常仪式化行为与行为人之间的密切关系有关。本文关注日常仪式化的行为,虽然部…     

城市青年生活满意度与幸福感调查分析

根据对天津市青年的调查分析,当前青年群体对个人生活总体上比较满意,幸福感也处于较高水平。其中不同年龄、职业和收入者生活满意度差异显著,不同婚姻状况者生活幸福感差异显著。在生活满意度各项具体指标中,家庭生活、收入水平和人际关系对幸福感影响最为显著。     

北京青年旅舍经营现状与对策研究

青年旅舍已有近百年的历史,在世界范围内受到广泛欢迎并具有积极的社会意义。本文通过对北京青年旅舍的调查,总结其经营现状和特点,提出相应的发展对策。     

Europeanisation and the Youth Guarantee: The case of France

In 2013, the European Council approved the Youth Guarantee (YG) to counteract youth unemployment. Because of its specific features, the YG is useful for understanding whether the EU has triggered policy change in national youth unemployment policies. Contrary to most of the literature on similar topics, we focused in this study on the effect of this specific European measure rather than on broader EU strategies or policies. The study contributes to the literature by qualifying the degree of fit/misfit and suggesting a counterfactual analysis, using the case of France. We first situate the article within the broader Europeanisation debate and present our research design. The second section introduces the policy structure of the YG and investigates youth unemployment policy in France, prior to and after the European initiative. The third section discusses whether the French youth unemployment policy would have been developed in the same way without the YG. A final section concludes.     

《新青年》的创办与陈独秀的早期文章

《新青年》杂志是中国现代思想史上一柄最响亮的号角,一面最鲜艳的战旗,陈独秀正是手擎这面战旗、吹响这柄号角的时代英雄与先锋战士。陈独秀在中国思想文化的沉沉黑夜创办了《新青年》杂志,并以主编的身份亲自撰写了一批具有思想震撼力的文章。文章探讨了《新青年》诞生的背景与过程以及最早的思想光芒。     

曹禺:一位青春型作家

称曹禺为青春型作家,是因为代表其创作最主要成就的四大名剧都完成于30岁以前,因而都带有鲜明的青春期特征:青春期的激情形成其创作的情感动力机制,青春期对人生与社会的探索形成其剧作的基本冲突。它们寄寓着作家对社会人生理解的同时也构成一部作家个人的精神成长史。随着青春期的结束、社会化的完成,作家的创作也走向了衰退。     

日常仪式化行为的形成：从雷锋日记到知青日记

本文关注日常仪式化行为的形成。以知青日记写作为例，本文深入探讨了这一日常仪式化行为形成的过程。因其日常性和表达实践中的个人性，日常仪式化行为的社会性是容易被忽略的。本文主要利用结构仪式化理论，证明日常仪式化行为包含了丰富的社会内涵和群体存在特征，社会、群体存在特征和个人在日常仪式化行为形成中具有关键的作用。社会领域的公共行为是群体和个人日常仪式化行为的真正来源，群体的存在特征则为群体成员复制、选择、调整甚至改变这些公共行为提供了条件，而对社会公共行为和群体特征的估量则是由个人完成的。     

青年失业与人生转型

本文采用扎根理论方法探讨了失业对中国青年人生转型的影响,指出西方理论运用于中国时具有局限性,中国文化背景下的青年人生转型的含义并非脱离原生家庭关系网络而独立,而是在原有家庭关系网络中实现经济自立,并为处于社会网络的父母争面子以及反哺父母。失业对中国青年人生转型的影响主要表现其拖延了青年以上人生目标的实现。本文还简要地讨论了社会科学研究本土化的问题。     

累积的异质性：生命历程视角下的老年人分化

本文以生命历程理论为研究视角，以深度访谈的方法收集老年人“主诉”的关于过去的生活资料，试图通过对个人能动性与生命历程时间性的强调，来分析个体生命历程与社会变迁的相互嵌入过程，以及这一过程中不断分化的内部机制。研究发现，老化的过程是一个随时间推移不断累积与分化的过程，累积因素的先后顺序对个体之间的分化具有重要意义，累积是生命历程资本遭遇生命历程风险的结果，是社会结构与个人能动性相互作用的动态过程，其中社会政策的变迁对累积过程具有决定性的影响。     

A Study of Youth Services Networks from a Political-Economy Perspective

ABSTRACT

Volunteers play a vital role in modern societies by boosting the labor force within both the public and private sectors. While the factors that may lead people to volunteer have been investigated in a number of studies, the means by which volunteering contributes to the well-being of such volunteers is poorly understood. It has been suggested through studies that focus on the absence of depression in volunteers that self-esteem and sense of control may be major determinants of the increased well-being reported by volunteers. This is consistent with the homeostatic model of subjective well-being, which proposes that self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control act as buffers that mediate the relationship between environmental experience and subjective well-being (SWB). Using personal well-being as a more positive measure of well-being than absence of depression, this study further explored the possible mediating role of self-esteem, optimism, and perceived control in the relationship between volunteer status and well-being. Participants (N = 1,219) completed a 97-item survey as part of the Australian Unity Wellbeing project. Variables measured included personal well-being, self-esteem, optimism, and a number of personality and psychological adjustment factors. Analyses revealed that perceived control and optimism, but not self-esteem, mediated the relationship between volunteer status and personal well-being.     

Discharge procedures for mentally ill people: The perspective of former psychiatric patients on their primary social network, quality of life and future life expectations

This article on literature about social networks and social support in order to integrate a number of key concepts and findings that must be considered in research about the social conditions of mentally ill people. Interviews with 53 former psychiatric patients were carried out to get their perspective on their social network, quality of life and future life expectations. The duration of and stigma attached to mental illness, being without work and gender seemed to have the most influence on the primary network. The same issues, except for gender, together with place of residence, financial difficulties and inability to exert influence over one's own situation influenced the respondents' quality of life and their expectations of the future. These findings are analysed and discussed from a social psychological perspective.