Loneliness,immigration background and self-identified ethnicity: a nationally representative study of adolescents in Denmark

Migration is an increasing worldwide phenomenon that creates multicultural societies with a growing number of adolescents who have experienced a process of migration or who have an ethnic background other than that of the majority. Migration may lead to loss of social relations and create challenges related to acculturation in the new country. These experiences may induce feelings of loneliness. Research on ethnic and migrant disparities in loneliness among adolescents is limited and inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to examine how adolescents’ immigration background and self-identified ethnicity are associated, independently and combined, with loneliness. We used data from the Danish 2010 Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey which included a representative sample of 3083 13- and 15-year-olds. The results suggest that immigrants but not descendants of immigrants have an increased risk of loneliness compared to adolescents with a Danish origin. The results also suggest that adolescents’ self-identified ethnicity plays an essential role but differently for immigrants and descendants: identifying with the Danish majority was protective against loneliness among immigrants, whereas identifying with an ethnic minority group was protective against loneliness among descendants.     

Workplace friendships among social work,counseling, and human service educators: Exploring the impact of sexual orientation and friendships in workplace empowerment

Workplace friendships are deliberate bonds between people in the workplace in which various degrees of confidence, care, emotional support, solidarity, honesty, and trust are shared. For lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) academics in higher education, such friendships may be particularly important as sources of social and institutional support. In this study, the authors examine the relationship between workplace friendships and workplace empowerment among a sample (N?=?204) of LGB and non-LGB educators in social work, counseling, and human services. The findings, taken from this sample of university educators, indicate that sexual orientation and workplace friendship opportunities can predict workplace empowerment. Implications of the study are that workplace behavioral health practice and research that supports LGB and non-LGB workers in developing meaningful relationships at work can positively impact the higher education workplace.     

The Paucity of Social Workers Prepared to Work With Latino Populations

This article addresses the reasons why too few social workers are prepared for practice with first- and second-generation Latino individuals and families, primarily from Mexico and Central America. To do so, the authors explore the social and contextual reasons for this paucity. Social risks and vulnerabilities of Latinos are assessed and are connected to social work's mission to serve at-risk populations. The authors make suggestions for steps the profession can take to increase the number and quality of social workers who are equipped to practice with this growing population.     

Book review

Citation: Fraser, M. W. (1997). Risk and resilience in childhood: An ecological perspective. Washington, DC: National Association of Social Workers Press. 293 pp.     

A Preliminary Study of Multidimensional Life Satisfaction Among Deaf/Hard of Hearing Youth Across Environmental Settings

A key aspect of life quality is lifesatisfaction. Interest in this construct hasincreased among children and adolescents overthe past decade given the differential mentalhealth and educational outcomes associated withlife satisfaction reports. Nevertheless, mostresearch has used general samples of students,with very little understood of how youth withdisabilities view the quality of their lives. Further, many students with disabilities liveand/or are educated in totally segregatedresidential schools or segregated day schoolprograms. It is thus unclear how lifesatisfaction reports may differ with respect tothese environmental settings. Using the Multidimensional Students' Life SatisfactionScale, global satisfaction, as well assatisfaction ratings across a number of lifedomains was compared among Deaf/Hard-of-Hearing(D/HH) youth living in residential settings andD/HH youth attending day school programs. These reports were also compared with a groupof hearing peers. Results revealed that theinter-domain correlations, regressioncoefficients, and satisfaction mean scoresvaried between the disability andnon-disability groups, and with respect toenvironmental setting. Implications of thesefindings conclude the paper.     

Mad Cows and Sick Birds: Financing International Responses to Animal Disease in Developing Countries

Because many animal diseases have strong transboundary attributes, their control can be reasonably characterised as an international public good. The potential for reservoirs of transboundary diseases to persist in developing countries that lack the capacity or incentives to control them implies a need for international financial transfers to fund control. However, the costs of control can be large compared with development assistance budgets, and the benefits small compared with the global benefits of control and the local benefits of other priority investments. This article outlines a framework for setting priorities for international development assistance for animal disease control based on the incidence of market and non‐market impacts and the context in which outbreaks take place in endemic and susceptible countries.     

Teachers' Occupation‐Specific Work‐Family Conflict

To expand work‐family conflict (WFC) research to specific occupations, this study investigated how work and family generic and occupation‐specific stressors and support variables related to family interfering with work (F → W) and work interfering with family (W → F) among 230 Israeli high school teachers. Further expanding WFC research, the authors assessed WFC effects on burnout and vigor. Results indicated that W → F conflict was related to generic variables and more so to distinctive teaching characteristics (e.g., investment in student behavior and parent‐teacher relations). Both W → F and F → W predicted burnout, whereas only F → W predicted vigor. Implications for WFC research and occupational health programs are discussed.