Students’ Vocational Choices and Voluntary Action: A 12-Nation Study

Previous research on student involvement suggested that business and engineering students manifest lowest rates of voluntary action. Similarly, it was thought that social science students are the most involved in voluntary action, with students of natural sciences and humanities in the middle. However, there were very few studies that empirically compared these assertions. Furthermore, these assertions were not investigated from cross-cultural perspectives. Based on a study of students in 12 countries (N = 6,570), we found that even when controlling for background variables, social science students are actually less engaged in voluntary action than other students. Engineering students are higher than expected on voluntary action while students of humanities are the most involved in voluntary action. When studying these differences in the 12 selected countries, local cultures and norms form different sets of findings that suggest that there is no universal trend in choice of academic field and voluntary action.     

Women’s experience of midwife-led counselling and its influence on childbirth fear: A qualitative study

Background

Women with childbirth fear have been offered counseling by experienced midwives in Sweden for decades without evidence for its effectiveness, in terms of decrease in childbirth fear. Women are usually satisfied with the counselling. However, there is a lack of qualitative data regarding women’s views about counselling for childbirth fear.

Motives and career choices among Ugandan social work students

Despite the fact that social work has quite a long history in countries such as Uganda, there are few studies available about social work students’ motives and career wishes. The intention of this article is to start to fill this gap by using some of the motives explored in studies of European social work students and to compare them with those of Ugandan social work students. The data used draws on 149 students at the department of Social Work and Social Administration, Makerere University. It is based on a mix methods study using a survey and focus group discussions. The majority of social work students come from urban or semi-urban areas. Some students choose a programme where they are certain to get a scholarship. There was generally a positive relationship between interest and perceived status of the social work area. Those areas that scored high on interest were also rated highly in terms of status. Therapy and counselling, education and research, and health social work were ranked high, while social work with the elderly, abused and with poor people and social assistance ranked low. Social work students in Uganda do not expect to get a social work job after their graduation.     

Gauging the interests of birth mother and child: a qualitative study of Swedish social workers’ experiences of transnational gestational surrogacy

There are few studies on how social workers deal with cases regarding transnational surrogacy. Our study intends to contribute to filling this gap. In Sweden, surrogacy as an assisted reproductive technology method is not permitted. As a result, many prospective parents have turned abroad, mainly to India, for surrogacy. There are no laws regulating surrogacy in Sweden, and difficulties have arisen in establishing legal parenthood when the parents return with the child. This qualitative interview study with social workers found that legal uncertainty and ethical issues surrounded their handling. With no guidelines, the constructions of parenthood will continue to depend on individual social workers’ conflicting views on how to best meet the surrogate mother’s interest and the best interest of the child. Regulation is thus needed to better protect those involved and minimize the contingent aspects of legal handling by individual officials.     

Income inequality and intragenerational income mobility in Sweden from 1983 to 2010: Following two birth cohorts

Social Indicators Research - Sweden has been known for having one of the most equal income distributions in the world. However, in recent decades, Sweden has experienced increasing income...     

The Octagon Model of Volunteer Motivation: Results of a Phenomenological Analysis

Individual motivation is the core of the actualization and continuity in voluntary work from both the standpoint of theoretical research and practical volunteerism. Volunteer motivation also provides an excellent research area for investigating the wider sociological theme of late-modern participation. This study, based on the data from 18 interviews, explores volunteer motivation utilizing a phenomenological approach to individual experience and the meaning of volunteerism. Using a phenomenological approach illuminates the nature of volunteer motivation more holistically. The research includes 767 motivational elements in 47 themes and develops an innovative four-dimensional octagon model of volunteer motivation—the theoretical and practical applications of which are discussed.     

Household consumption: Influences of aspiration level, social comparison, and money management

The present research posits and tests a model of household consumption of less necessary or luxury goods and services. It is hypothesized that a household's economic situation has a direct effect on this consumption as well as indirect effects mediated by aspiration level, social comparison and money management. Structural equation modeling of questionnaire data from a sample of households in a metropolitan area of Sweden (n=411) was used to test the model. The results reveal that as expected the household's economic situation has a significant direct effect on consumption and indirect effects through aspiration level and social comparison. The results also show that satisfaction with consumption increases with increased consumption and decreases with higher aspiration levels.     

Hospital social work in Sweden and the UK: Access to chances of physical health and well-being

In Swedish and UK practice, interest is developing in social work's contribution to tackling service users' unequal chances and experience of physical health. This is through alleviating disadvantaged social conditions such as relative poverty which service users face and which are associated with health inequalities. Ready access to social work services is an essential preliminary if service users are to gain the material and social resources services can provide, to alleviate their adverse social circumstances and thereby improve their health prospects. However, despite hospital social work's well-established position, its significance as an access point for services has tended to be marginalized. Drawing on a comparative account of Swedish and UK practice featuring two action research projects, we explore how hospital social work is a key point of access to services for service users experiencing profound disadvantage. We analyse major barriers to such access, notably the underfunded nature of hospital social work, discriminatory procedures, and unequal professional service user power relations. Nevertheless, the action research projects show how these barriers may be breached to some degree, enabling service users as patients and carers to access resources which contribute to more equal chances of health and well-being in ill-health.     

Herausforderung Doppelspitze: Privates und Berufliches mischen sich

This article describes the coaching process of dual leadership in a conflict situation. Using the example of a family business, the prevalent complexity on personal and professional levels within small and medium-sized businesses is explained. Traditions that are carried on unconsciously can cause conflict. The procedure and different methods are described; the approach to Nonviolent Communication is introduced as well as the resulting and further developed coaching process. Resulting decisions from positive conflict management can easily and efficiently be implemented into the typical and short communication and decision making channels of the middle class.