Risk factors and survival routes: social exclusion as a life-historical phenomenon

Social exclusion is a popular and widely used concept in the social sciences as well as in current European policy rhetoric. However, there is no general agreement on the content and use of the term; it has been used differently and for different purposes in different historical and social contexts. In this article, the social exclusion is understood as life-historical phenomenon. Two cases have been selected as representing the most extreme trajectories based on a larger follow-up study concerning former students of residential institutions for young people with emotional and/or behavioural difficulties in Finland. The cases give us an example of a detailed life-course analysis, with the emphasis on risk and protective factors and demonstrate that the process of social exclusion is a complicated issue that cannot totally be understood by analysing the statistical connections between certain risk factors and the life-course.     

Out of touch: local government and disabled people's employment needs

In autumn 2003 we contracted to undertake a study in two district council areas of ways in which they could meet their Local Public Service Agreement (LPSA) targets in respect of disabled people returning to work. We undertook a literature review of barriers to work, interviewed a number of people involved in working with unemployed people and a number of disabled people in these areas. All the employment organisations we had contact with were working to an individual model of disability and the need to change their orientation became the central recommendation of the first phase of this study. This was rejected by those funding the study. At the end of the first year none of the organisations active in this area was able to identify a single disabled person who had returned to work as a result of their help. We conclude that central government policies are doing little to change the perception of the employment needs of disabled people within local government.     

Long-term Stability of Social Participation

The long-term stability of social participation was investigated in a representative urban population of 415 men and 579 women who had taken part in the nationwide Mini-Finland Health Survey in the years 1978–1980 and were re-examined 20 years later. Stability was assessed by means of the following tracking coefficients: kappa, proportion of stability, Spearman correlation, and stability coefficient (odds ratio) for engagement in clubs and voluntary societies, cultural and sports attendance, congregational activity, outdoor and productive activity, cultural interests, and hobby activity. The tracking results showed fair to moderate stability for the above measures of social participation, varying from the highest weighted kappa (0.43) for congregational activity in women to the lowest weighted kappa (0.22) for cultural and sports attendance in men. Migration from rural to urban community did not affect the stability of social participation. The underlying latent construct ‘social participation’ based on a two-wave multi-variable model showed good stability (r = 0.65). We conclude that social participation rests on a fairly stable foundation making it a useful tool for long-term epidemiological studies.     

Immigrant-origin youth and the indecisiveness of choice for upper secondary education in Finland

The educational transitions of Finnish youth of immigrant background are challenging. They confront more difficulties in a twofold manner: they have more difficulties in transitioning to upper secondary education and they seem to drop out of education more often than their Finnish-origin counterparts. This study aimed to accomplish a view of the complex intertwinement of attitudes and experiences with upper secondary education choices, gender and origin. We compared immigrant- origin students (n?=?161) with Finnish-origin students (n?=?156) in a survey conducted during the final year of comprehensive school. Our objectives were to analyse the variation in attitudes, experiences and aspirations concerning post-comprehensive transition in gender and origin of the youth, and to analyse the factors behind the indecisiveness of the transitions. We concluded that youth with immigrant origin in general, and boys in particular, share a contradiction we termed the ‘paradox of immigrant schooling’, which refers to the combination of a positivity toward education and difficulties in learning and studying. We also found an immigrant-related contradiction between determinant and quite high occupational aspirations, and uncertainty of upper secondary choices. Our outcomes indicate that the immigrant-origin youth confront the upper-secondary choices in a much more complex and multidimensional situation than their Finnish-origin counterparts.     

Sympathetic Nervous System Synchrony in Couple Therapy

The aim of this study was to test whether there is statistically significant sympathetic nervous system (SNS) synchrony between participants in couple therapy. To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure psychophysiological synchrony during therapy in a multiactor setting. The study focuses on electrodermal activity (EDA) in the second couple therapy session from 10 different cases (20 clients, 10 therapists working in pairs). The EDA concordance index was used as a measure of SNS synchrony between dyads, and synchrony was found in 85% of all the dyads. Surprisingly, co‐therapists exhibited the highest levels of synchrony, whereas couples exhibited the lowest synchrony. The client–therapist synchrony was lower than that of the co‐therapists, but higher than that of the couples. A Video Abstract is available next to the online version of this article on the JMFT web site .     

Laughter in medical interaction: From quantification to analysis,and back

This study discusses the use of quantification in analysing interactional practices, especially in conversation analytical work. The paper concentrates on laughter in medical interaction and starts from a quantitative point of view. West (1984) found certain statistical patterns of laughter in medical interaction: the patients laugh more than the doctors and most laughter is not reciprocated, i.e. the interactants mostly laugh alone. This statistical pattern is also found in Finnish data but it is approached again from the micro‐analytical point of view and some features of it are problematised through analysing in more detail: (1) the ways in which laughter is made relevant; (2) how laughter is responded to; and (3) the interactional functions laughter can have. The paper shows that Schegloff’s (1993) critique of quantitative interactional work is indeed called for, but nevertheless also presents advantages of quantification: the distribution of laughter between the participants in medical interaction turned out to be an interesting issue, one which is revealing of their different interactional roles and footings.