ABSTRACT While there exists an extensive body of literature examining the correlation between grit and subjective well-being (SWB), limited research has been dedicated to addressing the issue of endogeneity within the context of grit. This paper aims to investigate the impact of grit on SWB by utilizing nationally representative panel data from China. To mitigate concerns about endogeneity, we employ various panel regression techniques, including instrumental variable approaches and an exceptionally high-dimensional fixed effects approach, to effectively account for confounding factors that may arise from the relationship between grit and SWB. Our findings provide robust evidence of a significant positive effect of grit on SWB. We also observe noteworthy heterogeneity in the impact of grit concerning gender and perceptions of fairness. Specifically, we find that females and individuals with a higher perception of fairness are more likely to experience a positive effect of grit on SWB, as compared to males and individuals with a lower perception of fairness, respectively. Additionally, our results demonstrate that grit fosters prospects for social mobility, autonomy and control over life, and a positive mental state. These outcomes can be interpreted as potential mechanisms through which grit influences SWB.

ABSTRACT This study seeks to explain the triggering factors behind skilled labour migration from Türkiye in a multidimensional manner. The study adopts a relational perspective in analysing the conditions that trigger qualified labour migration from Türkiye. In other words, global structural and local contingent factors are considered in their mutual interactions, and migrants are not viewed as passive recipients merely subjected to these conditions. Local triggers of skilled migration are grounded in data obtained from a field study conducted between 2022 and 2023. In their responses to various questions, almost all participants used these three concepts, which could be listed as peace, security and a stress-free life. Therefore, this type of migration is conceptualised as peace of mind migration in this study. Globally, developed countries with significant immigration flows increasingly attempt to ground their migration policies in shared principles. It is argued that through these policies, they seek to design the world as a labour reservoir, attracting workers of different qualifications at the times and in the quantities required by their economies. The study seeks to understand how migrants contextualise global and local conditions within their own biographies and how these interconnections shape their decision to migrate.

ABSTRACT Long-term imprisonment remains a central yet contested feature of contemporary penal policy, particularly regarding its implications for rehabilitation and recidivism. While existing scholarship has largely focused on Western contexts, limited empirical attention has been given to frontline correctional perspectives in African prison systems. This study addresses this gap by examining correctional officers’ perceptions of the motives for long-term sentencing and its implications for inmate reformation in Ghana. Adopting a qualitative design, semi-structured interviews were conducted with correctional officers at Nsawam Medium Security Prison, and data were analysed thematically. The findings reveal that officers interpret long sentences primarily through institutional logics of deterrence, statutory compliance, public protection, and recidivism management. However, prolonged incarceration is also perceived to weaken social ties, foster institutional dependency, and complicate post-release reintegration. The study contributes context-specific insights to global debates on punishment and rehabilitation, highlighting the need for sentencing and correctional policies that balance public safety with reintegration in resource-constrained penal environments.

ABSTRACT Homelessness presents a growing global challenge that governments worldwide have grappled with in recent years. The issue is exacerbated by the lack of a consistent definition of homelessness, incomplete statistics on the homeless population, varied methods of identifying them, and diverse designs of homelessness policies characterised by more or less different intervention systems among countries that mostly reintegrate a small fraction of homeless individuals into mainstream society. This article responds to these problems by presenting, in detail, a comprehensive analytical tool, the ‘Framework for Comprehensive Evaluation of Homelessness Policies’, which we have created and successfully used to analyse and evaluate homelessness policy in the Czech Republic. Its potential lies in identifying the strengths and all existing problems and deficiencies in current homelessness policies across different countries and/or regions, by governments at various state levels and by transnational institutions, and in proposing practical measures to mitigate them. More specifically, it allows for evaluating the complexity of existing strategic documents focused on homelessness, the relevance of the intervention tools and measures they contain, and their real modes of implementation and impacts on the target group of homeless people.

ABSTRACT Drawing on the findings of in-depth empirical research in northern Bangladesh with resource-poor women who have accessed microcredit, with women who are members of microfinance agencies, with male family members, and with credit agency officials, in this article we consider the links between microfinance, indebtedness, power, control, and intimate partner violence in the context of intrafamilial household relations for women borrowers. The impacts of microcredit on women are inevitably complex and nuanced, with both more positive and, often, rather more negative effects. However, ultimately, our findings lead us to conclude that if microcredit has been initially a force for good, over the past few decades it has lost its way and needs serious systematic change if it is ever to recapture its early promises to ‘empower’ women. More critically, we found in this research that microcredit contributes to a toxic patriarchal mix that not only leads to increased coercive control and conjugal conflict for women within their households, but also exacerbates levels of intimate partner violence, all of which clearly has negative, disempowering impacts on women’s mental and physical well-being.

ABSTRACT This article aims to examine the situation of low-skilled and temporary female migrants, with particular focus on Bangladeshi workers who were forcibly repatriated from the Gulf countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the recruitment process, remittance patterns, and precariousness of Bangladeshi and other South Asian migrants in the Gulf States have received considerable attention from social scientists, this paper explores how the most vulnerable group of migrants- female workers involved in domestic and cleaning services- have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the most significant migration-changing event of our generation. This paper is based on semi-structured interviews conducted in Bangladesh with female migrant workers who returned from the Gulf countries due to forced repatriation during COVID-19. The research shows that, due to COVID-19-induced repatriation, female migrant workers face economic hardships as well as social challenges during the process of reintegration in Bangladesh. The study also contends that involuntary return increases the stress and difficulties faced by female migrants regarding their economic situation and reintegration. From this, the author recommends further research into the long-term impacts of female migration, particularly among older female migrants who are unable to work, cannot save money from migration, and consequently fall into poverty.

ABSTRACT This study explores the return migration experiences of Syrian refugee women moving from Turkey back to Syria, with particular attention to the factors shaping their return decisions, the support mechanisms provided during the process, and their post-return reintegration and future aspirations. Employing a phenomenological research design, qualitative data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 17 women aged 18–60. Findings suggest that return decisions are influenced by political and administrative conditions in both Turkey and Syria, access to basic services, and host-state policies. Despite the regime change in Syria, persistent challenges such as political instability, security risks, economic hardship, social fragmentation, and restrictive gender norms remain. These circumstances have led to feelings of regret among many returnees and have increased their tendency to re-migrate. The study underscores that return migration can only constitute a permanent and sustainable solution if it is voluntary, adequately supported, and accompanied by meaningful improvements in the country of origin.

ABSTRACT This cross-sectional study aims to examine the ethical values regulating the use of generative artificial intelligence (ChatGPT) among university students in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. A descriptive–analytical survey of 1,000 students across multiple faculties revealed a high adoption rate of approximately 82% in both contexts, with no statistically significant differences by university affiliation (odds ratio = 1.009, p = .955) or sex. Students primarily reported using ChatGPT for information retrieval, writing assistance, error detection, and summarization. Despite its frequent use, mean scores on ethical-value items indicate strong disagreement with substituting traditional instruction, uncritically trusting AI-generated content, and prioritizing AI over face-to-face interaction. Regression analysis further demonstrates that ethical values significantly predict responsible usage behaviors, suggesting that AI integration occurs within a framework of moral regulation rather than unrestrained technological dependence. Although usage patterns appear structurally similar across the two national contexts, variations in institutional policy environments highlight differing governance dynamics that may shape long-term regulatory approaches. The findings contribute to ongoing debates on AI in higher education by emphasizing not only the continued role of ethical norms in shaping student engagement but also the importance of culturally grounded governance frameworks that balance innovation with responsibility.

ABSTRACT This paper explores epistemological tensions arising from a 2023 Community-Driven Research (CDR) initiated by the civic group ‘ViviAmo Marghera’ in an open drug scene in Venice, Italy. We focus on qualitative data drawn from field diaries kept by citizen-researchers, using them as a lens to analyse the tensions of participatory research, conceived as a form of social action with transformative potential. Results show how community members negotiated their dual roles as observers and participants in a context marked by stigma and proximity, highlighting the emotional labour involved in balancing engagement and analytical distance, the moral tensions encountered, and the role of shifting social imaginaries in shaping social relations. We further discuss how reflexivity functions as an indispensable tool for managing these emotional demands. Finally, we consider the broader implications of conducting CDR in fragile urban environments. We contend that participatory research rooted in community leadership and reflexive engagement can disrupt fear and stigma by recognising the agency and self-determination of those often regarded as ‘other’. Through this analysis, we argue that the transformative potential of CDR depends on sustained reflexivity and on the epistemological, relational, and institutional conditions that enable knowledge production to advance epistemic justice and social inclusion.

ABSTRACT Youth studies have traditionally devoted little attention to youth’s emotions. However, according to international [WHO, 2024. Mental health of adolescents report. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/adolescent-mental-health; Lancet, 2025] and Italian dataset [ISTAT, 2023. Report BES. Il benessere equo e sostenibile in Italia], anxiety couples with a growth of mental health problems across youth, ranging from depression to other forms of distress. This article observes the emergence of discourses on mental health and a generalised emotional vulnerability as constitutive of the young persona, based on exploratory empirical research on TikTok. We firstly identify emerging trends by analysing the frequency of relevant hashtags that appeared during the two years of the post-pandemic period. Secondly, we conduct Qualitative Content Analysis of videos semantically related to mental health. We then adopt a zoom-in strategy to analyse one particular video and its comments. This two-step analysis illustrates how young people express their anxieties, suggesting the normalisation of mental health discourses (a), the use of posts on mental health to create a community of like-minded peers (b), and a strategic use of such expressions of anxiety in order to increase visualisation of their profile (c).