Future Social Policy Research Articles

Association between social engagement frequency and depression among the older people in China: evidence from the 2011–2018 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study

BackgroundDepression in older people is a major concern in China. Despite being known as a protective factor, it is unclear the extent to which social engagement mitigates depression or mediates...

The Search for Legitimacy over Yugoslavia: Rudolf Bićanić and the Power of Gold

Abstract While historical narratives of the communist legitimation of power in Yugoslavia have often marginalized perspectives of lesser-known civil servants, this study highlights the crucial role of Dr. Rudolf Bićanić, a renowned Yugoslav economist. Departing from the diplomatic, foreign political, and military perspectives when investigating the Yugoslav émigré government actions, this article explores the ideas espoused, networks created, and actions performed by Bićanić across diverse transnational settings. Bićanić’s lens as a vice-governor of the Yugoslav National Bank demonstrates that the debates regarding the future social and economic policies shaped the transition process between the two Yugoslav states. Driven by a mission to enhance peasant living conditions in Yugoslavia, Bićanić embarked on a brief yet impactful governmental career from 1941 to 1945. The article posits that Bićanić’s anti-government propaganda disseminated through the United Committee of South Slavs and his financial malversations led to the transfer of economic and political legitimacy over Yugoslavia in April 1944 to the National Liberation Council. With this action, Bićanić accelerated the signing of the Tito-Šubašić agreement in June 1944, which empowered him to negotiate the post-war reconstruction aid and loans in Washington, DC, carving a unique path for Yugoslavia between socialism and capitalism.

Attitudes to long-term care in India: A secondary, mixed methods analysis.

In India, globalisation is purported to have contributed to shifting family structures and changing attitudes to long-term care (LTC) facility use. We investigated the attitudes to and usage frequency of LTC in India. We conducted secondary analyses of: (a) The Moving Pictures India Project qualitative interviews with 19 carers for people with dementia and 25 professionals, collected in 2022, exploring attitudes to LTC; and (b) The Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI) 2017-2018, cross-sectional survey of a randomised probability sample of Indian adults aged 45+ living in private households. We identified three themes from qualitative data: (1) LTC as a last resort, describes how LTC could be acceptable if care at home was "impossible" due to the person's medical condition or unavailability of the family carer, for example, if family members lived overseas or interstate. (2) Social expectations of care at home from family members and paid carers and; (3) Limited availability of LTC facilities in India, especially in rural localities, and the financial barriers to their use. Of 73,396 LASI participants, 40 were considering moving to LTC; 18,281 had a parent alive, of whom 9 reported that their father, and 16 that their mother, lived in LTC. LTC use was rare. While a third of participants with a living parent lived in urban areas, 14/24 of those with a parent in LTC lived in an urban area, supporting our qualitative findings that LTC is mainly accessed in urban areas. Preference for intergenerational community care combined with limited availability and societal stigma contribute to low rates of LTC use among Indian families. Future social policies should consider how to plan for greater equity in strengthening care at home and in the community, and bolstering respite and LTC services as a last resort.

Redistributive policy and redistribution preferences: the effects of the Moscow redevelopment program

ABSTRACT How does inclusion in social policy programs strengthen individuals’ support for redistribution, and lead to spillovers in support for future social policy programs? We study a unique dataset of 1,300 Moscow residents to estimate the effect of participating in a government-sponsored redevelopment program on preferences for redistributive social policy. Our design exploits features of the program designed to foster institutional trust by engaging citizens in the policy design process. We report a positive effect: individuals in buildings slated for redevelopment are more likely to agree that the government should reduce income differences between rich and poor, provide for the unemployed, and provide public housing. Our findings suggest that increased trust in the government is a channel through which program participation affects redistribution preferences, show how programs can be used strategically to promote a redistributive agenda, and suggest a pathway for the co-persistence of redistribution preferences and redistributive state policies.

Individual-level community-based social capital and depressive symptoms among older adults in urban China: the moderating effects of socioeconomic status

Objectives This study aimed to examine the moderating role of socioeconomic status in the association between community-based social capital—based on individual-level cognitive and structural social capital—and depressive symptoms among older adults in urban China. Methods Data were collected in 2020 through a community survey of 800 respondents aged 60 years and older living in Shijiazhuang and Tianjin. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. Multiple-group analyses were conducted to analyze the data. Results Measurement models of cognitive social capital and structural social capital were established. Measurement invariance was established across different socioeconomic groups. Additionally, socioeconomic status significantly moderated the association between social capital and depressive symptoms. The association between cognitive social capital and depressive symptoms was statistically significant among respondents with relatively low incomes and high levels of education, whereas the association between structural social capital and depressive symptoms was significant only among those with relatively high incomes. Conclusion Future social capital policies and interventions should adopt different strategies to provide services to older adults from different socioeconomic backgrounds. Furthermore, educational programs should promote the effects of cognitive social capital on depressive symptoms later in life.

Do carer tasks predict carer employment? Evidence from the Survey of Adult Carers in England

AbstractDue to the large number of unpaid carers in England, there is an extensive body of research which examines the determinants of carers' employment. Despite this, little is known about the relationship between the specific tasks that carers perform and their labour supply. Using data from the Survey of Adult Carers in England, we examine the relationship between carer tasks and carer employment outcomes. We find that carers who perform tasks that are time‐bound have a lower probability of working compared to carers who do not perform these tasks. Similarly, carers who perform shiftable tasks have a higher probability of working compared to carers who do not perform these tasks. If future social policy is to be designed to allow carers to also maintain their employment, then targeting services at the carer tasks which have the largest impact on employment needs to be taken into account.

The Future of Social Policy in Europe

Social policy in the European Union (EU) remains sidelined in the debates on the future of Europe. In the last decade, EU has faced numerous crises having significant repercussions for its social policies, including immigration waves, the Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic. As an area of direct concern to EU citizens, with its features on employment, education/training, non-discrimination and equality bearing crucial implications for their daily lives, social policy should be re-considered from an angle that encompasses the citizens’ perspective and effectively addresses the major challenges it faces in the new global order. The main objective of this study is to explore the implications of these challenges for EU social policy, which in turn, has a key role in shaping the future of the EU.

Understanding the Relationship Between Decreases in Social Security Benefits and Intergenerational Inequalities in Mental Health.

It is well-established that mental health follows similar patterns across generations. However, little is known how structural factors, such as those related to social security reforms, may impact this relationship. Our aim was to quantify the strength of association in mental health between parents and their adolescent children, and to explore how much of this correlation is explained by decreases in benefits. We used data from U.K. Household Longitudinal Study (2009-2019) from which we matched youth data to their parents, and split the sample into single- and dual-parent households. To estimate the intergenerational correlations, we estimated a series of unit- and rank-based regression models of standardized and time-averaged mental health measures for adolescents and their parents. Our findings suggest that there are statistically significant intergenerational associations in mental health between parents and children for both single- and dual-parent households, with the relationship being stronger for single-mother households. Benefit losses explain a small proportion of this association, for both single-mother and dual-parent households. Nevertheless, they are negatively associated with the mental health of adolescents in dual-parent households-independently of both adolescent and parental characteristics. Such negative effects should be considered when designing and evaluating future social security benefit policies.

The future of social policy in assessment of the student youth: the experience of a socio-pedagogical research

Introduction. Global crises connected with the epidemiological situation, negative tendencies in economics, and international conflicts in 21st century are accompanied by increased attention of population including the student youth to social support measures and functioning of the social system as a whole. Therefore there is a contradiction between the necessity of future social policy image creation in the view of the contemporary studying youth and insufficient detectability of symbolic constructions of higher school students. The research aim is to conduct a socio-pedagogical analysis and determine symbolic constructions representing images of future social policy in contemporary Russia and perspectives its future development in the view of the student youth. Materials and methods. The authors conducted their research found on studying international documents, Laws of Russian Federation, woks of leading scientists, practitioners in the sphere of political science, sociology, social pedagogy and other related disciplines. The problem is viewed in terms of two main paradigmatic solutions: paternalism and liberalism. The methodological basis of the study is based on the application of a systematic, integrated approach to research of perspectives and images of social policy in the assessment of the student youth. Sociological survey results were used as the main empirical base, the survey was conducted in January 2023 by the method of representative sociological survey (questionnaire) of students in Lipetsk region. 360 people from higher education students were interviewed as respondents. Research results. While analyzing goals of social policy, prioritized focus-groups and factors greatly influencing the perspective development of social protection sphere the authors identified preferable for the studying youth social policy and perspectives of Russian social situation development. Students considering the format of social policy prefer coherent targeted support of all categories of people (71,7%). Most students hold the state responsible for functioning of virtually all spheres of social life. Young people do not see the state leaving the sphere of social policy; do not support the transfer of social protection functions to citizens and business organizations, linking their positive expectation with health care (44,7%), quality of education (42,5%) and fertility (41,4%), support the lowering of the retirement age (73,3%), expansion of pension public funding (59,2%). Preferable image of social policy is closely connected with the image of Russia as a country surplus budget of which makes it possible to finance socially without direct borrowing from citizens (66,9%). Conclusions. The results obtained can be applied when making management decisions on the formation of social policy at all management levels and implementing social policy and priority national projects “Education” and “Demography”. Keywords: higher education, students, social policy, social support of citizens

Stakeholder perspectives on social screening in US healthcare settings

BackgroundEvidence on the health impacts of social conditions has led US healthcare systems to consider identifying and addressing social adversity—e.g. food, housing, and transportation insecurity—in care delivery settings. Social screening is one strategy being used to gather patient information about social circumstances at the point of care. While several recent studies describe the rapid proliferation of social screening activities, little work has explored either why or how to implement social screening in clinical settings. Our study objectives were to assess diverse healthcare stakeholder perspectives on both the rationale for social screening and evidence needed to inform practice and policy-relevant implementation decisions.MethodsWe convened five focus groups with US experts representing different stakeholder groups: patient advocates, community-based organizations, healthcare professionals, payers, and policymakers. In total, 39 experts participated in approximately 90-minute long focus groups conducted between January-March 2021. A inductive thematic analysis approach was used to analyze discussions.ResultsThree themes emerged from focus groups, each reflecting the tension between the national enthusiasm for screening and existing evidence on the effectiveness and implementation of screening in clinical settings: (1) ambiguity about the rationale for social screening; (2) concerns about the relavence of screening tools and approaches, particularly for historically marginalized populations; (3) lack of clarity around the resources needed for implementation and scaling.ConclusionWhile participants across groups described potential benefits of social screening, they also highlighted knowledge gaps that interfered with realizing these benefits. Efforts to minimize and ideally resolve these knowledge gaps will advance future social screening practice and policy.

Does Caregiver Education Level Influence Confidence in Care Budgeting and Planning for Persons Living with Alzheimer's Disease or Related Dementias?

The nearly 11 million unpaid caregivers ('family members or friends') who provide care to the 6.5 million people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD) in the United States are frequently tasked with substantial and overwhelming care budgeting and planning. Yet, many of these caregivers encounter individual-level barriers that make it difficult to carry out care budgeting and planning tasks. An individual-level factor that is not well understood is the education level of ADRD caregivers. This ongoing study is investigating the role of caregiver education level in predicting confidence in ADRD care budgeting and planning. Caregivers of people living with ADRD residing in the United States completed the Caregiving Financial and Legal Planning Survey in 2022. Secondary analyses of cross-sectional data are currently underway. A total of 238 caregivers self-reported their confidence in care budgeting and planning, which was assessed by the following question "How confident are you in knowing about care budgeting and planning (1 = not at all confident, 5 = extremely confident). Those responding '4' or greater were designated as high confidence. Descriptive statistics were used to examine demographic characteristics of caregivers. Logistic regression analyses will be used to determine the relationship between caregiver education level and confidence in care budgeting and planning while controlling for demographic characteristics. The average caregiver was 52 years old (range 36-67), female (78%), white (82%), and had a bachelor's or equivalent level of education (34%). Thirty-five percent of the caregivers (83) reported high confidence. Logistic regression analyses are in progress. Results may suggest that caregivers with higher education levels feel more confident in care budgeting and planning. Practitioners and researchers may need to evaluate ways to improve training resources on how to budget and plan for ADRD care. A better understanding of factors that contribute to care budgeting and planning may inform tailored caregiving interventions and future social support policies.

Childhood experiences and frailty trajectory among middle-aged and older adults in China.

This study examined the associations between childhood experiences and frailty trajectory among middle-aged and older Chinese adults. Data were derived from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We used data from all four waves (i.e., 2011, 2013, 2015, 2018) and the life history survey in 2014. Data for 10,963 respondents were included. Latent growth curve models were conducted to examine the proposed model. The results show that adverse childhood experiences, self-rated childhood socioeconomic status, and the objective indicators of childhood health and health care were associated with both the baseline level and change rate of frailty. The educational attainment of fathers and perceived childhood health and healthcare conditions were associated with baseline frailty only. Our findings highlight the crucial role of childhood antecedents in the progression of frailty in later life. We further found strong evidence that childhood is an essential life stage for human development. Future social policies and interventions should use childhood experiences as a screening tool and promote child protection, health education, and life course interventions.

Beyond survival: Strengthening community‐based support for parents receiving a family service intervention

AbstractThis paper presents parents' experiences of community support and their recommendations for how their communities, and the services within them, might support their families. Generated through a human‐centred design methodology and using a desire‐centred framework, the findings suggest that parents receiving a family service require support invoking feelings of intimacy, trust, reciprocity, inclusivity, connection and belonging. Parents' recommendations for community support include addressing material and attitudinal constraints impacting on engagement with services; creating non‐judgmental services tailored to their needs but accessed as a last resort; and creating peer‐based opportunities to support each other. Parents reflect that moving beyond basic survival of risk and vulnerability to a position where thriving is possible requires purposeful integration of parent's existing and desired community into service interventions. Facilitating deliberate change at the intersection of community and service support is pertinent to current and future social work policy and practice. Wider opportunities for understanding and enabling the needs and aspirations of parents, which are often overlooked because of a focus on addressing risk and vulnerability, are considered.

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the stress and depression levels of new mothers

Abstract Background New mothers are a particularly vulnerable group during the COVID-19 pandemic, due both to the higher depression and stress levels associated with early child care and to the risk of a COVID-19 infection. We investigated the effects of the pandemic on the childbirth experience, stress and depression levels in this population. Methods This cross-sectional, explorative study included 1964 Austrian and German mothers who gave birth between 16.03.2020 and 01.07.2021 and completed an online survey between 18.05.2021 and 01.07.2021. This contained the Childbirth Experience Questionnaire (CEQ2), the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), as well as three custom-made scales: a birth risk score (risk factors for a poor birth outcome), a pandemic repercussions score (perceived effects on different aspects of personal life), and a social support score (how emotionally supported they feel). We computed post-hoc multilinear regression models to evaluate which factors can predict the CEQ2, PSS and EPDS scores. Results Mothers had a worse birth experience, perceived less stress and had more depressive symptoms during the pandemic than previously reported cohorts. The CEQ2 was predicted by the birth risk (negatively), the access to a midwife (positively) and the perception of sufficient access of the visitors in the hospital (positively) (adjusted R2 = 0.26, F(4, 1738) = 155.64, p < 0.001). The PSS was predicted by the pandemic repercussions (positively), the social support (negatively), and the presence of a coping mechanism (negatively) (adjusted R2 = 0.28, F(4, 1959) = 195.1, p < 0.001). The EPDS was similarly predicted by the same factors as the PSS (adjusted R2 = 0.28, F(4, 1959) = 189.59, p < 0.001). Conclusions Social support and strong coping mechanisms can lower the stress and depression scores. Instructing the population about how to improve these factors might be a target for future social policies. Key messages • Compared to historical cohorts, mothers who gave birth during the pandemic had a worse birth experience, and, postnatally, perceived less stress but had more depressive symptoms. • The visitors’ access to the hospital and the mother’s access to a midwife impacted the birth experience, while the social support and the coping mechanisms affected the stress and depression scores.

Social Economy in Romania after Post-Communism Era. Present Challenges and Future Social Policies

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Effects of Overt and Relational Bullying on Adolescents' Subjective Well-Being: The Mediating Mechanisms of Social Capital and Psychological Capital.

Based on the social and psychological capital framework, this study aimed to investigate the direct effect of bullying on adolescents’ subjective well-being and to reveal the potential psychosocial mechanisms in this relationship. Through the multi-stage cluster random sampling procedure, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 728 adolescents from Hebei Province in China. Structural equation modeling was adopted for data analysis. After controlling for sociodemographic variables, the results indicated that only relational bullying had a significant negative effect on adolescents’ subjective well-being. Moreover, social capital and psychological capital mediated the relationship between relational bullying and adolescents’ subjective well-being. This study expands our understanding of the influencing mechanisms from bullying victimization to subjective well-being and also provides practical implications for future social policy development and relevant interventions.

How does neighbourhood environment influence loneliness in later life in Urban China? The role of financial status.

This study aimed to examine whether older adults' financial status moderated the association between neighbourhood environment (i.e. physical and social environment) and loneliness among older adults in urban China. A cross-sectional survey was collected from urban communities of Shanghai in mid-2020. The final analytic sample was 459 older adults (age range=60-91 years; proportion of women: 55.8%). Multiple group analysis was applied to test the hypothesised model. A measurement model of community social capital (i.e. cognitive and structural dimensions of social capital), a crucial indicator of neighbourhood social environment, was first established in both high-income and low-income groups. Factor loading invariance was established in these two groups. The results show that structural social capital (i.e. organisation memberships, volunteering, social participation and citizenship activities) was negatively associated with loneliness among older respondents from the high-income group only, whereas better community security was significantly associated with lower levels of loneliness among low-income older respondents only. The findings imply that both structural social capital and household income should be considered as important indicators in needs assessment among lonely older adults. Future social policies and interventions should pay attention to enhancing the role of both social and physical neighbourhood environment among older adults.

Social Justice and Social Reform under Condition of Population Aging. Systematic Literature Review

This study is a systematic analysis of the current debate in leading English-language journals about the future of social policy in an aging society. Pension systems have been reformed in most European countries in recent decades, but there are types of reforms that can shift the burden of aging to other generations. If the benefits and costs of these reforms affect generations’ perceptions of social policy in different ways, then pension reform can be used as a tool to improve not only public finances, but also intergenerational solidarity. The investigation of the relationship between different types of pension reforms and social justice is one of the tasks of this study. One of the main challenges was to understand whether the changes in social policy could intensify or reduce the conflicts between generations. The results showed that the support for social policy, which is mainly aimed at older people, has declined in most European countries, although the vast majority of people believe that the state should provide a reasonable standard of living for older people. Support for the elderly declined more in the countries that raised the retirement age and introduced multi-pillar pensions. At the same time, a well-functioning intergenerational welfare pact is not only about ensuring the well-being of older people. It is also a preference for policies that support the working population and those under working age. The rebalancing of the intergenerational welfare pact can provide a solid foundation for an adequate pension policy.

Government Contracting Services to Social Organisations in China: A Review of Research for Future Enquiry

Contracting of social services has been adopted in China as an innovation in welfare provision. This article reviews the emerging literature on contracting of services to social organisations in China in order to identify lines of further enquiry. It reviews research published in the English and Chinese languages up to 2018. We identify three distinct narratives: public sector reform, improvement of welfare service quality and capacity, and transformation of state-society relations. We contrast the identified narratives with the empirical evidence produced for the Chinese case. We demonstrate that, despite contradictory empirical evidence, the premise that contracting improves public sector efficiency and quality of services predominates. The narrative that contracting transforms state-society relations is contested. This article contributes to the understanding of how contracting of services is justified in theory and practice, and proposes an agenda for future social policy research on contracting of services to social organisations in China.

The association between the community SARS exposure and allostatic load among Chinese older adults.

ObjectivesPrevious studies have found that severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was associated with the physical and psychological stress of those infected. However, research is sparse regarding the long‐term health consequence of community SARS exposure for older adults.MethodsUsing data from the 2011 and 2015 China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), we estimated multilevel regression models of allostatic load (AL) in the years after the SARS epidemic among 7735 respondents. Interaction terms between SARS epidemic exposure and social participation or community environment were included to examine potential effects.ResultsWe found that community SARS exposure was associated with greater AL for those who had no social participation. Among those who were in worse community environment, community SARS exposure was strongly related to elevated load in the cardiovascular system. However, for those had social participation and lived in better community environment, community SARS exposure manifested no association with AL years later. Active social participation and better community environment could offset the negative association between SARS exposure and AL.ConclusionsTaken together, these findings helped determine the positive direction of future social efforts and policy decisions to guide the global recovery from the devastating COVID‐19 pandemic.