Strategies People Research Articles

Participation at the margins – participation practices from the viewpoint of young people in residential care

ABSTRACT This article critically discusses young service users’ participation rights and participation processes in residential group care concerning the challenges, requirements, and opportunities that such a form of organised participation entails for them. A comparative analysis of findings from two qualitative studies from Germany and Switzerland is an empirical basis. Experiences of lived, negotiated, or subtle struggles for the participation of children and youth in everyday institutional life are presented. Identified resistant practices of children and youth, which are of great importance to them, deviate from the usual organisational and normative requirements for participation. The article closes a vital research gap: It presents young people's strategies for dealing with organised and sometimes tokenistic participation. The focus on the self-will of the young actors offers the possibility of supplementing a frequently normative discourse about securing children´s rights in alternative care without making the lifeworld of the young service users and their views a starting point for interventions and legal interpretations. Moreover, the results of both research projects indicate that participation in the everyday life of young people in residential care organisations entails special requirements and challenges, which will be presented here in more detail.

Reimagining Communities through Transnational Bengali Decolonial Discourse with YouTube Content Creators

Colonialism--the policies and practices wherein a foreign body imposes its ways of life on local communities--has historically impacted how collectives perceive themselves in relation to others. One way colonialism has impacted how people see themselves is through nationalism, where nationalism is often understood through shared language, culture, religion, and geopolitical borders. The way colonialism has shaped people's experiences with nationalism has shaped historical conflicts between members of different nation-states for a long time. While recent social computing research has studied how colonially marginalized people can engage in discourse to decolonize or re-imagine and reclaim themselves and their communities on their own terms--what is less understood is how technology can better support decolonial discourses in an effort to re-imagine nationalism. To understand this phenomenon, this research draws on a semi-structured interview study with YouTubers who make videos about culturally Bengali people whose lives were upended as a product of colonization and are now dispersed across Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan. This research seeks to understand people's motivations and strategies for engaging in video-mediated decolonial discourse in transnational contexts. We discuss how our work demonstrates the potential of the sociomateriality of decolonial discourse online and extends an invitation to foreground complexities of nationalism in social computing research.

How do you choose your meal when you dine out? A mixed methods study in consumer food-choice strategies in the restaurant context

Choosing meals in restaurants is a significant part of life. On average, people purchase seven meals per week from one of the over 17.5 million food outlets worldwide. The way people choose restaurant meals is different from how they choose foods they consume at home. Understanding people's decision-making strategies when choosing restaurant meals is critical for designing behaviour change interventions that prompt specific food choices (e.g., health, low emissions). Our study aims to identify meal choice strategies across various food outlets (Study 1) and determine their frequency of use (Study 2). In Study 1, we take a constructionist perspective and derive insights from 21 semi-structured interviews on strategies people use as they select meals in different food outlets. We identify 16 distinct strategies, with many people using multiple strategies within and across different restaurant types (i.e., general restaurants, fast-food, pubs, and upscale restaurants). In Study 2, we quantify which of those 16 strategies are most frequently used. The most used strategies were searching the menu for (1) the most enjoyable meals, (2) the most budget-friendly meals, or (3) familiar meals (i.e., habitual choices); and choosing from those. Few people searched the menu for the most environmentally friendly meals and chose from those. These results could explain the limited effectiveness of carbon labelling at restaurants. Our study calls for future interventions on prompting environmental or healthy food choices to move away from health and environmental labelling and to focus on enjoyment, price, or habit because these are important for people when choosing a meal. We also created a practical measure of the 16 food-choice strategies, available for researchers to use.

Investigating an effort avoidance account of attentional strategy choice.

People often choose suboptimal attentional control strategies during visual search. This has been at least partially attributed to the avoidance of the cognitive effort associated with the optimal strategy, but aspects of the task triggering such avoidance remain unclear. Here, we attempted to measure effort avoidance of an isolated task component to assess whether this component might drive suboptimal behavior. We adopted a modified version of the Adaptive Choice Visual Search (ACVS), a task designed to measure people's visual search strategies. To perform optimally, participants must make a numerosity judgment-estimating and comparing two color sets-before they can advantageously search through the less numerous of the two. If participants skip the numerosity judgment step, they can still perform accurately, albeit substantially more slowly. To study whether effort associated with performing the optional numerosity judgment could be an obstacle to optimal performance, we created a variant of the demand selection task to quantify the avoidance of numerosity judgment effort. Results revealed a robust avoidance of the numerosity judgment, offering a potential explanation for why individuals choose suboptimal strategies in the ACVS task. Nevertheless, we did not find a significant relationship between individual numerosity judgment avoidance and ACVS optimality, and we discussed potential reasons for this lack of an observed relationship. Altogether, our results showed that the effort avoidance for specific subcomponents of a visual search task can be probed and linked to overall strategy choices.

Casual, customized and contemptuous relationships with education: Social solvation and young people's strategies during multi‐crisis

AbstractThis paper focuses on individual responses to education in crisis, with the strategies of students contextualised and examined within a wider multi‐crisis reality. Offering a conceptual framework of social solvation, the proposed model explains how failures in the education system at the macro (state) and meso (institutional) levels translate into young people's behaviours at the individual (micro) level. Based on the analysis of 26 in‐depth interviews with young students, we identify and discuss three main micro‐rational strategies that the interviewees relied upon to navigate their learning during the pandemic: (1) casualisation (2) customisation and (3) contempt towards the broader system. We argue that the already weak Polish education system was further impaired by the COVID‐19 crisis. In response to growing social and educational risks, young people forge and employ highly individualised strategies. As micro‐rational social actions essentially bypass the unwieldy education system in a variety of ways, they have vital implications for educational futures.

‘Identity as work’: Water‐army and disability employment in digital China

AbstractThe proliferation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) over the past few decades has changed the world of work. Although extensive studies have discussed the impact of ICTs on work forms and labour relations, scarce attention has been paid to work–identity dynamics in digitally enabled contexts, let alone the issues faced by marginalised people such as disabled people. This article attempts to fill the gaps by examining the relationship between cyber work, identity, and disability in digital China. By analysing ‘water army’ (shuijun), a unique type of cyber work, the article proposes an ‘identity as work’ scenario that includes the production and commodification of identity as the work content, the development of a workable, in‐control identity as the most important return, and the organisation of work around the disability identity. The findings suggest a new and more complex interaction between (marginal) people's identity strategies and work‐related social norms.

Delayed center of mass feedback in elderly humans leads to greater muscle co-contraction and altered balance strategy under perturbed balance: A predictive musculoskeletal simulation study.

Falls are one of the leading causes of non-disease death and injury in the elderly, often due to delayed sensory neural feedback essential for balance. This delay, challenging to measure or manipulate in human studies, necessitates exploration through neuromusculoskeletal modeling to reveal its intricate effects on balance. In this study, we developed a novel three-way muscle feedback control approach, including muscle length feedback, muscle force feedback, and enter of mass feedback, for balancing and investigated specifically the effects of center of mass feedback delay on elderly people's balance strategies. We conducted simulations of cyclic perturbed balance at different magnitudes ranging from 0 to 80 mm and with three center of mass feedback delays (100, 150 & 200 ms). The results reveal two key points: 1) Longer center of mass feedback delays resulted in increased muscle activations and co-contraction, 2) Prolonged center of mass feedback delays led to noticeable shifts in balance strategies during perturbed standing. Under low-amplitude perturbations, the ankle strategy was predominantly used, while higher amplitude disturbances saw more frequent employment of hip and knee strategies. Additionally, prolonged center of mass delays altered balance strategies across different phases of perturbation, with a noticeable increase in overall ankle strategy usage. These findings underline the adverse effects of prolonged feedback delays on an individual's stability, necessitating greater muscle co-contraction and balance strategy adjustment to maintain balance under perturbation. Our findings advocate for the development of training programs tailored to enhance balance reactions and mitigate muscle feedback delays within clinical or rehabilitation settings for fall prevention in elderly people.

The interactive effect between economic uncertainty and life history strategy on corrupt intentions: a life history theory approach.

Why do some people show more corruption when facing uncertain environment? The present study aimed to give a plausible answer from an evolutionary perspective: this might be rooted in people's different life history strategies (slow vs. fast). The present study measured the participants' corrupt intentions by a hypothetical scenario and primed the feeling of economic environmental uncertainty by requiring the participants to read economic uncertainty (vs. neutral) materials. It is revealed that the participants with fast life history strategies had stronger corrupt intentions after reading materials about economic uncertainty than reading neutral materials. In addition, the desire for power mediated the interactive effect between life history strategy and economic uncertainty on corrupt intentions for fast life history strategists. This finding was discussed for its theoretical and practical implications from the perspective of life history theory.

Scaling up of sustainable soil management practices: some lessons from the hills of Nepal

A study was conducted to assess the scaling up processes of soil management practices under maize based farming systems in Panchkhal and Sanga areas of Kavre district. The key objectives of the study are to analyze the scaling up processes and pathways of soil management practices in the case study areas and identify factors related to scaling up at different levels. Three principalquestions guiding the analysis were: a) what are the positive aspects of scaling up processes and how can these be built on? b) What are the problems being experienced and how can these be overcome? c) What is the influence of people's livelihood strategies and assets on the processes? Kavre is one of the 10 districts where Sustainable soil Management Programme (SSMP) ofHelvetas has helped local people in the adoption of innovative soil management practices integrated with various cash and subsistence crops. With SMP support and advice, services to farmers in these areas create awareness and build their institutions (CIs) provide extension services to farmers in these areas create awareness and build their institutional capacity onadopting innovative soil management practices. The goal of the project is to improve livelihoods of resource poor farmers.Data for the study were gathered from 29 households through interviews, two workshops with key informants at the community level and a workshop with CIs at district levels, and review of SSMP and partners' documented information on the subject. The research team also made transect visits through the area, and interviewed several staff of the collaborating institutions. Qualitativeanalysis (in terms of perceptions of respondents) as well as quantitative analysis of data was done at household, community and institutional levels.

Land Use, Built-Up, and Vegetation Index in North Halmahera Regency through Spatio-Temporal Analysis

Monitoring land use, buildings, and vegetation index of ecotourism areas in North Halmahera can support planning space utilization in urban areas for tourist areas as the concept of land use management and urban planning. This study offers ideas for analyzing the distribution of buildings, vegetation index, and land use in the mangrove ecotourism area of North Halmahera Regency using the spatio-temporal analysis method. The spatio-temporal analysis method comprises several stages: data selection, preprocessing, data integration, spatial analysis, temporal analysis, spatio-temporal analysis, data visualization, interpretation and understanding, and data visualization. The results of this study show that changes in the livelihood strategy of local people, from farmers and fishermen to traders, also affect land use patterns, from agricultural activities to economic activities, which triggers an increase in the number of buildings for production activities to product distribution. The implications of these findings on ecotourism development programs and policies and infrastructure development in the North Halmahera Regency are to consider community livelihoods and space or land use behavior in ecotourism areas based on vegetation, soil, and building index values. Thus, the intensification of building distribution and changes in vegetation index values from 2013-2023 reflect changes in people's livelihood strategies from agrarian activities to trade and from fishermen's activities to tourism transportation service providers.

Multilingualism, language choice, and identity construction: Diasporic Ukrainians in Shanghai

AbstractThis article reports on a study of multilingualism, language choice, and identity construction for six Ukrainians in Shanghai, China. Thematic analysis of data collected from netnographic observation, semi‐structured interviews, and narrative frame writing revealed that diasporic Ukrainians’ language choice is both instrumentally strategic and sociopolitically charged; in the public domain, they construct light “citizen of the world” and “nice foreigner” identities; in the private domain, they construct “Ukrainian who speaks Ukrainian language” identity. To understand the seemingly binary or even conflicted situation, we turn to the concept of “social anchoring” and propose a conceptualization of “diasporic people's language choice and identity selection.” This study shows that the construction of diasporic identity is, first of all, an individualistic process, articulating the affective aspect in their seeking psychological stability; it is also a social practice indicating diasporic people's strategies in seeking social stability.

Waylosing and wayfinding in the outdoors: a typology of wayfinding approaches to problem-solving when temporarily lost

Abstract This paper presents the findings from a survey conducted in Norway to study the process of recovering from temporary disorientation in outdoor environments. The survey, with 693 respondents, investigated how individuals navigate and regain their bearings after getting disoriented for a short period of time. By collecting data on duration of disorientation and descriptions of participants' recovery experiences, we conducted both qualitative and quantitative analyses to establish a typology of spatial problem-solving [Downs, R. M. and Stea, D. (1977). Maps in Minds: Reflections on Cognitive Mapping. New York: Harper & Row, p. 55] approaches employed in wayfinding after becoming temporarily lost in outdoor settings. The research systematically explores the use of materials and approaches described by respondents when re-establishing their bearings. The existing research literature lacks comprehensive reporting on people's strategies for solving the problem of being disoriented in the outdoors, which motivated us to conduct this study. The resulting typology gives an overview of approaches employed to solve the problem of being lost in the outdoors and contribute additional details and insights to the understanding of individuals' wayfinding behaviours and reorientation processes.

Experiences and strategies of people with sickle cell disease in the Federal District: the biographical rupture.

This is a study on sickle cell disease, a chronic illness that affects many Brazilians, that aims to understand and analyze how people address the adversities arising from the diagnosis and the biographical rupture. The description of people's experiences and strategies conjures a picture that expresses the respondents' habitus, built in a dialectical relationship with the vulnerability determined by the disease. We adopted a qualitative approach and focused interviews as proposed by Merton, combined with the snowball technique, applied to groups related to sickle cell disease on social networks. Seven participants were selected because they were privileged informants with the disease, were over eighteen, lived in the Federal District, and were non-exclusive users of the Unified Health System. The interview material was categorized from the focal groups employed. The results indicated the following categories: biographical rupture, experience and coping strategies, and healthcare. It is necessary to sensitize professionals and the population about the challenging living conditions of people with sickle cell disease and the consolidation of public policies and care networks to accommodate this population.

Pain Management in the Community: The Empowerment of District on Collaboration of Complementary Nursing at Bukittinggi, West Sumatera

Pain is a global health issue. It is estimated that every year 20% of the world's population experiences pain and half of this is chronic pain. In Indonesia there has been no large-scale research discussing the prevalence and quality of all types of pain. Indonesia also does not yet have practical parameters for assessing pain, patient comfort levels, and the effect of pain on the quality of life of the Indonesian people. This Community Service (PKM) seeks to provide training and raise information about pain treatment in one of the districts of Bukittinggi, West Sumatera, through socializing and outreach to the community. The strategy employed in this PKM includes counseling about pain management in the community and how to handle it. This PKM obtained an increase in the knowledge and skill of community members in controlling their pain. According to the findings of monitoring and analyzing PKM activities, the community health service was ready to improve people's pain management strategies. It is believed that this activity will be beneficial in enhancing the knowledge and experience of pain management that may be used in the community health service by individuals and their families, particularly in non-pharmacological approaches as complementary pain management nursing.

Analysis of the Relationship between Selling Price and Stock Condition of Wet Cat Food Products Using a Regression Approach at Cat Care Petshop

The Petshop business has been increasing recently. This is related to the economic capacity of the community and changes in several segments of society who are starting to buy food for their beloved pets, cats and dogs. Determining the selling price is a very important thing for Petshop business people to pay attention to in order to increase purchasing power and of course as one of the business people's strategies so that people want to buy animal needs at the Petshop. Apart from that, stock management must also be carried out well by the perpetrators so that there is no accumulation. Selling prices that are too high will cause stock buildup due to poor turnover of goods. This is proven by the influence of selling prices on stock conditions at Cat Care Petshop with a determination value of 82.6%. So Cat Care Petshop must regulate the selling price of feed so that stock availability can be controlled and does not pile up.

Food choices for weight loss: what dietary strategies would people use?

Previous observational research showed that one of the most common strategies used to lose weight is to avoid or restrict the consumption of specific food items. However, the question of how people behave and implement strategies in actual decision-making situations involving food choices for weight loss purposes remains inconclusive. This experimental study using a food buffet aimed to examine people's different dietary strategies and motives for selecting foods for an entire day for weight loss purposes compared with a normal-day (ND) food selection. A total of 111 participants (55 % women) had to choose foods for both a ND and a weight loss day (WLD) (within-study design). Kilocalories and nutrients were calculated based on the weights of the foods selected, and food choice motives were assessed using a questionnaire. The results showed that for weight loss purposes, the participants selected more vegetables (both sexes) and unsweetened beverages (only men) while reducing their choices of high-fat and high-energy products (both sexes). Participants' food choices in both conditions (ND and WLD) differed from the official nutrition recommendations. They chose less carbohydrates and fibres and more fat and sugar than recommended. Health, kilocalories and nutrient content (carbohydrates, sugar, fat and protein) were more important food choice motives for weight loss purposes than for a ND food selection, while taste became less important. In conclusion, the participants appeared to be well capable of implementing several appropriate dietary strategies. Further research is needed to explore strategies to help them maintain these dietary changes over the long term.

Identify successful restrictions in suppressing the early outbreak of COVID-19 in Arizona, United States: Interrupted time series analysis.

COVID-19 was responsible for many deaths and economic losses around the globe since its first case report. Governments implemented a variety of policies to combat the pandemic in order to protect their citizens and save lives. Early in 2020, the first cases were reported in Arizona State and continued to rise until the discovery of the vaccine in 2021. A variety of strategies and interventions to stop or decelerate the spread of the pandemic has been considered. It is recommended to define which strategy was successful for disease propagation prevention and could be used in further similar situations. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of people's contact interventions strategies which were implemented in Arizona State and their effect on reducing the daily new COVID-19 cases and deaths. Their effect on daily COVID-19 cases and deaths were evaluated using an interrupted time series analysis during the pandemic's first peaks to better understand the onward situation. Canceling the order of staying at home (95% CI, 1718.52 to 6218.79; p<0.001) and expiring large gatherings (95% CI, 1984.99 to 7060.26; p<0.001) on June 30 and August 17, 2020, respectively, had a significant effect on the pandemic, leading to the daily cases to grow rapidly. Moreover, canceling the stay at home orders led to an increase in the number of COVID-19 daily deaths by 67.68 cases (95% CI, 27.96 to 107.40; p<0.001) after about 21 days while prohibiting large gatherings significantly decreased 66.76 (95% CI: 20.56 to 112.96; p = 0.004) the number of daily deaths with about 21 days' lag. The results showed that strategies aimed at reducing people's contact with one another could successfully help fight the pandemic. Findings from this study provide important evidence to support state-level policies that require observance of social distancing by the general public for future pandemics.

Perceived stress and psychosomatic complaints in Swedish youth

Abstract Background Psychosomatic complaints are common in youth, and are often assumed to reflect stress. Previous studies have reported associations between perceived stress and psychosomatic complaints. The current study extends this research by examining the longitudinal links between perceived stress and psychosomatic complaints. Methods The data was derived from two survey waves of the Swedish cohort study Futura01, with participants aged ∼17-18 in 2019 (t1) who were followed up in 2022 (t2; n = 2708). Perceived stress was measured by Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4). Psychosomatic complaints were captured by three items on the frequency of stomach ache, headache and sleeping problems, which were added to an index. Sex stratified linear regression analyses were performed, controlling for parental education and parental country of birth, based on information from official registers. The longitudinal analyses were carried out using the first difference (FD) approach, regressing the change in psychosomatic complaints on the change in perceived stress. Results Females reported higher levels of stress and of psychosomatic complaints than males at both time points. There were cross-sectional associations between perceived stress and psychosomatic complaints at t1 (females: b = 0.40, 95% CI 0.36, 0.45; males: b = 0.33, 95% CI 0.29, 0.38) and at t2 (females: b = 0.40, 95% CI 0.36, 0.45; males: b = 0.33, 95% CI 0.29, 0.38). The FD analyses showed that increases in perceived stress were associated with increases in psychosomatic complaints (females: b = 0.19, 95% CI 0.15, 0.23; males: b = 0.19, 95% CI 0.14, 0.23). Conclusions This study provides further empirical support for the assumption that psychosomatic complaints can be regarded as stress-related. Decreasing stress and strengthening young people's resources and strategies to cope with stress may thereby help to reduce the risk of developing psychosomatic complaints. Key messages • Psychosomatic complaints are responsive to perceived stress and can thus be regarded as stress-related. • Reducing stress and strengthening coping resources may increase well-being in youth.

Changes in loneliness and coping strategies during COVID‐19

AbstractThe social distancing measures implemented to slow the spread of COVID‐19 impacted many aspects of people's lives. Previous research has reported negative consequences of these measures for people's psychological well‐being, and that people differed in the impact on their psychological well‐being. The present study aimed to describe the different coping strategies Dutch people used to deal with these measures and to link these strategies to loneliness. In addition, the study aimed to examine mean‐level changes in loneliness and to explore individual differences in loneliness change. We used data from 2009 participants of a panel study of representative Dutch households. We assessed coping strategies used during the first wave of the COVID‐19 pandemic in May 2020 and examined changes in loneliness between October 2019 (before COVID‐19) and May 2020 (during the first wave of COVID‐19). First, results showed that most people employed specific coping strategies. The most frequently used social strategies were chatting and (video)calling; the most frequently used non‐social strategies were going outside, doing chores, watching TV, reading and self‐care. Second, people who used more coping strategies reported lower levels of loneliness. Third, analyses revealed an average increase in loneliness between October 2019 and May 2020. Fourth, we observed two significant interaction effects, showing a stronger positive link between the number of social coping strategies and initial loneliness levels among those with a partner or living with others than for those who were single or lived alone. Yet, no moderating effects on changes in loneliness were found: people using more coping strategies did not differ in loneliness changes from people using fewer coping strategies. Together, findings suggest that loneliness increased in the Netherlands during the first phase of COVID‐19 and that, while people's coping strategies were related to loneliness levels, they did not buffer against loneliness increases.

Young people's strategies for navigating education, employment, and housing: a case study from Corby UK

IntroductionThis paper reports the findings of research activity carried out as part of the UPLIFT project in Corby, United Kingdom. The project aimed to understand young people's experiences of education, employment and housing, and determine how young people navigate these domains, make choices and develop strategies within what is available to them. Through understanding the opportunities and strategies that young people employ across these domains, our aim was to consider how young people might engage locally to co-create a reflexive policy agenda.MethodsWe worked with peer researchers in Corby and interviewed local people (n = 40) and policy makers (n = 7) about the local context in Corby, and analyzed data, exploring themes.ResultsFindings highlighted the importance of young people understanding how systems work locally and suggest that young people, and their families, need greater support understanding how they can engage with and change systems.DiscussionThere needs to be better, easily accessible guidance developed around the support and opportunities that are available locally. Our research underlines the need to engage with young people in policy making to develop effective robust policy that works in a real-world context.