Social Understanding Research Articles

Pengingkaran Umat Islam terhadap Kewajiban Zakat Mal dan Analisis Pandangan Al-Qur’an Q.S. At-Taubah:60

The aim of this research is to study the phenomenon of Muslims' denial of their zakat mal obligations and analyze the perspective found in the Al-Qur'an in surah At-Taubah: 60 regarding this matter. Studies show that many Muslims ignore zakat mal, even though Islamic teachings explain it clearly. Factors such as lack of religious understanding, economic difficulties, and lack of socialization about the social and economic benefits of implementing zakat can cause this neglect. Analysis of verses from the Koran, searching related literature, and collecting data from respondents representing various levels of Islamic society are qualitative research methods. The focus of the analysis is Verse 60 of Surah At-Taubah in the Qur'an, which determines who is entitled to receive zakat mal and how it is carried out. The research results show that zakat mal plays an important role in building social justice, reducing poverty, and supporting various aspects of life in Islamic communities. Even though the Qur'an clearly determines who is entitled to receive zakat mal, actual practice often deviates from these provisions. Therefore, to overcome the rejection of zakat malls, education, use of technology, legal supervision, and increasing mass media awareness are solutions. To conclude, a deep understanding of Islamic teachings, especially zakat mal, is very important so that Muslims can carry out this obligation correctly. In accordance with its teachings, Islamic society can produce a more just and prosperous society with shared awareness and commitment

Play Therapy: An Analytical Mode of Therapy in Children

Childhood play assumes a myriad of forms, each offering a unique canvas for growth. Physical play builds motor skills and body awareness, while imaginative play nurtures expression, creativity, and conflict resolution. Social interactions within a play therapy environment foster co-operation, empathy, and social understanding. Cognitive development is stimulated through problem solving; emotional development is nurtured through expression of emotions. All these modalities are used in the context of various theories of development and have given rise to a number of techniques of play therapy, each following either a single approach or in some cases an eclectic approach. This chapter unveils the world of play therapy, its origins, core principles, and the transformative potential it holds for children.

‘If I behave like the stupidly kind character maybe I will stop being accidentally rude to people’: does reading fiction inform the social understanding and masking behaviours of autistic females?

ABSTRACT Girls are consistently found to have higher literacy levels than their male peers and to consume more social narrative fiction. This study conducted interviews with four autistic girls to better understand how reading fiction can inform the camouflaging behaviours of autistic girls. Participants described how imitating characters embodying desired values, such as kindness, provided them with a practical behavioural template. However, literature is only a simulation of reality, and participants described social “failures” where the tone of the imitated text did not align with their social reality.

How Can Social Understanding in Adolescence Be Enhanced? Observations Based on Short-Term Conversation-Based Training

Adolescence is a developmental period characterized by significant changes and intensified social interactions. The role of parents decreases and the importance of peer groups increases. Peers, especially friends, may deliver instrumental aid and emotional support; they may also promote a sense of security and be a significant source of affection and intimacy. Additionally, peer relations provide a testing ground for exercising many competencies necessary in complex social situations, such as social problem-solving, conflict resolution, and negotiation. The intensified contact with peers may also enhance adolescents’ social understanding skills. Therefore, practicing social understanding skills within a peer group may enhance one’s social functioning in adolescence. For these practical and educational reasons, we aimed to confirm the effectiveness of conversation-based training in these skills and identify what factors potentially support or hinder its effectiveness. Social understanding, the ability to understand oneself and others in various social situations, develops in childhood and adolescence. As this ability impacts satisfactory social functioning in adolescence and develops in a social context, a training process was proposed with the aim of enhancing the development of this ability based on the social-constructivist approach to social understanding. The efficacy of the training to enhance the understanding of one’s own and others’ mental states was verified using a sample of 65 Polish adolescents (mean age: 14.6 years). They participated in nine one-hour sessions and were divided into an experimental group (social understanding, n = 26) and two control groups: attention/perception (n = 17) and film/text literacy (n = 22). Although no direct effect of the theory of mind training was found, the results provided important observations for further work on adolescent social understanding training programs.

The Influence of Understanding Tax Regulations, Tax Socialization, and Fiscus Services on Mandatory Compliance E-Commerce Tax

This research aims to empirically test the influence of understanding tax regulations, tax socialization and servicestax authorities regarding e commerce taxpayer compliance for MSMEs that use e commerce in East Denpasar District and South Denpasar District. The population of this research is individual taxpayers who are MSMEs who use e commerce media to sell and are located in the East Denpasar KPP working area, namely East Denpasar District and South Denpasar District. T he research sample used was 384 respondents taken using the Accidental Sampling method. The analysis technique uses multiple linear regression analysis, coefficient of determination and model feasibility test (F test). Based on the results of data analysis , the variable understanding of tax regulations, tax socialization and tax service services have a positive effect on e commerce taxpayer compliance. Suggestions that can be given from the results of this research are that the Tax Service Office (KPP) ca n carry out outreach by increasing online guides that are easy to access, optimizing counseling and conducting additional train ing for tax officers to establish mechanisms for more effective supervision and for further researchers to explore deeper into th e psychological and social aspects of taxpayer involvement.

Pandemic Life-lines: A Multimodal Autoethnography of COVID-19 Illness, Isolation, and Shared Immunities

As a crosscutting concept in biology, anthropology, and philosophy, immunity has been a critical ‘site’ of debate on the relations between self and other, organism and environment, risk and responsibility, the corporeal and the political. In this Research Article, I trace how these relations and everyday life during the COVID-19 pandemic relied on a web of coordinated—and sometimes unexpected—lines of communication, restriction, and solidarity. Using an experimental approach that combines multimodal autoethnography and multiscalar relational analysis, I present a first-person account of travelling during, testing for, and falling ill and isolating with COVID-19 in late 2021. I explore how pandemic life-lines, including public health measures, vaccinations, devices, and helplines, as well as mundane gestures of care and ecologies of support, acted together as shared immunities. In this exploration, I propose to reconceptualise ‘immunity’ as a process network rather than a defence apparatus, shedding light on how these life-lines may influence differential trajectories of disease and healing. To conclude, I discuss how my conceptual and methodological approach contributes to a social ecological understanding of immunity, that goes beyond the biopolitical, in times of pandemic and in the future.

Victims or villains? How editorial cartoons depict the 2023 Israel – Palestine war

Abstract Study purpose The study analyzed online editorial cartoons depicting the Israel-Palestine conflict through visual, symbolic, metaphorical, and textual analysis. The study reveals a prevailing anti-war sentiment across editorial cartoons, with a notable inclination towards supporting Palestine. This support was prominent in cartoons originating from the Global South, particularly Sub-Saharan Africa. However, there was a scarcity of such cartoons within mainstream Western media. Methodology The study employs an in-depth approach, analyzing cartoons from both Western and non-Western media. It utilizes Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA) and Multimodal Semiotics (MS) theories, focusing on symbolism and text to decode nuanced narratives within the cartoons. Main findings The cartoons depict complex narratives, using symbolism to explain how politicians and the main media are framing specific entities while undermining victimology. They reveal subjective perspectives that influence audience perceptions. They echo existing scholarly views on the influential power of editorial cartoons in communicating complex political concepts. Social implications The cartoons shape public understanding of the conflict, potentially influencing biases and perspectives. They present Hamas as both an aggressor and a victim, portraying multifaceted perceptions of the group. Practical implications The findings are instrumental in depicting political identities, including major organizations like the UN. The boldness in depicting such entities provides a practical avenue for understanding the role of such organizations. Originality/value The study adds to the existing literature by applying multimodal analysis to editorial cartoons, unveiling hidden narratives and perceptions. It suggests the need for a deeper analysis of the conflict’s historical, geopolitical, and power structures. This research offers a multifaceted understanding of how editorial cartoons shape perceptions and interpretations of the Israel-Palestine conflict, emphasizing their complex and influential nature within media discourse.

Communicative practices and perceptions towards stuttering people in South Africa.

A few studies have explored the life experiences of people who stutter. Research has shown that stuttering affects a significant number of people in the population. The study was designed to explore the experiences of people who stutter and the perception of stuttering in South Africa. Four people who identified as South Africans who stutter participated in this study. The primary investigator conducted semi-structured interviews with each of the participants. In addition, a questionnaire was administered to 20 acquaintances of all the participants. Transcriptions of interviews and results of questionnaires were analysed for major and minor themes. Results of this study suggest different perceptions by those who stutter and those acquainted with them. The findings of the study show that people who stutter experience communication barriers, so they adopt certain strategies to manage and cope with their speech disorder. The findings showed that stuttering has a pervasive impact on the lives of people who stutter and how they view themselves, considering negative societal views. Evaluation of the results from the study reveals that although stuttering is a common speech disorder, many people who are less informed about it harbour various stereotypes and myths that stigmatise stuttering. This study concludes by outlining recommendations for creating awareness of stuttering. It suggests vigorous campaigns aiming at promoting a multilevel approach that extends beyond the mere social and professional understanding of stuttering but addresses the inherent perceptions, myths, and stereotypes around stuttering.Contribution:Experiences of people who stutter and perceptions towards stuttering can help to better understand the speech disorder and overcome myths and stereotyping of stuttering.

Validation of factor structure of the neurodevelopmental parent report for outcome monitoring in down syndrome: confirmatory factor analysis.

The Neurodevelopmental Parent Report for Outcome Monitoring (ND-PROM), initially developed to monitor developmental and behavioral functions in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), assesses symptoms across a wide range of domains relevant in Down syndrome (DS). Psychometric properties of ND-PROM were assessed in 385 individuals with DS and 52 with a combined diagnosis of DS and ASD (DS+ASD), whose caregivers completed the ND-PROM questionnaire for a clinical visit in a specialized Down syndrome program at a tertiary pediatric hospital. Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the internal structure validity of the ND-PROM. Measurement invariance was assessed, with a comparison group of 246 individuals with ASD, and latent mean differences between the DS and ASD-only groups, as well as the combined DS+ASD groups, were assessed. Findings support the existence of the 12 clinically-derived factors in the DS population: Expressive Language, Receptive Language, Adaptive skills/Toileting, Social Emotional Understanding, Social Interaction, Independent Play, Sensory Processes, Challenging Behaviors, Impulse/ADHD, and Mental Health. Differences in response patterns of development and behaviors were observed between those with DS and those with ASD, including those with DS having higher abilities in nonverbal communication, social emotional understanding, and social interaction, and fewer restricted and repetitive behaviors and interests, impulsivity or ADHD symptoms, and mental health concerns compared to those with ASD. Individuals in the DS+ASD group had more difficulties with expressive and receptive language, nonverbal and social communication, social interaction, independent play, and adaptive skills than either the DS-only group or the ASD-only groups. The ND-PROM has a desirable factor structure and is a valid and clinically useful tool that captures a range of distinct and independent areas of developmental and behavioral functioning in DS, for individuals with and without an ASD diagnosis.

Intergenerational Exchange: Connecting Learning Experiences Across Generations

Intergenerational exchange, defined as interaction and communication between different generations, offers the potential for synergy between life experiences and learning. This concept represents an essential dimension of social capital and social learning that goes beyond traditional forms of education. Within this multidimensional phenomenon, intergenerational mentoring is required, where older generations pass on their accumulated experiences to younger generations, thereby facilitating the development of critical thinking and complex social understanding. For the effective implementation of intergenerational exchange, adaptability and flexibility of educational programmes and strategies is a key factor to ensure that the needs of different generations are addressed comprehensively. In this context, it is important to clarify that intergenerational exchange is not just a one-way process but rather an interactive dialogue that can involve different forms of learning, including formal, non-formal and incremental learning. It also includes aspects of social capital and promotes community involvement. This pilot study focuses on theoretical and practical research that explores the impact on social cohesion and mentions potential challenges associated with this process. It also analyses the factors that influence the successful implementation of intergenerational learning and identifies strategies for promoting intergenerational dialogue and learning.

Forensic Hypoglycaemia & Neuroglycopenia — A Clinical Legal Social Endocrinology Challenge for 2024, Forensic Law in Hypoglycaemia 4

Forensic Hypoglycaemia & Neuroglycopenia — A Clinical Legal Social Endocrinology Challenge for 2024, Forensic Law in Hypoglycaemia 4

‘The worst day of my life’: Foster carers’ experiences of allegations

Appropriate allegation investigations within social care are paramount to protect children. However, many allegations are unsubstantiated ( Biehal et al., 2014 ) and result in stress and anxiety for fostering families ( Adams, Hassett and Lumsden, 2018 ), financial uncertainty ( Boffey, Stanton and Thomas, 2019 ), unplanned endings and foster carers leaving their role ( Adams, Hassett and Lumsden, 2018 ). There is little research into the prevalence, nature and outcomes of allegations against foster carers. This UK-based study uses The Fostering Network’s State of the Nation’s Foster Care (SOTN) 2021 survey and analyses responses from 3,352 UK foster carers and 99 fostering service staff. Qualitative findings reflect six themes: (1) emotional impacts, (2) financial implications, (3) independent support, (4) social services involvement, (5) understanding allegations, and (6) children being removed or foster carers leaving their role. Quantitative findings show only 25% of those experiencing an allegation believed they were sufficiently communicated with, only 20% believed specified timescales were adhered to, 57% did not receive independent support, and 36% said no support was offered to children in their home. Poor information-sharing and lack of support were found to have exacerbated the stress experienced.

Moving post-socialist publics: citizens, spaces, and practices

ABSTRACT This Introduction to the Special Issue on moving post-socialist publics aims to lay out how existing mobility politics and discourses in the region under scrutiny are intertwined with historical, socialist-era mobility practices, and infrastructures. Mobility paths and policies are imbued with a contested understanding of socialist legacies as well as capitalist realities. The Special Issue explores how transport options and choices confront citizens with social diversity, transformations of social norms, institutions and routines, values, concepts, and traditions. Valuable lessons can be learnt in terms of critical mobility geographies beyond the region as post-socialist transformations address justice and changing social norms and understandings of state roles. A decolonial inspiration that challenges existing readings of the formerly socialist region and transgresses the analytical “Othering” of its transition experience can be traced throughout the papers. Instead of arguing whether or not post-socialism is still a valid analytical framework, authors see the region as marked by multiple experiences of modernity and coloniality. In the former Soviet peripheries, urban mobility shapes socio-spatial contentions, making visible multiple and conflicting narratives of modernity and coloniality, tracing flows and dependencies at different scales, and taking into account complex constellations of actors, cultures, and materialities. The post-socialist lens is meant to critically scrutinize continuities and changes, providing particular interpretations for contemporary issues: mobile post-socialist publics are thus a turn away from what was before but in a context in which a strong relation to the past is embedded in several continuities in institutions, materialities, and practices.

Media exposure and preschoolers' social-cognitive development.

Exposure to narratives may have beneficial effects on children's social-cognitive development because narratives provide information about the social world and often require social understanding for story comprehension. In the current study, we examined the influence of narratives presented via different media (books, audiobooks, TV/films) on theory-of-mind performance and mental verb comprehension in a sample of 114 three- to six-year-old preschool children. Parents' reports on the number of (children's) books at home, the overall duration of TV/film and audio media exposure, the frequency of shared book reading, watching children's TV/films and audiobook listening, and parent-child discussions about media content were collected. Children's theory-of-mind performance and mental verb comprehension were measured as dependent variables. When gender, age, language skills and parental education were controlled, only the number of children's books, shared book reading frequency, audio-media exposure and audiobook usage significantly predicted children's theory-of-mind scores. None of the media exposure or the parent-child discussion variables had significant incremental effects above the family and child characteristics on mental verb comprehension.

Ahmadiyah: Analisis Terhadap Teologi dan Perkembangan

Ahmadiyya is a phenomenon of renewal of Islamic thought in India with theological characteristics that include it. This article aims to explore the theological concepts proposed by the Ahmadiyya and trace their development. This analysis was carried out through a literature study with a social perspective approach. Based on this study, it can be concluded that the emergence of Ahmadiyya was the result of the thoughts of figures who tried to actualize religious teachings through social understanding and context. This research also shows that Ahmadiyya is a sect in Islam that emerged as a response to the challenges and socio-religious dynamics of its time.

Health literacy, eHealth literacy and their association with burden, distress, and self-efficacy among cancer caregivers.

Health literacy skills are vital for cancer caregivers in helping cancer survivors to navigate their diagnosis, treatment, and recovery but little is known. This study explored health literacy and eHealth literacy among cancer caregivers and the relationship between health literacy/eHealth literacy and potential associated factors. Informal caregivers who had cared for an individual with cancer completed a survey which collected demographic data and measured caregiver health literacy, eHealth literacy, self-efficacy, burden, and distress. Seven percent of caregivers had inadequate health literacy. Caregivers scored lowest on health literacy domains related to caregiver social support, information seeking and understanding care recipient preferences. eHealth literacy was associated with self-efficacy and burden while, different health literacy domains were associated with burden ('Understanding care recipient needs and preferences'), self-efficacy ('Cancer-related communication with the care recipient' and 'Understanding care recipients needs and preferences') and distress ('Proactivity and determination to seek information', 'Understanding care recipient needs and preferences', 'Understanding the healthcare system'). Findings highlight key areas of need regarding cancer caregiver health literacy which future research can target. Given the observed relationship between aspects of health literacy and burden, distress and self-efficacy future work could be carried out on how to alleviate high levels of burden and distress and how to enhance self-efficacy among cancer caregivers by addressing health literacy skills. Findings from this study will inform the development of health literacy interventions to support caregivers to build their health literacy skills and enable this group to better support cancer survivors as a result.

Autistic and Non-autistic Children's Pain Perception is Modulated by Their First-Hand Pain Sensitivity and Theory of Mind.

The current study examined whether autistic children's perception of others' pain could be modulated by their first-hand pain sensitivity and theory of mind (ToM). We measured the first-hand pain sensitivity, the rating of others' pain intensity, and the performance in the ToM tasks in 43 5- to 8-year-old autistic and 30 neurotypical children. Our results revealed hyposensitivity to first-hand pain, underestimation of others' pain intensity, as well as difficulties in the False Belief subtasks of ToM in autistic children. Furthermore, we detected an interaction between children's first-hand pain sensitivity and ToM in predicting their perception of others' pain. To be specific, for autistic and NT children with normal or hyper-sensitivity to first-hand pain, better performance on ToM predicted higher ratings for others' pain intensity; while for autistic and NT children with hyposensitivity to first-hand pain, ToM did not predict ratings for others' pain intensity. Our study contributes to the understanding of pain perception in young children and provides implications for clinical practices to improve social understanding in autistic children.

Young Women's Needs Regarding Sexual Preventive Behaviours and Unwanted Pregnancies.

Unwanted pregnancies are considered a public health problem that affects women's mental health and quality of life. The aim of this paper was to access university students' understanding and behaviours regarding unwanted pregnancies and identify their needs to prevent them. Qualitative descriptive design was used, and 13 semi-structured interviews were carried out. Women between 18 and 20 years old participated. They discussed a lack of training for themselves, their partners, and their families, their desire to have access to non-in-person health care resources, and their belief that contraception was expensive. Emotional aspects were relevant, affecting the way communication is established with those close to them and with health professionals. Despite the existence of access to sexual health resources, the findings show the existence of needs related to the prevention of unwanted pregnancies. The findings are presented grouping the main identified needs as "related to capability", "related to opportunity", and "related to motivation". Among the aspects to consider when designing interventions to prevent unwanted pregnancies are the feelings shown by these women, the inclusion of couples and family members in educational programs, and access to non-face-to-face health resources and less expensive contraceptive methods. Interventions for social support and understanding of women are necessary both to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to support adolescents with unwanted pregnancies by avoiding criminalization or blame.

Preverbal infants’ understanding of social norms

Social norms are foundational to human cooperation and co-existence in social groups. A crucial marker of social norms is that a behavior is not only shared, but that the conformity to the behavior of others is a basis for social evaluation (i.e., reinforcement and sanctioning), taking the is, how individuals usually behave, to an ought, how individuals should behave to be socially approved by others. In this preregistered study, we show that 11-month-old infants grasp this fundamental aspect about social norms already in their first year. They showed a pupillary surprise response for unexpected social responses, namely the disapproval and exclusion of an individual who showed the same behavior like others or the approval and inclusion of an individual who behaved differently. That preverbal infants link the conformity with others’ behavior to social evaluations, before they respond to norm violations themselves, indicates that the foundations of social norm understanding lie in early infancy.

The significance of parental mentalizing for four-year-old children's solitary pretend play.

Pretend play is a signature behavior of early childhood and is considered to reflect the child's emerging symbolic function, enabling the interpretation of social signals, language development, and emotion understanding. While theory links parental mentalizing with children's pretend play, only a few studies have investigated this association. These studies are limited to infancy and early toddlerhood, and child pretend play is assessed during play with an adult (social play). Based on the assumption that child solitary pretend play reflects the child's 'baseline' pretend play ability, in this study, we investigated children's pretend play at its peak, i.e., during the preschool age, without the facilitation of another player. The overall objective was to investigate if parental mentalizing increases pretend play complexity in children. The sample consisted 99 Danish mothers and their 4-year-old children. Employing a cross-sectional design, we hypothesized that parental mental state language, as an indicator of 'online' mentalizing during interaction with the child, is a mechanism through which 'offline' mentalizing, measured as parental reflective functioning, is associated with child solitary pretend play. Child pretend play complexity was observed and coded with an adapted version of the 12-Step Play Scale. Maternal offline mentalizing was assessed with the Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, and maternal online mentalizing was assessed by coding the mothers' mental state language during interaction with the child using a modified version of the mind-mindedness coding scheme. While there was no direct effect of maternal offline reflective functioning on child pretend play, online mental state language mediated the link between offline maternal reflective functioning and child pretend play. These results provide support for the theoretically assumed link between parental mentalizing and children's capacity for pretend play. Furthermore, our study contributes to the literature on parental mentalization, suggesting that parental mentalizing facilitates child development only if the parent can translate this ability into 'mentalizing in action'.