Social Understanding Research Articles

‘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'.

Re-thinking Eating Disorders as Cultural Pathologies in Contemporary Irish Poetry: A Case Study

Eating disorders—a generic term that includes anorexia nervosa, bulimia, binge eating and many other subtypes of problematic relationships with food and eating—are situated at the interface of disciplines as varied as medicine, biology, history, cultural studies, gender studies and the social sciences. Although the reasons behind the development and experience of an eating disorder are individual as well as cultural, these pathologies tend to be analysed from either an exclusively biomedical perspective—which often excludes the cultural factor—or oversimplified as being the result of the stereotypes of beauty imposed on the female body in western cultural traditions. This essay, in contrast, looks at eating disorders as multi-layered metaphors of cultural dissidence within the social order and literary traditions of contemporary Ireland. It is divided into distinct, though interrelated, sections: a brief introduction to eating disorders; a consideration of the problems posed in the representation of emaciated corporealities; a taxonomical classification of the primary sources found in the course of my research; and the analysis of Mary O’Donnell’s poem “Reading the Sunflowers in September” as a case study to illustrate the literal and metaphorical employment of anorexia in contemporary Irish poetry. Although the análisis is philological, the perspective adopted is that of the Medical Humanities, in that I will make use of literary, cultural and biomedical literature in order to provide a view that is complementary to the scientific discourse around anorexia nervosa. O’Donnell’s poem will be considered in relation to European visual arts, particularly photography, in order to enhance the transnational dimension of eating disorders. At the same time, the close reading of the poem under analysis will be complemented by a comparative analysis with other Irish poems of the late 20th and early 21st centuries to underline the relevance of the national context in interpreting the representation of this disease. Ultimately, this essay aims to proffer new perspectives on the pathology and to contribute to the social understanding of those who experience it.

Influencing factors on drivers’ support for traffic safety laws in Canada

Over the past few years, significant progress has been made in the road engineering, which along with the implementation of safety laws and regulations, has improved the overall road safety. However, traffic accidents and road injuries are still a leading global cause of death. The propensity of traffic violations and risky behaviors among drivers is closely linked to their perception of the threat associated with them, and the level of support for regulations. This study investigates the various components of drivers’ perceptions and their impact on the drivers’ support of safety laws through Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Additionally, factor analysis is employed to categorize interrelated responses into distinct factors. The findings indicate that drivers’ perception of social disapproval of risky driving behaviors and their awareness of safety problems significantly influence the drivers’ personal disapproval of risky driving behaviors. Notably, drivers' disapproval directly correlates with their support for laws prohibiting these behaviors. In light of these findings, this study suggests increasing public awareness and driver education regarding the risks associated with dangerous driving behaviors, particularly not-wearing seat belt and texting while driving. This recommendation aims to improve Canada’s traffic safety culture through the influence of social norm and understanding of the safety issues on the drivers’ personal perceptions and, subsequently, their support for traffic safety regulations.

Defining the concept of identity of national vocational education system

Introduction. Geopolitical, social and economic disasters of all over the world space cause the crisis of identity, which is fixed by the researchers of social and humanitarian sciences. The controversial nature of the process of internationalization of the vocational education system and its striving to keep in safety the traditional values of education are articulated. This process gives close attention not only on studying the problems of creating conditions to form of identity by means of the educational space of the country, but also understanding the phenomenon of identity of the national education system. Purpose setting. The aim of the article is the defining of some essential features, which can explain the concept of the identity of national vocational education system.Methodology and methods of the study. The methods of the research are the analysis of scientific literature, comparative analysis of proposed approaches, integration and synthesis for defining identity kinds and features of the identity of national vocational education system.Results. Some essential features of identity related to contemporary information age are defined. Among them are authenticity and simulativeness, multiplicity, dynamism, givenness and choice, axiology, recombination. Identity can be described as a form of predication of existence and the way of social understanding. The factors of globalization and regionalization have an influence on the identity transformation process. The ideological and civilization identity are described for better understanding the essence of the identity of national vocational education system.Conclusion. Determination of essential features of the identity of national vocational education system and studying of the processes of its formation and transformation indicate the domination of value components of the process. It can be used to explain the risks of transferring practices from foreign educational systems to national education system.

Determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in CSR decision-making: a stakeholder perspective

PurposeThis study aims to explore the determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in corporate social responsibility (CSR) decision-making.Design/methodology/approachUsing stakeholder theory, this study is mainly based on business ethics and CSR literature to develop a model depicting social and organizational contextual factors for engagement in the context of CSR decision-making.FindingsThis study identifies nine antecedents for engagement with and of stakeholders in CSR decision-making. Based on stakeholder perspective, the author explores how engagement constructs are influenced at both social and organizational levels by the determinants stakeholder pressure, stakeholder roles, stakeholder resources, stakeholder relationships, stakeholder management, two-way communication, procedural justice, interactional justice and stakeholder proactive strategy.Practical implicationsThis study provides insights for companies regarding the determinants underlying engagement to reflect its importance in the context of CSR decision-making.Social implicationsA better understanding of the determinants of engagement is critical because engagement contributes to achieving “win-win” solutions that ensure increased stakeholder satisfaction.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is one of the first to explore the determinants of engagement with and of stakeholders in CSR decision-making at both social and organizational levels by referring to stakeholder theory.

The Concept of Merdeka Curriculum Implementation: Realizing Humanistic Islamic Education Learning

The Merdeka curriculum, an innovative approach in the world of education, has become the main focus in efforts to realize more humanistic Islamic religious education learning. This research aims to determine the concept of implementing the Merdeka curriculum in the context of Islamic religious education learning and to determine the character and implications of the Merdeka curriculum in humanistic Islamic religious education learning for students. The research method used in this research is library research. Library research is a type of research where the data or material needed for research is obtained from sources in the library, such as books, encyclopedias, dictionaries, journals, magazines, and so on. The results of the research show that the concept of implementing an Merdeka curriculum for humanistic Islamic religious education learning includes: human values, empathy, student-centered concern. The characteristics of humanistic Islamic religious education learning in the Merdeka curriculum include: individual orientation, social interaction, active learning, character development, flexibility in learning, and holistic evaluation. Meanwhile, the implications of Merdeka curriculum learning in humanistic Islamic religious education learning include: more interesting learning, stronger character development, critical and creative thinking skills, healthy social interaction, development of problem solving abilities, respect for diversity, independence in learning and relevance religion in everyday life. Based on the description above, it can be concluded that the concept of an Merdeka curriculum, students' understanding of the teachings of Islam is deepened with an emphasis on human values, empathy and social care. In addition, students will conduct humanistic learning to develop better character, including the ability to empathize and deeper social understanding so that the realization of students who are ethical and care about society.

Social understanding of inattention

Inattention, one of the defining traits of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity-Impulsivity Disorder (ADHD), is occasionally perceived as less worrying than hyperactivity and impulsivity. However, those individuals who manifest it are often targets of negative misjudgements. This paper examines how the symptom of inattention is understood among three social groups with an active role in the ADHD diagnosis: the medical, the educational and the family communities. It pays particular attention to (1) similarities across the groups and (2) evaluations relating to the symptom. As datasets, for the medical community the study considers the section of the DSM-5 concerning ADHD; for the teaching community, educational guidelines; and for the family, forum threads retrieved from addforums.com. A qualitative linguistic analysis was performed for each dataset to examine the representation and evaluation of the behavioural trait. The analysis draws on Systemic Functional Grammar, including Appraisal. Inattention is consistently evaluated negatively in all three datasets, as impacting not only activities that require strong cognitive involvement, but also a wide range of ordinary activities. Differences in the representation of the symptom of inattention are explained by the pragmatic functions of the three textual genres examined.

Assessing the Adequacy of the Physical, Social, and Attitudinal Environment to the Specific Needs of Young Adults With Cerebral Palsy: The European Adult Environment Questionnaire

ObjectivesTo present the development of the European Adult Environment Questionnaire (EAEQ), to assess to what extent it covers the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), and to describe the adequacy of the physical, social, and attitudinal environment to the specific needs of young adults with cerebral palsy (CP). DesignCross-sectional. SettingAdministrative regions in France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Sweden. ParticipantsYoung adults with CP (N=357), with varying severity profiles, aged 19-28 years at time of interview (2018-20). InterventionsNot applicable. Main Outcome Measure(s)Physical, social, and attitudinal environment unmet needs. ResultsRelevant environmental factors (EFs) for young adults with CP were identified during focus groups in England and Portugal. EFs were mapped to the ICF environmental classification and the EAEQ analytical structure resulted from this linking procedure. It comprised 61 items, linked to 31 ICF environmental classification categories, and covered 4 of its 5 chapters. Content validity assessed with the bandwidth index (percentage coverage of ICF Core Sets for adults with CP) was satisfactory (79.3%). A descriptive analysis was carried out. Participants had a mean age of 24 years, 56% were men, 38% had severely limited mobility. Less than 16% reported unmet needs for EFs relating to home, college/work/day placement, and communication in the Products and technology chapter. Unmet needs were higher (>20%) for the other items in the Public use and Land development categories. Social support, attitudes, and understanding of relatives were often adequate to the participants’ needs. The proportion of unmet needs varied by sex (women were more often concerned) and raised with increasing gross motor impairment. ConclusionThe EAEQ describes in detail the adequacy of the environment to the specific needs of young adults with CP. Its ICF-based structure opens up possibilities for use in a universal conceptual framework.

Navigating Parenthood: A Study of Family Formation and Parenting Experiences Among Same-sex Couples in the Philippines

This qualitative research study explored the family formation processes and parenting experiences of same-sex couples in the unique socio-cultural context of the Philippines. While same-sex relationships and LGBTQ + rights have gained increasing recognition globally, the Philippines remains a conservative society with deeply rooted traditional norms and religious influences. It delved into the complexities of family formation, including relationship initiation, and decision-making processes regarding parenting. Findings suggest that same-sex couples in the Philippines employ diverse strategies to create families, such as adoption, and raising children of a family relative. These strategies are often influenced by factors such as familial support, and socio-cultural norms. The parenting experiences of same-sex couples revealed both shared challenges, such as discrimination and exclusion, as well as unique opportunities for reshaping traditional gender roles within the household. By highlighting the lived experiences of these couples, this study advocates for a more inclusive understanding of family structures and challenges the prevailing heteronormative discourse. The findings underscored the need for policy initiatives that safeguard the rights of LGBTQ + individuals and families, while fostering social acceptance and understanding within the Philippines’ cultural framework.

The Social Divide: Impact of Gated Communities on Urban Interaction

This study delves into the social ramifications of gated communities, particularly their influence on urban social interaction and city segregation. Utilizing space composition methodology, the research hypothesizes that gated communities diminish social interaction and contribute to urban segregation. Through a comparative analytical approach, two residential projects in Holy Karbala Governorate were examined in their existing gated state and in a hypothetical non-gated scenario. The findings substantiate the hypothesis, revealing that gated communities indeed lower clarity and integration values, which are pivotal for understanding and interacting within urban spaces. While these communities exhibit high internal social interaction, they lack city-level social engagement, thereby not supporting the social logic theory. Furthermore, the isolation of these residential projects from the broader urban fabric is linked to diminished quality of life and inefficient urban space usage. The study highlights the negative implications of gated communities on urban social dynamics, underscoring the need for reconsidering urban planning and residential project designs to foster more inclusive and socially vibrant urban environments. Highlights : Gated communities significantly reduce clarity and integration in urban spaces, hindering broader social interaction and understanding of the urban environment. Despite fostering high internal social interaction, gated communities fail to support city-level social engagement, leading to urban segregation. The isolation of gated residential projects from the urban fabric contributes to a decreased quality of life and inefficient use of urban spaces. Keywords : Gated Communities, Urban Segregation, Social Interaction, Urban Planning, Space Composition Methodology

Temporalities of peer support: the role of digital platforms in the ‘living presents’ of mental ill-health

ABSTRACT This paper considers matters of time in online mental health peer support. Significant evidence of the value of peer support exists, with new digital platforms emerging as part of the digitisation of mental health support. This paper draws from a project exploring the impact of digital platforms on peer support through interviews with users of a major UK-based online peer support platform. Drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the ‘living present’, the paper highlights how notions of past, present and future operate as co-existing dimensions of the present. The analysis highlights how the immediacy of digital platforms elicits expectations of peer support being ‘on tap’, which creates challenges when support is not received synchronously. Unlike in-person support, digital platforms facilitate the archiving of support, which can (re)enter the present at any moment through asynchronous communication. Anticipations of the future feature as dimensions of the present in terms of feelings regarding when support may no longer be needed. The paper offers potential implications for social scientific understanding of digital peer support, which include valuable insight for mental health services designing and delivering digital peer support.

Osvald Špengler i pruski socijalizam

In this article, the author examines Oswald Spengler's concept of Prussian socialism. In the first part of the work, Spengler is presented as a political writer, and his political thought is connected with his philosophical ideas. As a political writer, Spengler belonged to the stream of conservative revolution. In the second part, the author tries to emphasize the difference between this current of conservative thought and liberal conservatism, pointing out that the roots of Spengler's understanding of socialism lie in the older conservative criticism of the market. In the last part, the author considers Spengler's conservative understanding of socialism, its influence on the German conservative revolution, and its importance in today's times.