Sustainable Welfare Research Articles

Residential Meditation Retreats: A Promise of Sustainable Well-Being?

Residential Meditation Retreats: A Promise of Sustainable Well-Being?

Family Social Capital and Sustainable Well-Being: Navigating Chinese Adolescents’ Well-Being During COVID-19 Lockdown

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread disruption as governments took actions to limit the spread of the virus. Measures such as physical distancing and lockdowns changed living conditions, leading to challenges such as social isolation and reduced connectedness. This study explores COVID-19’s impact on adolescents’ well-being, emphasising family social capital, which refers to supportive adult-child relationships that foster well-being and enhance remote learning. Quantitative data was collected through an online survey from August 2022 to August 2023, involving 4008 students and 3511 parents. Semi-structured interviews with six students and their parents (either the mother or the father) provided in-depth insights into the perceived role of family social capital in shaping adolescents’ well-being during quarantine. Quantitative data revealed that parental education level significantly influenced adolescents’ self-reported well-being and resilience, and family income influenced parents’ perceptions of their children’s well-being. Qualitative data highlighted the importance of strong family bonds, effective parent-child relationships, and robust family support in mitigating the adverse effects of prolonged home quarantine. The research also discovered the role of adolescents’ agency in building social capital through web-based communities. The study contributes to understanding Chinese adolescents’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing implications for supporting their well-being in the post-pandemic era.

Human-Centric Telework and Sustainable Well-Being: Evidence from Peru’s Public Sector

Human-Centric Telework and Sustainable Well-Being: Evidence from Peru’s Public Sector

Co-creation as solution for a sustainable welfare state? Challenges for the welfare professions

Co-creation as solution for a sustainable welfare state? Challenges for the welfare professions

Optimizing goldfish hatchery of the oranda variety Carassius auratus to improve cultivation performance at BSD fish farm

The business of cultivating ornamental fish is quite popular because its sales are profitable for cultivators. Ornamental fish also have attractive colors; therefore, many people are interested in this commodity. One ornamental fish commodity that is in great demand is the oranda goldfish Carassius auratus, which has a variety of colors, unique movements, and body shapes. The annual increase in market demand for oranda goldfish reaches 95,000 fish annually, and each year, there is an increase in the production of 3,000 fish of around 3% each year. This study was carried out in an effort to explore technical information on goldfish cultivation so that the information obtained can be disseminated widely and used as a reference source for the community so that it will add value to the benefit of improving sustainable welfare. The results of the study show that the technique of spawning oranda goldfish can be performed naturally using a substrate in the form of a water hyacinth. The average fecundity produced by one female parent oranda goldfish was 6429 eggs, with a presentation hatching rate of 74% and a presentation survival rate of 64%.

Does Stress Affect Adolescent Anxiety by Mediating Sleep Time?

Background: Health is essential for the sustainable well-being, yet high stress, anxiety, and lack of sleep among Korean adolescents have become significant social concerns.Methods: This study examined the impact of stress on anxiety and investigated whether sleep time mediates this relationship in 46,870 male and female adolescents, ranging from first-year of middle school students to third-year high school students. Data were obtained from the "18th Korea Youth Risk Behavior Survey" conducted by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency.Results: The analysis showed that increased stress was associated with reduced sleep time and higher anxiety levels, stress was found to heighten anxiety, partly by reducing sleep time.Conclusions: Based on these findings, the study recommends: ① developing mental health indicators to quickly identify adolescents at risk for mental health issues, ② encouraging cooperation between schools, government agencies, healthcare providers to enhance access to mental health programs for adolescents, and ③ implementing policies that promote healthy behaviors, ensure adequate sleep, and improve overall well-being.

Promoting Sustainable Well-Being: Burnout and Engagement in South African Learners

This study aimed to analyze the latent profiles of burnout and engagement of learners and to investigate differences between these profiles regarding demographic and contextual variables and academic boredom. The findings have practical implications for educators and professionals in the fields of education and psychology. Grade 9 and 10 South African learners (N = 544) studying English and Mathematics as school subjects participated in the study. Five learner burnout and engagement profiles were identified: healthy engaged (10.66%), moderately balanced (27.57%), slightly disengaged (30.7%), moderately burned-out (20.4%), and burned-out (10.66%). Academic boredom in Mathematics and English was linked to burnout-engagement profiles. The healthy engaged and moderately balanced profiles exhibited significantly lower academic boredom levels in both subjects than the other profiles. Positive relationships with teachers and interest in the subject were crucial across all profiles to diminish academic boredom and enhance engagement, especially in English. Various demographic and contextual variables were associated with burnout-engagement profiles. Home study environments, nurturing positive teacher-learner relationships, and fostering intrinsic interest in subjects can enhance engagement and mitigate burnout in secondary school learners. Sustainable interventions could be created by teachers or researchers, implemented by schools, and taken up in important policies within South Africa, showcasing how the SGDs of improved health and well-being and delivering quality education could be achieved.

Navigating poverty in developing nations: unraveling the impact of political dynamics on sustainable well-being

Political instability, dismal governance, and corruption are among the factors that currently distress poverty. The primary objective of this research was to determine how political factors distress poverty in developing nations, which has perhaps not been investigated yet. The main objective was also to observe if the effect of political factors on poverty is a dilemma or a reality. Poverty (dependent variable) has been divided into two segments: income poverty index and Human Health Poverty Index; however, political factors (independent variables) studied were corruption, democracy, governance, and political globalization. Twenty-six years of data were taken from 1997 to 2022 of twenty-four developing nations. The poverty and institutional quality indices were constructed through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The Fixed Effect, System GMM, and 2SLS approaches were used to determine the dynamic impact on poverty. Furthermore, this study incorporated fixed effects with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors to address cross-sectional dependence. The findings indicated that, although there was a significant connection between governance and income and human poverty. Democracy also showed a negative and significant relationship in the income poverty model but insignificant in the human poverty model. Political globalization showed negative and significant associations with poverty models (income and human poverty). Conversely, corruption showed a significant positive relationship in poverty models, i.e., income and human poverty.

Postgrowth welfare systems: a view from the Nordic context

As production and supply chains rely on exploitative extraction of nature and labour, consumption levels (resource use) remain one of the main indicators of inequality, across and within national contexts. In times of ongoing climate crisis and rising levels of inequalities, welfare systems face the dual challenge of transforming economies to reduce their reliance on unsustainable industries as well as maintain and expand equitable distribution of public provision. In this keyword essay, we address three overlapping concerns to consider while envisioning sustainable welfare within the Nordic context: growth and its paradoxical relation with welfare; inequalities and notions of wellbeing; and possible alternatives to arrange provision systems.

Sustainable Well-Being and Sustainable Consumption and Production: An Efficiency Analysis of Sustainable Development Goal 12

The core objective of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12 is to do more and better with less, increasing net well-being gains from economic activities by reducing resource use, degradation, and pollution along the whole lifecycle while simultaneously improving quality of life. This paper quantifies the level of achievement of sustainable consumption and production in terms of efficiency scores. Due to data envelopment analysis, it is possible to monitor progress towards SDG 12, identifying the best performers to take as examples and the fields in which there is room for improvement. Although interesting differences emerge in countries’ efficiency, the results show that the best performers are OECD members, partners, and accession candidates. This underscores the crucial role of the OECD in advancing national sustainable development objectives.

The long-term effects of perceived instructional leadership on teachers' psychological well-being during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 outbreak led to widespread school closures and the shift to remote teaching, potentially resulting in lasting negative impacts on teachers' psychological well-being due to increased workloads and a perceived lack of administrative support. Despite the significance of these challenges, few studies have delved into the long-term effects of perceived instructional leadership on teachers' psychological health. To bridge this research gap, we utilized longitudinal data from 927 primary and secondary school teachers surveyed in two phases: Time 1 in mid-November 2021 and Time 2 in early January 2022. Using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), our findings revealed that perceptions of instructional leadership, especially the "perceived school neglect of teaching autonomy" at Time 1 were positively correlated with burnout levels at Time 2. Additionally, burnout at Time 2 was positively associated with psychological distress and acted as a mediator between the "perceived school neglect of teaching autonomy" and psychological distress. In light of these findings, we recommend that schools prioritize teachers' teaching autonomy and take proactive measures to mitigate burnout and psychological distress, aiming for the sustainable well-being of both teachers and students in the post-pandemic era.

Ghosts in the machine: Black feminist and queer critiques of reproductive justice in Finland

We discuss reproductive justice in the context of Finland, a Nordic welfare state often considered as having achieved exceptionally high ethical standards in reproductive health and overall justice. Every now and then, however, this reproduction is interrupted by ghosts in the machine: the problems, past and present, of marginalised, racialised, and/or otherwise non-normative people whose presences provoke specific Finnish hauntings, seething presences of reproductive injustice that suggest something is to be done. Instead of offering data analysis, this article aims to envision transformative reproductive justice futures through processual, collaborative theory development. This study uses an intersectional lens to understand how interlocking systems of oppression shape our lived experiences through an interdisciplinary, ethical analysis that suggests that what is required to resolve such hauntings is moral vigilance and care for a consistent reproductive justice orientation in global solidarity. Specifically in Finland, it requires the willingness to disavow the imperative to protect Finnish whiteness and active and meaningful solidarity across differences. Building on Black feminist and queer thought, we urge queer white people who may be tempted to become enfolded by homonationalism to take a more encompassing view of reproductive justice for a more sustainable welfare state ethic.

Everyday practices and needs as entry points for an operationalisation of more collective approaches to sufficiency

When it comes to grappling with both the environmental and social dimensions of energy transitions, sustainable wellbeing can be seen as a normative aim to be achieved through the satisfaction of human needs. This article exposes an engaging conceptual framework that describes the reduction of consumption through social practice theory, combined with a eudaimonic approach to wellbeing. Drawing on individual interviews with people who declare themselves as ‘living degrowth’ in French-speaking Switzerland, the article discusses everyday practices of consumption reduction that inform the actualisation of fundamental needs. The article proposes an operationalisation of Max-Neef’s approach of needs satisfaction, showing that an emphasis can be placed on sustainable practices representing synergic satisfiers. To support social change towards sufficiency, the article discusses that synergic satisfiers must be planned for collectively. Synergic collective changes are discussed in relation to synergic configurations of practices towards consumption reduction and needs satisfaction – or sufficiency.

The ecospiritual approach for the advancement of social work: a concept and practice of ‘interconnectedness’ in Won Buddhism

ABSTRACT In the context of today’s globalized world, marked by heightened awareness of interconnected social challenges, this paper explores the integration of ecospiritual approach into social work practice and education. Recognizing spirituality as a universal aspect of human experience, the authors advocate for a spiritually sensitive approach to social work, emphasizing the search for meaning, purpose, and connectedness. Central to this discussion is the ecospiritual approach, which challenges Western paradigms of individualism and capitalism by embracing interconnectedness and interdependent relationships. This approach is exemplified through the exploration of Buddhism, African spiritual philosophy, and Won Buddhism, particularly focusing on concepts of Interbeing, Ubuntu, and the Fourfold Grace. This paper highlights the relevance of the Fourfold Grace and gratitude practices in Won Buddhism for building the ecospiritual framework into practice, emphasizing their potential to enhance knowledge and practice integrity in the field. The overarching goal is to promote collective awareness and commitment, advanced practices toward the advancement of social work, social justice, and a sustainable well-being society. The future directions in this paper share thoughtful visions and hopes.

Market participation as livelihood and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage: A case of Chăm ethnic minority pottery households in Vietnam

This study examines the extent of market participation among Chăm pottery producers in Vietnam and the factors that influence this extent. The research utilized the total market participation index to assess the level of market participation and Tobit regression to examine the factors influencing market participation. Primary data were collected from a sample of 150 pottery households. The study demonstrates that pottery households are involved in the market to varying degrees. Factors such as family size, hired labourers, production space, self-owned transportation, average distance to customers, amount of advertising, and credit accessibility positively affect their participation in the market. Shipping damage, government assistance, non-pottery income, and education level of household head have a negative effect. The findings indicate that government assistance should consider the requirements of pottery households to develop efficient support measures. The research serves as a useful reference for policymakers and managers in devising strategies to promote both the growth of traditional craft production and the sustained well-being of ethnic groups. This, in turn, would contribute to the overall economic advancement of the country.

Integrating Science Media Literacy, Motivational Interviewing, and Neuromarketing Science to Increase Vaccine Education Confidence among U.S. Extension Professionals.

This article presents an Integrative Model of Sustainable Health Decision-Making and a toolkit to equip U.S. Extension professionals with knowledge and skills to engage in adult immunization education. The objective was to reduce mistrust and increase willingness and confidence toward delivering vaccination education. The model was developed through an explanatory parallel mixed methods design. Data collection included a needs assessment survey, interviews, workshops, and Neuromarketing message testing. The resulting toolkit was pilot tested before final delivery. Four key needs were identified: tailoring trainings based on Extension roles, prioritizing preserving community trust and professional credibility, establishing connections with medical experts, and strengthening Science Media Literacy skills to counter misinformation and communicate emerging science. Correlations among constructs supported an integrated model focused on a professional development core of Science Media Literacy, Motivational Interviewing, and Neuromarketing Science that strengthens communication relationships between priority populations and trusted partners. The model and work described in this article can serve as a general framework for engaging key influencers in communities in communication education intended to promote sustainable well-being, such as increasing vaccine uptake.

Community Perception of Gold Mining Affecting the Water Quality of the Wariori River

This study examines community perceptions of gold mining and its impact on the water quality of the Wariori River in Aurmios Village. The population involved all residents of Aurmios Village with a sample size of 20 (twenty) people. Using a qualitative research approach based on postpositivism and interpretive philosophy, data were collected through triangulation, combining observation, questionnaires, and interviews. The results show significant negative impacts of illegal gold mining on water quality and community life. The majority of respondents (95%) reported an increase in river water turbidity after mining activities, in line with the findings of Yulianti et al. (2016) and Putri Ade Rahma Yulis (2018) on the increase in Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and heavy metal pollution. In addition, 100% of respondents reported reduced clean water sources, leading to economic and health challenges, such as increased healthcare costs and a shift in livelihoods from fisheries and agriculture to gold mining. Environmental impacts include ecosystem degradation and increased flood risk, and 100% of respondents recognized these issues. In order to address these adverse impacts, the study recommends strict government measures to regulate illegal mining, establish safe and legal mining operations, provide clean water infrastructure, as well as educate communities on the dangers of illegal gold mining. These measures are essential to restore the water quality of the Wariori River and ensure the sustainable well-being of Aurmios villagers. Further research is needed to monitor long-term impacts and develop effective mitigation strategies.

Errors and bias in marine conservation and fisheries literature: Their impact on policies and perceptions

Sound and effective policies, informed by reliable science, are needed to ensure sustainable well-being of oceans and marine resources. Scientific publications often influence evolving policies and inform the public, but sometimes contain errors. The prevalence of papers conveying unjustified messages and with potential to influence public perceptions and policies is concerning. This paper focuses on marine examples that have led to exaggeration of negative impacts on ecosystems, particularly from fisheries, but the criticisms and recommendations also apply more generally. Examples are given of papers on high profile topics that used flawed assumptions or methods, leading to some misleading findings. All examples were eventually followed by published rebuttals. Such papers, often accompanied by media campaigns, can lead to inappropriate policy choices, and other negative outcomes. Science is eventually self-correcting but often too slowly to prevent flawed perceptions and policies. Problems should be corrected before publication. A common weakness in the publication process is inadequate peer-review. Shortcomings at the level of editor can also contribute to the failures. Pressure on scientists to publish, leading to increasing numbers of papers, puts reviewers under more pressure and makes it harder for editors to find suitable ones. Recommendations to avoid the impact of flawed science on policies are made within the framework of a three-legged stool consisting of: (1) scientists who strive for objectivity and accuracy; (2) journals with editors and referees better equipped to guard against unreliable scientific publications; and (3) transparent and inclusive scientific processes to formulate advice on policies and their implementation.

A system-based framework for engineering education as sustainable development

ABSTRACT Engineering education is pivotal in driving sustainable development forward, yet many engineers encounter hurdles stemming from insufficient preparation for sustainability challenges. A major factor contributing to this is the lack of a structured and practical framework to guide the integration of sustainability into engineering education. This study addresses this gap by presenting a system-based framework tailored to ‘engineering education as sustainable development.’ The framework outlines a dynamic and inclusive organisational system, incorporating inputs from key stakeholders, a value-and-belief subsystem, throughput processes, and resultant outcomes. These outcomes encompass the cultivation of a new cohort of engineering graduates equipped with sustainable development knowledge, skills, and values/attitudes, thereby fostering the sustainable well-being and prosperity of all stakeholders involved. Additionally, the study examines the intricate relationships, including feedback loops, among system components and concludes by offering insights for practitioners to consider for future action and implementation.

Analysis of Teacher Self-Efficacy and Its Impact on Sustainable Well-Being at Work.

This study evaluates teacher self-efficacy perceptions among students in the Master's Degree in Secondary Education and Baccalaureate, Vocational Training, and Language Teaching (MDSE), as well as the variables influencing these perceptions and their connection to the program's training. The research sheds light on how self-efficacy affects views on concerns, feelings, and attitudes towards diversity and inclusive education in the current educational landscape. Out of 205 female and 100 male MDSE students surveyed, who are either graduates or nearing completion, data were gathered using the "Teacher Education in Secondary Education: Key Elements for Teaching in an Inclusive School for All" (FORPES-IN) questionnaire distributed across Spanish universities. Three primary instruments from the questionnaire were utilized: the Teachers' Self-Efficacy Short Form (TSES-SF), the Questionnaire for Future Secondary Education Teachers regarding Perceptions of Diversity, and the Revised Scale of Feelings, Attitudes, and Concerns about Inclusive Education (SACIE-R). Findings suggest that the majority of prospective teachers exhibit moderate-to-high levels of self-efficacy. Variables such as non-formal teaching experiences, the reason for joining the MDSE program, and regular interactions with vulnerable individuals, especially in Social and Health Science domains, moderately influence self-efficacy. This study reveals a strong link between the received training and the perceived level of self-efficacy. In particular, participants with higher self-efficacy feel better equipped to handle classroom diversity and rate the MDSE program positively. Areas for enhancement are identified, such as classroom management and diversified assessment strategies. Finally, a positive correlation is observed between high self-efficacy and positive attitudes toward disability, inclusive education principles, and reduced apprehensions about inclusive teaching.