Search results

Involving employees in making management decisions is a powerful way to enhance organizational performance. However, employee involvement (EI) might exacerbate psychosocial stress at work. This paper aims to investigate this issue, illuminating the implications of EI on work-related stress.

Secondary data were collected from the third wave of the European Survey of Enterprises on New and Emerging Risks. A conditional process analysis based on ordinary least square regression and bootstrap sampling was accomplished to obtain evidence of the implications of EI on psychosocial risks (PSR) at work, taking into consideration the mediating role of organizational health promotion initiatives (HPI).

EI increased the sources of psychosocial stress at work, adding to individual job demands. Involving employees was positively related to a greater organizational concern for HPI, which, in turn, lessened psychosocial strain.

Although it contributes to organizational performance, EI propels work-related stress, which undermines individual and collective wellbeing. Involvement practices should be coupled with tailored HPI to address the PSR at work triggered by involvement, empowering people to cope with strain.

Scientific literature emphasizes the positive implications of EI on organizational performance, but little is known about its side effects on work-related stress. The paper provides original insights into this topic, arguing that HPI are necessitated to address the drawback of involvement on work-related stress.

One of the crucial elements of addressing global climate challenges through urban tourism is the continuing existence of urban forests. The reasoning is that the ecological attraction of urban forests can impact visitors’ intention to conduct pro-environmental behavior, including low-carbon actions. Thus, more visitors to urban forests will positively affect enhancing the quality of the urban environment. However, the extent to which ecological attraction can influence pro-environmental behavior warrants further investigation due to the complexity of psychosocial factors that impact behavioral intention. The main objective of this research is to examine the effects of the ecological attractiveness of urban forests on the pro-environmental behavior of visitors by exploring motivation, ecological experience, perceived value and knowledge as mediators. Moreover, whether the nature of the urban forest and facilities attract visitors simultaneously is also studied.

Data were collected from 615 respondents who visited three urban forests in Bandung, the second-most populous city in Indonesia, by five-point Likert questionnaires. As an analytical tool, SEM PLS was applied to establish the effect of the ecological performance of the urban forest on the increase in environmentally conscious behavior among urban forest visitors.

The findings demonstrate that the attractiveness of an urban forest affects the growth of environmentally responsible behaviors. Nonetheless, the attractiveness of urban forests is dictated more by their infrastructure than their ecological function. On the contrary, the visitors’ knowledge level can improve their motivation, environmental experience and perceived environmental value. These findings show the significance of developing educational programs with an emphasis on the experience of the visitors so that their ecological performance can contribute to improved low-carbon behavior. In conclusion, this work contributes to the management of sustainable urban tourism.

This work also has some limitations. First, the medium R-square on intention behavior to low-carbon action suggests investigating other influential factors to produce a more robust conscious behavior. Mkono and Hughes (2020) mention that many complex factors that cause positive intention do not necessarily lead to environmental action. Thus, many psychosocial variables need to be explored in different models. Second, the convenient sampling used here does not represent the whole population, making generalization difficult. Thus, further work needs to apply more rigorous sampling techniques to validate the findings. Further investigations may also need to be conducted in other urban forests in another Asian country with a similar and different social context for benchmarking, as this study found that the type of attractive urban forest design is a more dense forest, which differs from other studies based in Europe. Exploring more influencing behavioral factors of pro-environmental action in the model is also suggested. Thus, we could contribute more to support recreational activities in urban forests.

As an implication for planning an urban forest to increase its recreational function, the authors illustrate the importance of producing educational programs. Although the improved knowledge of visitors has been shown to strengthen their commitment to perform pro-environmental actions, the mediating role of motivation, experience and perceived value reveals that some activities are required to achieve visitor motivation to actual behavior. Consequently, designing an urban forest requires not only the enhancement of eco-attractions and artificial elements for the convenience of visitors but also the development of an environmental education program that can improve visitors’ environmental experience and perception of ecological value. The designed educational program may use an experiential education approach incorporating objective knowledge of Earth’s current state. The urban forest education program must encourage visitors’ connection and participation with nature. Moreover, knowledge and information about Earth’s environmental quality can increase visitors’ perceived value, ensuring that their activities in the urban forest contribute to improved health, environmental quality and social environment. Thus, with well-managed and provided education, they are encouraged to adopt low-carbon action because it complements their contribution to a better quality environment.

The theoretical contribution of this research is generated through the role of urban forest attractiveness in the intention to conduct low-carbon action, which influences solutions to existing urban environmental problems. This work exhibits that both ecological attractiveness and attractiveness of artificial elements in urban forests can attract visitors and subsequently boost their outdoor recreation motivation, ecological experience and perceived value and then turn them to boost their intention to conduct low-carbon action. The physical characteristics of a site are behavioral stimuli that can increase a person’s motivation, experience and perception of the value of the environment, thereby increasing their intention to engage in low-carbon actions. This environment behavioral construction is fundamental in understanding that urban forests offer ecological benefits and influence the social quality of urban communities. Nevertheless, without visitor activity, urban forests are merely physical entities that become increasingly demanding to maintain. Due to this, an urban forest that is socially active and has an influence on promoting environmentally conscious behavior is needed, and its presence is becoming ever more crucial. This work shows the significance of integrating psychosocial approaches into managing tourism in urban forests.

Child welfare services (CWSs) globally continue to absorb high rates of children living with or suspected of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD). Such high prevalence rates render CWS with major ethical and moral dilemmas of meeting complex needs. Currently, many jurisdictions are challenged by diagnostic capacity and cost implications of formal FASD diagnosis. This paper aims to recommend a screening protocol to address management gap between FASD initial presentation and formal diagnosis.

This is a follow-up paper from a grounded-theory study of a sample (N = 18) of child welfare social workers (CWSWs), allied health professionals and foster parents. A stepwise protocol was developed through systematical interpretation of the final data.

The application of a five-step screening protocol would greatly support CWSW in meeting the needs of children with suspected FASD. This CWSWs-led assessment model incorporates a clinical evaluation to exclude neurodevelopmental conditions caused by known genetic disorders, followed by behavioral and neurocognitive psychosocial assessments.

This study had several limitations. Firstly, as a specific social work-based sample, it is not necessarily representative of the wider population of social workers globally due to different cultural responses to FASD in CWSs. The transferability of findings will have to be considered due to cultural variations concerning FASD.

By offering a management and nonlabeling approach, this five-step screening protocol offers a delineated pathway for CWSW and addresses the major professional frustrations while seeking to plan safe care for a child suspected of having FASD.

The research offers a pragmatic low-cost to society to alleviate the mounting social and monetary implications of FASD. A large percentage of children impacted by prenatal alcohol exposure do not qualify under formal clinical diagnostic guidelines. Leaving these children without intervention is problematic. The recommendation of this study addresses this critical gap in services. The primary aim is to alleviate the burden on this cohort of vulnerable children by offering nonlabeling neurodevelopmental screening.

The direct implications of FASD and how it impacts CWS are well documented. However, few studies focus on the critical interface of FASD and the role of CWSW responsible for planning their safe care. This paper offers a novel pragmatic and functional multistep protocol to aid CWSW in this complex area of practice.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to the role of music in social projects.

This paper introduces the reader to the field of social music projects and why it is important.

Ongoing conflicts, inequalities and the use of orchestras and choirs for other-than-musical purposes, have all contributed to an increasing interest and adoption of music practices in social projects to support people’s inclusion and well-being, from both service providers and service users.

This paper will look at research into music for social inclusion, with particular attention on benefits related to well-being and methodological innovations in this field.

The research examples will also consider the implications of various social music projects for the support of well-being of diverse groups of people.

Different approaches and points of view will be considered in relation to their impact on inclusion and well-being.

Over the past 17 years, the author has developed an interest in the use of music and musical creativity for social purposes. The author has recently edited a book, published by Routledge, on music and social inclusion and feels it is an important topic for the Journal of Mental Health and Social Inclusion.

Health disparities affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) populations have been reported in many countries. For Singapore, no large quantitative studies on mental health and well-being in the local LGBTQ community have been published. The authors conducted a community-based survey (National LGBT Census Singapore, 2013; NLCS2013) that covered a comprehensive set of demographic, social and health indicators. Here, the authors investigated mental health status and its correlates in 2,350 LGBTQ individuals within the NLCS2013 sample.

The NLCS2013 was an anonymous online survey conducted amongst self-identified LGBTQ adults (aged ≥ 21 years) residing in Singapore. The survey included the World Health Organisation Well-being Index (WHO-5) as a measure of mental well-being, with low WHO 5 scores (<13/25) indicating poor mental well-being. The authors analysed relationships between low WHO-5 score and a range of respondent characteristics using multivariate logistic regression.

Strikingly, 40.9% of 2,350 respondents analysed had low WHO-5 scores, indicating poor mental well-being. Parental non-acceptance, experience of conflict at home and bullying/discrimination in the workplace or educational environments were all significantly associated with poor mental well-being. Conversely, community participation appeared protective for mental well-being, as respondents who participated in LGBTQ community organisations or events were less likely to have poor mental well-being than non-participants.

The NLCS2013 represents one of the first broad-based efforts to comprehensively and quantitatively capture the sociodemographic and health profile, including mental health status, within Singapore’s resident LGBTQ population. These findings affirm the need to address the mental health needs of LGBTQ individuals in Singapore and to foster safe spaces and allyship.

Perceptions of ageing towards the self and towards others can positively and negatively impact an older adult’s mental wellbeing. This paper aims to consolidate literature examining the relationship between perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults to inform both practice and policy for older adult mental health services.

Quantitative research articles examining perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults were identified through searches on three electronical databases, alongside forward and backwards citation searches. A total of 14 articles involving 31,211 participants were identified.

Greater negative attitudes towards ageing were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms and greater positive attitudes towards ageing were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms or higher levels of happiness. However, the causal direction of this relationship could not be determined. Studies demonstrated that perceptions of ageing also act as a moderator in the relationship between depression and health status, hopelessness and personality traits. Future research should attempt to examine the relationship between perceptions of ageing and depression in older adults to attempt to identify the causal direction of this relationship.

This is the only systematic review the authors are aware of consolidating literature which explores the relationship between older adults’ perceptions of ageing and depression. It is hoped that these findings will be able to inform both policy and practice to improve older adults’ care and support for depression.

Many people with dual diagnosis present with social complexity that impedes service access. The role of social work support in such service navigation is poorly understood. This study aims to characterise client presentations to an Australian telephone-based social work alcohol and other drug (AOD) service navigation and linkage program, with consideration of presentation complexity compared between those clients who present with or without self-reported mental health (MH) concerns and a history of MH diagnoses, to identify differences in baseline characteristics, and linkage outcomes.

A retrospective audit was conducted of routinely collected clinical information from a six-month period, selected to capture the social and health challenges experienced during the mid-pandemic period (mid-2021) in Victoria, Australia, during which a number of lockdowns resulted in a reliance on telephone-based services. The audit focused on client and presentation characteristics, and compared clients with and without a history of co-occurring MH and AOD concerns.

It was found that three in four people accessing an Australian telephone-based AOD service navigation and linkage program presented with dual diagnosis. Individuals with dual diagnosis required more support from the service compared to those without a co-occurring MH disorder; but overall, were just as likely to achieve a successful linkage to services, when offered holistic, long-term social work support.

This study focused on the role of social workers in this service navigation program in supporting individuals with complexity. It also highlights the challenges in operationalising social complexity factors alongside clinical MH and AOD diagnoses, and points to the need for further research to guide future service development for this vulnerable client group.

This study analyzes the impacts of trust in the confessional institution of primary education on a students’ spirituality and performance and the moderating effect of the families' religion on the relationship between trust in the school and the student's spirituality as perceived by parents and guardians.

This study takes the form of a survey with 346 parents and guardians from a Brazilian Adventist education network. The authors used partial least squares structural equation modeling by SmarPLS 4 to analyze the data.

The results reveal that parents' and guardians' trust in the confessional institution of primary education positively influences their perception of students' spirituality, which, in turn, has a positive impact on their performance. In addition, the families’ religion does not strengthen the relationship between school trust and students’ spirituality. It does not matter to which religious group the family belongs – as their overall spiritual development that favors the students’ academic performance.

The research contributes to the literature on school management, individual spirituality and relationship marketing – particularly customer relationship management in schools, involving parents, guardians and students.

This paper aims to investigate how home-based telework (HBT) affects job stress. The authors argue that an intrinsic effect of telework like work extension mediates this relationship. Work extension is reflected in two employee behaviours: working in free time and presentism.

The proposed model has been estimated using the Preacher and Hayes bootstrap method for multiple mediation analysis, with 1,000 repetitions. The data used come from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey.

The analysis indicates that HBT does not pose an inherent risk for job stress but causes a change in the employees' behaviour, increasing working in free time and presenteeism and thus job stress. The mediation model indicates that once these behaviours are controlled, the effect of HBT is to reduce stress.

The authors argue that companies should focus on human resource practices to control workers' behaviours that have a detrimental effect on job stress while institutions should regulate HBT.

The analysis deepens the unclear relationship between HBT and job stress by introducing employees' behaviours concerning work extension into the equation.

The purpose of this study is to understand the meaning of the term well-being as conceptualised by parents, grandparents, principals and teachers in the Irish primary education system.

A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was adopted to understand the nature and meaning of the phenomenon of well-being. Interviews were carried out with 54 principals, teachers, parents and grandparents from a representative sample of primary schools in Ireland. Each participant was asked the same, open, question: “What does well-being mean to you?” Responses were transcribed verbatim and analysed using a combination of the principles of the hermeneutic circle and Braun and Clarke’s framework for thematic analysis.

Three conceptualisations of well-being were identified (1) well-being is about being happy, (2) well-being is about being healthy and safe and (3) well-being is something you “do”.

To the best of our knowledge this paper is the first of its kind to describe how well-being is conceptualised by adults in Irish primary school contexts. In particular it highlights how neoliberal conceptualisations of well-being as a “thing”, a commodity exchanged on assumptions of individualism, moralism and bio-economism, have crept into the education of our youngest citizens.