Homelessness has become a common phenomenon across the world. And its impact is felt in both the developed and developing countries. The situation in the Kingdom of Swaziland is more devastating due to the inability of the Government and other stakeholders to control and adequately mitigate the constant expansion of the phenomenon as a result of HIV/AIDS, poverty and inadequate care (Baggerly, 2006:162; National Coalition for the Homeless, 2004; Hlatshwayo, 1997). The research problem was about the psycho-social challenges homeless adolescent children go through in a shelter in Manzini, Swaziland. It was deemed necessary and important to find out how they cope without professional and psycho-social support in the shelter. The goal of the study was to explore the psycho-social experiences of homeless adolescent children in a shelter in Manzini, Swaziland. The research approach was qualitative and the research type was applied. Data was collected by means of semi-structured interviews with eight homeless adolescent children in a shelter in Manzini, Swaziland. Based on findings from the study, it has been concluded that homeless adolescent children in a shelter in Manzini, Swaziland suffer from considerable psycho-social problems that need urgent attention. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Social Work and Criminology / MA / Unrestricted

The purpose of this essay is to highlight the importance of public meeting places for people's sense of social well-being and security, and thereby social cohesion. The purpose and issues of the thesis have been developed in consultation with Halmstad municipality, with the aim that the study will serve as a basis for the municipality in their urban development project regarding the area Larsfrid and Vilhelmsfält. The idea is that a more mixed development that offers both housing and meeting places will be developed. In an increasingly globalized world where both diversity and individualism become a larger part of the society we live in, the risk of segregation and polarizations between different groups increases. Creating public places where people with different backgrounds have the opportunity to meet and make valuable exchanges of experiences opens up for a social rotation and a stronger community, which in turn promotes social cohesion. The study's approach has followed a hermeneutic methodology where we have conducted qualitative interviews with four women and four men in close areas to Larsfrid and Vilhelmsfält. Our results have been analyzed based on our chosen theories, Randall Collins' theory of Interaction Rituals Chains, Thomas Scheff's theory of Social Bond and Rolf Lidskog's theory of social order. Through theoretical connections and our own interpretations of our material, we found that the majority of our respondents feel that public meeting places where other people circulate are an important component for them to experience both social well-being and security. Furthermore, based on our material, we can conclude that public meeting places have a beneficial effect on social cohesion.

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Under de senaste åren har distansarbete, mycket tack vare Covid-19-pandemin, blivit ett högaktuellt arbetssätt. Distansarbete skapar nya möjligheter samt nya utmaningar i arbetslivet och kan av många upplevas effektivt och smidigt ur ett rent produktivitetsperspektiv. Det finns motstridig information angående distansarbete, då många individer uppgav att de ville fortsätta med distansarbete efter pandemin, samtidigt som andelen distansarbetare stadigt har sjunkit efter pandemins slut. En potentiell negativ aspekt av distansarbete är att det riskerar att minska mängden arbetsrelaterade sociala utbyten för individen, vilket kan vara problematiskt då dessa sociala utbyten är viktiga för individens sociala välbefinnande. Syftet med studien är att skapa en djupare förståelse för hur anställda upplever sitt sociala välbefinnande i relation till distansarbete och tillgång till organisatoriskt stöd gällande teknisk support. Studien har antagit ett socialpsykologiskt angreppssätt och använt sig av de teoretiska utgångspunkterna socialt välbefinnande och teknostress. Tio respondenter deltog i studien och intervjuades genom kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Dessa intervjuer transkriberades sedan och tematiserades därefter. Resultatet visade att det fanns positiva och negativa aspekter av distansarbete relaterat till socialt välbefinnande. Respondenternas ställningstagande visade tydligt på att varken distansarbete eller arbete på plats var att föredra som arbetssätt utan att en blandning av båda var det bästa alternativet. Vidare visade resultatet att vissa aspekter ur det sociala välbefinnandet fungerade bättre genom distansarbete och vissa aspekter var svåra att uppnå genom enbart distansarbete. / In recent years remote work has become a highly relevant way of working, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Remote work creates new opportunities as well as new challenges in the workplace and can be perceived by many as efficient and smooth from a pure productivity perspective. There is conflicting information regarding remote work, as many individuals indicated that they would like to continue remote work after the pandemic, while the percentage of remote workers has steadily decreased after the end of the pandemic. One potential negative aspect of remote work is that it risks reducing the amount of work-related social exchanges for the individual, which can be problematic as these social exchanges are important for the individual's social well-being. The purpose of the study is to create a deeper understanding of how employees experience their social well-being in relation to remote work and access to organizational support regarding technical support. The study has adopted a social psychological approach and used the theoretical perspectives of social well-being and techno-stress. Ten respondents participated in the study and were interviewed through qualitative semi-structured interviews. These interviews were then transcribed and themed accordingly. The result showed that there were positive and negative aspects of remote work related to social well-being. The respondents' position clearly showed that neither remote work nor on-site work was preferred as a way of working, but that a mix of both was the best option. Furthermore, the results showed that some aspects of social well-being worked better through remote work and some aspects were difficult to achieve through remote work alone.

Divorce brings unprecedented changes. The prevalence of divorce today constitutes a need to thoroughly study the well-being of divorced peoples. This study used a multidimensional definition of well-being to study divorced peoples and other marital statuses. Physical, social, psychological, and socioeconomic well-being were used. This study hypothesized that the married and remarried have higher well-being than the never married who in turn have higher well-being than the divorced or separated. It was also hypothesized that some are pre-disposed to divorce. ANCOVA analysis was used to test these hypotheses in a sample of approximately 9,863 respondents from the NSFH study. Support was found for the hypothesis that the never married have higher well-being than the divorced or separated. This was true in all four aspect analyses. No support was found for the hypothesis that some are pre-disposed to divorce. Further, support was found for married and remarried having higher well-being than the divorced or separated and never married, but only in regards to psychological and socioeconomic well-being. Partial support was found for physical well-being. The divorced or separated had the lowest or close to lowest adjusted well-being mean of all marital statuses except in the social well-being analysis. Marital status and especially divorce does affect well-being.

The emergence of covid-19 has been declared as an international public health emergency in January 2020 by the World Health Organization and has affected millions of people across the world ever since. Public health interventions focused on controlling person-to-person infections to mitigate the number of infections and possible severe or fatal health effects. The absence of meaningful connections and social interactions with others can have an indirect adverse impact on psychological health outcomes. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the consequences of the current pandemic, and its associated measures, on human social well-being and sustainability. A meta-analytical approach based on original results of scientific research published in peer-reviewed journals and written in English has been used. The findings reveal no consistent findings regarding the level of loneliness whereas the level of social support remained stable or even increased over time. For the levels of violence within the home environment (domestic violence, child abuse and intimate partner violence) both an increase and decrease have been reported, indicating a possible impact of covid-19 pandemic on the tension within the family. The pandemic has complicated the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals and thus slowed down society's attempts to achieve sustainability at an international level. The results of this study provide policy makers and professionals with knowledge on the social consequences of the covid-19 pandemic to protect human health and well-being in line with the sustainability goals.

Mentoring relationships can be defined as an interaction between a less experienced individual, called a mentee or protégé, and a more experienced individual known as a mentor. The relationship that the mentee and the mentor establish is one that provides influential and emotional support. Research suggests that mentoring relationships have a positive effect on children in group homes. Although children in group homes may not have strong support from their biological families or kin, they often count on the undivided support from their counselors. For this study, group home stakeholders (director, counselors and children) were supportive of developing a formal mentoring program as part of the group home experience. / Master of Science

O bem-estar social depende das decisões tomadas pelos gestores públicos. O direito de voto deve ser exercido com a maior racionalidade possível, de tal forma que o interesse coletivo se sobressaia sobre o privado. Para tanto, a sociedade deve absorver a maior quantidade de informação, propiciando não apenas a fiscalização da administração como também a participação na escolha pública. O Índice de Qualidade do Gasto Público representa um método capaz de auxiliar na tomada de decisão. Reflete o retorno social, em termos de indicadores, das despesas per capita realizadas, permitindo estabelecer uma hierarquia das microrregiões e definir referenciais de qualidade do gasto público. Aplicando o referido método para as microrregiões do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul, funções Educação e Cultura, Habitação e Urbanismo e Saúde e Saneamento, observa-se a presença de deseconomias de escala, ou seja, o aumento da despesa não gera um retorno proporcional em termos de indicadores sociais, revelando ineficiência na alocação dos recursos públicos. / Social well-being depends on the decisions taken by government administrators. The right to vote should be exercised with the greatest rationality possible, in such as way that public interest outweighs private interests. In order to do so, society must absorb the greatest amount of information, empowering not only the assessment of administration but also participation in government choice. The Government Spending Quality Index represents a method capable of assisting the decision making process. It reflects social return, in terms of indicators, of per capita executed expenses, allowing a hierarchy of micro-regions to be established and references in quality government spending to be defined. Applying the aforementioned method in the micro-regions of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Education and Culture, Habitation and Urbanism, and Health and Sanitation functions, one notes the presence of diseconomies of scale, that is, the increase in spending does not generate a proportional return in terms of social indicators, revealing inefficiency in the allocation of government recourses.

This research assessed psychosocial and cognitive factors influencing well-being, utilising a positive psychological perspective. The theoretical framework of this research was provided by two of the sub-theories of Self-Determination Theory – Basic Needs Theory and Organismic Integration Theory – along with Gender Role Theory, and Beck’s Cognitive Triad, with each of these theories relating differentially to the concept of control or self-determination. More specifically, the current research examined the relationship between gender role schema and the experience of childhood trauma with psychological, physical, and social well-being in adults. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 employed a random sample of 410 participants from Central Queensland, Australia, to develop the World Beliefs Inventory (WBI). This 21-item inventory was developed to assess world beliefs, based on a translation of Aerts et al.’s (1994) philosophical conceptualisation of world beliefs into common terminology. Developing the WBI enabled the assessment of world beliefs, which along with beliefs about oneself (operationalised as perceived control), and the future (dispositional optimism) constitute Beck’s (1976) cognitive triad. Statistical analyses indicated that the inventory provided a good representation of the world beliefs construct, as well as possessing favourable concurrent validity (e.g., positive views regarding the nature of the world were associated with decreased frequency of depressive symptoms experienced, and greater general psychological health and self-esteem). Study 2 was designed to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between gender role schema (masculinity and femininity) and the experience of childhood trauma with psychological, physical, and social well-being, being mediated by (a) the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, (b) beliefs about the world, oneself, and the future, (c) the self-regulation of withholding negative emotion (SRWNE), and (d) somatic amplification. Study 2 employed a separate random sample of 605 participants from Central Queensland. Psychological, physical, and social well-being were each assessed independently to determine whether patterns of significant relationships were similar or different across the different types of well-being. In order to test the theories underlying the structural models of well-being, five hierarchical models of each type of well-being were analysed and compared. Satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and beliefs about the future (dispositional optimism) were found to play a role in the process via which masculinity, femininity, and the experience of childhood trauma influenced all three forms of well-being, while world beliefs were additionally found to influence social well-being, and the SRWNE additionally influenced physical well-being. Results therefore support Basic Needs Theory and provide partial support for Beck’s cognitive triad. They also provide evidence of the utility of the concept of the SRWNE, which was developed in accordance with Organismic Integration Theory.

In the United States, there is a growing trend towards livable cities that facilitate physical, psychological, and social well-being. According to Congress of the New Urbanism, the great American suburb served by the automobile, does not fulfill all these functions. Urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg points out three realms of satisfactory life as work, home and the ‘great good place’ as the third. The third place is one that facilitates barrier free social interaction, for example the American main-street, the English pub, French coffee house etc. Despite the ever existing need for such places, greater travel distances and the ever expanding needs of the automobile era have stripped our urban fabric of these. The Charter of the New Urbanism points out that in the American suburbs, neighborhood parks have the potential to serve as ‘third places.’ The twofold purpose of this research was to examine Steeplechase dog-park using Oldenburg’s Third Place construct as a starting point; and then to operationalize third place by establishing relationships between social characteristics and physical environment. Participant observation, casual conversations and ethnographic interviews were methods used to examine how residents use Steeplechase Park. The observation phase was used to understand on-site behavior, user interests and then establish contacts with participants for recruitment. In-depth interviews were then conducted to examine user history, relationships and attitudes toward the place. Data was coded and analyzed in NVivo 10 utilizing Oldenburg’s framework as a reference, the components of which were then examined for correlations to the physical elements. The findings of suggest that Steeplechase Park functions as a somewhat unique third place in terms of user motivation, companion animal/social lubricant, neutrality and inclusiveness of the place. Findings also establish useful links between the physical design of the space and the social activity; prospect-refuge supported by vegetation and layout, topography, shade, edges and access being the most important aspects. Additionally, lack of maintenance was established as a major concern to sustained use.