The main focus in this thesis lies in the observation of how the public debate is formulating and developing in Finland in relation to the current implementation of the Inquiry on historical child abuse and neglect in out-of-home care. This thesis analyses the testimonies published around the investigation and on historical child abuse, in the public domain. The release of two documentaries broadcasted on National TV (YLE TV1) in 2013 and 2014 triggered a, however scarce, online public discussion with few newspapers’ as well as magazines’ articles covering informatively the inquiry. The online debate has so far seen the participation mainly of the victims themselves of historical abuse. Generally, I found a confirmation that the Finnish individualistic culture is hardly prompt to open discussion on such topics. As S.N., a care leaver, explains in the second documentary: (Lehikoinen, Luurankokaappi, 2014) “the culture does not give space” though people have “the need to speak.” My thematic analysis on this debate has nonetheless disclosed an urge to come to terms with a past of institutional abuse, framed in a general context of public mistrust in the Child Welfare4 system. The care-leavers, narrating their stories in the two TV documentaries, disclosed memories of neglect, violence and systematical isolation of the Poor. Their stories are interpreted through the debate on the media as stories of injustice. Their narration portraits a concept of “child care” very far from nowadays’ standards of child welfare. Care-leaver H.S. points his finger on the Finnish child-care institution where he spent his childhood in the ‘50s: “Only a monster can send a child to such a place!” (Lehikoinen, Varastettu Lapsuus, 2013).

Common knowledge dictates that cynicism and mistrust of politics is rampant among US citizens, wreaking havoc on participation in the American political process. Social Capital theories are commonly used to effectively explain US political behavior, but fail to account for alienation from the political process or the influence of peers. I argue that models of political participation would be improved by the inclusion of political alienation variables, which have fallen into disuse in recent decades. Using data from the US Citizenship, Involvement, and Democracy Survey (2006), this paper relies upon negative binomial regression with nested models to compare the explanatory power of social capital variables with models including political alienation and peer influence variables to assess the value of such concepts. Results indicate that while the parent variables of political alienation (powerlessness, meaninglessness, and mistrust of political institutions) improve model accuracy and influence political participation, the latent variable remains ambiguously useful. Powerlessness and mistrust revealed significant effects, but mistrust failed to fit into the latent concept of political alienation, and meaninglessness did not produce significant results. Peer influence only significantly affected political participation when participants specifically discussed political matters with peers. Implications and concepts for future research follow.

The current study is part of a broader study called the Women’s Reproductive Health Survey (WRHS) which aimed to examine various aspects of women’s life experiences. This study examined the moderating effect of rurality on several factors of healthcare in a sample of women between the ages of 18 and 50. Self-rated health (SRH) was hypothesized to predict healthcare satisfaction, healthcare adherence, and medical mistrust. Furthermore, rurality was hypothesized to weaken the relationships between SRH and healthcare satisfaction and adherence; it was further hypothesized to exacerbate the relationship between SRH and medical mistrust. A survey containing a single-item measure of SRH and rurality, a seven-item measure of medical mistrust, and an exploratory measure of both healthcare satisfaction and adherence, was uploaded to the Internet forum Redditt. Participants received informed consent and monetary compensation for their time. Bivariate correlations and moderation analysis was conducted on the resulting data. Self-rated health was found to be a significant predictor of healthcare satisfaction, healthcare adherence, and medical mistrust. Rurality was a nonsignificant moderator. Healthcare systems may consider enhancing patient portfolios with a measure of SRH. This may have implications for improved quality of care and health outcomes. Limitations within the study included the participant demographics, which were mostly White and of a high socioeconomic status, as well as the broader survey from which this study originated. Future studies may consider comparing populations from a high socioeconomic status to populations from a low socioeconomic status.

This study analyses mistrust of media. Door-to-door interviews were conducted with 318 respondents in six different parts of Sweden. In 2015 the Swedish research institute SOM published an interesting study of mistrust of media in Sweden, showing that the group that mistrust the media is dominated by supporters of the Sweden Democrats. The aim of this study is to gain understanding of the causes and nature of mistrust of media. The interviews featured both open and closed questions, covering political interest and the respondents opinions about what is good and less good in society. This essay primarily analyses the issues that concern trust in the media linked to community involvement. This essay is based on the framework of a larger study by the think tank Arena Idé. The interviews were conducted by 10 interviewers and the coding of the material was done by a person employed by the think tank. For the interview guide, a code scheme was created and the computer programme Nvivo was used for the coding. Employing theories about public connection and the hostile media effect, this study aims to provide a better understanding of popular mistrust. The findings point to the conclusion that there are reasons to believe that a hostile media effect exists. The expressions of mistrust of media are classified into three different themes: Source criticism, Alleged obfuscation of truth, and Angling of media. The connection to society in the group with a low level of trust in the media is found to be narrow but intense.

This study was to explore the relationship between race of interviewer, cultural mistrust level and type of problem upon black students' ratings of an initial interview. It was hypothesized that the combination of interviewer's race, mistrust level and the type of problem discussed would significantly influence students' ratings of the interviewer. Initially, 12 4 black students were administered the Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI). Based upon CMI scores, participants were divided into groups of high and low cultural mistrust. Next, half of these participants were interviewed by one of five white interviewers and the remainder were interviewed by one of five black interviewers. Within each of these groups, half of the participants were asked to discuss problems with their racial identity and the others were asked to discuss their vocational aspirations. After the session, each subject rated the interviewer on the Counselor Evaluation Inventory, Counselor Rating Form and Counselor Effectiveness Rating Scale.

Research has documented the adverse health outcomes that may result from experiences of sexual trauma and medical mistrust. Stigmatization as a result of sexual trauma experience(s) may also cause significant distress. The current study examined the effect of sexual trauma stigma and the potential mediating role of medical mistrust on health. Resiliency was examined as a potential moderator, as it may buffer sexual trauma stigma’s effects on medical mistrust and health outcomes. A sample of 482 women with a sexual trauma history completed questionnaires regarding health and sexual trauma stigma. Study data was analyzed in SPSS v.25 and included correlations and moderated-mediational analyses. Results demonstrated that sexual trauma stigma and medical mistrust independently predicted somatic symptom burden but not BMI. Medical mistrust and resiliency did not emerge as significant mediators/moderators. Limitations include a homogenous sample and possible measurement error. Future research of other maintaining mechanisms is warranted.

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Mistrust of the healthcare system is increased among the Black population compared to other race/ethnicity groups. Medical mistrust can lead to intensified health inequities and negative health outcomes among this population. Currently, there is limited research that explores ways to address medical mistrust, especially among the Black population. This study investigated medical mistrust to find ways to improve the quality of life amongst the Black population. Twenty-one participants in this study completed a Group Based Medical Mistrust Survey and five of those participants participated in a semi-structured interview. Descriptive and correlation analyses were conducted. The GBMMS was separated into three subscales: Factor 1) Suspicion, Factor 2) Group disparities in healthcare, and Factor 3) lack of support from healthcare providers. The mean score for the GBMMS was 3.41 (SD=0.74). Significant correlations were found between Factor 1 and income (r=-.459, p=.048). Results from the in-depth interview indicated, five primary themes were extracted from the interviews including 1) Historical references to racism in the healthcare system, 2) Racial discrimination common in a doctor's office, 3) Assumptions made about health issues amongst Black patients, 4) Not seeking medical attention when needed, and 5) Utilization of primarily Black doctors. Overall, this study found that medical mistrust in the Black population is multifactorial and offers insight on how to improve relationships between the Black population and the healthcare system.

This qualitative thematic analysis study aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of how the work of social services with children and youths is presented on the internet forum Flashback. The debated topic of social services kidnapping children is a subject that arouses concern and fear among many families, something that can lead to families not daring to turn to social services for help. The empirically guided method resulted in seven different themes. The results indicated a clear negative portrayal of social services work with children and youths. This presentation is based on factors such as social workers low competence, arbitrariness and belief that the children in care of social services are exposed to neglect. Furthermore, it is stated that the social services lack transparency and needs to be controlled by other authorities. Despite a largely negative portrayal, some users shared positive experiences argued with educational commentary against other users. This study also intends to understand the users’ discussions about trust or distrust of the social service. The prominent emotion on the internet forum is mistrust but also ambivalence. Users express that the social work will never be good enough as social services do too much on the one hand, and too little on the other. In conclusion, this study gained an understanding of how the portrayal, together with the users ́ arguments, is the basis for trust and mistrust. I summary, the understanding of trust is an important component in the complex social work. This insight can possibly contribute to authorities and social workers being able to discover strategies of how individuals trust in social work can increase.

No description available.