Asian Social Work and Policy Review最新文献

Macau is a rapidly aging city, with 13.8% of the population aged over 65. Social capital has been identified as a crucial protective factor for negative mental health outcomes, yet its relationship with mental health among older adults in Macau remains unclear. This study thematically analyzed the narratives of 19 in-depth face-to-face interviews of Cantonese-speaking elderly aged 60 or above residing in the Seac Pai Van public housing project, the largest public housing project in Macau. This study aimed to collect information on how social networks and social participation impact their mental well-being that may shed light on the promotion of resident mental health in future public housing developments. Results revealed shallow social capital in the community and a high prevalence of loneliness among senior residents who resided in the studied estate. The study also shed light on the participants' thoughts on death, including suicidal ideation, and how they are shaped by their mental health situation and environment. The findings highlight the need to revisit the current mental health policy in Macau and address the urban and architectural design and social organization in new communities, empowering communities to build a friendly environment.

The COVID-19 pandemic affected almost all sectors including the social services in Bangladesh. The authorities struggled to provide services to the pandemic-affected people who suddenly lost their jobs, falling into a state of poverty. This study aims to investigate interruptions, interventions, and innovations in government social services because of social policy responses during COVID-19 considering different theoretical models of institutionalism. Following the qualitative method, the study conducted in-depth interviews with 39 representatives of social service agencies that delivered services in the Sylhet district during the pandemic. The study finds that COVID-19 interrupted social service programs leading to interventions and innovations based on the new situation that emerged. It reveals innovations like launching virtual service, introducing a hotline number for help seekers, creating WhatsApp and Messenger groups among the service providers, emphasizing community engagement, etc. in social services which seem to go along with the punctuated equilibrium model or the first-order change that integrates new policies or innovations within the traditional institutional framework to deal better with the problems caused by COVID-19. However, these initiatives were insufficient since pressing issues like mental health and domestic violence that substantially increased during COVID-19 failed to draw the attention of the authorities.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the trajectory of late-life depressive symptoms and to explore the effect of gender and social activity participation on that trajectory. Data from 4943 older adults aged 60 and above from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011, 2013, 2015, and 2018) were analyzed using the Latent Growth Curve Model (LGCM) in Mplus. The results were (1) late-life depressive symptoms increased during the survey; (2) at the initiation level, depression was higher in women than men, while there was no gender difference in the rate of change; and (3) lower social activity participation significantly negatively affected the increase of depressive symptoms in old age at that time. The findings implicated that, first, it is essential to screen for depressive symptoms and prevent or slow the growth of depressive symptoms in geriatric services on time. Second, services to improve depressive symptoms in older adults do not simply work separately by gender. Finally, welfare policymakers should consider how to support older adults to actively participate in social activities to prevent or slow down the growth of depressive symptoms.

This article aims to explore the perspectives and experiences of elderly individuals in Korea regarding active aging in their daily lives. The research utilizes Schütze's biographical narrative approach and involves six participants, comprising two males and four females aged between 73 and 82. The data collected undergoes analysis using Schütze's six-step biographical narrative analysis method, resulting in the following key findings. The first significant finding in their biographical stories is that participants have gone through poverty, lack of education, economic activity, early marriage, dedicated child-rearing, and the challenging times in Korea following the end of Japanese colonial rule and the Korean War. Secondly, the study discovered that older people could achieve a balanced and active life obtained from the love of family and friends, sincere faith, enjoyable social activities, precious jobs, and safety concerns by adopting a positive and appreciative approach toward life. The study's third finding highlights that older individuals wish to be self-reliant, value government benefits, seek more economic opportunities, and need better social services to assist them during their vulnerable later years for active aging. Therefore, the thesis recommends that the Korean government provide older individuals with expanded healthcare management, caregiving services, and employment opportunities.

This preliminary study examined the process of constructing alternative discourses on social work. It focused on the exploration of Buddhist social work by researchers and practitioners in Asian countries, including monks and nuns. The present investigation was grounded in the analytical perspective of the social representation theory posited in the domain of social psychology. Books, reports, and any relevant papers written in English were collected as primary data sources (n = 22), and a qualitatively descriptive analysis was conducted on these data. The scrutiny specifically attended to the mechanism of familiarization, which comprises the process of anchoring and objectifying. The study's findings revealed the process of intentionally (re)naming activities and related events that were previously not necessarily described as Buddhist social work. These practices and occurrences were then classified and positioned within a particular cross-border paradigm. Additionally, some monks, nuns, and other stakeholders became conversant with discussion and research activities related to Buddhist social work. Objectifying actions, such as (re)discovering and reproducing, thus became taken for granted by such functionaries. These findings suggest that cross-border Buddhist social work discourses were actively constructed through the usage of relevant terms and concepts. In other words, the results of this study indicate that alternative discourse is internationally becoming the familiar form of discussion within the discipline.

As a significant social subject force, social work plays a unique role in the new pattern of community governance. Through continuous practice and exploration, it has accumulated particular practical experience and theoretical foundation with considerable application value, which provides good references and references for the study. This study is based on a review of published articles that reflect 10 years of research on social work participation in community governance. After an extensive literature review, a total of 24 peer-reviewed articles were included. These were searched among papers published in different journals of Web of Science and Scopus databases on social work practices in community governance for the period of 2011–2021. A systematic review of literature studies allows the researcher to get a more comprehensive picture of the state of research in the field, especially the research results and findings that have been made. In the process, literature gaps, challenges, impediments, and possibilities for future research directions were examined. In this context, a framework and insight for future researchers on social work engagement in community governance regarding content areas, theoretical models, outcomes, methodologies, and evaluation tools are provided.

Field practicum is an integral part of social work education, and students of bachelor's and master's levels need to gain the requisite experience of field practicum to achieve the degrees. Like many practice-based disciplines, social work has been facing enormous challenges in arranging field practicum during COVID-19. This qualitative study aims to understand the experiences of social work faculties, students, and agency representatives for field practicum in the time of the COVID crisis in Bangladesh. Four public universities having social work schools were selected purposively and a total of 18 in-depth interviews and four Key Informant Interviews were conducted with different stakeholders related to field practicum. The study finds that though theoretical classes were conducted using online platforms, students faced many hurdles in completing their field practicum. Several innovative strategies, such as community-based field practice, delaying completion of field practicum, reducing daily working hours, etc. were followed to adapt to the new normal situation. This pandemic seemed to be a lesson for everyone to think of an alternative arrangement for field practicum, such as developing a flexible curriculum, virtual fieldwork, community-based field practice, field meetings, concurrent fieldwork, etc.

This study aims to examine the regional characteristics that affect the region's level of collective donation behavior. Most studies examining factors affecting donation behavior were conducted at the individual level. However, regional-level comparative studies enable an understanding of environmental factors influencing donation behavior. Especially in this study, the number of nonprofit fundraising organizations per unit population in each region was included to observe how much the activities of related organizations affect the regional donation rate and average donation amount. The number of fundraising organizations did not have a significant relationship with the donation rate of the region but had a limited positive effect on the average donation amount of donors. In addition, the regional economic level also significantly impacted the regional donation level. It was found that the ratio of poor households or major demographic characteristics had different effects on the donation rate and the average donation amount, respectively.

Youth participation in governance goes beyond the scope of positive youth development and involves young people engaging in real-world social governance. Drawing on a culturally sensitive review of policies related to youth participation, this study investigated the effect of subjective factors (i.e., perceived responsibility and political efficacy) on young adults' participation in governance in China. A subset of young adult (N = 2396) was extracted from the national 2019 Chinese Social Survey. Regression and mediation analyses found a positive association between their perceived responsibility and participation in governance, which was significantly mediated by their perceived political efficacy. Furthermore, conditional indirect effects were found when using education and generational status of the young adults as moderators. Education was found to alleviate the negative effect of perceived responsibility on political efficacy and its negative indirect effect on youth participation. These findings highlight the importance of policymakers, social workers, and other practitioners in developing and promoting evidence-based community programs that empower, encourage, and motivate young adults to recognize their individual responsibility and political efficacy in social governance.

This paper explores anecdotes about and experiences of implicit and explicit acts of racism experienced by 16 Asian Americans living in the United States, who narrate stories about incidents of race-based verbal, physical, or emotional violence. In addition, the participants detail hardships and experiences before COVID-19, at the onset of COVID-19, and most importantly, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study build on the growing literature on the experiences of racism, othering, and invisibility among Asian communities. Further research is needed to capture the diversity of experiences of the Asian American communities and to identify interventions and practices that will best support their needs.