Asian Social Work and Policy Review最新文献

This article is based on the Skills Training for Advancing Resources (STAR) project for the youth initiative of the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) in Bangladesh. The objective was to explore the consequences of social and economic inclusion of this project for the persons with disability (PWDs) and transgender (TG) youth people. The research focused on how inclusive programmatic interventions created multidimensional impacts among the “marginalized” and “excluded” PWD and TG youths at the grassroots level. This study adopted a qualitative approach where in-depth case interviews and observation were applied for data collection. PWD and TG graduates, master craft persons (MCPs), employers, and program staff members were the participants in this study. Results found that PWD and TG youths faced vulnerabilities and social stigma in their lives and livelihood trajectories due to their physical inability and low level of social dignity. The STAR project has a certain level of contribution to the livelihoods of PWD and TG people, where these helped them to gain their social, cultural, and economic capital. Findings would be an important guideline for policymakers, NGO managers, and human rights workers.

Studies on welfare state regimes have been dominated by consideration of rich OECD/European and increasingly East Asian countries/territories, leaving South Asian cases such as Indonesia underexplored. The few existing studies that have explicitly tried to conceptualize the Indonesian welfare regime have resulted in little consensus. To address the resulting lack of clarity, this article reviews scholarly articles relevant to bringing Indonesia into the global welfare regime debate, specifically encapsulating how the country has been classified compared with its East Asia counterparts. Accordingly, we find that existing studies have mainly concentrated on the Indonesian health care and social protection expansion, which has led authors to conclude that this evolution demonstrates Indonesia's transition away from welfare productivism. By contrast, we argue that Indonesia's productivist characteristics have largely prevailed while informal networks, clientelism, strong families, and the limited effectiveness of the civil society movement created a specific social politics in Indonesia. We thus conclude that the causal mechanisms typically attributed to welfare development in more developed welfare geographies, including East Asia, cannot fully explain the evident institutional formation in the Indonesian case. The future research agenda for studying the welfare regimes in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries is discussed.

Extant research in Western countries have indicated that children's well-being may be influenced by children's own resilience, parent–child attachment, and parental marital relationship. Yet, there is very little research in Malaysia on how these factors may influence well-being among children in middle childhood. The aim of this study, therefore, was to explore the relationships among children's self-efficacy—a resilience factor—and well-being, parental marital relationship, and parent–child attachment style. The study used a quantitative, cross-sectional survey method. Participants were 955 Malay-Malaysian children aged 11 years from intact families. They responded to a questionnaire on demographic background, self-efficacy, well-being, parental harmony and conflict, and parent–child attachment style. Moderated mediation analysis indicated that (i) parental harmony was a significant mediator for the relationship between children's self-efficacy and well-being; (ii) parental conflict was not a significant mediator for the relationship between children's self-efficacy and well-being; and (iii) parent–child attachment style was a significant moderator for the relationship between children's self-efficacy and well-being. These findings are discussed within the frameworks of optimal child development and family relationship. These findings may also inform policies such as Malaysia's Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3) and National Family Policy.

This article unveils the voices of the international students of the Universiti Sains Malaysia by exploring their belongingness and community well-being in Malaysia. This study was conducted with 14 international students (seven males and seven females) studying at the Universiti Sains Malaysia for at least a year. A qualitative approach was employed using in-depth case interviews to examine the socio-cultural challenges they experienced while studying abroad. The specific challenges reported among the international students are their well-being in distinct aspects such as physical, mental, and emotional. This study seeks to explore the international students' reliability on conational communities for social support. When achieving belongingness with their conational friends, international students can flourish well in their current community in Malaysia, thus achieving social community well-being although they are far away. Besides maintaining established close friendships, the international students develop a sense of comfort and familiarity by forming new friendships with conational and other international students. Sharing similar backgrounds and nationalities, as well as experiences and struggles, are significant for international students in maintaining close friendships and situational harmony. This study highlighted the meaning behind physical and emotional distance, as well as the situation of “being temporarily abroad” and its relations to intimacy practices and belongingness in close friendships. The results presented in this article contribute to an increasing understanding of international students' challenges and the future of social harmony and community well-being while temporarily living in Malaysia. Correspondingly, as a result of this study, students will be more deferential of cultural differences and cross-cultural sensitivity, which will also help to decrease prejudice and discrimination.

Basic income was a hot issue in the recent Korean presidential election. Its pros and cons were used to scramble for the electorate's votes. However, their arguments largely relied on political rhetoric and lacked scientific facts. The problem is that politics without the backing of science is not only prone to a misguided conviction but also going to deal a blow to the future development of basic income. This study aims to narrow the gap between rhetoric and facts through evidence-based research on basic income. By employing methods of fact-finding and effect evaluation, we analyze using four aspects of assessment, namely, general information about basic income experiments; details on the experiments; development of the experiments; and the effect of the experiments. Basic income-related data are drawn from the World Bank and the Basic Income Laboratory at Stanford University. Significant results of the review are that some positive effects were identified at the micro level but any meaningful macro-level impact was impossible to confirm. To sum up, the outcomes are so erratic that it is difficult to detect any clear pattern in policy impacts. To approach basic income more scientifically, further research is urgently needed.

This study aimed to examine the longitudinal causal relationship between depression and self-esteem (SE) in older Koreans and analyze gender differences in this correlation. Participants were 4742 older adults aged ≥65 years in baseline 2018 from the Korea Welfare Panel Study. Depression and SE were measured every year from 2018 to 2021. This study estimated causal relationships using the autoregressive cross-lagged model and analyzed gender differences using a multigroup approach. The findings indicate that depression and SE in older adults support the reciprocal causal model, but there are no gender differences. The study recommends that both depression and SE should be considered in the design of social work intervention programs for older adults but can disregard gender differences.

The main objective of this study was to explore the status of social behavior practices for child protection and well-being among low-income urban households in Bangladesh. This study used a survey method, and data were collected through a face-to-face structured interview from 378 low-income household heads from 12 wards (Konabari and Kashimpur) of Zone 5 of the Gazipur City Corporation. Results found that the current status of the presence of child protection services is very low (in many cases, this number is zero except children having birth registered). A significant number (55%) of them were married between 15 and 19 years. The study found a low level of access on the components of social behaviors where around 50% to 60% caregivers stated 4 benefits of key behaviors, necessity of hand washing after defecation and before and after taking a meal, the age of boys and girls to get married off, and know the effect and consequences of child marriage. The chi-squared tests confirmed extremely high significance in almost all of the components. Findings will be an important guideline for the policymakers, child service practitioners, and human rights workers.

The purpose of this study was to explore the longitudinal, reciprocal effects between disability acceptance, self-efficacy, and interpersonal ability and to discuss implications for persons with disability. For this purpose, we used the third (2018–2020) raw data of the second Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED), implemented by the Korea Employment Agency for Persons with Disability. We used an autoregressive cross-lagged model to test reciprocal effects, and 4420 persons with disability responded to the three above-mentioned waves of the PSED. The findings were as follows. First, disability acceptance, self-efficacy, and interpersonal ability had significant effects on disability acceptance, self-efficacy, and interpersonal ability in the third, fourth, and fifth waves. Second, there was a statistically significant longitudinal, reciprocal relationship between disability acceptance and self-efficacy. In addition, self-efficacy had a significant longitudinal, reciprocal relationship with interpersonal ability. However, interpersonal ability had a statistically significant longitudinal effect on disability acceptance, but not vice versa. Based on these results, we provided suggestions regarding how to improve disability acceptance, self-efficacy, and interpersonal ability among persons with disability.

The specific aims of this systematic review are to (1) understand the prevalence and context for women's unpaid care work in South Asia, (2) explore factors that affect the prevalence of unpaid care work, and (3) identify gaps in the extant research on unpaid care work that influence women's lives. Using the Cochrane Handbook and PRISMA guidelines for systematic reviews, we searched 18 databases and identified 13 research studies. Drawing on the devaluation framework, we found three main recurring themes in the selected studies. First, women in South Asia disproportionately share the burden of unpaid care work responsibilities. Second, due to sociocultural norms, unpaid care work is unrecognized and devalued as are those who perform it. Third, flexible working arrangements for women are not currently being offered. We conclude that there is a need for care work policies that incorporate the unique cultures, demographics, and labor markets in South Asian contexts.

Social harmony and community wellbeing can be addressed by promoting life satisfaction and happiness within society. As part of the attempts to understand and promote life satisfaction and happiness within society, this study examined how religiosity can contribute to these two outcome variables. More specifically, this study examined the mediating effect of self-control, self-regulation, and life satisfaction on the relationship between religiosity and happiness. Six hundred and twenty-eight middle (628) adults from Medan, Indonesia were recruited through stratified sampling. They completed five self-report scales on Subjective Happiness Scale; Satisfaction with Life Scale; Centrality of Religiosity Scale; brief Self-control Scale and Self-regulation Scale. Data were analyzed by applying Structural Equation Model (using the LISREL software 8.80), which provides simultaneous examination of variance between endogenous and exogenous variables. Results revealed that people who reported higher level of religiosity also scored high on self-control and self-regulation scales, life satisfaction, which, in turn, are related to more happiness. The finding provides evidence for more specific mechanism in which religiosity contributes to life satisfaction and happiness of the individuals and consequently society wellbeing. Theoretical and practical implications related to the findings are discussed.