Asian Social Work and Policy Review最新文献

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.

Domestic violence is a widely prevalent phenomenon in the world. However, some of its features are culture-specific. This study, therefore, attempts to study domestic violence in the context of Kashmir's culture. It draws on data collected through interviews with victims of domestic violence who were identified during a survey in Kashmir. The interview transcripts were analyzed and themes were drawn using the axial coding method (Corbin and Strauss). Classification of the themes into categories was based on similarities that they share and on the frequency with which they co-occur. These categories gave a sense of dynamics of domestic violence operating in Kashmir. Data reveals that the causes of domestic violence in Kashmir operate at various levels, like individual, social, and cultural. Moreover, qualitative analysis of the interview transcripts visualize domestic violence in Kashmir as the interplay of the following categories, personal factors, communication factors, power factors, interpersonal factors, cultural factors, and situational factors. It is the geo-political and social context of Kashmir that results in the unique dynamic of these causal factors which will help in designing and tailoring culture-specific interventions to address the issue of domestic violence in Kashmir.

Homelessness comes with a slew of challenges and a never-ending struggle for survival. This study examines the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on the homeless population of urban India. The study reflects on the experiences of the homeless in the major cities of India during the first wave of the pandemic as well as explores the aspect of their rights and the role of government policy in this regard. The methodology of the study is qualitative in nature, where secondary data collected from various sources such as news articles, blogs, books, journals, and reports are put to analysis for deriving the findings. The study reveals the sufferings of the homeless in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Bengaluru, and Chennai. Their fight is not merely with the SARS-CoV-2 virus but also with hunger, unemployment, and neglect faced by them. The study highlights the fact that their rights are being compromised due to drawbacks relating to policy implementation. The study concludes with certain suggestions such as, addressing the loopholes in policy implementations and creating sustainable livelihood opportunities.

The COVID-19 pandemic inflicted multiple threats to individuals' physical, mental, and financial health conditions. The pandemic-related restrictive behaviors pose serious consequences for public health and increase the risk of mental illness among individuals, particularly among older citizens. The combination of their pre-existing illnesses, social isolation, COVID fear, and financial adversity frequently aggravates their condition and leads to depression and mental illness. Thus, the present study investigates the mental health status and the determinants of depressive symptoms among older adults of Bhubaneswar during the COVID pandemic context. The study used the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS-15) to measure their depressive symptoms. The social isolation parameter is measured with the De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale. Financial self-efficacy, COVID-19-related psychological fear, and comorbidity health status are other determinants considered. A chi-square test and multinomial logistic regression (MLR) models are adopted to find the probable risk factors that may influence depressive symptoms among older people. The results indicate that comorbidity health conditions, a social isolation mindset, and financial efficacy issues are the significant determinants that drive an older person towards different depression categories. The improvement of these influential factors can lead senior citizens to avoid any health emergency like COVID pandemic. In the event of a public health emergency, such as COVID pandemic, the government could use the study's findings to devise methods for assisting the elderly. Society as a whole should be aware of these findings, which can lead to depressive symptoms, and offer support to the elderly. Future research may concentrate on identifying the causes of depressive symptoms in different age groups or in the presence of specific comorbidity health conditions. Future research may also investigate the factors influencing depressive symptoms in a specific occupation.

The purpose of this article is to analyze international experience and legislation on the protection of children's rights, to assess the state of this issue in the national space of Kazakhstan, to conduct a comparative analysis and the level of implementation of the provisions of international conventions. To achieve the set goals and tasks, to ensure the reliability of the results and conclusions obtained, a system of methods of scientific cognition was used, which, in conjunction with general logical methods and techniques, made it possible to comprehensively and effectively investigate the administrative and legal support for the formation and implementation of state policy in the field of child protection. The formation of the international legal framework for the formation of a system for the protection of children's rights is studied. The level of Kazakhstan's accession to the implementation of international documents in the field of children's rights protection has been determined. The main directions of non-compliance with international regulations in Kazakhstan according to the conclusions of the UN (United Nations) committees are described. The level of priority of this direction of state policy for the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and its normative regulation is assessed. The system of juvenile justice in the country and the situation of children in the Republic of Kazakhstan is analyzed according to the reports of the relevant authorities.

Extensive research has shown the positive impact of conditional child benefits on child outcomes. However, there is limited work on the impact of universal child benefit payments on how families spend on child outcomes. Our study explores this issue. This study examined the relationship between child benefit payments on child outcome expenditures using longitudinal data from the Korean National Survey of Tax and Benefit (N = 3681 households) and a household- and year-fixed effects regression model. We found that child benefit payments are positively associated with child outcome expenditures across family income groups. Furthermore, the analysis results suggest that compared to high-income family groups, low- and middle-income family groups increase spending on child outcome expenditures in response to child benefit payments. Finally, the policy implications of this are discussed.

During the Coronavirus disease pandemic (COVID-19), working conditions became increasingly difficult for social workers, as they had to deal with new challenges and added workloads. This study describes the difficulties faced by social workers of the Self-Reliance Support System in Japan and clarifies the solution for each difficulty while conducting their duties to support vulnerable people during COVID-19. To this end, we conducted an open-ended questionnaire survey and an interview survey. The data were analyzed using qualitative coding. The results showed that the difficulties faced in consultation support work included supporting hitherto socially invisible groups such as sole traders and foreigners. Social workers also faced an ethical dilemma, as they could not provide support to clients who “did not try to solve their problems” or for whom “interventional attempts did not lead to counseling support” and who only sought benefits at the risk of becoming isolated and impoverished. Following this, consultants collaborated to resolve such difficulties while maximizing the use of various local resources. The study's findings clarify that it would be effective to understand the difficulties faced by social workers to obtain hints toward their resolution.