International Journal of Social Welfare最新文献

Recent scholarship has highlighted a shift from risk avoidance to emphasizing children's active role in coping with online challenges. However, research on such processes remains scarce. This study adopted a person-centered approach to examine how different parental mediation patterns influence rural children's digital resilience (DR), considering children's responses as key mechanisms shaping this relationship. Using survey data from 713 rural children in China, latent profile analysis identified four parental mediation patterns: communicative regulators, rule-setters, tech-monitors, and intensive engagers. Rule-setters emerged as the most prevalent pattern, yet communicative regulators and intensive engagers were more effective in fostering children's DR. These patterns promoted resilience primarily through enhanced child-initiated communication, whereas tech-monitors heightened children's resistance, thereby undermining resilience. The findings clarify how parental strategies translate into children's DR in rural contexts and contribute to children's protection in the digital era.

Korea introduced minimum income schemes (MIS) in 2000 as the last resort of the welfare system. With their expansion, benefit adequacy approached the average of developed countries, considerably mitigating Korea's poverty rate. However, old-age, female householders, and single households continue to face the threat of severe poverty. This study examines the extent to which MIS supports vulnerable groups using the Korean Welfare Panel Study between 2019 and 2023, including the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Basic Livelihood Security (NBLS) and Basic Pension schemes were analysed separately as major minimum income benefits. The main results indicate that MIS provides limited coverage, benefits, and contributions to the poverty rate. During the pandemic, MIS played a limited role, as the Korean government introduced its first universal benefits rather than adjusting the current MIS. Among the three groups, female householders benefited more from the NBLS, and old-age received more from the Basic Pension. However, single households secured limited support because the equivalence scale of the NBLS provided more assistance to larger families. Therefore, the Korean government needs to provide more inclusive schemes and improve institutional designs to mitigate poverty among vulnerable groups.

Understanding how social welfare programs shape public perceptions of government performance is vital for improving governance in rural China, where economic disparities and effective poverty alleviation remain critical challenges. This study investigates the relationship between rural subsistence allowances (rural dibao) and citizens' perceptions of local government performance, examining changes following the implementation of Targeted Poverty Alleviation policies. Using China Social Survey data in 2013 and 2017, two-level mixed models reveal that before these policies, rural individuals living in poverty, whether receiving dibao or not, showed no significant differences in their perceptions of government performance. After implementation, however, dibao recipients reported significantly improved views on economic development and employment, especially among working-age groups, and heightened perceptions of fairness in political rights. This study underscores the importance of subjective perceptions in poverty governance and demonstrates the transformative potential of integrated policy approaches in enhancing governance outcomes in rural areas.

Regardless of the rise of egalitarian parenting, maternal and paternal roles are subject to different expectations, shaped by cultural and institutional factors. We examine levels of (dis)approval of parents' full-time work in 26 European countries and ask: Do attitudes toward mothers' and fathers' full-time work vary across countries? What are the sociodemographic, cultural, and family policy-related institutional factors that explain these attitudes? To what extent can the gender arrangement framework help to understand differences in attitudes toward full-time working parents? Data from the 2018 European Social Survey was analyzed using cross-tabulation and multilevel analysis. Results reveal that the ideal of motherhood continues to be culturally more contested than that of fatherhood. Individual-level sociodemographic factors are more relevant to attitudes toward mothers' than to fathers' full-time work, while country-level factors connected to gender, work culture, and family policy are similar in their effects on attitudes toward mothers' and fathers' full-time work.

Spatial dimensions of welfare-state change remain underexplored in research on social assistance (SA). This study presents the first long-term spatial analysis of SA in Sweden, tracing municipal patterns of recipiency between 1986 and 2020 using spatial clustering and longitudinal panel analysis. The results show that national trends towards lower recipiency have been shaped by population-dense municipalities, illustrating how a national perspective can mask spatial heterogeneity in welfare provision. At the municipal level, an emerging divergence between declining recipiency rates and rising durations indicates increasingly selective access to assistance and declining uptake. This pattern is most evident in large, population-dense municipalities and those with substantial foreign-born populations, where the decline in rates has been most pronounced. The results point to a spatially uneven process of selectivity unfolding against the backdrop of an eroded universalism, reflecting broader processes of market dependency, welfare transformation, and uneven development.

Swedish municipalities vary significantly in their commitment to preventing alcohol, narcotics, and tobacco related (ANT) problems. This study investigates the drivers of local policy development, focusing on the salience of ANT-related problems, municipal economic resources, and the political orientation of local governments. We analyzed pooled time-series cross-sectional data from 109 of Sweden's 290 municipalities between 2011 and 2021. Local prevention efforts were measured using a composite Alcohol, Narcotics, and Tobacco Prevention Index. Key independent variables included indicators of problem salience (e.g., alcohol-related morbidity), municipal economic capacity, and the political orientation of the ruling coalition. We applied first-difference models with panel-corrected standard errors and panel-specific autoregressive terms to account for unobserved heterogeneity, temporal dynamics, and spatial dependence. Political orientation was the only statistically significant predictor of changes in local ANT-prevention efforts. A shift to left-wing governance was associated with a 4.2% increase in the ANT-index. Neither the salience of ANT-related harms nor municipal economic capacity had a significant effect. Our findings suggest that variation in local ANT-policy is less driven by problem burden or economic resources, but rather by political orientation.

Migratory grief is a process that encompasses the emotional experiences of people who were once migrants. Research is focused on the complexity of the phenomenon while considering the different losses that can be suffered during the process. Research has been conducted on focal groups for an in-depth understanding of each person's experience as regards migratory grief by identifying common experiences and feelings and enabling a detailed examination of each narrative. The subjects shared life experiences that revealed how complex migratory grief can be, with emphasis on separation from families and the loss of their own culture. Emotional responses have revealed common coping strategies and individual variations. The outcomes bring to light the importance of addressing the emotional dimensions of migration. Valuable insights are offered to design psychosocial interventions in support of individuals experiencing migratory grief while acknowledging that their experiences are diverse.

We calculate the lifetime risks and expectancies of payment problems in Norway, the country with the highest household debt burden among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. We derived geographic, demographic, socio-economic and health variables from national registers and data on monthly payment problems from the national debt collection agency for the 2015–2019 period. We analysed these data in a discrete multistate modelling framework and calculated the metrics for synthetic cohorts who experience the current payment problem risks throughout their life course. Some third of the synthetic cohort members experienced payment problems at least once during their life course, with the share being higher among men. The life expectancy with payment problems at age 18 was 2.1 years, which corresponded to 3% of the total life expectancy. Across the intersections of low education, sex, record of psychiatric diagnosis and area-level income, the longer the payment problem expectancy these groups had, the shorter their total life expectancy was. Payment problems can be chronic, and have the same upstream determinants as early mortality.

In advanced knowledge economies, access to quality employment depends crucially on skills. The social investment perspective has recognised this and promotes skill development as a means of dealing with social problems. However, possessing skills may not be enough. Individuals who have been educated abroad or have acquired skills through experience face the risk of labour market marginalisation. To address this issue, most European countries have developed alternative skill certification systems (recognition of experience or foreign qualifications). Using queuing and signalling theory, we study employers' perception of alternative skill certification. Empirically, we focus on childcare in Switzerland. First, we use a vignette experiment to examine how employers evaluate alternative credentials. Second, based on qualitative interviews, we explore what drives employers' assessment. We find that while possessing alternative credentials significantly increases such candidates' hiring prospects, they are not considered equal to those holding standard degrees because employers do not believe they have acquired certain specific skills.