Background The family is one of the key factors that can contribute to reducing the negative consequences of high-risk sexual behavior. This study examines the influence of parents’ communication with children on issues of sexuality on sexual behavior. Methods The study is based on a mixed research design. In 2013–2014, 1,359 people aged 18–30 years were randomly selected from urban areas covering the main university centers of Romania, and they completed a questionnaire with 60 items regarding sociodemographic data, family, sexual behavior and health risks. Out of the initial sample, 60 participants agreed to participate in face-to-face interviews, using a thematic interview guide. The quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive inferential statistics, including binary logistic regression. The qualitative data were investigated using thematic analysis. Results Exploring the issues of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) discussed with parents according to gender revealed that there was a greater concern in families to address issues of sexuality with girls. The manifestation of any form of sex education in the family was positively associated with a healthy sexual debut, both for women and men (χ2 = 7.759, χ2 = 7.866, p = 0.005). The results of the regression reinforced the idea that a lack of sex education in the family decreased the likelihood of a healthy sexual debut, both in women (OR: 0.668, p = 0.018) and in men (OR: 0.605, p = 0.013). In men, receiving information about sex at a younger age (OR: 0.335, p = 0.001) reduced the chance of a healthy sexual debut. Younger women and men were more likely than older women and men to experience a healthy sexual debut [odds ratio (OR): 1.861, p < 0.001 and OR: 1.644, p = 0.015, respectively]. Qualitative results revealed that SRH talks were generally initiated by young people, usually involved a parent of the same gender and often occurred after events in the sexual lives of young people (after first menstruation/after sexual debut). Conclusions In designing health programs for adolescents and youth, the family should be involved in sex education. Modeling family sex education by gender can produce differentiated effects on the sexual debut of men and women.

In his influential 1998 study, David S. Reher discusses historical differences between countries with strong and weak family ties. He focuses on the “Western World”, comparing Italy and the Iberian Peninsula with Scandinavia, the British Isles, the Low Countries, Germany and Austria, together with North America. In this paper, we explore whether Romania, in Eastern Europe, can be characterised as having a strong family system, given the increasingly important role family has played for individual well-being following the end of the socialist regime. We observe a number of similarities between Romania and Southern European countries in terms of behaviours associated with “strong family ties”, opinions on family care and mutual intergenerational support. Differences can be explained in light of Romania’s economic and housing crisis. Overall, it is likely that the importance of family ties in Romania increased after the end of the socialist regime.

No abstract

The social work profession was revived in Romania in 1994, when the first generation of university graduates went to the field. However, only in 2011, when the Law no. 292 of Social Work was issued, the framework for the activity of social workers in the rural communities was settled. Although the legislation provided a proper context for the unfolding of a meaningful social work in rural settings, the labor market was far from being able to absorb the great number of needed professionals. On the one hand, the paper intends to present the barriers that marked the beginning of social work in the Romanian rural space. On the other hand, the paper briefly describes the particularities and the opportunities for social work in the rural areas. Also, through the voice of professionals, the main social problems in the countryside are exposed and some possible interventions aiming at the improvement of the life conditions among the villagers are proposed. The study is based on 43 qualitative interviews carried out in 2016-2020 with professionals employed as social services workers by commune or village local councils. The collected data were explored and interpreted using thematic analysis. One conclusion is that the field is dynamic and in need of substantial improvement.

During the last three decades, thousands of highly qualified social workers who graduated from Romanian universities were employed in the public systems of social work of the European Union. Social group work is studied as a compulsory discipline for undergraduate students. The major focus of our study was the effectiveness of the learning of Social Work Methods with Groups (SWMG) of students, using workshops in a full-time undergraduate program from Romania. We were interested in finding out the perceptions of students about their learning processes and outcomes in the context of teaching the same discipline exclusively in the online medium, due to the pandemic, and in the face-to-face environment via traditional classroom instruction. This study had a mainly quantitative design, covering two academic years between 2018 and 2020 for the two cohorts of social work students. The core analysis was focused on the activities of students at the SWMG laboratories: 50 students in 2020 and 92 students in 2019. Descriptive, inferential statistics and thematic content analysis were applied to two types of deliverables of students: the self-assessment sheet and the group plan. The results of our study showed that training of cognitive and self-awareness skills prevailed among the students who learned online in 2020, while the acquisition of interpersonal skills was reported at a significantly higher level by students who learned in the face-to-face medium in 2019. The students in the traditional classrooms favoured the training of other professional skills, too, like problem-solving skills. However, students who studied exclusively online attributed a significantly greater overall usefulness of SWMG workshops for professional practise than their peers who participated in the face-to-face laboratories. A remarkable result was that more therapeutic and support groups were preferred in the online environment, maybe related to the concerns generated by the pandemic. Remote education forced most students to return to their original places of residence, mostly in the countryside and brought negative psychological effects caused by social isolation due to the pandemic. Remote learning is not the most desirable educational option. Students gain most from blended teaching-learning vehicles: face-to-face and online medium.