BackgroundSocial capital is one of the social determinants of health, but there is still a lack of studies comparing its significance for health in different cultural settings. This study investigates and compares the relations between individual cognitive social capital and depressive symptoms and self-rated health in Sweden and Ukraine for men and women separately.Study designTwo cross-sectional nationally representative surveys of adult populations were used for the analysis. Data from the Ukraine’s World Health Survey and the Sweden’s National Public Health Survey were analyzed in this comparative study.MethodsThe independent variable, cognitive social capital, was operationalized as institutional trust and feelings of safety. Depressive symptoms and self-rated health were used as the outcome variables. Crude and adjusted odds ratios and the 95 % confidence intervals were calculated using logistic regression. The model also adjusted for socio-demographic and lifestyle variables.ResultsInstitutional trust is higher in Sweden compared to Ukraine (31 % of the Swedes vs. 12 % of the Ukrainians reported high trust to their national government/parliament). There is a strong association between self-rated health and institutional trust for both sexes in Sweden (odds ratio/OR = 1.99; 95 % CI = 1.58–2.50 for women and OR = 1.82, CI = 1.48–2.24 for men who reported low institutional trust compared with those with high institutional trust) but only for women (OR = 1.88, CI = 1.12–3.15) in Ukraine. Trust thus seems to be more important for self-rated health of women and men in Sweden compared to their counterparts in Ukraine. Significant associations between depressive symptoms and institutional trust were not observed in either country after adjusting for socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. A lack of feeling of safety increased the odds of having depressive symptoms among women (OR = 1.97, CI = 1.41–2.76) and men (OR = 3.91, CI = 2.19–6.97) in Sweden. The same association was observed for poor self-rated health among Swedish women (OR = 2.15, CI = 1.55–2.99) and men (OR = 2.75, CI = 1.58–4.80). In Ukraine, a lack of feeling of safety did not show any significant association with self-rated health or depressive symptoms for men, but it increased the odds of depressive symptoms among women (OR = 1.72, CI = 1.13–2.62).ConclusionsIn general, individual cognitive social capital is higher in Sweden than in Ukraine, and there is a stronger association between cognitive social capital and self-rated health in Sweden than in Ukraine. Interventions aiming to increase cognitive social capital for health promoting purposes might be favorable in Sweden, but this is not evidently the case in Ukraine.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13033-016-0068-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Background Social capital is a social determinant of health that has an impact on equity and well-being. It may be unequally distributed among any population. The aims of this study are to investigate the distribution of different forms of social capital between men and women in Ukraine and analyse how potential gender inequalities in social capital might be explained and understood in the Ukrainian context. Method The national representative cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey (wave 6) was used with a sample of 1377 women and 797 men. Seven outcomes that represent cognitive and structural social capital were constructed i.e. institutional trust, generalised trust, reciprocity, safety, as well as bonding, bridging and linking forms. Multivariate logistic regression and post-regression Fairlies decompositions were used for the analyses. Results There are several findings that resulted from the analyses i), access to institutional trust, linking and bridging social capital is very limited; ii), the odds for almost all forms of social capital (besides safety) are lower for men; iii), feeling about income and age explain most of the gender differences and act positively, as well as offsetting the differences. Conclusion Social capital is unequally distributed between different population groups. Some forms of social capital have a stronger buffering effect on women than on men in Ukraine. Reducing gender and income inequalities would probably influence the distribution of social capital within the society.
Having a job, or being employed, is associated with a number of positive effects. Although policies in Sweden support the right of people with disabilities to work and highlight access to employment as a priority, this group of people continues to lose out in employment against other citizens. However, little is known about actions or initiatives implemented to enhance labor market participation among people with disabilities. This study contributes useful findings on a promising implementation of a school-to-work transition initiative, workplace based learning (WBL), in special needs upper-secondary schools in Sweden. The aim of the study was to identify how teachers, having a key role in the implementation process, view and experience WBL and its actual functioning to enhance school-to-work transitions for students with intellectual disabilities. Drawing on 13 interviews with teachers working as supervisors and coordinators in the WBL training, our findings lead to three main conclusions. First, the teachers had significant reliance on WBL and its potential to prepare students for the labor market. Second, the teachers hesitated with regard to whether and to what extent WBL actually enhances school-to-work transitions. Third, the WBL reform has had significant negative effects on the working conditions of the supervising teachers involved. Our study uncovers a number of barriers for WBL to function as an actual bridge to work for students with intellectual disabilities, which we argue have important messages to bring for both policy and practice.
Background: The effects of war as well as military conflict include long-term physical and psychological harm to children and adults. Social relations and trust play a role in peace building and conflict resolution. Social capital is believed to facilitate institutional and interpersonal trust as well as safety and security, and thus may become an important resource in times of military conflict.Objective: The aims of this study are to analyse how social capital may be transformed due to a military conflict in contemporary Ukraine and to explore the role of voluntarily services in this change. Further we aim to discuss the possible influence of social capital transformation on mental health in times of military conflict.Methods: A qualitative case study design was chosen to explore it. In-depth interviews were chosen as a method for data collection. Informant's selection criteria were: either to be involved in volunteering activities in the city of Khmelnitsky (which is the place of research) or to receive volunteering help. 18 interviews were conducted.Informants were reached by snowball sampling. Interviews are collected, transcribed, translated and analyzed using constructive Grounded Theory approach of Charmaz. Results:Our results show that social capital transforms during military conflict experiences. The changes happen both in cognitive and structural components since they are connected. The most important changes occur in bonding social capital, where new formation such as brotherhood, emerges and replaces previous bonding ties with family and friends. In addition, voluntarily acting actors (those who normally belong to bridging social capital) transform into relations with bonding entities. New forms of social capital are thus generated through the existence of voluntarily services, and these networks provide essential social support in times of military conflict. Perceived support softens negative emotional responses to traumatic events. In line with the stress-buffering model, our results support that the formation of new social capital in times of military conflict may protect against the negative mental health effects of these experiences.
The positive health effects of volunteering are quite well described in the literature; however, potential negative effects of volunteering are less explored. Volunteering got attention in Ukraine because of the recent political crisis that brought military conflict to the Eastern part of the country in 2014. Informal volunteering has transformed into a formal one. In order to be able to organize volunteering that promotes well-being, it is important to have more in-depth knowledge about motives behind volunteering as well as the positive and potential negative effects of it. We explore the case voluntary work in of one of the cities in Ukraine. Military conflict context has its own specifics and different motives make people act voluntarily. There are goal-oriented, value-oriented, affectual and traditional motives present in our data. The data shows that involvement in volunteering brings positive returns on well-being of the providers such as enlarging the circles of friendship and expanding the networks volunteers involved in; brings positive emotions into life; compensates the efforts and gives meaning to life. However, the negative effects of volunteering are also present. They are physical tiredness and a lot of time spent on volunteering activities; becoming disconnected from the ordinary (non-volunteering) world; unsafety; neglect of own needs and experiences of negative emotions out of the involvement in volunteering activities.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.