Abstract.It is an assumed opinion that the family is the main unit of society. The society and the family are in reciprocal influence: the healthier the families are, the healthier the society and vice versa. Subjective wellbeing and satisfaction with life are important factors in family stability. Feeling of happiness and the image of a happy family in contemporary Czech and Latvian society are the focus of the research. In the research the data from an international survey on the lifestyle of contemporary families that have been collected during 2013-2014 in the Czech Republic and Latvia were used. A self-administered questionnaire data were collected in both countries as well. A mixed approach with emphasis on the quantitative approach to research was used in data analysis. The results showed a significant similarity, although the "feeling of happiness" differed and varied in each specific family. So it was possible to use the same categories of "a happy family" that had been found in both samples of data (Czech and Latvian) material, and they were: financial prosperity, good relationships and success in the family, cohesion within the family, doing things and spending leisure time together and a healthy family. The research results allow us to conclude that the family has a high value in people's minds despite the rapid changes in the family structure and de facto high rate of divorce in both countries.
Various studies show that the rating of the social workers profession is not very prestige in comparison with other professions. Often the leading motives why people choose to do social work are those guided by relative ideals, such as the desire to help people or to accomplish something socially significant not because of the prestige of profession. However, judgements about the occupational prestige in the wider community depend largely on the professional beliefs of social workers themselves and on how social workers themselves are positioning their profession. The focus of the authors of this article on the occupational prestige is analysed from the perspective of social workers in the sector. The study was carried out using a quantitative approach. In this study, the occupational prestige is considered in the context of symbolic capital. According to P. Bourdieu all forms of symbolic capital accumulates through relations of exchange The study results indicate that a significant part of the respondents feel the lack of authority and symbolic power. The symbolic capital in the form of professional capital is an essential factor of the authority and symbolic power of the social worker's profession, which, in turn, affects the occupational prestige in the society.
Employability of youth is a complex issue that involves social, economic, educational, health and other aspects, including preparedness of young people for working life. The issue of the mutual expectations of employers and young people as employees has not been widely studied in Latvia. This study highlights the main problem areas: mutual harmonization of expectations regarding the culture in the work environment; conditions in the work environment, technology, innovation, competences, financial resources, as well as young person's capacity and harmonization of personal goals with the employer's aims. In Latvia, at the end of 2014, there were 9351 young unemployed people between 15-24 years old. The problem of unemployment can be associated with a number of factors such as young people's poor health; inadequate accessibility of health care; lack of assistance in improvement of wellbeing; difficulties with housing; poverty; young people's lack of skills and competences and preparedness for working life, as well as other employability aspects, such as cooperation between a young person as an employee and the employer, as well as the disjunct between their mutual expectations. The objective of the study was to study the mutual expectations of the employer and a young person as an employee. The main findings of the study reveal the major problems in this field which relate to the non-fulfillment of mutual expectations in the working environment, work conditions, IT, innovations, competences, financial resources and personal capacity of the youth, as well as the coordination of young people's personal aims with employers' priorities and requirements.
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In this chapter, authors give a picture of families in individual countries, which participated in the survey, so from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Ukraine and Latvia. They pay attention mainly to the family changes after the year 1990. There is mainly demographic situation. Furthermore, there are features which present contemporary family such as an increase of democratization in family coexistence in connection with the shifts of roles and disintegration in a family life linked with overall individualism manifested by automation, where one creates his/her own way of life. The contemporary family is more likely affected in all countries by progressive social differentiation; in a different level of unemployment, certain isolation and changes are always seen in intergeneration relationships. The authors also pay attention to family social policy and housing situation when starting a family.
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