Measures that increase social equality are effective in improving life satisfaction in times of economic crisis

Clench‐Aas, Jocelyne; Holte, Arne

doi:10.1186/s12889-018-6076-3

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Europe has undergone significant changes that may affect citizens’ security. Since 2008, Europe has faced a financial crisis [ 8 ], and some of the major cities have been targeted by terrorists. Studies indicate that financial issues have become a new source of concern among adolescents [ 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescents’ difficulties, strengths and feelings of insecurity: a cross-sectional descriptive survey in Finland

Kokkonen,

Athanasopoulou,

Leino-Kilpi

et al. 2023

Discov Ment Health

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The present study aimed to describe adolescents’ self-reported emotional and behavioural strengths and difficulties, as well as their insecurity feeling. In addition, the aim was to examine the association with background characteristics, and explore the association between strengths and difficulties and insecurity factors. The study was conducted among 114 secondary school pupils in Finland, using an online questionnaire. Adolescents’ emotional and behavioural difficulties and strengths, were mostly classified as normal. Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire total score as well as internal and external score, were inversely associated with insecurity factors. Girls had significantly higher prosocial behavior compared to boys (P = 0.0007). The age of adolescents was found to be related to their internal difficulties (P = 0.02) and prosocial behavior (P = 0.01). Adolescent’s perception of their family relations as poor was associated with external difficulties (P = 0.04). The current results, can be helpful for mental health professionals who work with adolescents in order to implement appropriate and needs specific mental health promotion interventions at individual but also community level. Finally, more research is needed to validate measures for insecurity. This will support mental health professionals in their clinical practice by providing them with all the important factors needed to support adolescents.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adolescents’ difficulties, strengths and feelings of insecurity: a cross-sectional descriptive survey in Finland

Kokkonen,

Athanasopoulou,

Leino-Kilpi

et al. 2023

Discov Ment Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…To make matters worse, nonregular employees do not receive retirement allowances; those who work less than a certain number of hours must take out national health insurance and pension plans with (self-paid) premiums that are almost twice those of regular employment insurance [ 10 , 13 ]. Such systematic inferior treatment has created a socioeconomic subclass with significant health implications, where social exclusion compromises overall wellness and life satisfaction [ 14 , 15 ]. According to social epidemiologists, high socioeconomic status, as represented by occupation, educational background, and social class, is associated with longevity and persistent good health [ 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Associations between Workers’ Health and Working Conditions: Would the Physical and Mental Health of Nonregular Employees Improve If Their Income Was Adjusted?

et al. 2022

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Precarious employment can negatively affect health, but workers may be healthy if they earn enough income. This study uses equivalent disposable income and examines the interaction between income classes and employment types to clarify whether workers’ health improves as the income classes rise. In Japan, nonstandard workers, called nonregular employees, have remained high since 2013. Therefore, using data from the national cross-sectional Comprehensive Survey of Living Conditions 2013, an official survey performed in Japan, we targeted a sample of employees aged 18 to 45 who graduated during the economic recession. Our final sample included 8282 employees (4444 males and 3838 females). The health (general and mental) status indicators used the dichotomized self-rated health and scores of the K6 questionnaires scored in the national survey. The association between income and health was almost proportional. Female workers tended to improve their health as their income class increased; however, this tendency was not observed in male workers, especially nonregular employees. Although the associations were weakened by added income information on the regression models, nonregular employees always showed inferior health to regular employees. The health status of nonregular employees, especially female nonregular employees, is statistically significantly lower than that of regular employees, even when the economic class is similar. In conclusion, improving low incomes for nonregular employees could improve health challenges, but income alone may not result in the same health status for regular and nonregular employees.

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“…And finally, the quality of life and satisfaction factor would be improved, and people would have a better life [14,17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

We Are Oulu: Exploring Situated Empathy through a Communal Virtual Reality Experience

Kiarostami

Visuri

Hosio

2022

2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)

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Equality among all humans, regardless of ethnicity, language, or nationality, is an essential topic in every community and society. Immigrants' hardships as foreigners in another community are issues that not only contrast with humans' equality but also cause irreparable damage to foreigners and society. Nowadays, Virtual Reality (VR) as an alluring technology is a promising approach to communicating people's hardship experiences in a simulated situation to enhance others' empathy. It has even been called the ultimate empathy machine.In this thesis, we developed a VR experience to showcase collected hardship experiences that the international community of the University of Oulu has faced during their studies and lives in Oulu to mainly local participants to explore their situated empathy. To this end, we first collected hardship stories and data from 40 members of the international community through an online questionnaire. The results highlight that social problems, language barriers, issues with bureaucracy, and racism are key issues in the community. Then, we developed and performed a VR experiment with 18 participants to let them read the hardship stories through simulated conversations and interactions with avatars in a virtual university environment. We asked our participants to respond to pre-and post-experiment questionnaires and participate in a semi-structured interview after the experiment. Analyzing questionnaire results indicated that after the experiment the average participant's responses to their knowledge and tendency to discuss the hardships increased by 1.05 and 1.11 on a 5-point scale, respectively. Likewise, their average responses comparing the international community's quality of life with themselves decreased by 0.77 on the 7-point scale, showing that they rated the international community's quality of life worse than they initially thought. The qualitative evaluation of participants' reflections yielded positive feedback on the VR experience's authenticity, the stories' plausibility, their increased situated empathy and awareness regarding the hardships, and VR as a promising technology in communicating these topics.Ultimately, the thesis contributes to collecting and understanding the hardship experiences of the international community of the University of Oulu. It demonstrates a feasible approach to enhancing empathy and awareness, and the experiment increased the participants' understanding of the University of Oulu's international community's hardships. Further, the thesis continues to add evidence to how VR is a promising approach to fostering empathy.

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Measures that increase social equality are effective in improving life satisfaction in times of economic crisis

Cited by 9 publications

References 39 publications

Adolescents’ difficulties, strengths and feelings of insecurity: a cross-sectional descriptive survey in Finland

Adolescents’ difficulties, strengths and feelings of insecurity: a cross-sectional descriptive survey in Finland

Associations between Workers’ Health and Working Conditions: Would the Physical and Mental Health of Nonregular Employees Improve If Their Income Was Adjusted?

We Are Oulu: Exploring Situated Empathy through a Communal Virtual Reality Experience

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