Search results for: burnout tendencies

Authors: Ma Chu Jui

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Culture plays a pivotal role in shaping societal responses to change and fostering adaptability. In the realm of healthcare provision, hospitals serve as dynamic settings molded by the cultural consciousness of healthcare professionals. This intricate interplay extends to their expectations of leadership, communication styles, and attitudes towards patient care. Recognizing the cultural inclinations of healthcare professionals becomes imperative in navigating this complex landscape. This study will utilize Hofstede's Value Survey Module 2013 (VSM 2013) as a comprehensive analytical tool. The targeted participants for this research are in-service nursing professionals with a tenure of at least three months, specifically employed in the nursing department of an Eastern hospital. This quantitative approach seeks to quantify diverse cultural tendencies among the targeted nursing professionals, elucidating not only abstract cultural concepts but also revealing their cultural inclinations across different dimensions. The study anticipates gathering between 400 to 500 responses, ensuring a robust dataset for a comprehensive analysis. The focused approach on nursing professionals within the Eastern hospital setting enhances the relevance and specificity of the cultural insights obtained. The research aims to contribute valuable knowledge to the understanding of cultural tendencies among in-service nursing personnel in the nursing department of this specific Eastern hospital. The VSM 2013 will be initially distributed to this specific group to collect responses, aiming to calculate scores on each of Hofstede's six cultural dimensions—Power Distance Index (PDI), Individualism vs. Collectivism (IDV), Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI), Masculinity vs. Femininity (MAS), Long-Term Orientation vs. Short-Term Normative Orientation (LTO), and Indulgence vs. Restraint (IVR). the study unveils a significant correlation between different cultural dimensions and healthcare professionals' tendencies in understanding leadership expectations through PDI, grasping behavioral patterns via IDV, acknowledging risk acceptance through UAI, and understanding their long-term and short-term behaviors through LTO. These tendencies extend to communication styles and attitudes towards patient care. These findings provide valuable insights into the nuanced interconnections between cultural factors and healthcare practices. Through a detailed analysis of the varying levels of these cultural dimensions, we gain a comprehensive understanding of the predominant inclinations among the majority of healthcare professionals. This nuanced perspective adds depth to our comprehension of how cultural values shape their approach to leadership, communication, and patient care, contributing to a more holistic understanding of the healthcare landscape. A profound comprehension of the cultural paradigms embraced by healthcare professionals holds transformative potential. Beyond a mere understanding, it acts as a catalyst for elevating the caliber of healthcare services. This heightened awareness fosters cohesive collaboration among healthcare teams, paving the way for the establishment of a unified healthcare ethos. By cultivating shared values, our study envisions a healthcare environment characterized by enhanced quality, improved teamwork, and ultimately, a more favorable and patient-centric healthcare landscape. In essence, our research underscores the critical role of cultural awareness in shaping the future of healthcare delivery.

Keywords: hofstede's cultural, cultural dimensions, cultural values in healthcare, cultural awareness in nursing

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Authors: Jeongil Kim

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The present study examined the effects of arts-mediated mother-child dyads mindfulness-based intervention for Korean children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and their mothers, on behaviors in children and subjective psychological states in mothers. Four elementary school boys with ADHD and their mothers participated in the study. Using a multiple baseline design across four mother-child dyads, data were collected on the target behaviors (disruptive behavior, on-task behavior, and compliance in class) in children using a 10-second partial interval recording system and on the subjective psychological states in mothers using four questionnaires (on perceived stress, burnout, mindfulness, and satisfaction with life). The intervention consisted of a) mindfulness training, b) mindfulness practice, and c) mindful management of body and feeling. The arts activities, making a coiled clay pot and Korean traditional music performance, were utilized to facilitate the environment to help each participant to understand the content and progress of the intervention program. The results showed that all four dyads showed improvement in adaptive behaviors in the children (increase in on-task behavior; decrease in disruptive behavior) and positive change in subjective psychological states in the mothers (increase in scores of mindfulness and satisfaction with life; decrease in scores of perceived stress and burnout). The changes in the children’s behaviors and in the mothers’ subjective psychological states were maintained when the intervention was drawn and generalized in novel settings. The results suggest that arts-mediated mother-child dyads mindfulness-based intervention would be a mutual benefiting strategy to support both children with ADHD and their mothers who experience diverse challenges in behavioral and psychological aspects.

Keywords: mindfulness, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), arts-mediated, behavior, psychological well-being, child-mother

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Authors: Aline Woine, Moïra Mikolajczak, Virginie Dardier, Isabelle Roskam

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Background information: Becoming a parent is said to be the happiest event one can ever experience in one’s life. This popular (and almost absolute) truth–which no reasonable and decent human being would ever dare question on pain of being singled out as a bad parent–contrasts with the nuances that reality offers. Indeed, while many parents do thrive in their parenting role, some others falter and become progressively overwhelmed by their parenting role, ineluctably caught in a spiral of exhaustion. Parental burnout (henceforth PB) sets in when parental demands (stressors) exceed parental resources. While it is now generally acknowledged that PB affects the parent’s behavior in terms of neglect and violence toward their offspring, little is known about the impact that the syndrome might have on the children’s internalized (anxious and depressive symptoms, somatic complaints, etc.) and/or externalized (irritability, violence, aggressiveness, conduct disorder, oppositional disorder, etc.) behaviors. Furthermore, at the time of writing, to our best knowledge, no research has yet tested the reverse effect, namely, that of the child's internalized and/or externalized behaviors on the onset and/or maintenance of parental burnout symptoms. Goals and hypotheses: The present pioneering research proposes to fill an important gap in the existing literature related to PB by investigating the bidirectional effect between PB and the child’s internalized and/or externalized behaviors. Relying on a cross-lagged longitudinal study with three waves of data collection (4 months apart), our study tests a transactional model with bidirectional and recursive relations between observed variables and at the three waves, as well as autoregressive paths and cross-sectional correlations. Methods: As we write this, wave-two data are being collected via Qualtrics, and we expect a final sample of about 600 participants composed of French-speaking (snowball sample) and English-speaking (Prolific sample) parents. Structural equation modeling is employed using Stata version 17. In order to retain as much statistical power as possible, we use all available data and therefore apply the maximum likelihood with a missing value (mlmv) as the method of estimation to compute the parameter estimates. To limit (in so far is possible) the shared method variance bias in the evaluation of the child’s behavior, the study relies on a multi-informant evaluation approach. Expected results: We expect our three-wave longitudinal study to show that PB symptoms (measured at T1) raise the occurrence/intensity of the child’s externalized and/or internalized behaviors (measured at T2 and T3). We further expect the child’s occurrence/intensity of externalized and/or internalized behaviors (measured at T1) to augment the risk for PB (measured at T2 and T3). Conclusion: Should our hypotheses be confirmed, our results will make an important contribution to the understanding of both PB and children’s behavioral issues, thereby opening interesting theoretical and clinical avenues.

Keywords: exhaustion, structural equation modeling, cross-lagged longitudinal study, violence and neglect, child-parent relationship

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Authors: James Boag

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The needs of people with a diagnosis of dementia and their carers and families are physical, psychosocial, and psychological and begin at the time of diagnosis. There is frequently a lack of emotional support and counselling. Care- giving support is required from the presentation of the first symptoms of dementia until death. Alzheimer's disease begins decades before the clinical symptoms begin to appear, and in many cases, it remains undiagnosed, or diagnosed too late for any possible interventions to have any effect. However, if an incorrect diagnosis is given, it may result in a person being treated, without effect, for a type of dementia they do not have and delaying the interventions they should have received. Being diagnosed with dementia can cause emotional distress to the person, and physical and emotional support is needed, which will become more important as the disease progresses. The severity of the patient's dementia and their symptoms has a bearing of the impact on the carer and the support needed. A lack of insight and /or a denial of the diagnosis, grief, reacting to anticipated future losses, and coping methods to maximise the disease outcome, are things that should be addressed. Because of the stigma, it is important for carers not to lose contact with family and others because social isolation leads to depression and burnout. The impact on a carer's well- being and quality of life can be influenced by the severity of the illness, its type of dementia, its symptoms, healthcare support, financial and social status, career, age, health, residential setting, and relationship to the patient. Carer burnout due to lack of support leads to people diagnosed with dementia being put into residential care prematurely. Often dementia is not recognised as a terminal illness, limiting the ability of the person diagnosed with dementia and their carers to work on advance care planning and getting access to palliative and other support. Many carers have been satisfied with the physical support they were given in their everyday life, however, it was agreed that there was an immense unmet need for psychosocial support, especially after diagnosis and approaching end of life. Providing continuity and coordination of care is important. Training is necessary for providers to understand that every case is different, and they should understand the complexities. Grief, the emotional response to loss, is suffered during the progression of the disease and long afterwards, and carers should continue to be supported after the death of the person they were caring for.

Keywords: dementia, caring, challenges, needs

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Authors: Nino Paresashvili, Nino Abesadze

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The modern world faces huge challenges. Globalization changed the socio-economic conditions of many countries. The current processes in the global environment have a different impact on countries with different cultures. However, an alleviation of poverty and improvement of living conditions is still the basic challenge for the majority of countries, because much of the population still lives under the official threshold of poverty. It is very important to stimulate youth employment. In order to prepare young people for the labour market, it is essential to provide them with the appropriate professional skills and knowledge. It is necessary to plan efficient activities for decreasing an unemployment rate and for developing the perfect mechanisms for regulation of a labour market. Such planning requires thorough study and analysis of existing reality, as well as development of corresponding mechanisms. Statistical analysis of unemployment is one of the main platforms for regulation of the labour market key mechanisms. The corresponding statistical methods should be used in the study process. Such methods are observation, gathering, grouping, and calculation of the generalized indicators. Unemployment is one of the most severe socioeconomic problems in Georgia. According to the past as well as the current statistics, unemployment rates always have been the most problematic issue to resolve for policy makers. Analytical works towards to the above-mentioned problem will be the basis for the next sustainable steps to solve the main problem. The results of the study showed that the choice of young people is not often due to their inclinations, their interests and the labour market demand. That is why the wrong professional orientation of young people in most cases leads to their unemployment. At the same time, it was shown that there are a number of professions in the labour market with a high demand because of the deficit the appropriate specialties. To achieve healthy competitiveness in youth employment, it is necessary to formulate regional employment programs with taking into account the regional infrastructure specifications.

Keywords: unemployment, analysis, methods, tendencies, regulation mechanisms

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Authors: Ágnes Győri, Éva Perpék, Zsófia Bauer, Zsuzsanna Elek

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The aim of the research (funded by Hungarian national grant, NFKI- FK 138315) is to examine the professional mobility, mental health and work environment of social workers with a complex approach. Previous international and Hungarian research has pointed out that those working in the helping professions are strongly exposed to the risk of emotional-mental-physical exhaustion due to stress. Mental and physical strain, as well as lack of coping (can) cause health problems, but its role in career change and high labor turnover has also been proven. Even though satisfaction with working conditions of those employed in the human service sector in the context of the stress burden has been researched extensively, there is a lack of large-sample international and Hungarian domestic studies exploring the effects of profession-specific conditions. Nor has it been examined how the specific features of the social profession and mental health affect the career mobility of the professionals concerned. In our research, these factors and their correlations are analyzed by means of mixed methodology, utilizing the benefits of netnographic big data analysis and a sector-specific quantitative survey. The netnographic analysis of open web content generated inside and outside the social profession offers a holistic overview of the influencing factors related to mental health and the work environment of social workers. On the one hand, the topics and topoi emerging in the external discourse concerning the sector are examined, and on the other hand, focus on mentions and streams of comments regarding the profession, burnout, stress, coping, as well as labor turnover and career changes among social professionals. The analysis focuses on new trends and changes in discourse that have emerged during and after the pandemic. In addition to the online conversation analysis, a survey of social professionals with a specific focus has been conducted. The questionnaire is based on input from the first two research phases. The applied approach underlines that the mobility paths of social professionals can only be understood if, apart from the general working conditions, the specific features of social work and the effects of certain aspects of mental health (emotional-mental-physical strain, resilience) are taken into account as well. In this paper, the preliminary results from this innovative methodological mix are presented, with the aim of highlighting new opportunities and dimensions in the research on social work. A gap in existing research is aimed to be filled both on a methodological and empirical level, and the Hungarian domestic findings can create a feasible and relevant framework for a further international investigation and cross-cultural comparative analysis. Said results can contribute to the foundation of organizational and policy-level interventions, targeted programs whereby the risk of burnout and the rate of career abandonment can be reduced. Exploring different aspects of resilience and mapping personality strengths can be a starting point for stress-management, motivation-building, and personality-development training for social professionals.

Keywords: burnout, mixed methods, netnography, professional mobility, social work

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Authors: Salam M. H. Kareem

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Instructional or teaching procedures and their proper sequence are essential for high-quality learning outcomes. These actions are the path that the teacher takes during the learning process after setting the learning objectives. Teachers and specialists in the education field should include teaching procedures with putting in place an effective mechanism for the procedure’s implementation to achieve a logical sequence with the desired output of overall education process. Determining the sequence of these actions may be a strategic process outlined by a strategic educational plan or drawn by teachers with a high level of experience, enabling them to determine those logical procedures. While specific actions may be necessary for a specific form, many Physical Education (PE) teachers can work out on various sports disciplines. This study was conducted to investigate the impact of using the teaching sequence of the teaching pyramid in raising the level of enjoyment in swimming classes. Four months later of teaching swimming skills to the control and experimental groups of the study, we figured that using the tools shown in the teaching pyramid with the experimental group led to statistically significant differences in the positive tendencies of students to participate in the swimming classes by using the traditional procedures of teaching and using of successive procedures in the teaching pyramid, and in favor of the teaching pyramid, The students are influenced by enhancing their tendency to participate in swimming classes when the teaching procedures followed are sensitive to individual differences and are based on the element of pleasure in learning, and less positive levels of the tendency of students when using traditional teaching procedures, by getting the level of skills' requirements higher and more difficult to perform. The level of positive tendencies of students when using successive procedures in the teaching pyramid was increased, by getting the level of skills' requirements higher and more difficult to perform, because of the high level of motivation and the desire to challenge the self-provided by the teaching pyramid.

Keywords: physical education, swimming classes, teaching process, teaching pyramid

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Authors: Frank Fan

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PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacy) education has confronted an increasing challenge — curricular overload, a phenomenon resulting from the expansion of curricular requirements, as PharmD education strives to produce graduates who are practice-ready. The aftermath of the global pandemic has amplified the need for healthcare professionals, leading to a growing trend of assigning more responsibilities to them to address the global healthcare shortage. For instance, the pharmacist’s role has expanded to include not only compounding and distributing medication but also providing clinical services, including minor ailments management, patient counselling and vaccination. Consequently, PharmD programs have responded by continually expanding their curricula adding more requirements. While these changes aim to enhance the education and training of future professionals, they have also led to unintended consequences, including curricular overload, student burnout, and a potential decrease in program quality. To address the issue and ensure program quality, there is a growing need for evidence-based curriculum reforms. My research seeks to integrate Cognitive Load Theory, emerging machine learning algorithms within artificial intelligence (AI), and statistical approaches to develop a quantitative framework for optimizing curriculum design within the PharmD program at the University of Toronto, the largest PharmD program within Canada, to provide quantification and measurement of issues that currently are only discussed in terms of anecdote rather than data. This research will serve as a guide for curriculum planners, administrators, and educators, aiding in the comprehension of how the pharmacy degree program compares to others within and beyond the field of pharmacy. It will also shed light on opportunities to reduce the curricular load while maintaining its quality and rigor. Given that pharmacists constitute the third-largest healthcare workforce, their education shares similarities and challenges with other health education programs. Therefore, my evidence-based, data-driven curriculum analysis framework holds significant potential for training programs in other healthcare professions, including medicine, nursing, and physiotherapy.

Keywords: curriculum, curriculum analysis, health professions education, reflective writing, machine learning

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Authors: Morgan Dombroski, Alexis Hartman

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Purpose: The present study aimed to explore factors related to overtraining within a female collegiate sample by analyzing the aftereffects of overtraining on athletes' physical and emotional well-being. Methods: 51 female collegiate athletes participated in a de-identified survey to assess factors related to overtraining. All survey questions were derived from the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire. Descriptive and bivariate correlations were conducted to test for significant factors related to the athletes' physical and emotional well-being relating to sports engagement. Results: Descriptive statistics indicated: 80.4% of athletes reported feeling tired from sport-related work, 72.5% reported parts of their body were aching, 47.1% reported feeling emotionally drained, and 37.3% reported feeling burnt out by sport. These findings were consistent with bivariate correlations, which yielded statistically significant findings between physical fatigue and emotional distress. Discussion: In a general sense, athletes increase their training to maximize their performance. The current study aimed to analyze how this training process can result in overtraining of female collegiate athletes, which in turn may negatively impact their physical and emotional functioning. Overtraining syndrome can occur as a maladaptive response to excessive exercise and inappropriate rest caused by systemic inflammation, which negatively affects the central nervous system. The physical manifestations of overtraining can then lead to depressed mood, fatigue, and neurohormonal changes in athletes. To remain competitive and high performing in sports, athletes partaking in excessive training can result in overtraining syndrome, athlete burnout, and compulsive exercise. Additionally, overtrained athletes were defined by displaying high levels of perfectionism, maladaptive coping, and training distress. The current study supported these findings, which yielded a strong correlation between physical and emotional functioning in the context of overtraining in sports. All in all, the environment revolving around sports and the intensity of training can be extremely stressful for athletes. There is a need to monitor athletes’ subjective responses to training, which will allow for early identification of at-risk athletes giving clinicians various opportunities to reduce the negative consequences of overtraining. By better understanding symptoms of emotional and physical fatigue, collegiate sports can become more aware of overtraining symptoms to prevent further detriment to female athletes' overall well-being.

Keywords: burnout, emotionally drained, overtraining, performance, well-being

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Authors: Christine Mappala

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Social Networking Sites has an undeniable contribution but also a downgrading effect in our society when used inappropriately. It has effects on an individual’s physical, academic, social, emotional, and behavioral aspects in life, a reason to take account to the possible risks it can have with the future generations, specifically the Generation Z. Determining if SNS Usage has an effect on an individual’s Narcissistic Tendencies, how common narcissism is among these individuals and to provide additional information about the Generation Z in the Philippines is the purpose of this study. A total of 342 participants were gathered. Results indicated that there is a low significance of SNS as a predictor to Narcissism. Also, results showed that there is a low level of narcissism among Generation Z.

Keywords: narcissism, social networking sites, Generation Z, normal narcissism

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Authors: Andrea Knezevic, Padmini Pai, Julaine Allan, Katarzyna Olcoń, Louisa Smith

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Healthcare staff are on the frontline during times of disaster and are required to support the health and wellbeing of communities despite any personal adversity and trauma they are experiencing as a result of the disaster. This study explored the experiences of healthcare staff trained as ‘Wellness Warriors’ following the 2019-2020 Australian bushfires. The findings indicated that healthcare staff developed interpersonal skills around deep listening and connecting with others which allowed them to feel differently about work and restored their faith in healthcare leadership.

Keywords: Australian bushfires, burnout, health care providers, mental health, occupational trauma, post-disaster, wellbeing, workplace wellness

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Authors: Esna B. Buğday, Niray Tunçel

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Spirituality has a motivational influence on consumers' psychological states, lifestyles, and behavioral intentions. Spirituality refers to the feeling that there is a divine power greater than ourselves and a connection among oneself, others, nature, and the sacred. In addition, spirituality concerns the human soul and spirit against the material and physical world and consists of three dimensions: self-discovery, relationships, and belief in a higher power. Of them, self-discovery is to explore the meaning and the purpose of life. Relationships refer to the awareness of the connection between human beings and nature as well as respect for them. In addition, higher power represents the transcendent aspect of spirituality, which means to believe in a holy power that creates all the systems in the universe. Furthermore, a voluntary simplicity lifestyle is (1) to adopt a simple lifestyle by minimizing the attachment to and the consumption of material things and possessions, (2) to have an ecological awareness respecting all living creatures, and (3) to express the desire for exploring and developing the inner life. Voluntary simplicity is a multi-dimensional construct that consists of a desire for a voluntarily simple life (e.g., avoiding excessive consumption), cautious attitudes in shopping (e.g., not buying unnecessary products), acceptance of self-sufficiency (e.g., being self-sufficient individual), and rejection of highly developed functions of products (e.g., preference for simple functioned products). One of the main reasons for living simply is to sustain a spiritual life, as voluntary simplicity provides the space for achieving psychological and spiritual growth, cultivating self-reliance since voluntary simplifier frees themselves from the overwhelming externals and takes control of their daily lives. From this point of view, it is expected that people with a strong sense of spirituality will be likely to adopt a simple lifestyle. In this respect, the study aims to examine the impact of spirituality on consumers' voluntary simple lifestyle tendencies. As consumers' consumption attitudes and behaviors depend on their lifestyles, exploring the factors that lead them to embrace voluntary simplicity significantly predicts their purchase behavior. In this respect, this study presents empirical research based on a data set collected from 478 Turkish consumers through an online survey. First, exploratory factor analysis is applied to the data to reveal the dimensions of spirituality and voluntary simplicity scales. Second, confirmatory factor analysis is conducted to assess the measurement model. Last, the hypotheses are analyzed using partial least square structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The results confirm that spirituality's self-discovery and relationships dimensions positively impact both cautious attitudes in shopping and acceptance of self-sufficiency dimensions of voluntary simplicity. In contrast, belief in a higher power does not significantly influence consumers' voluntary simplicity tendencies. Even though there has been theoretical support drawing a positive relationship between spirituality and voluntary simplicity, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this has not been empirically tested in the literature before. Hence, this study contributes to the current knowledge by analyzing the direct influence of spirituality on consumers' voluntary simplicity tendencies. Additionally, analyzing this impact on the consumers of an emerging market is another contribution to the literature.

Keywords: spirituality, voluntary simplicity, self-sufficiency, conscious shopping, Turkish consumers

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Authors: Victor Counted

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Staying true to self is complicated. In most cases, we might not fully come to terms with this realities. Just like any journey, a self-discovery experience with the ‘self’, is like a rollercoaster ride. The researcher attempts to engage the reader in an empirical study on authenticity tendencies of African Christian Millennials. Hence, attempting the all-important question: What does it actually mean to be true to self for the African youth? A comprehensive, yet an unfinished business that applies the authenticity theory in its exploratory navigations to uncover the “lived world” of the participants who were part of this study. Using a mixed methods approach, the researcher will exhaustively give account to the authenticity tendencies and experiences of the respondents in the study by providing the reader with a unique narrative for understanding what it means to be true to oneself in Africa. At the quantitative study, the participants recorded higher scores on the Authenticity Scale (AS) authentic living, while showing a significant correlation within the subscales. Hypotheses were tested at the quantitative phase, which statistically supported gender and church affiliation as possible predictors for the authenticity orientations of the participants, while being a Christian native and race/ethnicity were not impact factors statistically. The results helped the researcher to develop the objectives behind the qualitative study, where only fifteen AS-authentic living participants were interviewed to understand why they scored high on authentic living, in order to understand what it means to be authentic. The hallmark of the qualitative case study exploration was the common coping mechanism of splitting adopted by the respondents to deal with their self-crisis as they tried to remain authentic to self, whilst self-regulating and self-investing the self to discover ‘self’. Specifically, the researcher observed the concurrent utilization of some kind of the religious-self by the respondents to regulate their self crisis, as they relate with self fragmenting through different splitting stages in hope for some kind of redemption. It was an explanation that led to the conclusion that being authentic is the new pieces. Authenticity is in fragments. This proposition led the researcher to introduce a hermeneutical support-system that will enable future researchers engage more critically and responsibly with their “living human documents” in order to inspire timely solutions that resolve the concerns of authenticity and wellbeing among Millennials in Africa.

Keywords: authenticity, self, identity, self-fragmentation, weak self integration, postmodern self, splitting

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Authors: Goodness Thandi Ntuli

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Some cultural aspects in the African context have a tendency of uplifting women while some thrust them into the worst denigration scenarios; hence African Women Theologians refer to culture as a ‘double edged sword. Through socialization and internalization of social norms, some women become custodians of life, denying aspects of the culture that are against them and hand them down to the next generation. This indirectly contributes to the perpetuation of patriarchal tendencies wherein women themselves uphold and endorse such tendencies to their own detriment. One of the findings of the empirical research study conducted among the Zulu young women in the South African context was that, on the one hand, lobola (the bride-price) is one of the cultural practices that contribute a great deal in the vilification of women. On the other hand, a woman whose lobola has been paid is highly esteemed in the cultural context not only by society at large but also by the implicated woman who takes pride in it. Consequently, lobola becomes an ambiguous cultural practice. Thus from the postcolonial feminist perspective, this paper examines and critiques lobola practice while also disclosing and exposing its deep seated cultural reinforcement that is life denying to women. The paper elucidates the original lobola as a cultural practice before colonization and how it became commercialized during colonial times. With commercialization in the modern world, lobola has completely lost its preliminary meaning and ceased to be a life-giving cultural practice, particularly for women. It turned out to be the worst cultural practice that demeans women to the extent that it becomes suicidal to women dignity because, in marriage, they become objects or property to the men who purchased them. Women objectification in marriage does not only leave them culturally trapped in what was perceived to be a good practice, but it also leads to women abuse and gender based or domestic violence. The research has indicated that this kind of violence is escalating and has become so pervasive in the South African context that the country is rated as one of the capital cities of violence against women in the world. Therefore, this paper demonstrates how cultural practices at times indirectly contribute to this national scourge that needs to be condemned, disparaged and rejected. Women in the African context where such cultural activities are still viewed as a norm are in desperate need for true liberation from such ambiguous cultural practices that leave them in the margins in spite of the earned social status they might have achieved.

Keywords: african, ambiguity, critique, culture, feminist, lobola, postcolonial, society

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Authors: Abdelmagid Basyouny Sakr

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Terminological variation is a reality and it is now recognized by terminologists. This paper investigates the terminological variation in the context of specialized economic texts in Italian. It aims to find whether certain patterns or tendencies can be derived from the analysis of these texts. Term variants pose two different kinds of difficulties. The first one is being able to recognize linguistic expressions that denote the same concept in running text. Another one lies in knowing which variant should be considered and for what purpose. This would help to differentiate between variants that could be candidates for inclusion in terminological resources and the ones which are synonyms or contextual variants. New insights about terminological variation in specialized texts could contribute to improve specialized dictionaries which will better account for the different ways in which a given thought is expressed.

Keywords: corpus linguistics, specialized communication, terms and concepts, terminological variation

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Authors: Mary Chidiebere Asoya

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The dominance of two parties in multiparty democracies is a phenomenon that has come to be taken for granted. It has led to deepening corruption and redundant governance in many countries as politicians in the two dominating parties are aware of and exploit the fact that power must rotate between the two parties. As a result, politicians in two dominating parties can hobnob and frequently inter-marry between the two parties in a way that appears to suggest they are running a single dominating party. This paper explores what could end this hegemony by projecting a third party into the limelight. The argument is that long-standing frustration with corruption and increasing revolutionary tendencies could move voters away from the two dominating parties, ending the dominance of the parties. The case study is the February 25, 2023, Presidential elections in Nigeria.

Keywords: democracy, political party, election, nigeria, political science

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Authors: Rickard Grassman, Carl Cederström

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In this paper, Lacanian theory will be used to illustrate the way discourses interact with the material by way of reifying antagonisms to shape our sense of identities in and around organizations. The ability to ‘sustain the loss’ is, in this view, the common structure here discerned in the very texture of a discourse, which reifies ‘lack’ as an ontological condition into something contingently absent (loss) that the subject hopes to overcome (desire). These fundamental human tendencies of identification are illustrated in the paper by examples drawn from history, cinema, and literature. Turning to a select sample of empirical accounts from a management consultancy firm, it is argued that this ‘sustaining the loss’ operates in discourse to enact identification in an organizational context.

Keywords: Lacan, identification, discourse, desire, loss

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Authors: Radhika Jain

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The nursing community in India face unique challenges ranging from lack of adequate career progression, low social status attached to the profession, poor nurse-to-patient ratio leading to heavy workload resulting in stress and burnout, lack of general recognition and the responsibility of often having to deal with the ire of the patients and their families. This study explores how a combination of Playback Theatre and Expressive Arts could be used as a very powerful tool to understand the concerns, and consequently as a self-care tool to bring about the sense of well-being and emotional awareness for the nurses. For the purpose of this study, Playback Theatre was used as an entry tool to understand the thoughts, feelings and concerns. Playback theatre is a unique improvisational form of theatre developed by Jonathan Fox and Jo Salas in 1975, in which audience share their own stories from their lives and the performers play them back through a range of improv techniques such as metaphor, poetry, music and movement. Playback Theatre helped in first warming them up to the idea of sharing and then gave them the confidence of a safe space to collectively go deeper into their emotional experiences. As the next step, structured sessions of Expressive Arts were conducted with the same set of nurses, for them to work on the issues and concerns they have (and which they shared during the Playback performance). These sessions were to enable longer engagements as many of the concerns expressed were related to perceptions and beliefs that have been ingrained over a period of time and hence it needs a longer engagement to be worked on in detail. The Expressive Art sessions helped in this regard. Expressive arts therapy combines psychology and the creative process to promote emotional growth and healing. The study was conducted at two places: one a geriatric centre and the other, a palliative care centre. The study revealed that concerns and challenges would not be identical across the nursing community or across similar types of health care organizations but would be specific to each organization or centre as the circumstances and set-up at each place would be different. At the geriatric centre, stress and burnout emerged as the main concerns while at the palliative care centre, the main concern that came up was around the difficulty the nurses faced in expressing emotions and in communicating their feelings. The objective analysis of the results of the study indicated how longer-term engagements using Expressive Arts as the modality helped the nurses have better awareness of their emotions and helped them develop tools of self-care tools while also tapping into their emotions to express and experience. The process of eliciting the main concerns from the nurses using a Playback Theatre performance and then following that with subsequent sessions of expressive arts helped the nurses in the way nurses approached their job and the reduced level of overwhelm that they felt.

Keywords: palliative care, nurses, self-care, expressive arts, playback theatre

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Authors: Lamia Emam

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The attractiveness of entrepreneurship education stems from its perceived value as a venue through which students can develop an entrepreneurial mindset, skill set, and practice, which may not necessarily lead to them starting a new business, but could, more importantly, be manifested as a life skill that could be applied to all types of organizations and career endeavors. This, in turn, raises important questions about what happens in our classrooms; our role as educators, the role of students, center of learning, and the instructional approach; all of which eventually contribute to achieving the desired EE outcomes. With application to an undergraduate entrepreneurship course -Entrepreneurship as Practice- the current paper aims to explore the effect of entrepreneurship education on the development of students’ general entrepreneurial tendencies. Towards that purpose, the researcher herein uses a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental research design where the Durham University General Enterprising Tendency Test (GET2) is administered to the same group of students before and after course delivery. As designed and delivered, the Entrepreneurship as Practice module is a highly applied and experiential course where students are required to develop an idea for a start-up while practicing the entrepreneurship-related knowledge, mindset, and skills that are taught in class, both individually and in groups. The course is delivered using a combination of short lectures, readings, group discussions, case analysis, guest speakers, and, more importantly, actively engaging in a series of activities that are inspired by diverse methods for developing successful and innovative business ideas, including design thinking, lean-start up and business feasibility analysis. The instructional approach of the course particularly aims at developing the students' critical thinking, reflective, analytical, and creativity-based problem-solving skills that are needed to launch one’s own start-up. The analysis and interpretation of the experiment’s outcomes shall simultaneously incorporate the views of both the educator and students. As presented, the study responds to the rising call for the application of experimental designs in entrepreneurship in general and EE in particular. While doing so, the paper presents an educator’s perspective of EE to complement the dominant stream of research which is constrained to the students’ point of view. Finally, the study sheds light on EE in the MENA region, where the study is applied.

Keywords: entrepreneurship education, andragogy and heutagogy, scholarship of teaching and learning, experiment

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Authors: Julaine Allan, Katarzyna Olcon, Padmini Pai, Lynne Keevers, Mim Fox, Maria Mackay, Ruth Everingham

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Effective local responses to community needs are grounded in contextual knowledge and build on existing resources. The Stability, Encompassing, Endurance & Direction (SEED) Wellbeing Program was created in 2020 in response to cumulative disasters, bushfires, floods and COVID, experienced by healthcare staff in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, NSW Australia. SEED used a participatory action methodology to bring healthcare staff teams together to engage in restorative activities in the workplace. Guided by Practice Theory, this study identified the practices that supported the recovery of healthcare staff.

Keywords: mental health and wellbeing, workplace wellness, healthcare providers, natural disasters, COVID-19, burnout, occupational trauma

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Authors: Julaine Allan, Katarzyna Olcon, Padmini Pai, Lynne Keevers, Mim Fox, Maria Mackay, Ruth Everingham, Sue Cutmore, Chris Degeling, Kristine Falzon, Summer Finlay

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Effective local responses to community needs are grounded in contextual knowledge and built on existing resources. The SEED Wellbeing Program was created in 2020 in response to cumulative disasters, bushfires, floods and COVID experienced by healthcare staff in the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District, NSW, Australia. SEED used a participatory action methodology to bring healthcare staff teams together to engage in restorative activities in the workplace. Guided by Practice Theory, this study identified the practices that supported the recovery of healthcare staff.

Keywords: mental health and wellbeing, workplace wellness, healthcare providers, natural disasters, COVID-19, burnout, occupational trauma

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Authors: Alua Temirbolat, Sergei Kibalnik, Zhuldyz Essimova

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The article is devoted to research of influence of the modern literature on the consciousness of the person. Tendencies and features of the progress of the historical-cultural and artistic process at the end of XX–the beginning of XXI centuries are considered. The object of the analysis is the popular literature which has found last decades greater popularity among readers of different generations. In the article, such genres, as melodramas, female, espionage, criminal, pink, costume-historical novels, thrillers, elements, a fantasy are considered. During research, specific features of the popular literature, its difference from works of classics is revealed. On specific examples, its negative and positive influence on consciousness, psychology of the reader is shown, its role and value in a modern society are defined.

Keywords: the popular literature, the person, consciousness, a genre, psychology

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Authors: Miriam Schiff, Hadas Rosenne, Ran Nir-Paz, Shiri Shinan Altman

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To examine (1) the level, predictors, and subjective perception of professional quality of life (PRoQL), posttraumatic growth, roles, task changes during the pandemic, and perceived preparedness for the next pandemic. These variables were added as part of an international study on social workers in healthcare stress, resilience, and perceived preparedness we took part in, along with Australia, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. (2) The extent to which background variables, rate of exposure to the virus, working in COVID wards, profession, personal resilience, and resistance to organizational change predict posttraumatic growth, perceived preparedness, and PRoQL (the latter was examined among social workers only). (3) The teams' perceptions of how the pandemic impacted them at the personal, professional, and organizational levels and what assisted them. Methodologies: Mixed quantitative and qualitative methods were used. 1039 hospital healthcare workers from various professions participated in the quantitative study while 32 participated in in-depth interviews. The same methods were used in six other countries. Findings: The level of PRoQL was moderate, with higher burnout and secondary traumatization level than during routine times. Differences between countries in the level of PRoQL were found as well. Perceived preparedness for the next pandemic at the personal level was moderate and similar among the different health professions. Higher exposure to the virus was associated with lower perceived preparedness of the hospitals. Compared to other professions, doctors and nurses perceived hospitals as significantly less prepared for the next pandemic. The preparedness of the State of Israel for the next pandemic is perceived as low by all healthcare professionals. A moderate level of posttraumatic growth was found. Staff who worked at the COVID ward reported a greater level of growth. Doctors reported the lowest level of growth. The staff's resilience was high, with no differences among professions or levels of exposure. Working in the COVID ward and resilience predicted better preparedness, while resistance to organizational change predicted worse preparedness. Findings from the qualitative part of the study revealed that healthcare workers reported challenges at the personal, professional and organizational level during the different waves of the pandemic. They also report on internal and external resources they either owned or obtained during that period. Conclusion: Exposure to the COVID-19 virus is associated with secondary traumatization on one hand and personal posttraumatic growth on the other hand. Personal and professional discoveries and a sense of mission helped cope with the pandemic that was perceived as a historical event, war, or mass casualty event. Personal resilience, along with the support of colleagues, family, and direct management, were seen as significant components of coping. Hospitals should plan ahead and improve their preparedness to the next pandemic.

Keywords: covid-19, health-care, social workers, burnout, preparedness, international perspective

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Authors: Oscar E. Cariceo

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In Chile, there is a lack of evidence about the impact of polyvictimization on the emergence of suicidal thoughts among children and young people. Thus, this study aims to explore the association between the episodes of polyvictimization suffered by Chilean children and young people and the manifestation of signs related to suicidal tendencies. To achieve this purpose, secondary data from the First Polyvictimization Survey on Children and Adolescents of 2017 were analyzed, and a binomial logistic regression model was applied to establish the probability that young people are experiencing suicidal ideation episodes. The main findings show that women between the ages of 13 and 15 years, who are in seventh grade and second in subsidized schools, are more likely to express suicidal ideas, which increases if they have suffered different types of victimization, particularly physical violence, psychological aggression, and sexual abuse.

Keywords: Chile, polyvictimization, suicidal ideation, youth

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Authors: Anderson Braga Mendes

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Itaipu Hydroelectric Power Plant is settled on the Paraná River, which is a natural boundary between Brazil and Paraguay; thus, the facility is shared by both countries. Itaipu Power Plant is the biggest hydroelectric generator in the world, and provides clean and renewable electrical energy supply for 17% and 76% of Brazil and Paraguay, respectively. The plant started its generation in 1984. It counts on 20 Francis turbines and has installed capacity of 14,000 MWh. Its historic generation record occurred in 2016 (103,098,366 MWh), and since the beginning of its operation until the last day of 2016 the plant has achieved the sum of 2,415,789,823 MWh. The distinct sedimentologic aspects of the drainage area of Itaipu Power Plant, from its stretch upstream (Porto Primavera and Rosana dams) to downstream (Itaipu dam itself), were taken into account in order to best estimate the increase/decrease in the sediment yield by using data from 2001 to 2016. Such data are collected through a network of 14 automatic sedimentometric stations managed by the company itself and operating in an hourly basis, covering an area of around 136,000 km² (92% of the incremental drainage area of the undertaking). Since 1972, a series of lifespan studies for the Itaipu Power Plant have been made, being first assessed by Sir Hans Albert Einstein, at the time of the feasibility studies for the enterprise. From that date onwards, eight further studies were made through the last 44 years aiming to confer more precision upon the estimates based on more updated data sets. From the analysis of each monitoring station, it was clearly noticed strong increase tendencies in the sediment yield through the last 14 years, mainly in the Iguatemi, Ivaí, São Francisco Falso and Carapá Rivers, the latter situated in Paraguay, whereas the others are utterly in Brazilian territory. Five lifespan scenarios considering different sediment yield tendencies were simulated with the aid of the softwares SEDIMENT and DPOSIT, both developed by the author of the present work. Such softwares thoroughly follow the Borland & Miller methodology (empirical method of area-reduction). The soundest scenario out of the five ones under analysis indicated a lifespan foresight of 168 years, being the reservoir only 1.8% silted by the end of 2016, after 32 years of operation. Besides, the mass balance in the reservoir (water inflows minus outflows) between 1986 and 2016 shows that 2% of the whole Itaipu lake is silted nowadays. Owing to the convergence of both results, which were acquired by using different methodologies and independent input data, it is worth concluding that the mathematical modeling is satisfactory and calibrated, thus assigning credibility to this most recent lifespan estimate.

Keywords: Borland and Miller method, hydroelectricity, Itaipu Power Plant, lifespan, mass balance

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Authors: Gintare Judzentyte

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The present research is aimed to discuss semantics and pragmatics of spatial deictics (deictic adverbs of place and demonstrative pronouns) in the Baltic languages: in spoken Lithuanian and in spoken Latvian. The following objectives have been identified to achieve the aim: 1) to determine the usage of adverbs of place in spoken Lithuanian and Latvian and to verify their meanings in face-to-face communication; 2) to determine the usage of demonstrative pronouns in spoken Lithuanian and Latvian and to verify their meanings in face-to-face communication; 3) to compare the systems between the two spoken languages and to identify the main tendencies. As meanings of demonstratives (adverbs of place and demonstrative pronouns) are context-bound, it is necessary to verify their usage in spontaneous interaction. Besides, deictic gestures play a very important role in face-to-face communication. Therefore, an experimental method is necessary to collect the data. Video material representing spoken Lithuanian and spoken Latvian was recorded by means of the method of a qualitative interview (a semi-structured interview: an empirical research is all about asking right questions). The collected material was transcribed and evaluated taking into account several approaches: 1) physical distance (location of the referent, visual accessibility of the referent); 2) deictic gestures (the combination of language and gesture is especially characteristic of the exophoric use); 3) representation of mental spaces in physical space (a speaker sometimes wishes to mark something that is psychically close as psychologically distant and vice versa). The research of the collected data revealed that in face-to-face communication the participants choose deictic adverbs of place instead of demonstrative pronouns to locate/identify entities in situations where the demonstrative pronouns would be expected in spoken Lithuanian and in spoken Latvian. The analysis showed that visual accessibility of the referent is very important in face-to-face communication, but the main criterion while localizing objects and entities is the need for contrast: lith. čia ‘here’, šis ‘this’, latv. šeit ‘here’, šis ‘this’ usually identify distant entities and are used instead of distal demonstratives (lith. ten ‘there’, tas ‘that’, latv. tur ‘there’, tas ‘that’), because the referred objects/subjects contrast to further entities. Furthermore, the interlocutors in examples from a spontaneously situated interaction usually extend their space and can refer to a ‘distal’ object/subject with a ‘proximal’ demonstrative based on the psychological choice. As the research of the spoken Baltic languages confirmed, the choice of spatial deictics in face-to-face communication is strongly effected by a complex of criteria. Although there are some main tendencies, the exact meaning of spatial deictics in the spoken Baltic languages is revealed and is relevant only in a certain context.

Keywords: Baltic languages, face-to-face communication, pragmatics, semantics, spatial deictics

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Authors: Saadet Akbay, Ayşe Nihan Avcı

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The perception of colour is a subjective experience which depends on age, gender, race, cultural and educational backgrounds, etc. of an individual. However, colour perception is also affected by the correlated colour temperature (CCT) of a light source which is considered as one of the most fundamental quantitative lighting characteristics. This study focuses on evaluating colour perception in different CCT of light emitting diodes (LED) lighting. The aim is to compare the inherent colours with the perceived colours under two CCT of ‘warm’ (2700K), and ‘cool’ (4000K) LED lights and to understand how different CTT affect the perception of a colour. Analysis and specifications of colour attributes are made with Natural Colour System (NCS) which is an international colour communication system. The outcome of the study reveals the possible tendencies for perceived colours under different illuminance levels of LED lighting.

Keywords: colour perception, correlated colour temperature, inherent and perceived colour, LED lighting, natural colour system (NCS)

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Authors: А. А. Yessekeyeva, А. S. Moldagaliyeva, G. K. Shulanbekova

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The purpose of this article is to describe challenges associated with enhancement of government control over agro industrial sector in order to maintain food security. The need for government control over agricultural industry stems from the fact that the State is accountable to its citizens for establishing their standard living conditions, food and other agricultural product supplies. Agro industrial sector is in a special position within the market place preventing its full and equal participation in an interdisciplinary competition. Low-profit agricultural industry that is dependent on the natural and strongly marked seasonal and cyclical production factors is more underdeveloped in terms of technology and relatively static industry as compared to the manufacturing industry. Therefore, agricultural industry development directly affects food security of the country.

Keywords: food security, agro-industry, Kazakhstan, food security

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Authors: Linda Kauškale, Ineta Geipele

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Due to the rapidly changing external environment, portfolio management strategies became closely interconnected with real estate industry development and macroeconomic development tendencies. The aim of the research is to analyze sustainable real estate market development influencing factors, with particular focus on its economic and management aspects that influences real estate investment decisions as well. Scientific literature and article analysis, data analysis, expert evaluation, and other quantitative and qualitative research methods were used in the research. Developed real estate market sustainability model and index analysis approach can be applied by investors and real estate companies in real estate asset management and can help in risk minimization activities in international entrepreneurship. Future research directions have been identified in the research as well.

Keywords: indexes, investment decisions, real estate market, sustainability

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Authors: Tanya Anand, Arun Kandasamy, L. N. Suman

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Family based therapy for adolescent substance abuse has been studied to be effective in the West. Whereas, based on literature review, family therapy and interventions for adolescent substance abuse is still in its nascent stages in India. A multidimensional perspective to treatment has been indicated consistently in the Indian literature, but standardized therapy which addresses early substance abuse, from a social-ecological perspective has not been developed and studied for Indian population. While numerous researches have been conducted in India on the need of engaging the family in therapy for the purpose of symptom reduction, long-term maintenance of gains, and reducing family burnout, distress and dysfunction; a family based model in the Indian context has not been developed and tried, to the best of our knowledge. Hence, from the aim of building a model to treat adolescent substance abuse within the family context, experts in the area of mental health and deaddiction were interviewed to inform upon the clinical difficulties, challenges, uniqueness that Indian families present with. The integration of indigenous techniques that would be helpful in engaging families of young individuals with difficulties were also explored. Eight experts' who were interviewed, have 10-30 years of experience in working with families and substance users. An open-ended interview was conducted with the experts individually and audio-recorded. The interviews were then transcribed and subjected to qualitative analysis for building a framework and treatment guideline. Additionally, interviews with patients and their parents were conducted to elicit ‘felt needs’. The results of the analysis revealed culture-specific issues widely experienced within Indian families by adolescents and young adults, centering around the theme of Individuation versus collective identity and living. Substance abuse, in this framework, was found to be perceived as one of the maladaptive ways of the youth to disengage from the family and attempt at individuation and the responsibilities that are considered entitlements in the culture. On the other hand, interviews with family members revealed them to be engaging in inconsistent patterns of care and parenting. This was experienced and observed in terms of fostering interdependence within the family, sometimes within adverse socio-economic and societal conditions, where enacted and perceived stigma kept the individual and family members in a vicious loop of maladaptive coping patterns, dysfunctional family arrangements, and often leading to burnout with poor help seeking. The paper inform upon a framework that lays down the foundation for assessments, planning, case management and therapist competencies, required to address alcohol and drug issues in an Indian family context with such etiological factors at its heart. This paper will cover qualitative results of the interviews and present a model that may guide mental health professionals for treatment of adolescent substance use and family therapy.

Keywords: Indian families, family therapy, de-addiction, adolescent, youth, substance abuse, behavioral issues, felt needs, culture, etiology, model building, framework development, interviews

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