Societies, Volume 13, Issue 11 (November 2023) – 18 articles

Background: The global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to immense impacts on global community health, the public perception of healthcare, and attitudes surrounding mental health during widespread quarantine. Methods: This analysis examines the rates of depressive symptomology among a sample of LGBTQ+-identifying individuals in the United States (n = 1090). The variables examined included socio-demographic factors, the use of mental health medication, access to mental health medication, and experiences of depression symptomology. Results: The findings indicate that depressive symptoms were less severe for older adults, as they reported higher levels of minimal to moderately severe depressive symptoms. Participants who were not working and those who were using substances were less likely to report depressive symptoms. Participants who were employed full-time reported higher levels of depression compared to those who were unemployed. Conclusions: Understanding the mental health of marginalized populations such as the LGBTQ+ community is critical to providing more nuanced preventative healthcare for unique populations, as members of the LGBTQ+ community are non-monolithic and require more personalized approaches to their healthcare needs. Full article

In The Netherlands, women who experience domestic violence can rely on public policies that aim to support them, such as shelters. Drawing on the lived experiences, through 10 interviews and observations, of women with different cultural backgrounds and nationalities staying in a shelter, and on 37 interviews with social workers working with these women, we observed that this support falls short for them. We argue that immigration rules, together with policies on domestic violence and housing, (unintentionally) often work in tandem with violent partners to prevent women with migration backgrounds from leaving violent relationships. The paper draws on a perspective of institutional considerations of solidarity to unpack the relations between domestic violence, cultural constraints, and public policies but looks also at the positive experiences of women of migrant backgrounds with these Dutch policies. This research indicates that there is a lack of institutional solidarity towards women, especially those arriving as marriage migrants, who have experienced domestic violence. In exploring the intersections of domestic violence and often exclusionary state policies, the paper reflects on how The Netherlands can provide more support to those women and how intersectional justice and solidarity might be expressed. Full article

Three years after a pandemic that demonstrated the importance of reliable health information in a news agenda dominated by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), we analyze the situation of health disinformation in Spain on the basis of the verifications carried out by its main fact-checking platforms. The results show that COVID-19 shared center stage with other topics in the health area. In addition, a unique agenda is evident in each situation in the study, indicating a fact-checking strategy that is differentiated according to the media outlet and type of specialization (generalist fact-checker or one specialized in health). Vaccination, nutrition, and disease treatment emerge as the most important thematic subfields. Most health hoaxes are manufactured, i.e., created from scratch, rather than being manipulated or reconfigured from real preexisting elements. The format of text and image together predominates, and new social networks (TikTok or Telegram) have appeared as platforms for the circulation of hoaxes. This indicates that providing necessary health literacy to society and giving health issues greater presence in current fact-checking agendas are strategies for combatting disinformation, which can have serious consequences, regardless of whether there is a public health crisis such as the one experienced recently. Full article

Disabled people face many problems in their lived reality, as evidenced by the content of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Disabled people are constantly engaged in activism to decrease their problems. However, disabled people cannot do all the work by themselves and need allies (who can be so-called non-disabled people or disabled people of a different background to other disabled people) given the many barriers disabled people face in being activists, given the precarious lived reality of many, and given the many problems in need of solving. At the same time, the expectations linked to being an authentic ally of disabled people pose many challenges and stressors and a danger of burnout for the ally. Therefore, the aim of this study was to better understand the academic coverage of allyship and allies in relation to disabled people in general, and specifically the coverage of challenges, stressors, and danger of burnout for allies of disabled people. To fulfill this aim, we performed a scoping review of academic abstracts and full texts employing SCOPUS, the seventy databases of the EBSCO-HOST and the Web of Science. Of the 577 abstracts, covering allies and allyship in relation to disabled people that were downloaded, 306 were false positives. Of the 271 relevant ones, the content of six abstracts suggested a deeper coverage of allyship/allies in the full texts. Within the full texts, two mentioned ally burnout and four mentioned challenges faced by allies. Among the 271 abstracts, 86 abstracts mentioned allies without indicating who the allies were, 111 abstracts mentioned specific allies with technology as an ally being mentioned second highest. Sixty-three abstracts covered specific topics of activism for allies. Furthermore, although searching abstracts for equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) related phrases, terms, and policy frameworks generated sixty-three abstracts, only three abstracts mentioned disabled people. Abstracts containing science and technology governance or technology focused ethics fields terms did not generate any hits with the terms ally or allies or allyship. Searching abstracts and full texts, phrases containing ally or allies or allyship and burnout had 0 hits, ally terms with stress* generated four hits and phrases containing anti-ableism, or anti disablism, anti-disableist, anti-disablist, anti-ablist, or anti-ableist with ally terms had 0 hits. Our findings show many gaps in the coverage of allies and allyship in relation to disabled people especially around the barriers, stressors, and burnout that authentic allies of disabled people can face. These gaps should be filled given that disabled people need allies and that there are many challenges for being an authentic disabled or non-disabled ally of disabled people. Full article

Central to the understanding of hate is an apprehension of the complexities of various hate-motivated social attitudes, which include Othering and the production of social, economic, and political hierarchies of domination. While hate speech is endemic both online and offline in contemporary society, Korean youths have difficulties recognizing its structural forces. The present study aims to offer an instructional model of a college-level course for identifying and countering hate in everyday life. As participants in this course, students read popular cultural texts thematizing hate, wrote critical reviews, and held group discussions to develop anti-hate critical thinking and raise awareness about online hate speech and hate-motivated social behavior. They showed significant progress in the surveys, which measured anti-hate critical thinking, as well as during the course, as they proceeded from observing and identifying hate speech to formulating and articulating proactive strategies to challenge it. This study provided an opportunity for college students to develop good citizenship in reading hate speech and representations of hate in popular cultural texts with a critical eye, and to reflect on the problem of hate in society. Full article

The article is focused on researching the hidden effects of seasonal migration in agriculture on Roma communities in Romania. The theoretical framework considers the specific nature of seasonal migration in agriculture and includes elements relevant to understanding the seasonal migration patterns of the Roma population from Romania. The research is based on a qualitative methodological design and over 120 interviews in four communities with Roma individuals and key actors at the community level (e.g., local authorities, teachers, priests, and social workers). The interviews are thematically analyzed, and the hidden costs of seasonal migration are discussed at three levels of analysis: individual, familial, and community. First and foremost, the analysis emphasizes that migration is the most significant factor of social change in the studied Roma communities, and its effects are multifaceted. The analysis reveals significant negative costs of migration in terms of health, education, employability, family, and community life. In the medium and long term, these effects decrease the positive aspects linked to the material gains from migration, making these Roma communities more vulnerable and dependent. Full article

It is important to study the impact of social media on mental health and well-being, as most young people use social media. Research has provided evidence of the link between social media and mental health, identifying vulnerability variables, risk factors, comorbidity, and predictors of deterioration or improvement. However, there is still very little qualitative insight into young people’s experiences and perceptions of social media and its impact on their subjective well-being. This study consists of a systematic review of the literature and a narrative synthesis of scientific articles published between 2013 and 2023 and indexed in the most important scientific databases in our field of knowledge. The SALSA protocol for systematic reviews of scientific literature was followed. We worked on a final sample of 25 articles, all of which were qualitative in methodology. From the content analysis, we extracted five thematic categories that describe and explore in depth the complex impact of social networks on adolescents’ well-being. The interactions between positive and negative effects, as well as the links with protective or vulnerability factors, are presented with the aim of constructing as complete a knowledge framework as possible. The paper concludes with useful implications for educational interventions. Full article

In the post-COVID era, explanatory journalism is undergoing a resurgence that can be attributed to the proliferation of false content disseminated via social networks and the maturation of fact checking initiatives. Fact checkers are beginning to delve into those topics that are recurrent targets of disinformation to make complex issues accessible to the public. This study investigates the characteristics and methodologies of contemporary explanatory journalism by analysing four European verification platforms (Newtral in Spain, Les Décodeurs in France, FACTA.news in Italy and The Journal FactCheck unit in Ireland). We employed content analysis of a corpus of explainers and semi-structured interviews with the managers of these outlets. Our findings reveal that explainers encompass a wide range of topics, typically revolving around current affairs. These pieces are usually authored by fact checkers and published, with bylines, within dedicated sections that encourage audience participation. Explainers do not adhere to a fixed periodicity or length and adopt a format similar to feature articles, displaying a degree of flexibility. They leverage data provided by experts and official sources and employ visual elements to convey information clearly. The interviewed managers concur that explanatory journalism represents an invaluable tool in combatting disinformation and has a promising future ahead. Full article

Using data from the General Social Survey, we investigate whether political views increase the risk of social isolation for Black and White Americans. Our findings reveal an increase in conservative political views differently shaping social isolation patterns for Black and White Americans. For instance, changes in political views from liberal to conservative are associated with reduced risk of social isolation for White Americans, whereas a rise in conservative political views is related to increases in social isolation for Black Americans. Results also demonstrate that these patterns remain after accounting for important covariates such as gender, age, education, occupation, marital status, social class, work status, and religion. We discuss the implications of our findings in the context of social relationships, race, and political polarization in the U.S. Full article

Over the last decade, authorities in several Western countries have stated their ambitions to increase the share of volunteers contributing alongside professionals in the future long-term care (LTC) sector, but the introduction of volunteers as co-producers of care services is sparsely investigated. This article is based on an empirical case study in Norway and investigates how co-production is translated into practice in diverse settings. Our findings demonstrate that understandings of voluntary work were fragmented. Co-production appears as a fragile partnership with an unclear understanding of the roles, expectations, and opportunities among the various parties who had different purposes/agendas and limited knowledge. To successfully provide added value in coproducing care, agents need to understand the whole picture and context, and build a common understanding of ‘why’ coproduce. Full article

This paper considers the personal commitment to ‘boxe popolare’ (people’s boxing), focusing on my scholar-practitioner status as a tool to contribute to the boxe popolare agenda by means of what I term ‘shared sociological imagination’. Through a reflexive tale on becoming a boxe popolare member, the article sheds light on the importance of overcoming the theory/practice divide. The first section of the paper draws on ‘habitus as topic and tool’—namely, the methodology I have adopted in a four-year ethnography of boxe popolare—and illustrates sociological imagination as a capacity that can be cultivated even in extremely carnal worlds by social agents who do not belong to academia. The second section broadens the reasoning, arguing that one characterising trait of being a scholar-practitioner in sport and physical culture may consist in working out agency both on an individual and a collective level. Echoing Burawoy’s perspective of ‘public sociology’, such an attempt can be seen as a potentially emancipatory strategy: it allows people with whom we research and practice to live with and through theory, embodying shared understandings in novel mundane activities. Full article

Human well-being is a dynamic and changing concept as it depends on personal, social, cultural, and political factors and varies over time according to individual circumstances. Therefore, it is essential to address this issue from a comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach, seeking that individuals, from an early age, manage to develop skills and attitudes that allow them to achieve a balance in their lives. This article presents the results of the measurement of students’ perceived achievement of the competence of complex thinking in a subject focused on human development. Specifically, the research sought to identify whether there is a relationship between the level of critical thinking and the acquisition of skills associated with human well-being. The selection of critical thinking is based on the fact that this cognitive ability is one of the subcompetencies included in complex thinking. The sample was a group of university students from different disciplines and educational levels. Methodologically, descriptive analyses were made on the means of students’ responses to a validated instrument measuring the perceived achievement of complex thinking competency and its subcompetencies and the final evaluations of the students’ course. In conclusion, an improvement in the perception of achievement of complex thinking competency and its subcompetencies is demonstrated in the students, with critical thinking that achieved the best means, its increase being significant for the whole group and for women but not for men. In this sense, although it was not possible to demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between the development of this subcompetency and the acquisition of tools associated with well-being, data showing a possible association between these elements were obtained. Full article

To explain the low employment rates of people with disabilities (PwDs), emerging debates have revealed an unexploited potential impact of assistive technology (AT) on human talent and the inclusion process. This article provides a systematic review to critically evaluate the current trends in the literature on AT. A systematic review was performed according to the inclusion criteria of the PRISMA-S guidelines, followed by a thematic analysis identifying the main themes by which the literature on the subject is organized. Finally, the Human Activity Assistive Technology (HAAT) model was used to deepen the contents taken into consideration in the scientific literature and to discuss the concept of workplace inclusion and its use. Forty-one studies fully met the eligibility criteria of the systematic review. The thematic analysis produced four clusters related to the impact and characteristics of AT in the workplace. Overall, the use of the HAAT model highlighted a lack of studies on the affective and socio-cultural dimensions that characterize the use of AT in the workplace. It is concluded that the deployment of AT can and should work on multiple levels to shape the workplace experiences of PwDs. Full article

In this paper, we will analyze how a few initial vocational education and training (VET) schools have elaborated wide-ranging responses to early leaving from education and training in Liguria (Italy) and Catalonia (Spain). In contrast with many members of the EU and the OECD, the prevailing institutional arrangements in these two countries hardly support disadvantaged youths to catch up with basic academic performance and find an appealing pathway between compulsory and post-compulsory education. Despite this bias of official policies, we argue that some initial VET schools manage to navigate the interface between social structure and agency and accommodate the aspirations of disadvantaged students by involving local stakeholders and shaping school time organization in a particular way. Full article

On the fifth of February 2022, a man gruesomely murdered his seventeen-year-old wife, Mona Heydari, in a city in a southern province of Iran. The man then shocked bystanders by strolling in public spaces while carrying his wife’s severed head. This paper focuses on the case of Mona’s killing and investigates the state, media, and online user-created reactions to the incident. The paper aims to (i) offer an in-depth exploration of himpathy with the perpetrator and (ii) investigate the role of the law and the state in the normalization and perpetuation of violence committed by men against women in the name of ‘honor.’ This paper extends the usage of the concept of himpathy (by Manne, 2017) as a cluster of biases that direct sympathy towards men who commit violence against women to the institutional and legal realms. It also draws on the traditional notion of gheirat, referring to protecting one’s ‘honor,’ and explores its role in Iranian law to show that the Iranian legal system hinges upon it, therefore legitimating misogyny and femicide. Full article

The migration process for minors who migrate alone represents a complex reality, one entailing exciting life projects but which often clashes with a host society that at times responds in a way shaped by stereotypes and prejudices. In this regard, the role of public and private institutions responsible for the care and custody of these minors is of the utmost importance. This is the point of departure of this study: to explore the multicultural and inclusive practices that are implemented in the process of socio-educational support for minors who migrate alone. Taking as a reference the closest context, as a case study, and employing a qualitative methodological approach, 16 semi-structured interviews were conducted with professionals from Centers for the Protection of Minors, Institutes of Compulsory Secondary Education (secondary schools), and third-sector entities involved in socio-educational intervention with minors who migrate alone in the province of Cordoba (Spain). The results show, firstly, the complexity of the process behind the socio-educational inclusion of these minors, mainly due to their backgrounds; and, furthermore, the role of the different expectations of the professionals involved with regards to this group’s educational and labor-oriented development, along with the importance of the diversity of socio-educational intervention strategies used, focused on individualized attention and with a comprehensive approach. In conclusion, the findings of this study highlight the importance of tackling the task of socio-educational care in a coordinated manner, without forgetting the cultural backgrounds and previous experiences that these minors have when they join these protection and educational systems. It is, therefore, necessary to continue to implement these inclusive practices that promote the comprehensive development of minors and facilitate their transition to adult life, as should be done with any other minor facing situations of social vulnerability. Full article

Informal kinship care families in Australia are a large, hidden population. This article provides an overview of international research and policy developments regarding informal kinship care and considers their relevance to Australia. The benefit to children is identified along with the severe economic burden of care falling on caregiving families. Australian Federal and State policy settings are described in relation to the recognition and support of informal kinship care families, and an overwhelming need for better financial and social support is identified. Ways forward to improve the circumstances of these families are considered, together with areas for future research. Full article