HOW BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS CAN SUPPORT SCHOOLS IN THEIR FUNCTION OF BUILDING CHILDREN’S SOCIAL CAPITAL – PROBLEMS OF IMPLEMENTATION

This text describes the difficulties in implementing those activities of the model which are directly aimed at children. Most of them are carried out at school, but require the cooperation of many institutions at the same time: a social welfare centre, school, library or museum. This is one of the challenges of implementation. Another difficulty is the development of mechanisms at school through which teachers will be able to recognise that a pupil's problems in learning or in his/her relations with peers are due to certain negative patterns at home, and as a result he/she cannot count on the kind of support that children of parents who are higher in the social structure receive. In other words, the measures designed are intended to support the school to the extent that it provides social capital to children from disadvantaged families. The very specific circumstances of testing the above-mentioned actions were not without significance. This coincided with the period of the Sars-Cov-2 pandemic, which challenged the school's discharge of its basic duties towards its pupils. It is worth noting here that the school of the time of the pandemic has even fewer tools for equalising opportunities for children than in normal times.

IZVORI PROFESIONALNOG STRESA I POTREBE U ZAŠTITI OD PROFESIONALNOG STRESA STRUČNIH RADNIKA CENTRA ZA SOCIJALNU SKRB ZAGREB

SOURCES OF PROFESSIONAL STRESS AND NEEDS IN PROTECTION FROM PROFESSIONAL STRESS OF SOCIAL WELFARE CENTRE ZAGREB PROFESSIONALS ABSTRACT Social Welfare Centre is a key institution in the social welfare system and professional helpers employed in it are daily exposed to professional stress. Although research practice dealing with professional stress and mental health of helpers started in the beginning of the 1990s, there is still a lack of qualitative research in this area. Therefore, a qualitative research study was conducted with the aim of describing the sources of professional stress and the needs in protection from professional stress of Social Welfare Centre Zagreb professionals. 11 focus groups were conducted, one for each branch of the Centre, and the total of 85 professionals employed by the Social Welfare Centre Zagreb participated in them. The results identified five sources of professional stress: characteristics of work with clients, working conditions, work organization, interdepartmental co-operation and co-operation with other branches, and co-operation with other institutions. Additionally, three areas of needs in protection from professional stress were identified: the need to improve material and technical working conditions, the need to improve material and safety position and the need for support. The research contributed to the identification of the sources of professional stress and pointed to the weakest links in the operation of social welfare centres on the example of the largest Croatian centre. Therefore, in order to better understand the stressful nature of the job and the needs of professionals employed in social welfare centres, the recommendation is to conduct more qualitative research studies in the future and to encourage usage of the results for positive changes in the practice. Key words: professional stress; social welfare centre; professional; working needs

Mothers’ Employment and Nutritional Status of Under-five Children Attending Selected Child Welfare Centre, Dhaka Cantonment

Introduction: Nutritional status of children is one of the major predictors of child survivors and a proxy indicator for assessing the entire population health status. Despite the various efforts, malnutrition among children is remaining as a major public health problem in Bangladesh. Maternal employment status exerts strong influence over child nutrition status. Aim: To find out the effect of maternal employment on nutritional status of 0-59 month-old children attending Malabika CWC at Dhaka Cantonment. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted at ‘Malabika’ Child Welfare Centre at Dhaka Cantonment from 01 March 2012 to 30 June 2012. A total of 110 children were selected conveniently. Data were collected from mothers by face to face interview and analyzed by SPSS 19. Association was assessed with Chi square test. The prevalence of malnutrition assessed by different indices of nutritional status based on Weight for Age Z-score, Height for Age Z-score and Weight for Height Z –Score following the WHO and NCHS guidelines and cut-off points. Results: The prevalence of stunting, underweight and wasting was found to be 61.4%, 56.3% and 61.3% among the children of employed mother respectively. These all 3 prevalence are higher than the children of unemployed mothers. The association between nutritional status of under-five children of employed and non-employed mothers was found statistically significant (p<0.05). Nutritional status of employed mothers ’children were found worsen than unemployed mothers’ children. Conclusion: This study provides an account of still high prevalence of malnutrition which trade-off between mothers’ employment and children’s nutritional status. Addressing factors like family size, duration of breast feeding, empowering women, monthly family income, mothers’ education are key efforts to reduce child’s malnutrition. JAFMC Bangladesh. Vol 15, No 1 (June) 2020: 58-60

Recruitment and retention in the welfare sector: Nordic good practice

The Nordic welfare sector is facing significant challenges when it comes to providing effective social care services. While the demand for services for a rapidly growing elderly population is constantly increasing, the workforce delivering social care services is shrinking, with many workers reaching retirement age. Tackling the challenges related to recruitment and retention of qualified staff – and developing innovative approaches to the delivery of social care services – is becoming increasingly urgent, particularly in rural and sparsely populated areas (SPAs). This policy brief gives an overview of examples across the Nordic Region aimed at tackling these resource challenges and exploring innovative ways of organising and delivering social care services in rural areas and SPAs. It is based on a desk study funded by the Nordic Welfare Centre (see more about this on the last page).

Deficit in speech development at the age of five years predicts alexithymia in late adolescent males

ObjectiveAssessment of the etiology of alexithymia is in most studies hindered by recall bias. The aim of the present study was to assess the significance of individual developmental factors at the age of five years for alexithymia in late adolescence. By using data from a child welfare centre check-up at the age of five years, it was possible to avoid recall bias.MethodsThe sample consisted of 723 subjects, who were comprehensively examined at the age of five years at a child welfare centre where their state of health, verbal, gross motor, visuo-motor, socio-emotional, and cognitive development were assessed. In late adolescence (mean age 19 years) their alexithymic features were measured using the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20).ResultsIn females, none of the developmental factors remained associated with later alexithymic features in the multivariate analyses. However, in males, emphasis on the variables measuring speech development was important. In particular, a variable measuring the ability to comply with multi-part instructions was strongly related with alexithymic features in late adolescence.ConclusionThe results suggest speech development is a significant factor in the developmental process of alexithymia, at least in males. It is possible that children who have impaired language skills and therefore struggle in social situations have a higher risk of developing alexithymia. This emphasizes the need for further research, to assess how the inadequate speech development predisposes to the emergence of alexithymic features and whether it is a gender-specific phenomenon.