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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1983

Time, social change, and social work.

The nature of time and social change is considered from two points of view, the linear and the synergistic. The implications of both for social work in health care are considered, related to the teachings of Hyman J. Weiner and to an ecological perspective.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1978

Shaping the future of health education: from behavior change to social change.

The view that individual behavior change is the primary goal of health education presents several serious problems. Although individual behavior does contribute to health and disease, social organization is perhaps a more powerful influence. The use of behavior change as the primary tool for health education raises grave ethical issues. Health education which seeks to change individual behavior has also failed to have a significant impact on public health. An alternative strategy is health education for social change. The goal of this approach is to involve people in collective action to create health promoting environments and life-styles. Several contemporary models for and principles characteristic of health education for social change are described.

Behavior Therapy↗
PubMed2005

Changing social variations in self-assessed health in times of transition? The Baltic States 1994-1999.

BACKGROUND: Dramatic social changes took place in the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) in the 1990s. This study investigates the extent to which social variations in self-assessed health changed during that period. METHODS: Norbalt Living Conditions Survey I (1994) and II (1999) random population-based samples in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were analysed. Associations of self-assessed health with six social dimensions (education, economic activity, car ownership, number of rooms, ethnicity and residence) were studied for males and females aged 25-74 years (n = 16 970). RESULTS: Substantial and significant associations with poor health were found for education, economic activity, car ownership and, to a lesser extent, number of rooms. Ethnic differences were found only among women in Estonia. By and large, social variations in health were comparable for most indicators between the three countries. Differences in self-assessed health were stable between 1994 and 1999, except for the relatively worse position of the economically non-active in 1999. CONCLUSIONS: Substantial social inequalities in self-assessed poor health exist in the Baltic States. Despite dramatic social changes taking place, social variations in self-assessed health have been rather stable in the second half of the 1990s. The economically non-active seem to have become more disadvantaged.

Adult↗
PubMed2006

Measuring social change preferences in African American adolescents: development of the Measure of Social Change for Adolescents (MOSC-A).

Studies addressing Black adolescents' social change strategies are nonexistent and might be associated with the absence of social change measures for Black adolescents. In an effort to begin addressing this concern, the 30-item Measure of Social Change for Adolescents (MOSC-A) was designed to measure Black adolescents' first- (i.e., within the system) and second- (outside of the system) order social change strategies. Factor analysis of responses that 226 Black adolescents gave to the MOSC-A revealed first- and second-order social change factors. Item response theory analyses revealed that 65% of the items on the former factor adequately discriminate across different trait levels, but those of the latter were less promising. Scaffolded on this study, future research might refine the MOSC-A's psychometric properties and improve its utility.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

A nursing home in Arab-Israeli society: targeting utilization in a changing social and economic environment.

This article is a case study of the first 10 years of operation (1992-2002) of the Dabouriya Home for the Aged, the first publicly funded culturally adapted nursing home for Israeli citizens of Arab descent. Although 44% of Arab Israelis and 26% of Jewish Israelis aged 65 and older are disabled, in 1999, 4.3% of the Jewish population but only 0.7% of the Arab-Israeli population aged 65 or older lived in long-term care institutions; disabled Arab-Israeli elderly were mainly cared for by families. As Arab-Israeli society modernizes and traditional caregiving is reduced, alternatives must be found for this growing, disabled population. Medical and administrative records of 404 people admitted consecutively to a 136-bed facility over 10 years were analyzed. Two distinct segments of the needy population were served: people with independent activity of daily living (ADL) function but little or no family to provide help with intermediate ADLs and those dependent in ADLs and with health problems, especially dementia. Economic, demographic, and social changes in Arab-Israeli society may mean that traditional caregivers will not be able to adequately care for this highly disabled population. Administrators of the public health system in Israel should be aware of the underutilization of publicly funded long-term care by disabled Arab Israelis and the lack of care alternatives for the population that does use nursing homes, because there may be severe consequences in terms of caregiver burden and social stress when disabled elderly people remain in unsuitable environments.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1990

The influence of permeability of group boundaries and stability of group status on strategies of individual mobility and social change.

According to social identity theory, striving of group members for enhancement of their social identity may be resolved through individual mobility (i.e. by dissociation from one's own group in order to gain membership of a higher status group), or by social change (i.e. by upgrading the status position of the in-group as a whole). Individual mobility may only be achieved when group boundaries are permeable; social change is only feasible when group status is unstable. This study investigates how these structural characteristics of the intergroup situation affect group members' preference for the individual mobility or social change strategy. In a laboratory setting subjects were given bogus feedback to induce differential levels of individual ability and group status. Additionally, the permeability of group boundaries and the stability of group status were manipulated. The main results are that, generally, members of high status groups show more satisfaction and in-group identification than members of low status groups. Permeable group boundaries apparently induce a tendency to strive for individual mobility, regardless of the in-group's status position. In relation to members of impermeable groups, members of groups with permeable boundaries show decreased in-group identification; there is evidence of (anticipatory) identification with the higher status group instead. A collective attempt at social change seems to be evoked when group status is unstable. In all groups with unstable status, members indicate their readiness to try to improve their group's status position. Moreover, members of low status groups with unstable status positions show relatively strong in-group identification, despite the lack of positive distinctiveness available to the in-group at the time.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2002

Are inequalities in height underestimated by adult social position? Effects of changing social structure and height selection in a cohort study.

OBJECTIVES: To investigate whether changing social structure and social mobility related to height generate (inflate) inequalities in height. DESIGN: Longitudinal 1958 British birth cohort study. SETTING: England, Scotland, and Wales. PARTICIPANTS: 10 176 people born 3-9 March 1958 for whom data were available at age 33 years. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Adult height and social class at age 33 years; class of origin (father's occupation when participant was 7 years old). RESULTS: Adult height showed a social gradient with class at age 7 years and age 33 years. The difference in mean height between extreme groups was greater for class of origin than for adult class, reducing from 2.21 cm to 1.62 cm for men and from 2.18 cm to 1.74 cm for women. This narrowing inequality was due mainly to a decrease in mean height in classes I and II. This was because of the pattern of height related social mobility in which, for example, men moving into classes I and II were taller (mean 177.2 cm) than men remaining in class III manual (mean 176.1 cm) yet shorter than men with class I and II origins (mean 178.3 cm) and the relatively large number of individuals moving into classes I and II. Changes in the structure of society, seen here with the general trend of upward social mobility, have acted to diminish inequalities in adult height. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of changing social structure and height related mobility constrains, rather than inflates, inequalities in height and may lead to an underestimation of the role of childhood socioeconomic factors in the development of inequalities in adult disease.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Sex research and social change.

The history of scientific sex research which emerged at the turn of the century with the exemplary work of Sigmund Freud and Havelock Ellis has been complexly interactive with changing general social conditions, specific trends in sexual conduct, the content of sexual ideologies, and the developing techniques of scientific inquiry. The earliest sex researchers, although serving to bring sexuality out of the Victorian cold and into the center of human development based their views of sexuality on control-repression and drive models. The Freudian tradition was especially influential in general intellectual matters and was probably the most important in the development of twentieth-century sexual ideologies. Beginning in the 1920s and culminating in the work of Kinsey in the 1940s and 1950s, a tradiition of social bookkeeping began focusing on the sexual behavior of relatively normal persons. Methodologically such studies moved away from the case history and from populations who were defined as criminal or neurotic. At the same time, general social changes were occurring that were directly affecting the rates and directions of sexual conduct in the society. The work of Alfred Kinsey charted these changes and in turn influenced public attitudes, public policy, and research interests during the 1950s and 1960s. The work of other researchers began to fill in the picture of sexual conduct in the society from a survey point of view, and some workers began studies in sexual deviance that focused anew on homosexuality and prostitution. The work of William Masters and Virginia Johnson served to open the door to studies of sexual anatomy and physiology by applying well-known techniques to the laboratory study of the sexual. While the biological tradition is still strong in the discussion of the sexual, new emphases are being placed on a cognitive-social learning persepctive that emphasizes the nonbiological factors in sexual development. Major changes have occurred in the sexual backdrop of the society in the 1960s, and while changes in sexual conduct have been less than revolutionary, they have occurred in a number of areas (contraception, abortion) that have directly influenced societal practices. Sex research and the sex researcher have played an important role in providing benchmarks for sexual practices, illuminating general understanding, and providing the content for ideiolicaal debates about the right and wrong of sexuality in the society. In few areas of research have researchers had such an important role in the debate over the measning and significance of the behavior they have studied.

Attitude↗
PubMed1991

Individual differences are accentuated during periods of social change: the sample case of girls at puberty.

The emergence of new behaviors and the reorganization of psychological structures are often attributed to critical events and crises in the life course. A fundamentally different perspective is offered: Potentially disruptive transitions produce personality continuity, not change. The behavioral responses of adolescent girls to the onset of menarche was studied in a longitudinal study of an unselected birth cohort. Predictions from 3 rival hypotheses about the relation between pubertal change and social psychological change were first tested: the stressful change, off time, and early-timing hypotheses. The results supported the early-timing hypothesis. Whether stressful, early menarche generated new behavioral problems or accentuated premenarcheal dispositions was then tested. The results supported an accentuation model: Stressful transitions accentuated behavioral problems among girls who were predisposed to behavioral problems earlier in childhood. Speculations are offered for a broader theory about the role of individual differences in the life course.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1992

Girls' identity formation in the changing social structure of Sri Lanka.

Adolescent girls (N = 118) from diverse social backgrounds in Sri Lanka described their views of womanhood. Qualities of the ideal woman considered most important were kindness and honesty, liking children, intelligence, and having a good job. Although the traditional role of the Sri Lankan woman is that of homemaker, most girls in the study (55%) drew the ideal woman working outside the home, often as a teacher or a doctor. Nevertheless, adolescent girls emphasized traditional qualities of the woman at both work and home as self-sacrificing and serving others.

Adolescent↗