1,721,026 research outputs found

    Through a relational lens: reflections about foster care experience in Italian emancipated foster youth

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    The study aimed to investigate relational outcomes of Italian emancipated foster youth across open-ended reflections about their perceptions of their relationships with the biological and foster family, with partner and peers. A total of 26 Italian emancipated foster youth (19–25 years old) recruited by social services completed a single in-depth interview. A qualitative thematic analysis was selected for this study. The results revealed two major themes of foster care experience that emerged often simultaneously from the participants’ narration: (1) Positive Relational Outcomes including “Feeling supported,” “Sense of belonging,” “Good memories,” “Relationship with family of choice,” and “Staying in touch”; and (2) Negative Relational Outcomes referring “Devaluation,” “Refuse,” “Bad memories,” and “Isolation.” Foster care experience leads to complex relational perceptions in emerging adulthood according to different relational outcomes and ways of processing foster care experience. Professionals could work on relational outcomes and memories, especially during a critical transition like emerging adulthood, to support youth in making sense of their past experiences

    Sustainable tourism attitude and preference in italian adults: Value orientation and psychological need satisfaction

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    Sustainability became a leading concept in tourism development practice and research. Several studies have shown the relationship between sustainability choices and value orientation. However, there is a lack of studies that explore how autonomous motivation, based on the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs, might predict sustainability attitudes and preference. The present study aims to explore the relationship between attitudes towards sustainable tourism, preference for a sustainable stay, values orientation, and psychological need satisfaction in Italian adults, testing the hypothesis that also basic needs satisfaction and tourist preferences should contribute to increasing a positive attitude toward sustainable tourism. Participants are 142 Italian adults (M = 42,11 years, 80% women). This research used the online survey method collection and snowball strategy recruitment. The results showed that participants have a high level of attitude and preference towards sustainable tourism. Correlation indicated that there is a positive association between positive attitudes towards sustainable tourism, self-transcendence, and basic psychological need satisfaction. Furthermore, regression revealed that psychological basic need satisfaction, preference for a sustainable stay and value orientation explain people’s attitudes towards sustainable tourism. These findings imply more attention may be needed to psychological needs to understand how people might deal with environmental sustainability

    The caregiving experiences of fathers and mothers of children with rare diseases in Italy: Challenges and social support perceptions

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    Family caregiving is a growing phenomenon with the increased prevalence of chronic illness and shorter hospitalizations. Rare diseases pose significant challenges not only to patients living with these kinds of pathologies but also to those who care for these patients. The caregiving role has specific characteristics. The present work aims to increase knowledge of the challenges that are common or specific to fathers and mothers of children diagnosed with a rare disease. Moreover, the paper analyses the kinds of social support they experience according to gender. A descriptive study was conducted using grounded theory methodology. A semi-structured interview with open-ended questions was conducted with 15 parents of children with a rare disease. The interview was organized into three main areas: personal experiences in caring for a child with a rare disease, family changes and perceived social support. The transcriptions were analyzed using NVivo 11 software. From data analysis, themes emerged regarding the challenges shared by fathers and mothers, but some aspects also emerged that were gender-specific. The analyses of differences between mothers' and fathers' narratives showed that there is a specific experience of the impact that caregiving has on parents' relationships with their jobs and on their worries. Self-help group is the main source of social support for all respondents. We discuss these findings in relation to possible appropriate specific interventions and support for family caregiving

    The scaffolding function of family routine and rituals during children preschool age

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    This research aims to study, for the first time in the Italian context, the frequency and relevance of family routines and rituals during the pre-school stage in a non-clinical children group. The paper presents the results of a family survey of 321 subjects in order to investigate how the routine importance and the rituals meanings are associated with changes in children well-being. The findings highlight how the everyday can be regarded as a stable structure (scaffolding) that by organizing routines, roles and rituals enhances adaptive behavior in children during the preschool age

    Social Workers and Families: An Italian Perspective on the Family-Centered Approach

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    Purpose: The present work addresses the transformation process occurring within the services for minors regarding the relationship with families. This qualitative study aims to explore family-centered practice (FCA) by analyzing the practitioner's perceptions of social work with families in daily practice in the context of Italian social welfare. Methods: The authors conducted six focus groups with 38 social services workers and used grounded theory methods to elicit perceptions of the meaning and complexity of the transformation based on the statements of those performing social work with families. From the textual data, codes were identified and grouped into conceptual categories. Results: The authors defined two macro-categories called “Aims in practitioner's work with children and families” and “Tools in work with children and families”, which reflect the participants' attitudes and behaviors. Conclusion: Professionals and service providers can use our findings to reflect on current conceptualizations of family involvement and FCA in their work and to recognize possible psychological barriers to achieving family participation

    How could self-determination theory be useful for facing health innovation challenges?

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    This paper offers a presentation of the characteristics of self-determination theory (SDT) in the health context as well as attempts to identify how this theory could be useful for facing health innovation challenges. Health innovation is based on scientific advances that have more complex relationships with health. This paper encourages the use of the SDT approach to face health innovation, both for physiological and pathological processes. In particular, the focus is on the changes and lifestyle choices related to physiological pregnancy and birth and to oncological genetic tests in the Italian context. The health innovation paradigm focuses on patients taking responsibility for making important health-related choices, and we think that SDT can offer new stimuli in light of the changes implemented from innovations in the field of health. The aim is that this manuscript will stimulate researchers to test the potential of this theory in the field of changing health-related processes. Practitioners are called upon to revise their orientation toward patients and, according to SDT, they should support autonomy rather than control the promotion of health-related change

    Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis

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    The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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