Authors:Aistė Adomavičienė, Kristina Ambrazevičiūtė, Kristina Ankėnaitė-Balčiūnienė, Jūratė Charenkova, Asta Dilytė-Kotenko, Eugenijus Dunajevas, Virginija Jurėnienė, Giedrė Purvaneckienė, Romas Lazutka, Arūnas Juška, Žeimantė Straševičiūtė, Jurga Mataitytė-Diržienė, Eglė Šumskienė, Violeta Gevorgianienė, Rasa Genienė, Arūnas Pocius, Gražina Rapolienė, Margarita Gedvilaitė-Kordušienė, Vaida Tretjakova, Ilona Tamutienė, Vaida Auglytė, Olga Zamalijeva, Antanas Kairys, Kristina Zitikytė Pages: X - XXVI Abstract: 2022 m. spalio 14 d. Vilniaus universitete vyko II kasmetinė nacionalinė socialinės politikos konferencija „Gyvenimo kelias ir jo krizės: kaip (ar) veikia Lietuvos socialinė politika'“ Universiteto g. 3, Vilnius https://youtu.be/oBGfbjJijPY PubDate: 2023-03-21 DOI: 10.15388/STEPP.2022.52 Issue No:Vol. 25 (2023)
Authors:Daiva Skučienė, Žygimantas Poškus, Beatričė Kazakevičiūtė Pages: 37 - 49 Abstract: The phenomena of migration in today’s society is not surprising, but how often do we think about immigrants and their interactions with the local population, within themes of language, culture, social life, employment and general integration. International organizations say that although basic rights and protection of immigrants is ensured in Lithuania, immigrants in our country still do not have the opportunity to participate in public life as well as they should. The aim of this article is to refresh our knowledge of migrants' own experiences with regards to social integration and their own subjective welfare, by specifically examining the two largest groups of immigrants, Ukrainians and Belarusians. For the purpose of the study, 20 semi-structured interviews were conducted, of which 10 were with Ukrainians and 10 with Belarusians. The study revealed that language is an important factor in the formation of a new identity and social integration. It was also noted that immigrants from Ukraine and Belarus have varying degrees of success entering the local labor market and they usually have to work in lower-skilled jobs. It is also worth mentioning that immigrants support their immigration efforts by way of similar culture and adaptation in their national communities, churches or social networks. Lastly, immigrants from Ukraine and Belarus are satisfied with life in Lithuania and notice positive differences compared to their country of origin, such as transparency and order in the country, a well-functioning banking and public transport system. They also note that the mentality of local Lithuanians and their own is similar, which is a development that has happened due to a shared Soviet experience and proficiency in the Russian language. PubDate: 2023-01-12 DOI: 10.15388/STEPP.2022.45 Issue No:Vol. 25 (2023)
Authors:Alla Yaroshenko, Tetyana Semigina Pages: 62 - 79 Abstract: One of the acute social work issues in Ukraine is the deinstitutionalization of care for orphans and children left without parental care and the introduction of family care models. It is known that the success of such models largely depends on the motivations and values that inspire parents to place children, the socio-psychological characteristics of family members, gender aspects such as the distribution of household workload, the involvement of men in performing housework and care for children and so on. Building on social role theory, we examine gender stereotypes of prospective foster parents in Kyiv, Ukraine. The exploration of femininity and masculinity stereotypes was carried out using the Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1974), while the assessment of ambivalent sexism in the attitudes toward women and men was done through using a short version of the methodology of Glick and Fiske (1996). 83 paricipants of the mandatory trainings for prospective foster parents were questioned. Our study reveals that the prospective foster parents hold a biased set of beliefs. Almost a third of respondents’ responses concerning women show high indicators on the femininity scale and concerning men – on the masculinity scale. Also, respondents demonstrate a greater extent of benevolent rather than hostile sexism and describe a generalized image of women and men as androgynous individuals. High levels of hostility to feminism, especially among women, have been reported. Ukraine has all legal grounds for gender equality. Thus, from the intersectional point of view, the study results highlight the impact of culture and social norms on perceptions of gender and gender stereotyping. The paper ends with suggestions on training programs for both prospective foster parents and social workers, enchancing egalitarian family patterns and agency of women. PubDate: 2023-02-22 DOI: 10.15388/STEPP.2022.48 Issue No:Vol. 25 (2023)
Authors:Egle Šumskienė, Sigita Banevičiūtė - Čirgelienė Pages: 22 - 36 Abstract: Crisis communication in social service organizations is an under-researched area. Nevertheless, this topic is very relevant, given the increasing threats to individuals and society. In the face of these threats, there is a growing need for effective communication in organizing and delivering social assistance. The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed interpersonal communication and the very nature of organizations’ work. This unprecedented situation has prompted an analysis of the level of preparedness of social services organizations to adapt in the long run to an acute, changed reality. This paper aims to investigate how daycare centers and residential care institutions were prepared to act during a crisis, with a particular focus on communication through the organization’s external channels – websites and social networks. The desk-based method was applied to analyze the external communication of 387 organizations providing social care and daycare services to children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities from all Lithuanian municipalities. In assessing the capabilities and responsibility of institutions providing social services to ensure consistent external communication, this study ranks alongside others that have examined social service provision practices during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, this study differs from others by highlighting the responsibilities of social workers in combating misinformation and fake news. The research emphasizes the need for consistent, continuous, clearly presented information. It identifies systemic and organizational gaps in the external communication skills of social service providers. It can be concluded that due to these gaps, social service provision institutions were unable to counterweigh fake news, which became “mainstream news” (Wiswanath et al., 2020) and posed a threat to public health, public safety, and human lives. The voice of social services’ providers was also missing in the wider socio-political context. Here, technological, legal, and political prerequisites emerged to address the knowledge gap and the technological exclusion of those at the margins of communication. Nevertheless, the study showed a lack of active participation of social service providers in this discourse, although they were closest to those experiencing the digital divide. The pandemic significantly adjusted the point of view on the importance of communication in social work, its goals and nature. The main weight has shifted from the pursuit of therapeutic goals toward technological, information dissemination, and risk management aspects. PubDate: 2022-12-30 DOI: 10.15388/STEPP.2022.44 Issue No:Vol. 25 (2022)
Authors:Jūratė Charenkova Pages: 50 - 61 Abstract: Studies have shown that the circumstances and motivation for becoming a caregiver are closely related to the caregiver’s well-being and the quality of care provided, which, in turn, affects the quality of life of the person receiving the care. This article aimed to reveal the motives behind decisions related to an aging relative’s care – motives to assume the caregiving duties and motives to remain in the caregiving role. In total, seven family caregivers participated in semi-structured interviews. Two main themes related to caregiving motivation were revealed: (1) motives to assume the caregiver role, and (2) motives to continue with family care. The results of the research were interpreted using the perspective of self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000; 2017). This study revealed that key motivational drivers of caregiving decisions were associated with the satisfaction of the three basic psychological needs – autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Meeting these needs in the context of caregiving not only strengthened the caregivers’ motivation to take on the caregiving role but also motivated them to continue with family care, even after the autonomy of care recipients had increased significantly. PubDate: 2022-12-30 DOI: 10.15388/STEPP.2022.47 Issue No:Vol. 25 (2022)
Authors:Ieva Adomaitytė-Subačienė, Guoda Martinaityte Pages: 80 - 99 Abstract: The authors aim to discuss the changes in the professional field of social work, the future scenarios and the role of social work in the future society, and to present the views of social workers themselves on the future and the expected changes. The authors provide an overview of the trends in the development of social work profesion and outline the important changes in the professional field based on litearture review. The paper presents a quantitative survey of social workers in Lithuania, which aimed to uncover their attitudes towards new developments, the impact of technology and social innovation, and the future competences of social work. The results of the study reveal that employees see changes in the field of social work, but that these changes are marginal. Not seeing change and a negative public perception of social work are also associated with a willingness to move to another field of work. Leadership and professionalism of managers and more cohesive teamwork would encourage staff to stay. The study did not show that working for any institution (municipal, governmental, non-governmental, etc.) determines social workers‘ attitudes. Social workers‘ attitudes and evaluations were more influenced by their demographics: place of residence, age, education, but even these correlations were rather weak. A large proportion of respondents were not familiar with the Sustainable Development Goals (SGD2030) or had only participated in a few sustainability initiatives, but the importance of innovations in social work practice was identified by 58% of respondents, compared to 72% of those aged between 18 and 35 years. When talking about the future competences of social work, the traditional micro-level competences of social work are highlighted: empathy, emotional intelligence, interpersonal communication and working with a group, less importance is attached to innovative, managerial or macro-level competences. PubDate: 2022-12-30 DOI: 10.15388/STEPP.2022.49 Issue No:Vol. 25 (2022)
Authors:Alina Norgėlaitė Pages: 100 - 113 Abstract: The article discusses the effect of global factors – COVID-19 pandemic, war in Ukraine, climate change – that form uncertainty which affects the decision to have children. The aim is to reveal the impact of uncertainty based on the results of the qualitative survey. In 2021–2022 thirty semi-structured interviews were conducted with informants born between the years 1970 and 1989. The research showed that global factors are not relevant when considering children, with climate change being the least understood and influential factor. However, the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and war, which increased uncertainty and prompted a delay in the decision to have children, had a stronger effect in the beginning and lessened with time. The pandemic was associated with the limited availability of medical services, while the reaction to war depended on personal perception of the direct threat. Older generations being close to the end of reproductive age, and younger generations having the desired number of children felt more uncertain about childbearing possibilities. A critical factor that reduced uncertainty was a strong desire to have children. Possessed information and distrust in public institutions appeared to be also quite important. PubDate: 2022-12-30 DOI: 10.15388/STEPP.2022.50 Issue No:Vol. 25 (2022)
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