Tupakka, luokka ja terveyskäyttäytymisen ongelma

Smoking has decreased significantly over the last few decades, but it still remains one of the most serious public health problems in all Western countries. Smoking has decreased especially in upper socioeconomic groups, and this differentiation is an important factor behind socioeconomic health differentials. The study examines smokers risk perceptions, justifications and the meaning of smoking in different occupational groups. The starting point of the research is that the concept of health behaviour and the individualistic orientation it implies is too narrow a viewpoint with which to understand the current cultural status of smoking and to explain its association with social class. The study utilizes two kinds of data. Internet discussions are used to examine smokers risk perceptions and counter-reactions to current public health discourses. Interviews of smokers and ex-smokers (N=55) from different occupations are utilized to analyse the process of giving up smoking, social class differences in the justifications of smoking and the role of smoking in manual work. The continuing popularity of smoking is not a question of lacking knowledge of or concern about health risks. Even manual workers, in whom smoking is more prevalent, consider smoking a health risk. However, smokers have several ways of dealing with the risk. They can equate it with other health risks confronted in everyday life or question the adequacy of expert knowledge. Smoking can be seen as signifying the ability to make independent decisions and to question authorities. Regardless of the self-acknowledged dependency, smoking can be understood as a choice. This seemingly contradictory viewpoint was central especially for non-manual workers. They emphasized the pleasures and rules of smoking and the management of dependency. In contrast, manual workers did not give positive justifications for their smoking, thus implying the self-evident nature of the habit. Still, smoking functions as a resource in manual work as it increases the autonomy of workers in terms of their daily tasks. At the same time, smoking is attached to other routines and practices at workplaces. The study shows that in order to understand current trends in smoking, differing perceptions of risk and health as well as ways of life and their social and economic determinants need to be taken into account. Focussing on the social contexts and environments in which smoking is most prevalent is necessary in order to explain the current association of smoking with the working class.

Psychosocial processes of health behaviour change in a lifestyle intervention : Influences of gender, socioeconomic status and personality

Background: The onset of many chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes can be delayed or prevented by changes in diet, physical activity and obesity. Known predictors of successful behaviour change include psychosocial factors such as selfefficacy, action and coping planning, and social support. However, gender and socioeconomic differences in these psychosocial mechanisms underlying health behaviour change have not been examined, despite well-documented sociodemographic differences in lifestyle-related mortality and morbidity. Additionally, although stable personality traits (such as dispositional optimism or pessimism and gender-role orientation: agency and communion) are related to health and health behaviour, to date they have rarely been studied in the context of health behaviour interventions. These personality traits might contribute to health behaviour change independently of the more modifiable domain-specific psychosocial factors, or indirectly through them, or moderated by them. The aims were to examine in an intervention setting: (1) whether changes (during the three-month intervention) in psychological determinants (self-efficacy beliefs, action planning and coping planning) predict changes in exercise and diet behaviours over three months and 12 months, (2) the universality assumption of behaviour change theories, i.e. whether preintervention levels and changes in psychosocial determinants are similar among genders and socioeconomic groups, and whether they predict changes in behaviour in a similar way in these groups, (3) whether the personality traits optimism, pessimism, agency and communion predict changes in abdominal obesity, and the nature of their interplay with modifiable and domain-specific psychosocial factors (self-efficacy and social support). Methods: Finnish men and women (N = 385) aged 50 65 years who were at an increased risk for type 2 diabetes were recruited from health care centres to participate in the GOod Ageing in Lahti Region (GOAL) Lifestyle Implementation Trial. The programme aimed to improve participants lifestyle (physical activity, eating) and decrease their overweight. The measurements of self-efficacy, planning, social support and dispositional optimism/pessimism were conducted pre-intervention at baseline (T1) and after the intensive phase of the intervention at three months (T2), and the measurements of exercise at T1, T2 and 12 months (T3) and healthy eating at T1 and T3. Waist circumference, an indicator of abdominal obesity, was measured at T1 and at oneyear (T3) and three-year (T4) follow-ups. Agency and communion were measured at T4 with the Personal Attributes Questionnaire (PAQ). Results: (1) Increases in self-efficacy and planning were associated with three-month increases in exercise (Study I). Moreover, both the post-intervention level and three-month increases (during the intervention) in self-efficacy in dealing with barriers predicted the 12-month increase in exercise, and a high postintervention level of coping plans predicted the 12-month decrease in dietary fat (Study II). One- and three-year waist circumference reductions were predicted by the initial three-month increase in self-efficacy (Studies III, IV). (2) Post-intervention at three months, women had formed more action plans for changing their exercise routines and received less social support for behaviour change than men had. The effects of adoption self-efficacy were similar but change in planning played a less significant role among men (Study I). Examining the effects of socioeconomic status (SES), psychosocial determinants at baseline and their changes during the intervention yielded largely similar results. Exercise barriers self-efficacy was enhanced slightly less among those with low SES. Psychosocial determinants predicted behaviour similarly across all SES groups (Study II). (3) Dispositional optimism and pessimism were unrelated to waist circumference change, directly or indirectly, and they did not influence changes in self-efficacy (Study III). Agency predicted 12-month waist circumference reduction among women. High communion coupled with high social support was associated with waist circumference reduction. However, the only significant predictor of three-year waist circumference reduction was an increase in health-related self-efficacy during the intervention (Study IV). Conclusions: Interventions should focus on improving participants self-efficacy early on in the intervention as well as prompting action and coping planning for health behaviour change. Such changes are likely to be similarly effective among intervention participants regardless of gender and educational level. Agentic orientation may operate via helping women to be less affected by the demands of the self-sacrificing female role and enabling them to assertively focus on their own goals. The earlier mixed results regarding the role of social support in behaviour change may be in part explained by personality traits such as communion.

'... the walls fell down but the blokes just coded ...' - Varieties of stability in software product development during organizational restructurings

Many Finnish IT companies have gone through numerous organizational changes over the past decades. This book draws attention to how stability may be central to software product development experts and IT workers more generally, who continuously have to cope with such change in their workplaces. It does so by analyzing and theorizing change and stability as intertwined and co-existent, thus throwing light on how it is possible that, for example, even if ‘the walls fall down the blokes just code’ and maintain a sense of stability in their daily work. Rather than reproducing the picture of software product development as exciting cutting edge activities and organizational change as dramatic episodes, the study takes the reader beyond the myths surrounding these phenomena to the mundane practices, routines and organizings in product development during organizational change. An analysis of these ordinary practices offers insights into how software product development experts actively engage in constructing stability during organizational change through a variety of practices, including solidarity, homosociality, close relations to products, instrumental or functional views on products, preoccupations with certain tasks and humble obedience. Consequently, the study shows that it may be more appropriate to talk about varieties of stability, characterized by a multitude of practices of stabilizing rather than states of stagnation. Looking at different practices of stability in depth shows the creation of software as an arena for micro-politics, power relations and increasing pressures for order and formalization. The thesis gives particular attention to power relations and processes of positioning following organizational change: how social actors come to understand themselves in the context of ongoing organizational change, how they comply with and/or contest dominant meanings, how they identify and dis-identify with formalization, and how power relations often are reproduced despite dis-identification. Related to processes of positioning, the reader is also given a glimpse into what being at work in a male-dominated and relatively homogeneous work environment looks like. It shows how the strong presence of men or “blokes” of a particular age and education seems to become invisible in workplace talk that appears ‘non-conscious’ of gender.

Management of Routine in Two Chinese Kindergartens - An Ethnographic Study

Based on a one-month long ethnographic study conducted in two Chinese kindergartens, this study aims to understand the issue of discipline in the Chinese preschool setting through an examination of practices teachers use to manage everyday routines in the kindergarten. It also seeks to understand teachers’ values behind their choices of practices. Data of this study are comprised of three parts - notes of participant observation in eight classrooms with a focus on teacher-child interaction; interviews with nine teachers and directors of the two kindergartens; and written accounts of four teachers collected after the fieldwork in order to understand the particular practices of teachers’ praising and criticizing children. A grounded theory approach is applied to code and analyze data. Results of analysis are structured as followed. First the concept of routine is clarified based on teachers’ definition of it and observation notes on its main components, namely the timetable of everyday activities; general behavioral rules in the kindergarten; and detailed rules and procedures for various activities in the kindergarten. Then practices for managing routines are examined – how teachers organize children in activities, enforce routines, and restore routines when they are not followed well. After that, the matter of self-control is examined in relation with external control. Then teachers’ perception of their roles as the manager, director and executor of routines is presented in a discourse of control in which the values behind practices are found to be embedded. The next section of analysis examines the role of routine in relation with other activities in the kindergarten. Results indicate that routine which is supposed to be the foundation of other activities is in conflict with other activities. The last section of analysis provides some reflections on the rational of routine management in Chinese kindergartens in relation with the overall goals of Chinese preschool education. It also provides some reflections on the effect current mode of teacher-child interactions may have on children's self construction and their understanding of self in relation with the society. As a conclusion, this study suggests that the current mode of routine management in Chinese kindergartens relies heavily on teachers' control, leaving great room for better acknowledging children's agency.

Tietokone ikäihmisen arjessa

The aged people in the target group of my study belong to generation, which has experienced the shift from agricultural society via industrial society up to the society which has been described as information society. They have grown up concurrently with the technological development, but during the recent years the technological development has accelerated. One can say that the older the target study group has come the more information technological skills they need to possess to be equal actors in our society. However, especially in case of aged people the learning and maintaining of skills in information technology has mainly been left dependent on their personal motivation. The purpose of this report is to study the use of computers in the life of the aged people. The report studies the will and ability of the aged people to learn the skill of using computers, and the new possibilities which this brings into their lives. The study questions are the following: 1) Why the aged people start to use computers? 2) How the aged people benefit information technology in their own life? 3) How computers have extended the environment of the aged people? 4) What kind of problems the aged people have experienced in use of computers? The research material consists of group interviews and individual interviews (total of 23 people). The interview material has been collected among the participants on information technology courses of the Senior University of Helsinki University during years 2004-2005. The research method used is theme interviewing. In addition, the material of opinions about information technology of people born in decades of 1920 and 1930, gathered as part of the Ikihyvä Päijät-Häme 2002 -research has been used. On basis of this research one can say that the aged people do have motivation to study the use of computers, although many interviewees commented that they also have met problems in use of computers. The motivation has grown also because the fear that without the skills to use computers they could drift into outsiders of the society, whereas instead as skilled computer users they felt to be equal citizens compared with the younger age groups, and that they can maintain their independence and autonomy. Especially, the independent use of banking routines over the Internet and use of emails seem to give them a position as modern actors. Many interview statements also underline that computers will bring both joy and benefit to the users. Studying the use of computers is a new and interesting hobby, which can fill the hole left in the life after leaving the working life. Using skills of text processing and processing of pictures one can, for example, record the traditional knowledge of the family and ancestry to the younger generations, and write articles or even books on the professional area of ones own. Single people emphasize that computers can even act as companionship substitutes. One can use Internet for virtual traveling, which provides a new dimension in use of computers. Internet can also be used to maintain family relationships, especially between grandparents and remote grandchildren. Typical problems in use of computers appeared to be that reaching the right professional helpdesk advisers of the service providers is difficult and requires lots of time and patience. However, the interviewees were not willing to give up their computers, because they had already used to these. Keywords: digital divide, aging, Internet, usability, motivation, information technology, information society.

Kurkistus lapsen arkeen vuorohoidossa

Nonstandard hour child care is a subject rarely studied. From an adult's perspective it is commonly associated with a concern for child's wellbeing. The aim of this study was to view nonstandard hour child care and its everyday routines from children´s perspective. Three research questions were set. The first question dealt with structuring of physical environment and time in a kindergarten providing nonstandard hour child care. The second and third questions handled children s agency and social interaction with adults and peers. The research design was qualitative, and the study was carried out as a case study. Research material was mainly obtained through observation, but interviews, photography and written documents were used as well. The material was analysed by means of content analysis. The study suggests that the physical environment and schedule of a kindergarten providing nonstandard hour child care are similar to those of kindergartens in general. The kindergarten's daily routine enabled children s active agency especially during free play sessions for which there was plenty of time. During free play children were able to interact with both adults and peers. Children s individual day care schedules challenged interaction between children. These special features should be considered in developing and planning nonstandard hour child care. In other word, children's agency and opportunities to social interaction should be kept in mind in organising the environment of early childhood education in kindergartens providing nonstandard hour child care.