Uusperheen voimavarat ja lasten hyvinvointi

The resources of the step family and the children’s well-being The present study investigates children's well-being in stepfamilies and fac¬tors, both external and internal, that are related to the children's well-being. Of the external factors, the study focuses on factors related to the structure of the stepfamily, parents' education, socio-economic status and factors related to work, livelihood and living conditions. The internal resources include the general functioning of the family, parenthood and parenting, family support networks and issues that the stepfamilies themselves consider important. Another important resource in a stepfamily is a functioning network of human relationships, which in the present study is approached from the maternal viewpoint. Changing family relations are considered a potential threat to the children's well-being. Therefore, in addition to looking into the stepfamily's resources, the other important goal of the study is to explore other factors potentially related to the well-being of children living in stepfamilies. In view of the stepfamily's resources, it is important to explore how the functioning of the relationships network is linked with the child's well-being. The study employs survey and interview data. The survey data (n=2236) are part of national survey data on the well-being of families and children and factors impacting them which were gathered as part of ”Origins of Exclusion in Early Childhood”, a research project carried out in 2002. The data consists of 667 stepfamilies. The interview data consists of interviews with 24 parents in stepfamilies. In the study, the analyses of survey and interview data are combined. Both descriptive statistical analyses and multivariate methods are employed. Content analysis is employed in the analysis of the interview data. The results indicate that the stepfamilies’ resources in general but their external resources in particular differed from those of the nuclear and single-parent families. The level of education and the socio-economic status of the stepfamily parents were somewhat lower than those of the nuclear family parents. The differences in relation to single-parent families were primarily related to the better economic status of the stepfamilies. The analysis of internal resources showed relatively minor differences: the stepfamilies assessed themselves a somewhat better general functioning of the family than did the nuclear families. Parenting issues caused more disagreement in stepfamilies than in nuclear families. The analysis of the functioning of the human relations in stepfamilies showed that the stepfamily mothers experienced the external relationships of the family (e.g., between the child and the absent father) as significantly more problematic than the relationships within the stepfamily. Living in a stepfamily thus challenges the functioning of the relationship between the child and the absent father. As a result of the analysis of the relationships networks in the stepfamilies, three groups were formed. One group had the nuclear family as an ideal goal, another valued an extended family composed of a variety of relationships, and the third one appreciated a strong intimate relationship between the parents. In the present study, the most common group was the multi-relationship, extended type of stepfamily. In conclusion, living in a stepfamily does not seem to pose a risk to the child’s well-being, but it may influence the family’s resources and thus have an indirect effect on the child’s well-being. In view of the resources of the stepfamily, the child’s well-being was best supported by a functioning network of human relationships in the stepfamily: there was a distinct connection with the children’s problems and the non-functioning of the relationships network. According to the mothers, the internal relationships in the stepfamily seemed to be more important than the external relationships of the family. A child’s functioning relationship with the absent father can be viewed as a positive resource, supporting the child’s well-being in the stepfamily.

Självkänsla och familjestöd hos ungdomar med olika aggressionsroll : en representativ studie bland högstadieelever i Österbotten

Objektive: To examine differences in the degree of self-esteem and family support among adolescents involved in different aggression roles from Ostrobothnia in Finland and to examine the relation between aggression role, family support and self-esteem. Method: A sample of 3512 adolescents in school at grades 7 and 9 from Ostrobothnia was considered for this study. The sample consisted of 1741 boys and 1771 girls with the mean age of 14.3 years and SD of 1.10 years. Aggression was measured with the Mini Direct Indirect Aggression inventory (Mini-DIA) by Österman and Björkqvist (2008), self-esteem was measured with the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) by Rosenberg (1965) and family support was measured with the family support part from the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (PSSS) by Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet and Farley (1988). Chi-square test, multivariate analysis and regression analyses were carried out. Results: The boys reported higher self-esteem and received higher family support than girls. The adolescents who were involved in aggression as victims or perpetrators reported lower self-esteem and family support than adolescents who were not involved in aggression. The regression analyses showed that family support and aggression role had significant effects on the adolescents’ self-esteem in both boys and girls. There was also an interaction effect between family support and aggression role for girls, so that the difference in self-esteem between perpetrator-victims and control group for example was higher for girls with low family support than for girls with high family support.

Nursing student-patient relationship and associated factors

The purpose of this study was to analyse the nursing student-patient relationship and factors associated with this relationship from the point of view of both students and patients, and to identify factors that predict the type of relationship. The ultimate goal is to improve supervised clinical practicum with a view to supporting students in their reciprocal collaborative relationships with patients, increase their preparedness to meet patients’ health needs, and thus to enhance the quality of patient care. The study was divided into two phases. In the first phase (1999-2005), a literature review concerning the student-patient relationship was conducted (n=104 articles) and semi-structured interviews carried out with nursing students (n=30) and internal medicine patients (n=30). Data analysis was by means of qualitative content analysis and Student-Patient Relationship Scales, which were specially developed for this research. In the second phase (2005-2007), the data were collected by SPR scales among nursing students (n=290) and internal medicine patients (n=242). The data were analysed statistically by SPSS 12.0 software. The results revealed three types of student-patient relationship: a mechanistic relationship focusing on the student’s learning needs; an authoritative relationship focusing on what the student assumes is in the patient’s best interest; and a facilitative relationship focusing on the common good of both student and patient. Students viewed their relationship with patients more often as facilitative and authoritative than mechanistic, while in patients’ assessments the authoritative relationship occurred most frequently and the facilitative relationship least frequently. Furthermore, students’ and patients’ views on their relationships differed significantly. A number of background factors, contextual factors and consequences of the relationship were found to be associated with the type of relationship. In the student data, factors that predicted the type of relationship were age, current year of study and support received in the relationship with patient. The higher the student’s age, the more likely the relationship with the patient was facilitative. Fourth year studies and the support of a person other than a supervisor were significantly associated with an authoritative relationship. Among patients, several factors were found to predict the type of nursing student-patient relationships. Significant factors associated with a facilitative relationship were university-level education, several previous hospitalizations, admission to hospital for a medical problem, experience of caring for an ill family member and patient’s positive perception of atmosphere during collaboration and of student’s personal and professional growth. In patients, positive perceptions of student’s personal and professional attributes and patient’s improved health and a greater commitment to self-care, on the other hand, were significantly associated with an authoritative relationship, whereas positive perceptions of one’s own attributes as a patient were significantly associated with a mechanistic relationship. It is recommended that further research on the student-patient relationship and related factors should focus on questions of content, methodology and education.

Integrating distributed generation and Smart Grids into single-family house

This study examines Smart Grids and distributed generation, which is connected to a single-family house. The distributed generation comprises small wind power plant and solar panels. The study is done from the consumer point of view and it is divided into two parts. The first part presents the theoretical part and the second part presents the research part. The theoretical part consists of the definition of distributed generation, wind power, solar energy and Smart Grids. The study examines what the Smart Grids will enable. New technology concerning Smart Grids is also examined. The research part introduces wind and sun conditions from two countries. The countries are Finland and Germany. According to the wind and sun conditions of these two countries, the annual electricity production from wind power plant and solar panels will be calculated. The costs of generating electricity from wind and solar energy are calculated from the results of annual electricity productions. The study will also deal with feed-in tariffs, which are supporting systems for renewable energy resources. It is examined in the study, if it is cost-effective for the consumers to use the produced electricity by themselves or sell it to the grid. Finally, figures for both countries are formed. The figures include the calculated cost of generating electricity from wind power plant and solar panels, retail and wholesale prices and feed-in tariffs. In Finland, it is not cost-effective to sell the produced electricity to the grid, before there are support systems. In Germany, it is cost-effective to sell the produced electricity from solar panels to the grid because of feed-in tariffs. On the other hand, in Germany it is cost-effective to produce electricity from wind to own use because the retail price is higher than the produced electricity from wind.

An Infant with Food Allergy and Eczema in the Family – The Mental and Economic Burden of Caring

Allergic diseases including food allergy and eczema in an infant in combination with the everyday activities of caring for a family will pose challenges to parents. Only fragments of these challenges are revealed to health care professionals. Families have varying mental, social and economic resources to help them care for an allergic infant, and all such resources are important in determining how families succeed in meeting these challenges and the quality of the infant’s care. This study evaluated the whole burden to the family caused by an infant's allergic disease during the first 24 months of life. As the primary caregiver during this period is usually the mother, her perspective was considered important. Ecocultural theory, which considers families as capable of modifying the positive and negative forces facing them, was taken as the frame of reference. Data were collected as part of an ongoing prospective mother-infant study, and the methods included severity scoring of atopic dermatitis, dietary records, health-related quality of life measurements and assessments of the use of health care services and medications for treating the infant’s eczema, food allergy and asthma. Interviews with mothers were analysed by deductive content analysis on the basis of ecocultural theory and the family empowerment model. The theme “Living an ordinary family life” guided the organization of family activities essential for treating the infant's food allergy and eczema. These activities were sources of both strain and support for the mothers, the allergy-related supporting factors being the mother’s own knowledge of the allergy, hopes for an improvement in the infant’s condition, social support and work. An infant’s food allergy at the age of one year caused considerable strain for the mother in cases where the introduction of new foods into the child’s diet was delayed. This delay was still causing the mother additional strain when the child was 24 months of age. The infants waking at night at the ages of 12 and 24 months because of itching related to eczema caused strain for the mothers. The infants’ health-related quality of life was impaired at ages of 6 and 12 months compared with healthy infants. The principal reasons for impairments were itching, scratching and sleep disturbances at 6 and 12 months and treatment difficulties at 6 months. Problems with getting to sleep were reported at all stages irrespective of eczema and were also present in healthy infants. The economic impact of the treatment of allergic diseases on families during the first 24 months was 131 EUR (2006 value) in cases of eczema and 525 EUR in cases of food allergy. From the societal perspective, the costs of food allergy were a median of 3183 EUR (range 628–11 560 EUR) and of eczema a median of 275 EUR (range 94–1306 EUR). These large variations in costs in food allergy and eczema indicate that disease varies greatly . In conclusion, food allergy and eczema cause extra activities and costs to families which arrange these disease-related activities in such a way that they support the leading family theme “Living an ordinary family life”. Health care professionals should consider this thematic character of family life and disease-related activities in order to ensure that new treatments are sustainable, meaningful and tailored to daily activities. In addition, those mothers who are experiencing difficulties with food allergic infants or infants with eczema should be recognized early and provided with individual encouragement and support from health clinics. In the light of the present results, early detection of symptoms and effective parental guidance can contribute to the well-being and health-related quality of life of the child and family.

Marketers’ perception of the implementation of social media marketing: Evidence from large Finnish companies’ marketing campaigns

Social media is a multidimensional marketing and communications channel which can support and enhance a business’ reputation, sales and even longevity. Social media as a business tool encourages an interaction between customers and companies which gives opportunities for a company to better understand their customers, to target them more effectively and to collaborate and create dialogues with them which is not possible through traditional media channels. The aim of a social media strategy is to increase brand awareness, image, loyalty and recognition. The peer networks that social media creates allows a company to disseminate information through loyal customers to new and prospective customers to ultimately increase reach. The purpose of the study is to understand the marketer’s perspective of social media marketing use and how it is currently utilized in marketing and communications activities in Finland. Three companies were interviewed covering fourteen different implementations of social media marketing campaigns. These were then analysed to ascertain the utilization methods and experience gained on recent campaigns in the Finnish market The utilization of social media marketing was analysed using the methods of thematic analysis and inductive and abductive reasoning. Elements and themes were drawn out of the separate interviews to create a framework with which to explore, evaluate and match theories that define social media usage by companies. It became clear from all of the interviews that social media as a tool is most effective when it captures the viewer’s interest through rich and entertaining content. This directed the theoretical research towards Engagement Theory and Content Marketing which look to emphasize the importance of communities, collaboration, interaction, and peer-sharing as the key drivers of a social media marketing campaign.

Coercion, Perceived Care and Quality of Life Among Patients in Psychiatric Hospitals

The goals of the study were to describe patients’ perceptions of care after experiencing seclusion/restraint and their quality of life. The goal was moreover to identify methodological challenges related to studies from the perspective of coerced patients. The study was conducted in three phases between September 2008 and April 2012. In the first phase, the instrument Secluded/ Restrained Patients’ Perception of their Treatment (SR-PPT) was developed and validated in Japan in cooperation with a Finnish research group (n = 56). Additional data were collected over one year from secluded/restrained patients using the instrument (n = 90). In the second phase, data were collected during the discharge process (n = 264). In the third phase, data were collected from electronic databases. Methodological and ethical issues were reviewed (n = 32) using systematic review method. Patients perceived that co-operation with the staff was poor; patients’ opinions were not taken into account, treatment targets collated and treatment methods were seen in different ways. Patients also felt that their concerns were not well enough understood. However, patients received getting nurses’ time. In particular, seclusion/restraint was considered unnecessary. The patients felt that they benefited from the isolation in treating their problems more than they needed it, even if the benefit was seen to be minor. Patients treated on forensic wards rated their treatment and care significantly lower than in general units. During hospitalization secluded/restrained patients evaluated their quality of life, however, better than did non-secluded/restrained patients. However, no conclusion is drawn to the effect that the better quality of life assessment is attributable to the seclusion/restraint because patients’ treatment period after the isolation was long and because of many other factors, as rehabilitation, medication, diagnostic differences, and adaptation. According to the systematic mixed studies review variation between study designs was found to be a methodological challenge. This makes comparison of the results more difficult. A research ethical weakness is conceded as regards descriptions of the ethical review process (44 %) and informed consent (32 %). It can be concluded that patients in psychiatric hospital care and having a voice as an equal expert require special attention to clinical nursing, decision-making and service planning. Patients and their family members will be consulted in plans of preventive and alternative methods for seclusion and restraint. The study supports the theory that in ethical decision-making situations account should be taken of medical indications, in addition to the patients’ preferences, the effect of treatment on quality of life, and this depends on other factors. The connection between treatment decisions and a patient’s quality of life should be evaluated more structurally in practice. Changing treatment culture towards patients’ involvement will support daily life in nursing and service planning taking into account improvements in patients’ quality of life.

STRESS AND INTERNATIONAL ENTREPRENEURHSIP: The dark side of international entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship attracts people with high job satisfaction and financial independence. Unfortunately, being deceived by this image, people do not pay attention to side effects of entrepreneurship. This ignorance usually turns into devastating results for entrepreneur’s health and venture performance. Therefore, it is required to seek ways to avoid these situations. The interest of the study lies in understanding of stress influence on international entrepreneurs by considering stress as a negative side effect of international entrepreneurship. To cover the concept of entrepreneurial stress completely, the study was divided into three section presented by following research questions: 1. What are the antecedents of entrepreneurial stress? 2. What are the consequences of entrepreneurial stress? 3. What coping strategies are applied to address entrepreneurial stress? Systematic literature review has been chosen as scientific approach to answer above questions due to the reason that it enables to minimise inconsistencies of both concepts of international entrepreneurship and stress. This method has afforded an opportunity to distinguish such stress causes as role conflict, overload, and ambiguity. Additionally, the study has covered the notion of stress moderators. The author argues that entrepreneurial traits, venture environment, and social support can have influence on degree of stress perception. Further, it has been proven that unaddressed stress could lead to reduction of entrepreneur’s psychological and physiological health. It should be taken into consideration that degree of both job satisfaction and performance would depend on the level of perceived stress. The last part of study emphasises the coping strategies. The author argues that it is important for an international entrepreneur to comprehend his or her and others’ emotions in order to overcome negative consequences of stress. In addition, the author suggests that an international entrepreneur needs to practise job sharing to reduce the amount of work to be completed. Moreover, it is believed that job sharing can help to overcome work-family conflict that prevails among entrepreneurs. The author anticipates that results of study can be beneficial for entrepreneurs who aim to achieve great results.