The effects of marriage partners' socio-economic positions on the risk of divorce in Finland

Väitöskirjatutkimuksen tavoitteena oli selvittää, miten aviopuolisoiden sosioekonominen asema vaikuttaa avioeroriskiin Suomessa. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin Tilastokeskuksen rekistereistä koottua aineistoa, joka koskee suomalaisten ensimmäisiä avioliittoja vuoden 1990 lopussa ja avioeroja vuosina 1991−93. Väitöskirjaan sisältyy kolme osatutkimusta. Ensimmäinen osatutkimus käsitteli avioeroriskin vaihtelua aviopuolisoiden sosioekonomisen aseman eri osatekijöiden (koulutusaste, sosiaaliryhmä, pääasiallinen toiminta, tulotaso, asunnon omistaminen ja asumisahtaus) mukaan. Kaiken kaikkiaan avioeroriski oli sitä pienempi, mitä paremmassa taloudellisessa ja sosiaalisessa asemassa aviopuolisot olivat. Esimerkiksi miehen ja vaimon korkea koulutusaste, toimihenkilöammatti, työssäkäynti (etenkin verrattuna työttömyyteen) sekä omistusasunnossa asuminen liittyivät pienentyneeseen avioeroriskiin. Vaimon sosioekonomisen aseman yhteys avioeroriskiin oli paljolti samanlainen kuin miehen aseman yhteys. Huomattavin poikkeus tähän oli, että vaimon suuret tulot lisäsivät avioeroriskiä, vaikka miehen suurilla tuloilla oli päinvastainen vaikutus. Lisäksi kotitaloustyötä pääasiallisena toimintanaan tekevillä naisilla (pääasiallisen toiminnan luokka ”muut”) oli vielä pienempi avioeroriski kuin työssäkäyvillä naisilla. Toisessa osatutkimuksessa keskityttiin aviomiehen ja vaimon aseman yhdistettyyn vaikutukseen. Selviä viitteitä siitä, että puolisoiden koulutustasojen erilaisuus lisäisi eroriskiä, ei saatu. Pareilla, joissa molemmilla oli enintään perusasteen koulutus, oli kuitenkin odotettua pienempi avioeroriski. Eroriski oli suhteellisen alhainen pareilla, joissa vaimo oli työssäkäyvä tai kotitaloustyötä tekevä ja aviomies työssäkäyvä. Eroriskiä kasvatti se, että aviomies, vaimo tai molemmat puolisot olivat työttömiä. Vaimon korkea tulotaso lisäsi eroriskiä miehen kaikilla tulotasoilla mutta erityisen voimakkaasti silloin, kun miehen tulotaso oli alhainen. Kolmanneksi selvitettiin, vaikuttaako puolisoiden sosioekonominen asema avioeroriskiin eri tavalla riippuen siitä, kauanko avioliitto on kestänyt. Tällöin havaittiin, että vähän koulutettujen ja työntekijäammateissa toimivien puolisoiden suuri eroriski rajoittuu paljolti nuorimpiin avioliittoihin. Sen sijaan esim. puolisoiden työttömyys, vaimon korkea tulotaso ja vuokra-asunnossa asuminen kasvattivat eroriskiä riippumatta siitä, kuinka kauan avioliitto oli kestänyt. Kaiken kaikkiaan eroriski oli siis sitä pienempi, mitä paremmassa taloudellisessa ja sosiaalisessa asemassa puolisot olivat. Vaimon taloudellisilla ja sosiaalisilla resursseilla näyttää kuitenkin olevan myös joitakin avioeroriskiä lisääviä vaikutuksia.

Siperiaa sanoiksi - uralilaisuutta teoiksi : Kai Donner poliittisena organisaattorina sekä tiedemiehenä antropologian näkökulmasta

The doctoral dissertation, entitled Siperiaa sanoiksi - uralilaisuutta teoiksi. Kai Donner poliittisena organisaattorina sekä tiedemiehenä antropologian näkökulmasta clarifies the early history of anthropological fieldwork and research in Siberia. The object of research is Kai Donner (1888-1935), fieldworker, explorer and researcher of Finno-Ugric languages, who made two expeditions to Siberia during 1911-1913 and 1914. Donner studied in Cambridge in 1909 under the guidance of James Frazer, A. C. Haddon and W. H. R. Rivers - and with Bronislaw Malinowski. After finishing his expeditions, Donner organized the enlistment of Finnish university students to receive military training in Germany. He was exiled and participated in the struggle for Finnish independence. After that, he organized military offensives in Russia and participated in domestic politics and policy in cooperation with C. G. E. Mannerheim. He also wrote four ethnographic descriptions on Siberia and worked with the Scandinavian Arctic areas researchers and Polar explorers. The results of this analysis can be sum up as follows: In the history of ethnographic research in Finland, it is possible to find two types of fieldwork tradition. The first tradition started from M. A. Castrén's explorations and research and the second one from August Ahlqvist's. Donner can be included in the first group with Castrén and Sakari Pälsi, unlike other contemporary philologists, or cultural researcher colleagues, which used the method of August Ahlqvist. Donner's holistic, lively and participant-observation based way of work is articulated in his writings two years before Malinowski published his thesis about modern fieldwork. Unfortunately, Donner didn't get the change to continue his researche because of the civil war in Finland, and due to the dogmatic position of E. N. Setälä. Donner's main work - the ethnohistorical Siberia - encloses his political and anthropological visions about a common and threatened Uralic nation under the pressure of Russian. The important items of his expeditions can be found in the area of cultural ecology, nutritional anthropology and fieldwork methods. It is also possible to prove that in his short stories from Siberia, there can be found some psychological factors that correlate his early life history.

Fertility in Namibia : Changes in fertility levels in North-Central Namibia 1960-2001, including an assessment of the impact of HIV

The aim of this study was to estimate the development of fertility in North-Central Namibia, former Ovamboland, from 1960 to 2001. Special attention was given to the onset of fertility decline and to the impact of the HIV epidemic on fertility. An additional aim was to introduce parish registers as a source of data for fertility research in Africa. Data used consisted of parish registers from Evangelical Lutheran congregations, the 1991 and 2001 Population and Housing Censuses, the 1992 and 2000 Namibia Demographic and Health Surveys, and the HIV sentinel surveillances of 1992-2004. Both period and cohort fertility were analysed. The P/F ratio method was used when analysing census data. The impact of HIV infection on fertility was estimated indirectly by comparing the fertility histories of women who died at an age of less than 50 years with the fertility of other women. The impact of the HIV epidemic on fertility was assessed both among infected women and in the general population. Fertility in the study population began to decline in 1980. The decline was rapid during the 1980s, levelled off in the early 1990s at the end of war of independence and then continued to decline until the end of the study period. According to parish registers, total fertility was 6.4 in the 1960s and 6.5 in the 1970s, and declined to 5.1 in the 1980s and 4.2 in the 1990s. Adjustment of these total fertility rates to correspond to levels of fertility based on data from the 1991 and 2001 censuses resulted in total fertility declining from 7.6 in 1960-79 to 6.0 in 1980-89, and to 4.9 in 1990-99. The decline was associated with increased age at first marriage, declining marital fertility and increasing premarital fertility. Fertility among adolescents increased, whereas the fertility of women in all other age groups declined. During the 1980s, the war of independence contributed to declining fertility through spousal separation and delayed marriages. Contraception has been employed in the study region since the 1980s, but in the early 1990s, use of contraceptives was still so limited that fertility was higher in North-Central Namibia than in other regions of the country. In the 1990s, fertility decline was largely a result of the increased prevalence of contraception. HIV prevalence among pregnant women increased from 4% in 1992 to 25% in 2001. In 2001, total fertility among HIV-infected women (3.7) was lower than that among other women (4.8), resulting in total fertility of 4.4 among the general population in 2001. The HIV epidemic explained more than a quarter of the decline in total fertility at population level during most of the 1990s. The HIV epidemic also reduced the number of children born by reducing the number of potential mothers. In the future, HIV will have an extensive influence on both the size and age structure of the Namibian population. Although HIV influences demographic development through both fertility and mortality, the effect through changes in fertility will be smaller than the effect through mortality. In the study region, as in some other regions of southern Africa, a new type of demographic transition is under way, one in which population growth stagnates or even reverses because of the combined effects of declining fertility and increasing mortality, both of which are consequences of the HIV pandemic.

The Culture of Women's Housework : A Case Study of Bihar, India

This study examines gendered housework in India, particularly in Bihar. The perspective adopted in the study was in part derived from the data but also from sociological literature published both in Western countries and in India. The primary attention is therefore paid to modern and traditional aspects in housework. The aim is not to compare Indian practices to those of Western societies, but rather to use Western studies as a fruitful reference point. In that light, Indian housework practices appear to be traditional. Consequently, traditions are given a more significant role than is usually the case in studies on gendered housework, particularly in Western countries. The study approaches the topic mainly from the socio-cultural perspective; this provides the best means to understand the persistence of traditional habits in India. To get a wide enough picture of the division of labour, three methods were applied in the study: detailed time-use data, questionnaire and theme interviews. The data were collected in 1988 in two districts of Bihar, one rural and the other urban. The different data complement each other well but also bring to light contradictory findings: on a general level Biharian people express surprisingly modern views on gender equality but when talking in more detail (theme interviews) the interviewees told about how traditional housework practices still were in 1988. In the analysis of the data set four principal themes are discussed. Responsibility is the concept by which the study aims at understanding the logic of the argumentation on which the persistence of traditional housework practices is grounded. Contrary to the Western style, Biharian respondents appealed not to the principle of choice but to their responsibility to do what has to be done. The power of tradition, the early socialization of children to the traditional division of labour and the elusive nature of modernity are all discussed separately. In addition to the principle of responsibility, housework was also seen as an expression of affection. This was connected to housework in general but also to traditional practices. The purity principle was the third element that made Biharian interviewees favour housework in general, but as in the case of affection it too was interwoven with traditional practices. It seems to be so that if housework is in general preferred, this leads to preferring the traditional division of labour, too. The same came out when examining economic imperatives. However, the arguments concerning them proved to be rational. In analysing them it became clear that the significance of traditions is also much dependent on the economics: as far as the average income in India is very low, the prevalence of traditional practices in housework will continue. However, to make this work, cultural arguments are required: their role is to mediate more smoothly the iron rules of the economy. Key words: family, gendered housework, division of labour, responsibility, family togetherness, emotion, economy of housework, modernity, traditionality

Determinants of institutional care at older ages in Finland

Väitöskirjassa selvitettiin ikäihmisten laitoshoitoon siirtymisen todennäköisyyttä ja sen taustoja kansainvälisesti ainutlaatuisen rekisteriaineiston avulla. Selvitettäviä asioita olivat eri sairauksien, sosioekonomisten tekijöiden, puolison olemassaolon ja leskeksi jäämisen yhteys laitoshoitoon siirtymiseen yli 65-vuotiailla suomalaisilla. Tutkimuksessa havaittiin, että dementia, Parkinsonin tauti, aivohalvaus, masennusoireet ja muut mielenterveysongelmat, lonkkamurtuma sekä diabetes lisäsivät ikäihmisten todennäköisyyttä siirtyä laitoshoitoon yli 50 prosentilla, kun muut sairaudet ja sosiodemografiset tekijät oli otettu huomioon. Korkeat tulot vähensivät laitoshoidon todennäköisyyttä, kun taas puutteellinen asuminen (ilman peseytymistiloja tai keskus- tai sähkölämmitystä) sekä erittäin puutteellinen asuminen (ilman lämmintä vettä, vesijohtoa, viemäriä tai vesivessaa) lisäsivät todennäkösyyttä, kun muut sosiodemografiset tekijät, sairaudet ja asuinalue oli huomioitu. Kerrostalon hissittömyys ei ollut yhteydessä laitoshoidon todennäköisyyteen. Todennäköisyys siirtyä laitoshoitoon oli jostain syystä korkeampaa niillä ikäihmisillä, jotka asuivat vuokralla ja matalampaa omakotitalossa asuvilla ja niillä, joilla oli auto. Puolison olemassaolo vähensi ja leskeksi jääminen lisäsi laitoshoidon todennäköisyyttä huomattavasti. Todennäköisyys oli erityisen suuri, yli kolminkertainen, kun puolison kuolemasta oli kulunut enintään kuukausi verrattuna niihin, joiden puoliso oli elossa. Todennäköisyys laski, kun puolison kuolemasta kului aikaa. Miesten ja naisten tulokset olivat samansuuntaisia. Korkeat tulot tai koulutus eivät suojanneet riskiltä joutua laitoshoitoon puolison kuoltua. Puolison kuolema näyttää lisäävän hoidon tarvetta, kun kotona ei ole enää puolisoa tukemassa ja huolehtimassa kodin askareista. Laitoshoidon tarve vähenee, jos ja kun lesket ajan kuluessa oppivat elämään yksin. Toisaalta tutkimustulokset saattavat viitata myös siihen, että kaikkein huonokuntoisimmat lesket, jotka eivät pärjää yksin asuessaan, siirtyvät laitoshoitoon hyvin nopeasti puolison kuoltua. Tutkimuksessa oli mukana yhteensä yli 280 000 yli 65-vuotiasta henkilöä, joiden pitkäaikaiseen laitoshoitoon siirtymistä seurattiin tammikuusta 1998 syyskuuhun 2003. Laitoshoidoksi määriteltiin terveyskeskuksissa, sairaaloissa ja vanhainkodeissa tai vastaavissa yksiköissä tapahtuva pitkäaikainen hoito, joka kesti yli 90 vuorokautta tai oli vahvistettu pitkäaikaishoidon päätöksellä. Tutkimuksessa käytetty aineisto koottiin väestörekistereistä, sosiaali- ja terveydenhuollon rekistereistä ja lääkerekistereistä.

Verkkomedian käyttö ja tutkiminen : Iltalehti Online 1995-2001

Marja Heinonen s dissertation Verkkomedian käyttö ja tutkiminen. Iltalehti Online 1995-2001 describes the usage of new internet based news service Iltalehti Online during its first years of existence, 1995-2001. The study focuses on the content of the service and users attitudes towards the new media and its contents. Heinonen has also analyzed and described the research methods that can be used in the research of any new media phenomenon when there is no historical perspective to do the research. Heinonen has created a process model for the research of net medium, which is based on a multidimensional approach. She has chosen an iterative research method inspired by Sudweeks and Simoff s CEDA-methodology in which qualitative and quantitative methods take turns both creating results and new research questions. The dissertation discusses and describes the possibilities of combining several research methods in the study of online news media. On general level it discusses the methodological possibilities of researching a completely new media form when there is no historical perspective. The result of these discussions is in favour for the multidimensional methods. The empiric research was built around three cases of Iltalehti Online among its users: log analysis 1996-1999, interviews 1999 and clustering 2000-2001. Even though the results of different cases were somewhat conflicting here are the central results from the analysis of Iltalehti Online 1995-2001: - Reading was strongly determined by the gender. - The structure of Iltalehti Online guided the reading strongly. - People did not make a clear distinction in content between news and entertainment. - Users created new habits in their everyday life during the first years of using Iltalehti Online. These habits were categorized as follows: - break between everyday routines - established habit - new practice within the rhythm of the day - In the clustering of the users sports, culture and celebrities were the most distinguishing contents. Users did not move across these borders as much as within them. The dissertation gives contribution to the development of multidimensional research methods in the field of emerging phenomena in media field. It is also a unique description of a phase of development in media history through an unique research material. There is no such information (logs + demographics) available of any other Finnish online news media. Either from the first years or today.

Good Lives, Hidden Miseries : An Ethnography of Uncertainty in a Finnish Village

This is an ethnographic study, in the field of medical anthropology, of village life among farmers in southwest Finland. It is based on 12 months of field work conducted 2002-2003 in a coastal village. The study discusses how social and cultural change affects the life of farmers, how they experience it and how they act in order to deal with the it. Using social suffering as a methodological approach the study seeks to investigate how change is related to lived experiences, idioms of distress, and narratives. Its aim has been to draw a locally specific picture of what matters are at stake in the local moral world that these farmers inhabit, and how they emerge as creative actors within it. A central assumption made about change is that it is two-fold; both a constructive force which gives birth to something new, and also a process that brings about uncertainty regarding the future. Uncertainty is understood as an existential condition of human life that demands a response, both causing suffering and transforming it. The possibility for positive outcomes in the future enables one to understand this small suffering of everyday life both as a consequence of social change, which fragments and destroys, and as an answer to it - as something that is positively meaningful. Suffering is seen to engage individuals to ensure continuity, in spite of the odds, and to sustain hope regarding the future. When the fieldwork was initiated Finland had been a member of the European Union for seven years and farmers felt it had substantially impacted on their working conditions. They complained about the restrictions placed on their autonomy and that their knowledge was neither recognised, nor respected by the bureaucrats of the EU system. New regulations require them to work in a manner that is morally unacceptable to them and financial insecurity has become more prominent. All these changes indicate the potential loss of the home and of the ability to ensure continuity of the family farm. Although the study initially focused on getting a general picture of working conditions and the nature of farming life, during the course of the fieldwork there was repeated mention of a perceived high prevalence of cancer in the area. This cancer talk is replete with metaphors that reveal cultural meanings tied to the farming life and the core values of autonomy, endurance and permanence. It also forms the basis of a shared identity and a means of delivering a moral message about the fragmentation of the good life; the loss of control; and the invasion of the foreign. This thesis formed part of the research project Expressions of Suffering. Ethnographies of Illness Experiences in Contemporary Finnish Contexts funded by the Academy of Finland. It opens up a vital perspective on the multiplicity and variety of the experience of suffering and that it is particularly through the use of the ethnographic method that these experiences can be brought to light. Keywords: suffering, uncertainty, phenomenology, habitus, agency, cancer, farming

Balancing Social Citizenship and New Paternalism : Finnish activation policy and street-level practice in a comparative perspective

The study examines the origin and development of the Finnish activation policy since the mid-1990s by using the 2001 activation reform as a benchmark. The notion behind activation is to link work obligations to welfare benefits for the unemployed. The focus of the thesis is policy learning and the impact of ideas on the reform of the welfare state. The broader research interests of the thesis are summarized by two groups of questions. First, how was the Finnish activation policy developed and what specific form did it receive in the 2001 activation reform? Second, how does the Finnish activation policy compare to the welfare reforms in the EU and in the US? What kinds of ideas and instruments informed the Finnish policy? To what extent can we talk about a restructuring or transformation of the Nordic welfare policy? Theoretically, the thesis is embedded in the comparative welfare state research and the concepts used in the contemporary welfare state discourse. Activation policy is analysed against the backdrop of the theories about the welfare state, welfare state governance and citizenship. Activation policies are also analysed in the context of the overall modernization and individualization of lifestyles and its implications for the individual citizen. Further, the different perspectives of the policy analysis are applied to determine the role of implementation and street-level practice within the whole. Empirically, the policy design, its implementation and the experiences of the welfare staff and recipients in Finland are examined. The policy development, goals and instruments of the activation policies have followed astonishingly similar paths in the different welfare states and regimes over the last two decades. In Finland, the policy change has been manifested through several successive reforms that have been introduced since the mid-1990s. The 2001 activation reform the Act on Rehabilitative Work Experience illustrates the broader trend towards stricter work requirements and draws its inspiration from the ideas of new paternalism. The ideas, goals and instruments of the international activation trend are clearly visible in the reform. Similarly, the reform has implications for the traditional Nordic social policies, which incorporate institutionalised social rights and the provision of services.

The effects of the 2004 reduction in the price of alcohol on alcohol-related harm in Finland : A natural experiment based on register data

Changes in alcohol pricing have been documented as inversely associated with changes in consumption and alcohol-related problems. Evidence of the association between price changes and health problems is nevertheless patchy and is based to a large extent on cross-sectional state-level data, or time series of such cross-sectional analyses. Natural experimental studies have been called for. There was a substantial reduction in the price of alcohol in Finland in 2004 due to a reduction in alcohol taxes of one third, on average, and the abolition of duty-free allowances for travellers from the EU. These changes in the Finnish alcohol policy could be considered a natural experiment, which offered a good opportunity to study what happens with regard to alcohol-related problems when prices go down. The present study investigated the effects of this reduction in alcohol prices on (1) alcohol-related and all-cause mortality, and mortality due to cardiovascular diseases, (2) alcohol-related morbidity in terms of hospitalisation, (3) socioeconomic differentials in alcohol-related mortality, and (4) small-area differences in interpersonal violence in the Helsinki Metropolitan area. Differential trends in alcohol-related mortality prior to the price reduction were also analysed. A variety of population-based register data was used in the study. Time-series intervention analysis modelling was applied to monthly aggregations of deaths and hospitalisation for the period 1996-2006. These and other mortality analyses were carried out for men and women aged 15 years and over. Socioeconomic differentials in alcohol-related mortality were assessed on a before/after basis, mortality being followed up in 2001-2003 (before the price reduction) and 2004-2005 (after). Alcohol-related mortality was defined in all the studies on mortality on the basis of information on both underlying and contributory causes of death. Hospitalisation related to alcohol meant that there was a reference to alcohol in the primary diagnosis. Data on interpersonal violence was gathered from 86 administrative small-areas in the Helsinki Metropolitan area and was also assessed on a before/after basis followed up in 2002-2003 and 2004-2005. The statistical methods employed to analyse these data sets included time-series analysis, and Poisson and linear regression. The results of the study indicate that alcohol-related deaths increased substantially among men aged 40-69 years and among women aged 50-69 after the price reduction when trends and seasonal variation were taken into account. The increase was mainly attributable to chronic causes, particularly liver diseases. Mortality due to cardiovascular diseases and all-cause mortality, on the other hand, decreased considerably among the-over-69-year-olds. The increase in alcohol-related mortality in absolute terms among the 30-59-year-olds was largest among the unemployed and early-age pensioners, and those with a low level of education, social class or income. The relative differences in change between the education and social class subgroups were small. The employed and those under the age of 35 did not suffer from increased alcohol-related mortality in the two years following the price reduction. The gap between the age and education groups, which was substantial in the 1980s, thus further broadened. With regard to alcohol-related hospitalisation, there was an increase in both chronic and acute causes among men under the age of 70, and among women in the 50-69-year age group when trends and seasonal variation were taken into account. Alcohol dependence and other alcohol-related mental and behavioural disorders were the largest category in both the total number of chronic hospitalisation and in the increase. There was no increase in the rate of interpersonal violence in the Helsinki Metropolitan area, and even a decrease in domestic violence. There was a significant relationship between the measures of social disadvantage on the area level and interpersonal violence, although the differences in the effects of the price reduction between the different areas were small. The findings of the present study suggest that that a reduction in alcohol prices may lead to a substantial increase in alcohol-related mortality and morbidity. However, large population group differences were observed regarding responsiveness to the price changes. In particular, the less privileged, such as the unemployed, were most sensitive. In contrast, at least in the Finnish context, the younger generations and the employed do not appear to be adversely affected, and those in the older age groups may even benefit from cheaper alcohol in terms of decreased rates of CVD mortality. The results also suggest that reductions in alcohol prices do not necessarily affect interpersonal violence. The population group differences in the effects of the price changes on alcohol-related harm should be acknowledged, and therefore the policy actions should focus on the population subgroups that are primarily responsive to the price reduction.

Death, Ancestors, and HIV/AIDS among the Akan of Ghana

This is a study of crises caused by HIV/AIDS among the Akan of Ghana. It creates more awareness about the epidemic and has indicated other possible paths for campaign strategies. The pandemic has many devastating consequences; yet new infections are recorded daily despite campaigns against the disease. The search for therapy often sees the use of multiple outlets, which expresses Ghana's pluralistic medical system based on Kleinman's sector analytical model involving Western medicine, self-therapy, and folk healing. But it also leaves individuals and kin members in financial quandary. The fieldwork for this study is mainly through participant observation lasting 13 months (February 2003 to March 2004) among the Akan; in addition, some archival materials have been used. The Akan people live in the coastal south and forest zone of Ghana. Every Akan village or town is made up of corporate lineages, and social organisation is based on matrilineal descent. The society is holistic because the matrilineages seek the welfare of all their members. Meyer Fortes, R. S. Rattray and others on the Akan noticed this encompassing nature in the lineage organisation; but they did not make it salient (or failed to notice it) during illness, efforts for healing, and the care of the sick member. HIV/AIDS is an illness which shows the encompassing nature of the Akan matrilineage. It also reveals many contradictions in the group, viz. stigmatisation, abandonment, and attitudes that do not express altruism in a group expected to be closely-knit based on members' belief that they are of the 'same blood'. The crises have been analyzed in the total social system because the disease creates breaches at various levels of social interaction. An analysis of crises in a group is not far-fetched; Victor Turner has shown the way among the Ndembu and has revealed the contraditions in the seemingly uneventful life in the group. This study has identified that in dealing with HIV/AIDS patients and crises about the disease we are dealing with 'holistic' patients. Their cases produce many changes in the matrilineal structure--many orphans are being created and the care of patients is increasingly falling on the elderly. HIV/AIDS also challenges Akan cosmology because, for example, an AIDS death in local notions is a 'bad' demise which fails to produce ancestors who reproduce the society through reincarnation. Campaigns could emphasize this notion. The study begins with a description of the holistic nature of Akan matriliny, and the patients have been described as 'holistic' because their crises affect other people in the holistic society. Chapter 2 discusses the importance of ancestors as the starting points for social order who are constantly revered (in rites invoving the chief, Chapter 4). Chapter 3 focuses on funerals as an important social performance for the welfare of the dead and the living. Chapter 5 concentrates on HIV/AIDS as an illness threat marked by dominant discourses such as poverty, sexuality, migration, and condom use. Chapter 6 analyzes the attempts for therapy, and traditional healers' claims to have a cure. The efforts for therapy continues with spiritual church healing in Chapter 7, and chapter 8 is devoted to care of the patients and its inherent crises. Chapter 9 analyzes the effects of HIV/AIDS afflictions and AIDS deaths on the matrilineal group and in society. The study ends with a short part, devoted to Recommendations based on the findings in this investigation.

A model of social work classification in health care

The introduction of casemix funding for Australian acute health care services has challenged Social Work to demonstrate clear reporting mechanisms, demonstrate effective practice and to justify interventions provided. The term 'casemix' is used to describe the mix and type of patients treated by a hospital or other health care services. There is wide acknowledgement that the procedure-based system of Diagnosis Related Groupings (DRGs) is grounded in a medical/illness perspective and is unsatisfactory in describing and predicting the activity of Social Work and other allied health professions in health care service delivery. The National Allied Health Casemix Committee was established in 1991 as the peak body to represent allied health professions in matters related to casemix classification. This Committee has pioneered a nationally consistent, patient-centred information system for allied health. This paper describes the classification systems and codes developed for Social Work, which includes a minimum data set, a classification hierarchy, the set of activity (input) codes and 'indicator for intervention' codes. The advantages and limitations of the system are also discussed.

Asking the critical questions: An evaluation of social work students' experiences in an international placement

Preparing social work students for the demands of changing social environments and to promote student mobility and interest in overseas employment opportunities have resulted in an increasing demand for international social work placements. The literature describes numerous examples of social work programmes that offer a wide variety of international placements. However, research about the actual benefit of undertaking an overseas placement is scant with limited empirical evidence on the profile of students participating, their experience of the tasks offered, the supervisory practice and the outcomes for students' professional learning and career. This study contributes to the existing body of literature by exploring the relevance of international field placements for students and is unique in that it draws its sample from students who have graduated so provides a distinctive perspective in which to compare their international placement with their other placement/s as well as evaluating what were the benefits and drawbacks for them in terms of their careers, employment opportunities and current professional practice.

Work Stress in the Nursing Profession : An Evaluation of Organizational Causal Attribution

The goal of this study was to examine the role of organizational causal attribution in understanding the relation of work stressors (work-role overload, excessive role responsibility, and unpleasant physical environment) and personal resources (social support and cognitive coping) to such organizational-attitudinal outcomes as work engagement, turnover intention, and organizational identification. In some analyses, cognitive coping was also treated as an organizational outcome. Causal attribution was conceptualized in terms of four dimensions: internality-externality, attributing the cause of one’s successes and failures to oneself, as opposed to external factors, stability (thinking that the cause of one’s successes and failures is stable over time), globality (perceiving the cause to be operative on many areas of one’s life), and controllability (believing that one can control the causes of one’s successes and failures). Several hypotheses were derived from Karasek’s (1989) Job Demands–Control (JD-C) model and from the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner & Schaufeli, 2001). Based on the JD-C model, a number of moderation effects were predicted, stating that the strength of the association of work stressors with the outcome variables (e.g. turnover intentions) varies as a function of the causal attribution; for example, unpleasant work environment is more strongly associated with turnover intention among those with an external locus of causality than among those with an internal locuse of causality. From the JD-R model, a number of hypotheses on the mediation model were derived. They were based on two processes posited by the model: an energy-draining process in which work stressors along with a mediating effect of causal attribution for failures deplete the nurses’ energy, leading to turnover intention, and a motivational process in which personal resources along with a mediating effect of causal attribution for successes foster the nurses’ engagement in their work, leading to higher organizational identification and to decreased intention to leave the nursing job. For instance, it was expected that the relationship between work stressors and turnover intention could be explained (mediated) by a tendency to attribute one’s work failures to stable causes. The data were collected from among Finnish hospital nurses using e-questionnaires. Overall 934 nurses responded the questionnaires. Work stressors and personal resources were measured by five scales derived from the Occupational Stress Inventory-Revised (Osipow, 1998). Causal attribution was measured using the Occupational Attributional Style Questionnaire (Furnham, 2004). Work engagement was assessed through the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (Schaufeli & al., 2002), turnover intention by the Van Veldhoven & Meijman (1994) scale, and organizational identification by the Mael & Ashforth (1992) measure. The results provided support for the function of causal attribution in the overall work stress process. Findings related to the moderation model can be divided into three main findings. First, external locus of causality along with job level moderated the relationship between work overload and cognitive coping. Hence, this interaction was evidenced only among nurses in non-supervisory positions. Second, external locus of causality and job level together moderated the relationship between physical environment and turnover intention. An opposite pattern of interaction was found for this interaction: among nurses, externality exacerbated the effect of perceived unpleasantness of the physical environment on turnover intention, whereas among supervisors internality produced the same effect. Third, job level also disclosed a moderation effect for controllability attribution over the relationship between physical environment and cognitive coping. Findings related to the mediation model for the energetic process indicated that the partial model in which work stressors have also a direct effect on turnover intention fitted the data better. In the mediation model for the motivational process, an intermediate mediation effect in which the effects of personal resources on turnover intention went through two mediators (e.g., causal dimensions and organizational identification) fitted the data better. All dimensions of causal attribution appeared to follow a somewhat unique pattern of mediation effect not only for energetic but also for motivational processes. Overall findings on mediation models partly supported the two simultaneous underlying processes proposed by the JD-R model. While in the energetic process the dimension of externality mediated the relationship between stressors and turnover partially, all the dimensions of causal attribution appeared to entail significant mediator effects in the motivational process. The general findings supported the moderation effect and the mediation effect of causal attribution in the work stress process. The study contributes to several research traditions, including the interaction approach, the JD-C, and the JD-R models. However, many potential functions of organizational causal attribution are yet to be evaluated by relevant academic and organizational research. Keywords: organizational causal attribution, optimistic / pessimistic attributional style, work stressors, organisational stress process, stressors in nursing profession, hospital nursing, JD-R model, personal resources, turnover intention, work engagement, organizational identification.