Part 1 - Looking Back and Looking Around: How Parents, Coaches and Athletes See Psychosocial Development in Adolescent Performance Sport.

Sport has the potential to support psychosocial development in young people. However, extant studies have tended to evaluate purpose-built interventions, leaving regular organised sport relatively overlooked. Moreover, previous work has tended to concentrated on a narrow range of outcomes. To address these gaps, we conducted a season-long ethnography of a youth performance sport club based on a novel Realist Evaluation approach [1]. We construed the club as a social intervention within a complex system of agents and structures. In this - Part 1 - account we detail the perceptions of former and current club parents, players and coaches, using them to build a set of programme theories. The resulting network of outcomes (i.e. self, emotional, social, moral and cognitive) and generative mechanisms (i.e., the attention factory, the greenhouse for growth, the personal boost, and the real-life simulator) spanning across multiple contextual layers provides a nuanced understanding of stakeholders’ views and experiences. This textured perspective of the multi-faceted process of development provides new insights for administrators, coaches and parents to maximise the developmental properties of youth sport, and signposts new avenues for research in this area.

COVID 19 Pandemic: Changes in the emotions, body weights and nutrition habits of individuals during social intervention measures

BACKGROUND: During the Covid 19 pandemic, the increase in the anxiety levels of individuals is associated with the increase in body weight. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of changes in individuals’ experiences and mood on eating habits and body weights in during social restrictions due to COVID-19. METHODS: The study included 623 adults in Turkey. Demographic characteristics, anthropometric measurements, information about nutritional habits during the pandemic period were questioned via an online survey. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to evaluate individuals’ negative perspectives. RESULTS: The rate of patients who experienced body weight changes during the pandemic period was 61.4% (40.2% experienced increase), the mean BDI value was found to be higher in individuals whose body weight increased/decreased compared to those who experienced no change in body weight (p = 0.008, p = 0.02, respectively). Variables that positively affected the BDI scores, which was performed in individuals with increased body weight, main meal numbers (p < 0.03), and change in dried fruit consumption (p = 0.05). The variables that negatively affected the BDI scores were body weight increase (p = 0.05) and changes in cheese consumption. CONCLUSIONS: We found that the changes in the emotional state during COVID-19 had an effect on dietary habits and body weight. There is a need for more comprehensive randomized studies on the interaction between lifestyle changes during the social intervention period due to the Covid 19 epidemic, quality of life, emotional state and eating habits.

Arenal, Concepción

This article studies the influence of Concepción Arenal (1820–1893) on the foundations of social work in Spain. With her, one can learn about the most important ideas of the 19th-century liberal school of thought, which, in its enlightened and reforming aspect, had a great impact on the consideration of human dignity, poverty, the relationship between intervener and intervened—as well as the role and responsibility of the state, civil society, and charity in social intervention. Her pragmatic perspective stands out among those authors who contributed with elements of analysis to theorizing the social question in Spain. Her singularity is defined by the centrality of the human being and the integral development of one’s abilities in a society where the necessary means can be found. Additionally, she is both a national and international inspiration thanks to her contribution to women’s rights and the reform of the penal code.

Disability and Human Diversity: A Reinterpretation of Ẹni-òòṣà1 Philosophy in Yorùbá Belief

As an exercise in African philosophy, this paper examines and demonstrates the limitations of the two popular extremes in disability studies, namely, the medical and social models of disability. While the former is essentialist in rendering disability as a fixed condition and as an individual problem to be confronted with medical intervention, the latter identifies it as a social problem that requires social intervention. The paper employs the methods of hermeneutics, critical and conceptual analyses to facilitate an understanding that, within the context of Yorùbá belief, disability goes beyond the realm of human beings and involves the active participation of Yorùbá deities, especially Òrìṣà-ńlá or Ọbàtálá. Consequently, it questions the assumptions associated with the recognition of the dichotomy between “normality” and “abnormality” and confronts the mystical and/or mythographic representation of ẹni-òòṣà or persons with disabilities with a view to offering new insights into how persons with disabilities ought to be conceptualized in order to promote their inherent human dignity.

Analysis of the Areas of Social Discrimination in the Romani de Huelva Community

Although in recent years a whole series of measures and programmes have been carried out with the aim of having an impact on the situations of discrimination and racism in which the Romani population is immersed, the results obtained allow us to surmise that, although there has been some progress, the situation has not entirely changed. A stereotyped view of the Romani population still exists in some parts of Spanish society, meaning that this community continues to be immersed in a profound process of social exclusion. Objectives of research are to demonstrate whether there are situations of discrimination in the Huelva Roma population, as well as to know the areas in which these acts of discrimination are carried out. A qualitative method was chosen. The technique used was an in-depth interview, to allow us to understand the perspective of the professionals who work with this group. In general, we have seen how situations of discrimination against the Romani population persist. These situations extend to different spheres of life, and whose factors respond to a multiplicity of causes. There is a need for significant, long-lasting change. This means it is necessary both to change the processes of social intervention and to involve the Romani community itself, as without their collaboration and legitimacy any intervention will lack future perspective.

Nutrition as Health Intervention in Central Europe

This issue of the Clinical and Social Intervention Journal is devoted to the topic of nutrition and physical activity while tackling the problem of metabolic syndrome. Nutrition is a factor of the external environment that significantly affects a per- son's quality of life and their health. It is intended to: prevent nutritional deficiencies; achieve high functional performance; prevent diseases of civilization (cardiovascular diseases, obesity, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, cancer, metabolic syndrome). Nu- trition effects the development of chronic diseases by up to 50%.

Sport for Development and Peace

Sport has been used as a core component of programming and in building inclusive social spaces long before it was finally recognized and mainstreamed as a part of the Millennium Development Goals and later in the Sustainable Development Goals. S Ananthakrishnan describes in detail the progressive incorporation of sports in the UN development agenda and discusses the limits and possibilities for member countries like India. The chapter is designed around the issue of sports as a new engine for social development across the globe and its role in empowering the disadvantaged, and its potential for combatting discrimination, engaging youth and women. Until very recently development studies scholars have neglected the rich possibilities of sports as an entry point and a stimulus for change. However, over the decade it has become a strategy for social intervention among disadvantaged communities. The richer countries of the Global North have to be persuaded to invest in sports and its equitable growth in the developing regions, thus defining a new path of international cooperation.

The Impacts of Socioeconomic Crisis in Portugal on Social Protection and Social Work Practices

The effects of the international crisis brought economic and financial risks, as well as consequences for human, social and sustainable development. This study aims to analyse the effects of social intervention with families since the 2008 crisis in Portugal. Through a qualitative approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with social workers (23), to identify the main impacts of the crisis and the adopted social intervention practices. We highlight a new increase in social problems and the growth of vulnerable groups facing an unprepared social protection system. The Portuguese case reveals that the effects of austerity have shown a decline in the welfare and benefits system, leading to worsened social problems, such as increased poverty and unemployment, as well as social inequalities. Social Work was required to respond to these consequences, although organisational contexts and austerity measures constrained practitioners’ autonomy. By reflecting on this critical period, we seek to contribute to better social protection and assistance models in the face of the current and future crisis. In this sense, Social Work practice ensures a means to guarantee fundamental rights and social justice, preparing social workers and social intervention for new challenges in crisis contexts.

Appreciative Case Management: Using the Social Constructionism in Social Intervention

The article presents a research in the field of case management, experiencing two forms of it: problem-centered case and appreciative case management. For this, an experiment carried out on a six-month period, during which time we verified the results obtained by applying two different supervision models, problem-oriented supervision and appreciative supervision. Based on parallel process, the case management was changed. For this experiment ten cases were identified with various degrees of risk in child abandonment. When the appreciative case management was applied, the studied cases showed better results compared to the cases that were managed based on problem. In the case of services aimed at preventing child abandonment, it can be seen that the classical intervention focused on problem, lasting less than three months, has no positive effect on the clients’ situation. This practically means that in such circumstances, the financial, human and material resources used for an intervention that lasts less than three months are wasted without significant results. The appreciative case management produces tangible results after a shorter period of time by comparison to the classical intervention. This can be seen in the results obtained within the experiment, which are due to the use of the appreciative approach in intervention. Focusing on problems in social work and the attempt to solve them may sometimes not result in their resolution; the orientation towards identifying deficiencies and dysfunctionalities yields poorer results than the appreciative intervention and preserves the problem.