Economic Dependence and Parental Protection: A Comparative Analysis of Austrian and Slovenian Labour and Social Security Rights of Economically Dependent Self-Employed Parents

Taking parental protection rights as a clear-cut field of study, this article argues that there are significant protection gaps in the social rights and employment protection of the economically dependent self-employed. Their exclusion from employment protection can be justified as far as the protective purpose is tied to the personal subordination of the employee relationship. However, certain vulnerabilities arise not from personal, but from economic dependency, whereas the changing labour market and the growing area of precarious self-employment must be considered. Comparing the rights of working parents in Slovenia and Austria, we distinguish between employees and economically dependent self-employed persons in this specific area and point to challenges for the wider field of labour and social rights. The purposes of parental protection rights are diverse; they include health protection, guarantee social security and serve equal treatment purposes. Therefore, they represent an ideal field to discuss arguments regarding the inclusion or exclusion of the economically dependent self-employed into different protective frameworks.

Determinants of overweight and obesity among adolescents in Zimbabwe: A scoping review

Background: Childhood obesity is a growing public health concern worldwide. Unfortunately, the health interventions remain biased towards addressing undernutrition. Aims: The study aimed to summarize the evidence on the determinants of obesity among adolescents in Zimbabwe. Methods: The Bronfenbrenner socio-ecological model (SEM) was used to classify these determinants: individual, social, environmental, and economic or government policies. The five-stage Arksey and O’Malley review methodology was used to formulate research questions, systematically search, and screen for relevant studies done between 2010 and 2020, data extraction, and summarizing the evidence. Google, PubMed, Google scholar, and United Nations websites were searched to identify relevant studies. The search yielded 22 results. Anthropometric indicators and the determinants assessed in each study were extracted. Results: Only 10 studies explored the determinants of obesity among adolescents in Zimbabwe. The risk of obesity was higher among older adolescents (16-19 years), particularly girls who reside in urban settings. Interestingly, girls had higher nutrition knowledge compared to boys. At the environmental level, fast food consumption, unhealthy snacking, low dietary diversity, carrying a packed lunchbox to school, and using non-active forms of transport to school was associated with obesity. In addition, having formally employed parents, and a small family size increased the odds of obesity. At the societal level, high family income and Christianity increased the rate of obesity. Economic instability appears to drive the availability and consumption of cheap unhealthy foods, particularly within the school environments. Conclusions: Adolescence is a critical stage where obesity starts to increase especially in girls as they graduate into adulthood. Sedentary lifestyles and the adoption of unhealthy dietary decisions appear to be exuberating this obesity problem in urban areas. School-based, family-oriented obesity prevention interventions which address gender discrepancies in eating habits and physical activity are recommended in these and related settings. Keywords: Adolescents, obesity, socio-ecological model, malnutrition, Zimbabwe.

Caring Again: Parent Caregivers for Their Wounded Adult Children Veterans

With military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan surviving what were previously fatal injuries, there is ongoing discussion about how to provide care for them and support their families. Parents frequently provide care for their unmarried, injured adult children, especially those returning with polytraumatic injuries, PTSD, or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Parents (n=160) of combat injured adult children who participated in a DoD-funded behavioral intervention study are described. Parents were mainly mothers, average age 60.2 years, with ages ranging from 45 to 79. The veterans had functional limitations, and only 9.2% were employed. Parents, on average, had been caregivers for 6.6 years and daily spent 7.7 hours providing care and 17.2 hours on duty, primarily focused on supervision and daily life management rather than physical care. Average caregiver burden score approached high and was related to veteran TBI diagnosis, aggressive behavior toward others, and functional limitations. Few parents (22.7%) worked full-time; 85.3% had decreased personal spending, 84.0% dipped into personal savings, and 58.9% reduced retirement saving. These findings are similar to those of aging parent caregivers of adult children with serious mental illness or developmental disabilities in amount of care provided to their adult children, their level of burden, financial and career cost to themselves, and concern about their future and their children’s future. As these parents and their adult children age, providing care and resources will present greater challenges for them, for the military and veteran care systems they rely on for support, and for society.

Materialism on Students' Behavior

Students left behind by their overseas employed parents has become a commonphenomenon in the Philippines. Most parents practice materialism to compensate for theirabsence. However, materialism may result to prevalent impacts on the students’ academicbehavior. The study used phenomenological design to determine the influences ofmaterialism on the Grade 9 students’ academic behavior enrolled at Virgen MilagrosaUniversity Foundation Special Science High School. The sample population wasobtained by non-probability quota sampling whereby only 20 students who have overseasemployed parents and have been affected by materialism were the participants. Thestudy used a profile form and an unstructured interview as tools for data collection. Thedata gathered were analyzed to answer the study’s research questions. The major findingsof the study showed that materialism positively affects the students’ academic behaviorprimarily because of the advantages, rewards, and parental inspiration. Materialism alsonegatively affects the students’ academic behavior mainly by causing distractions, wrongpriorities, and poor conducts. Additional results relevant to the study were the differentinsights of the students about parental materialism and the leading materials they receive.The study concluded that materialism influences the students’ academic behavior bothpositively and negatively based on different conditions. It was recommended that thefindings of this study would be useful to the relative persons in understanding theirsituation broadly and in making solutions to resist the stated dilemma.

How can we become more equal? Public policies and parents’ work–family preferences in Germany

This study examines how public policies affect parents’ preferences for a more egalitarian division of paid and unpaid work. Based on the assumption that individuals develop their preferences within a specific policy context, we examine how changes in three policies affect mothers’ and fathers’ work–family preferences: the availability of high-quality, affordable childcare; the right to return to a full-time job after having reduced hours to part-time and an increase in the number of ‘partner months’ in parental leave schemes. Analysing a unique probability sample of parents with young children in Germany from 2015 ( N = 1756), we find that fathers would want to work slightly fewer hours if they had the right to return to a full-time position after working part-time, and mothers would want to work slightly more hours if childcare opportunities were improved. Full-time working parents, moreover, are found to prefer fewer hours independent of the policy setting, while non-employed parents would like to work at least some hours. Last but not least, our analyses show that increasing the number of partner months in the parental leave scheme considerably increases fathers’ preferences for longer and mothers’ preferences for shorter leave. Increasing the number of partner months in parental schemes hence has the greatest potential to increase gender equality.

Attitudes and Experience of Malaysian Parents towards School Closure during the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2020, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had triggered the lockdown in many countries around the world. School closure was no exception as a measure to limit the spread of the disease. This step was expected to bring some impact on parents, especially if both of them were working. In this study, we aimed to investigate Malaysian parental attitudes and experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. We conducted an online cross-sectional survey by using a structured questionnaire, between May and June 2020. A total of 273 parents with children aged below 18 years old were involved. Descriptive analysis was done to determine the sociodemographic data of the respondents, their attitudes, and their experiences associated with the school closure during the outbreak. 97.4 % of parents agreed with the school closure. The majority of them believed the outbreak was serious and the school dismissal was appropriate to protect their children and the community. However, only 54.9 % were well prepared for the measure. 11.4 % of parents had difficulty arranging childcare. During the outbreak, 85.7 % experienced missing work and 71.4 % felt at risk of losing their jobs. The school closure also indirectly incurred additional costs for 88.6% of the parents and partially contributed to 75.5% of the parents losing income. Unexpected long-term school closure might cause some adverse outcomes to the employed parents during a pandemic, therefore, the health authority and education department should take this into consideration when mitigating this issue.

Provjera faktorske strukture hrvatske verzije upitnika „Fleksibilnost granica radne i obiteljske uloge“

FACTORS’ STRUCTURE OF CROATIAN VERSION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE »BOUNDARY FLEXIBILITY OF WORK AND FAMILY ROLE The aim of this paper was to verify the factor structure and metric characteristics of the Croatian version of the questionnaire »Boundary Flexibility« (Matthews & Barnes-Farrell, 2010.). The survey was conducted on a convenient sample of 187 employed parents of underage children. In the data analysis, factor analysis and Spearman correlation coefficient were used. The three-factor structure of the questionnaire was obtained: the first factor »Family plans adjustment to the job requirements« contains six items (Cronbach alfa = 0.891), indicating readiness of respondents to adjust family plans to job requirements. The second factor in »Job requirements adjustment to the family role« (Cronbach alpha = 0.814) contains eight items, which point out the ability and willingness of respondents to adjust their job requirements to family obligations. The third factor, »Possibility of increased engagement at work without major difficulties in performing family obligations«, contains four items (Cronbach alpha = 0.784), and refers to the respondents’ ability to meet increased demands at work, without adverse effects and significant difficulties in the family role. Given that the extracted sub-scales are not fully matched to the factor structure of the original questionnaire, the obtained results point out to certain specifics in the application of the Croatian version of this questionnaire. Verification of the metric characteristics has shown the satisfactory reliability of the obtained sub-scales and the possibility of further application of this instrument. Key words: work-family role balance, boundary flexibility, metric characteristics of the questionnaire.

Sociodemographic Profile of Encephalocele Patients in Department of Surgery, Neurosurgery Division, Dr. Mohammad Hoesin General Hospital From 2015-2019: A Retrospective Study

Background: Encephalocele is a collection of congenital diseases characterized by protrusion of brain tissue with or without protrusion of the meninges through a defect in the skull.1 Incidence of encephalocele is found in 1 in 35.000 live births in North America and Europe. Five Types of encephalocele based on anatomical location have different patterns, where in western countries it is reported that it is more often located in the occipital area, whereas in Southeast Asia the frontoetmoidal type is more frequently reported. geographic.3 On this basis, this study was carried out. Method:This research is a retrospective study with a descriptive design. Data taken from January 1st, 2015 to December 31st, 2019. Result: There were 27 encephalocele patients with complete medical record data with the most distribution being women, age range 1 month to 1 year, work of self-employed parents, ethnic Sumatran parents, region of occipitocervical lesions, onset of action 1 month to 1 year, and the most complications. is a cele rupture Conclusion: The level of parental awareness and appropriate management of all medical personnel determine the prognosis of encephalocele sufferers.