Deconstructing bias: The decision-making process among child protective service workers in Chile

Worldwide, there has been a push toward reforming or abolishing child welfare systems because of systemic bias against families. Few studies have examined the role of bias in decision-making processes among child welfare practitioners, especially in child welfare systems in processes of change/reform. This qualitative study utilized discussion groups with child welfare teams to examine how professionals navigated the decision-making process in cases of child maltreatment. A grounded theory analysis revealed that professionals deconstruct macro, mezzo, and micro biases as they make decisions. Implications for global social work, such as self-reflection and structural changes, and for future research are explored.

A decade of socioeconomic inequality in type 2 diabetes area-level prevalence: an unshakeable status quo?

Aims: It is well known that there is a socioeconomic gradient in the prevalence of many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes (T2DM). We present a simple assessment of the macro-level association between area socioeconomic disadvantage and the area-level prevalence of T2DM in Danish municipalities and the development in this relationship over the last decade. Methods: We used readily available public data on the socioeconomic composition of municipalities and T2DM prevalence to illustrate this association and report the absolute and relative summary measures of socioeconomic inequality over the time period 2008–2018. Results: The results show a persistent relationship between municipality socioeconomic disadvantage and T2DM prevalence across all analyses, with a modelled gap in T2DM prevalence between the most and least disadvantaged municipalities, the slope index of inequality, of 1.23 [0.97;1.49] in 2018. Conclusions: These results may be used to indicate areas with specific needs, to encourage systematic monitoring of socioeconomic gradients in health, and to provide a descriptive backdrop for a discussion of how to tackle these socioeconomic and geographic inequalities, which seem to persist even in the context of the comprehensive welfare systems in Scandinavia.

The Influence of Gender Equality on Volunteering Among European Senior Citizens

This research analyzes how gender equality influences the participation of European senior citizens in a range of volunteering activities (Social Awareness, Professional and Political, Education, and Religion). The main contribution is the simultaneous consideration of different levels of data aggregation: individual, national and welfare system. This allows conclusions to be drawn on the effects of variables linked to sociodemographic characteristics, gender equality and welfare systems. The empirical estimation utilised microdata from the World Values Survey (2005/09 and 2010/14) and the United Nations Development Programme. Results suggest that the European senior citizens appear to believe that they are more equal than the official statistics of their countries indicate. Men are more likely to participate in professional and education activities; women are more likely to be involved in religious organisations. Welfare systems influence volunteering behaviours. The promotion of macro-policies for gender equality could be important for increasing participation in non-profit organisations.

Understandings of Food Insecurity in Aotearoa New Zealand: Considering Practitioners’ Perspectives in a Neoliberal Context Using Q Methodology

Food insecurity in advanced capitalist nations has persisted over decades despite excess food production, welfare systems, and charitable responses. This research examines the perspectives of practitioners who engage with food insecurity in Aotearoa New Zealand using a Q methodology study to synthesise and characterise three typical subjective positions. Consensus across the three positions includes the state’s responsibility for the food security of citizens, while points of contention include the role of poverty as a cause of food insecurity and the significance of a human right to food. The research contributes to research into food insecurity in advanced capitalist nations by identifying areas of consensus and contention among food insecurity practitioners, identifying the significance of children and moral failure in perceptions of food insecurity, and comparing practitioners’ perspectives to existing approaches to researching food insecurity in advanced capitalist nations.

Relationships between Expenditure of Regional Governments and Suicide Mortalities Caused by Six Major Motives in Japan

Suicide mortality in Japan reduced in the period of 2009–2018. A number of studies identified the impact of financial governmental support for social welfare systems on suicide mortality; however, the detailed effects of specific regional policies, designed according to regional cultural, economic, education and welfare situations, on suicide mortality remain to be clarified. Therefore, the present study analyses the associations between the regional governmental expenditure of six major divisions, “public health”, “public works”, “police”, “ambulance/fire services”, “welfare” and “education”, and suicide mortalities caused by six major suicidal motives, related to “family”, “health”, “economy”, “employment”, “romance” and “school”, across the 47 prefectures in Japan during the period of 2009–2018, using fixed-effect analysis of hierarchal linear regression with robust standard error. The expenditure of “public works” displayed a positive relationship with suicide mortality of females caused by family-related motives but was not related to other suicide mortalities, whereas the expenditures in “public health”, “police”, “ambulance/fire services”, “welfare” and “education” contributed to a reduction in suicide mortality, at least in some statistical indicators. The expenditures of both “ambulance/fire” and “education” were predominantly effective among the six major divisions of regional governmental expenditure in reducing suicide mortalities. In the education subdivisions, the expenditure of “kindergarten” was related to a reduction in suicide mortalities caused by a wide spectrum of motives. The amount of expenditure of welfare indicated the limited possibility of facilitating a reduction in suicide mortalities caused by only motives associated with economy or employment. However, in the welfare subdivisions, the expenditure of “child welfare” and “social welfare” was effective in reducing suicide mortalities, but the expenditure of “elderly welfare” was unexpectedly related to an increase in suicide mortalities. These results suggest that most Japanese people are struggling to bring up children even in the situation of an increasing elderly population with a decreasing birth rate. Therefore, it is important to enhance the investment welfare policy for the future to improve the childcare environment. Although the issue of an increasing elderly population and a decreasing birth rate in Japan has not yet improved, the obtained results suggest that evidence-based welfare expenditure redistributions of prefectures and municipalities could improve Japanese society and welfare systems.

The Level of Financial Literacy among Muslim Millennial Students

Millenials, also known as Generation Y, are a demographic cohort who were born between early 1980’s and late 1990’s and are reportedly to be active users of FinTech. At the same time, recent research documents the problems Millenials are prone to inadequate financial knowledge, an unsatisfactory current financial situation, and misuse of retirement accounts. The last segment is particularly very important since life expectancy today is rising, while pension and social welfare systems are being strained. In this paper we examine the level of financial literacy among millennial students who at the same time active users of financial technology. The data was collected via questionnaire distribution to International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) students in the campus. From all collected responses 217 which matches the research criteria such as students who belong to Millennial generation were selected for analysis. To measure financial literacy level, we use the “Big Three” method designed by Lusardi and Mitchell (2011). In our study where respondents are university students, findings suggest that 47% out of all 217 respondents has a satisfactory level of financial literacy. The level of financial literacy is higher among post-graduate students and engineering students. Mobile payment users comprise 64% of respondents and only 24% among them is financially literate. It is also noteworthy that 93% of respondents do not have a retirement account. These findings are very important since the study is conducted in a university environment where 100% of the respondents are involved in higher education. It is crucial to teach finance subjects in all faculties and there is a dire need to establish an institution which will regularly conduct a nationwide survey to access the level of financial literacy and financial behaviour of youth to avoid the financial collapse of Generation Y.

Universal Credit and Automated Decision Making: A Case of the Digital Tail Wagging the Policy Dog?

Intended to simplify the benefit system and ’make work pay’, Universal Credit (UC) is the UK’s first ‘digital by design’ benefit. Proponents of UC highlight the greater efficiency and effectiveness of digitalisation, while critics point to costly IT write-offs and the ‘digital divide’ between people with the skills and resources to access digital technologies, and those without. Less attention has been paid to automation in UC and its effects on the people subject to these rapidly developing technologies. Findings from research exploring couples’ experiences of claiming UC suggest that automated processes for assessing entitlement and calculating payment may be creating additional administrative burdens for some claimants. Rigid design parameters built into UC’s digital architecture may also restrict options for policy reform. The article calls for a broadening of thinking and research about digitalisation in welfare systems to include questions of administrative burden and the wider effects and impacts on claimants.

The End of the Tunnel

In settler states, Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) girls and young women are targeted for specific kinds of social service interventions embedded in the gendered genocidal logics of colonial ideologies. Interlocking forms of violent carceral capture operate across settler institutions such as child welfare, immigration, and justice systems that are tasked with policing and criminalizing nonwhite girls. Conceptualizing these interconnected systems as a transcarceral pipeline, we examine their inner workings and impacts on Indigenous girls and BIPOC refugee girls in Canada through two sites of inquiry: child welfare systems targeting Indigenous girls and young mothers; and the immigration-child-welfare pipeline for refugee girls of color. Our analysis stresses the urgency of anticolonial systems of care grounded in sovereignty-making collective relations.