Sozialwesen (SW)
Refine
Year
Publication Type
- Article (133) (remove)
Language
- English (133) (remove)
Keywords
- Humans (15)
- Child (13)
- Female (12)
- Male (12)
- Adolescent (10)
- Adult (10)
- Middle Aged (8)
- Surveys and Questionnaires (7)
- Cross-Sectional Studies (6)
- Neoplasms/psychology (6)
One of many ways in which spoken dialogue systems (SDS) are becoming more and more flexible is in their choice of words (e.g. alignment to the user’s vocabulary). We examined how users perceive such adaptive and non-adaptive SDS regarding trustworthiness and usability. In Experiment 1, 130 participants read out questions to an SDS that either made or did not make lexical alignment in its replies. They perceived higher cognitive demand when the SDS did not employ alignment. In Experiment 2, 135 participants listened to a conversation between a human and the same SDS in an online study. They judged the aligned SDS to have more integrity and to be more likeable. Implications for the design of SDS are discussed.
BACKGROUND Cancer patients and their minor children have been shown to experience psychological distress. The objectives of the current study were to 1) describe the need for and use of psychosocial support and 2) determine predictors of family-centered support use in patients with minor children. METHODS A population-based sample of 1809 patients was recruited via 2 cancer registries. The eligibility criteria were age 25 years to 55 years, an initial diagnosis received no longer than 6 years before this survey, and having at least 1 minor child. Medical characteristics and self-report measures were used. RESULTS Overall, approximately 38% cases were identified as being borderline or probable anxiety cases and 16% were identified as being borderline or probable depression cases. Since diagnosis, 44% of the patients had used psychosocial support and 9% had received family-focused and child-focused support. These patients perceived a lower quality of life and poorer family functioning. Approximately 73% of patients with children wanted information concerning or psychosocial services to support their children or parenting. Use of family-centered support was not found to be predicted by disease-related factors (eg, cancer staging) but rather by subjective needs (eg, mental health and having a distressed child in the family). CONCLUSIONS The results of the current study emphasize the importance of child and parenting concerns in psychosocial care in oncology. Screenings for children and appropriate training programs for health care may increase awareness of this issue.
OBJECTIVE Parents with cancer are concerned about the impact of their disease on their children. However, parenting concerns and associated factors in cancer survivors have not previously been analyzed. The purpose of this study is to examine parenting concerns and to test a path model for understanding parenting concerns in cancer survivors. METHODS In a cross-sectional study, a total of 1416 parents with cancer (mean age 47.5years, 74% women) having minor or young-adult children were recruited through two cancer registries. Parenting concerns were assessed using the Parenting Concerns Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the associations between social support, parenting confidence, emotional distress, family functioning and parenting concerns. RESULTS Mothers reported higher total parenting concerns than fathers (p<0.001). We observed strong effects of emotional distress and parenting confidence on parenting concerns. Family dysfunctioning was associated with lower concerns. An indirect association between social support and parenting concerns was identified. CONCLUSION Parenting concerns in cancer survivors display the need for interventions and after care programs that focus on affected families with minor and young adult children. The results of the structural path model illustrate the associations between psychological and interactional factors. Supporting parents with cancer in their parenting confidence and strengthen social support and family functioning may not only reduce the long-term burden on the parents themselves but also the burden on the entire family.
There is still so much ahead of us - Family functioning in families of palliative cancer patients
(2013)
Adopting a systems approach, parental cancer has its impact on patients, spouses, and dependent children. The purpose of the current study was to examine family functioning dependent on parental disease stage and on family member perspective in families of cancer patients with adolescent children. The cross-sectional study was conducted within a German multisite research project of families before their first child-centered counseling encounter. The sample comprised individuals nested within N = 169 families. Analyses performed included analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and intraclass correlation. Open answers were analyzed following quantitative content analysis procedures. Between 15% and 36% of family members reported dysfunctional general functioning scores. Parents indicated more dysfunctional scores on the Family Assessment Device scale Roles, and adolescents more dysfunctional Communication scores. Regarding assessment of family functioning, there was higher agreement in families with parents in a palliative situation. For adolescents with parents in palliation, incidents because of the disease tend to become more dominant, and spending time with the family tends to become even more important. As our study pointed out, parental cancer, and especially parental palliative disease, is associated with both perceived critical and positive aspects in family functioning. Supporting families in these concerns as well as encouraging perceptions of positive aspects are important components of psycho-oncological interventions for families with dependent children.
Communicating with spoken dialogue systems (SDS) such as Apple’s Siri® and Google’s Now is becoming more and more common. We report a study that manipulates an SDS’s word use with regard to politeness. In an experiment, 58 young adults evaluated the spoken messages of our self-developed SDS as it replied to typical questions posed by university freshmen. The answers were either formulated politely or rudely. Dependent measures were both holistic measures of how students perceived the SDS as well as detailed evaluations of each single answer. Results show that participants not only evaluated the content of rude answers as being less appropriate and less pleasant than the polite answers, but also evaluated the rude system as less accurate. Lack of politeness also impacted aspects of the perceived trustworthiness of the SDS. We conclude that users of SDS expect such systems to be polite, and we then discuss some practical implications for designing SDS.
STAMPPP - Science and the treatment of autism: A multimedia package for parents and professionals.
(2010)
STAMPPP - Science and the treatment of autism: A multimedia package for parents and professionals
(2011)
OBJECTIVE Although cancer patients with minor children have become more of a focus of psycho-oncological research, little is known about specific parenting concerns. Instruments to assess the concerns and worries of parents with cancer are rare. The Parenting Concerns Questionnaire (PCQ) addresses this issue. We analyzed parenting concerns in cancer survivors and evaluated the German version of the PCQ. METHODS A total of 1416 cancer survivors with minor and young adult children (≤21 years) were recruited in a register-based study. Descriptive analyses as well as reliability and validity analyses were conducted. We performed a confirmatory factorial analysis of the factor structure proposed by the authors of the original version on the PCQ. RESULTS Seventy-three percent of the cancer survivors were women, average age was 47.5 years (SD 5.9). Mean time since diagnosis was 44 months (SD 23.4). Between 18 and 31% of survivors reported that they were concerned about their children. The PCQ proved to be a reliable and valid instrument showing medium correlations with standardized measures in expected directions and discriminating between survivors with and without use of psychosocial support services. The factor structure was supported by the confirmatory factorial analysis. CONCLUSIONS Assessing parenting concerns gives an additional insight into the situation of parents with cancer. In our sample of cancer survivors, we identified one out of three survivors being concerned regarding the impact of their illness on their children. The PCQ can be considered as a valid and reliable instrument with regard to identifying concerned parents with cancer. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Perceived intergroup threat and attitudes of host community members towards immigrant acculturation
(2003)
Parents’ attitudes towards inclusive education in day care facilities in the city and rural district of Osnabrueck in Germany were assessed by conducting a written survey (N = 809). In the survey, parents indicated their perceptions of advantages and risks of inclusion for children with and without special needs. The interviewed parents perceived more advantages than risks for both groups of children. The results of the assessment varied depending on the
kind of child care facility. The paper concludes with
recommendations for future research and about how institutions should develop to adequately go about the implementation of inclusive education.
UNLABELLED BACKGROUND Parental palliative disease is a family affair, however adolescent's well-being and coping are still rarely considered. The objectives of this paper were a) to identify differences in psychosocial adjustment and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) among adolescents and young adults with parents suffering from palliative cancer or cancers in other disease stages, b) to relate psychosocial adjustment and health-related quality of life to adolescent coping, and c) to explore significant mediator and predictor variables. METHODS Cross-sectional data were derived from a multi-site research study of families before child-centered counselling. N=86 adolescents and young adults were included, their mean age 13.78 years (sd 2.45), 56% being female. Performed analyses included ANCOVA, multiple linear regression, and mediation analysis. RESULTS Adolescents with parents suffering from palliative cancers reported significantly less total psychosocial problems, and better overall HRQoL. There were no significant group differences regarding coping frequency and efficacy. Our set of coping items significantly mediated the effect of parental disease stage on psychosocial problems and HRQoL. Further, parental disease status and general family functioning predicted psychosocial problems (R2adj =.390) and HRQoL (R2adj =.239) best. CONCLUSION The study indicates distress among adolescents throughout the entire parental disease process. Our analysis suggests that counselling services could offer supportive interventions which focus particularly on adolescent coping as well as family functioning.
The presence of cancer and additional parental responsibilities can increase strain for individual patients as well as for their children. The construct of health-related quality of life (HRQL) is appropriate to measure a combination of physical, mental and social consequences as a result of disease. However, previous research has merely focused on symptom checklists. This study addresses the following questions: (i) does HRQL in children and their parents with cancer differ compared to the general population? (ii) Are there any variables that are associated with HRQL in children? (iii) What are current psychosocial support needs? A population-based survey of 976 survivors (<6 years post diagnosis) with minor children between 6 and 18 years (n = 1,449) was conducted with two German cancer registries. HRQL was assessed using SF-8 (survivors) and Kidscreen (children). The results were compared to normative populations, and predictors associated with HRQL in children were evaluated within a multilevel model. We found that the HRQL in children was better compared to the norm. Only children with support needs had worse HRQL. Older age, having a mother with cancer, having a parent not living together with a partner, and worse parental physical and mental health influenced HRQL in children. Illness characteristics were irrelevant. Even with a mean of 3.5 years after diagnosis, survivors had lower physical and mental health compared to the norm. Our findings reinforce the need for health professionals to pay attention to younger patients and their children. Even years after diagnosis, life might not have returned to normal.
Parental cancer: factors associated with children's psychosocial adjustment - a systematic review
(2012)
OBJECTIVE Children of cancer patients have an increased risk of developing psychosocial problems. But not all children are alike vulnerable to this stressful event. Thus, knowledge of risk and protective factors is required to design specific diagnostic tools and interventions for this vulnerable population. This study aims to provide a review and methodological evaluation of current studies examining factors associated with children's psychosocial adjustment when a parent has cancer. METHODS Four databases were systematically searched for quantitative research articles examining associative factors of children's adjustment. Study characteristics were analyzed and methodological quality was assessed by two independent reviewers. RESULTS 28 studies examining associative factors in 2896 families were identified. The included studies used a broad range of instruments assessing children's adjustment. Most patients were female breast cancer patients with middle to high socio-economic status. The majority of included studies used correlational approaches and cross-sectional designs. None of the studies examined toddlers or assessed children's quality of life. Across studies with low to high quality, we found no evidence of illness-related factors, except worse disease status that was related to lower adjustment. Evidence from moderate to high quality studies suggest that better family functioning indicates better adjustment, whereas parent's depressive mood indicates worse adjustment of the children. Child-related factors were inconsistent. CONCLUSION Health professionals should pay attention to cancer patients' dependent children. In order to identify this at-risk population, parent's depressive mood and poor family functioning should be considered. Future studies should also assess children's quality of life and child-related factors.
Minor Children of Palliative Patients: A Systematic Review of Psychosocial Family Interventions
(2012)
MEDIA PROTECT - a programme targeting parents to prevent children's problematic use of screen media
(2014)
OBJECTIVE The concept of family functioning is gaining importance in psycho-oncology research and health care services. The Family Assessment Device (FAD) is a well-established measure of family functioning. Psychometric properties inherent in the German 51-item adaptation of the FAD are examined in different samples of families with parental cancer. METHODS Acceptance, reliability, and validity of FAD scales are analysed in samples from different study settings (N=1701 cancer patients, N=261 partners, N=158 dependent adolescent children 11 to 18years old). RESULTS Missing items in the FAD scales (acceptance) are rare for adults (<1.1%) and adolescent children (<4.4%). In samples of adults and older adolescents (15 to 18years), all FAD scales except for the Roles scale are significantly reliable (0.75≤Cronbach's α≤0.88). The scales correlate highly (0.46≤Pearson's r≤0.59) with the criterion satisfaction with family life (convergent validity), and have smaller correlations (0.16≤r≤0.49) with measures of emotional distress and subjective well-being (divergent validity). In most FAD scales, adults seeking family counselling report worse family functioning (0.24≤Cohen's d≤0.59) than adults in other samples with parental cancer (discriminative validity). CONCLUSION Overall, the German 51-item adaptation of the FAD reveals good acceptance, reliability, and validity for cancer patients and their relatives. Particularly the scale General Functioning shows excellent psychometric properties. The FAD is suitable in the assessment of families with parental cancer for adults and adolescents older than 11years.
Longitudinal Effects of Violent Media Usage on Aggressive Behavior—The Significance of Empathy
(2014)
(1) Background: Schools report a high number of schoolchildren with poor attention and hyperactive behavior, with 5% being diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). This causes specific problems during homework and classroom times, and the extension of all-day schooling in German primary schools makes this a challenge for support staff working in the after-school programs. Such staff have a very wide variety of qualifications, ranging from no formal teacher training to full teaching qualifications. (2) Methods: This study documents the knowledge of 196 support staff working in all-day primary schools about ADHD, and their subjective view of whether they feel competent with regard to homework situations in general and ADHD in particular. (3) Results: Those with an educational background have significantly more knowledge than those without such a background, staff feel less prepared to supervise children with ADHD, and there is a small but significant correlation here with knowledge about ADHD. (4) Conclusions: The importance of trained pedagogical staff in the supervision of children with concentration problems is emphasized.
Increased resting energy expenditure in children with attention-deficithyperactivity disorder
(2010)
Early therapeutic intervention programs help children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to improve their socio-emotional and functional skills. To relieve the children’s caregivers while ensuring that the children are adequately supported in their training exercises, new technologies may offer suitable solutions. This study investigates the potential of a robotic learning assistant which is planned to monitor the children’s state of engagement and to intervene with appropriate motivational nudges when necessary. To analyze stakeholder requirements, interviews with parents as well as therapists of children with ASD were conducted. Besides a general positive attitude towards the usage of new technologies, we received some important insights for the design of the robot and its interaction with the children. One strongly accentuated aspect was the robot’s adequate and context-specific communication behavior, which we plan to address via an AI-based engagement detection system. Further aspects comprise for instance customizability, adaptability, and variability of the robot’s behavior, which should further be not too distracting while still being highly predictable.
OBJECTIVE Parental physical disease is a family issue, but families' minor children are seldom considered. The current study analyzed experiences with implementation of counseling for families with physically ill parents and minor children during a European multisite pilot project. METHOD Implementation protocols of seven European partner centers collaborating in a joint research project were analyzed by Mayring's qualitative content analysis. Both an inductive approach and a deductive approach were chosen. Satisfaction of families and therapists was considered based on information from three partner centers. RESULTS Satisfaction with counseling was rather high. Mentioned problems referred to aspects related to liaison partners, family-related aspects and physicians' concerns. Recommendations related to contacting families, liaising with other professions, implementing counseling together with a research project, and training. Results are integrated in the current dissemination literature. CONCLUSION Successful implementation was mostly determined by aspects of interdisciplinary cooperation and communication, perceived relative advantage and organizational premises. With regard to this kind of innovative child-centered family mental health services, top-down and bottom-up implementation strategies should be combined, and strategies of maintenance and sustainability should be considered from the very beginning.
Formulating transference in cognitive and dynamic psychotherapies using role relationship models
(2009)
Configurational analysis, a system that can be used to organize formulations of transference phenomena, may be helpful to cognitive behavioral as well as psychodynamic therapists. We interviewed 41 experienced psychotherapists, 24 of whom were psychodynamic therapists and 17 of whom were cognitive-behavioral therapists. The therapists first each rated one of their well-known patients on a list of 12 simple positive and negative transferences. Next, they described the patient's transference in their own words. After that, each therapist formulated the same patient's transference contents according to a more complex format, the Role Relationships Model Configuration (RRMC). Both groups reported relatively similar levels of both positive and negative transference reactions. Both groups found the RRMC format useful, with 38 (92.7%) of the 41 therapists indicating that they found the RRMC method “moderately” to “very” useful. Using the RRMC as a structured approach to identify and describe transference and relationship patterns appears to be helpful to psychotherapists with different theoretical orientations.
Introduction: Heroin overdose is a leading cause of mortality among drug users. This paper aims to identify individual and contextual factors associated with lethal and non-lethal heroin-related overdoses on the basis of case reports and semi-structured proxy interviews. Typical patterns within these cases are determined by means of cluster analysis. Methods: Within the CaRe (Case Reports of heroin-related overdoses) study, case reports (100 proxy reports of overdose events from 36 different facilities) were gathered and evaluated as part of a nationwide survey of experts conducted in Germany in 2019. Following initial descriptive analyses a two-step cluster analysis with the four binary variables of gender, age, time and place was conducted to identify patterns within the reported cases. Results: The case reports grouped into five clusters: 1) Younger male drug users, found in a public space during the daytime; 2) Female drug users; 3) Older male drug users, found in a public space during the daytime; 4) Drug users found at home at night; 5) Drug users found outside at night. Overdoses by female drug users and those which occurred at home and/or at night were significantly more likely to have a fatal outcome. Conclusion: Future prevention
and intervention measures should aim to consider the context, i.e.
Evaluation competencies in the context of diversity training: The practitioners’ point of view
(2018)
This review assessed population-based estimate rates of cancer patients with minor and young adult children (≤ 25 years), children and young adults having a parent with cancer as well as the psychosocial situation and well-being of children and young adults affected by parental cancer. Eighteen publications on population-based studies were included. Studies varied in the age ranges of both cancer patients and children. The prevalence rates of cancer patients having children ranged from 14 to 24.7% depending on the sample structure (e.g., age, gender). Studies reported that between 1.6 and 8.4% of children resp. young adult children have a parent with a history of cancer. Seven publications reported on the psychosocial situation or well-being in children and young adults affected by parental cancer. Estimate rates of psychosocial problems, psychiatric diagnoses or distress ranged between 2.5 and 34% of children depending on the method of measurement and outcome. The differences in the sample structure between the studies impeded the comparison of prevalence rates. However, the findings help to determine the need for specific support services and health care planning. The results emphazise the importance to routinely include issues on the parental role of patients and questions on the well-being and coping of children into psychooncological care. If necessary, support should be provided to families living with a cancer diagnosis.
Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are faced with multiple challenges both in the classroom and in the homework situation. While there are many studies on pedagogical interventions by teachers in the classroom, this is hardly the case when it comes to support staff in after-school homework supervision. In this study, 196 support staff with different qualifications were asked not only about their knowledge of ADHD, their subjective level of stress, and whether they felt trained enough to work with children with ADHD, but also to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of 25 interventions in homework supervision. Overall, the respondents rated effectiveness higher than feasibility. Higher qualifications, greater knowledge, and better preparation went hand in hand with higher ratings of effectiveness. The more stressed the support staff feel themselves to be, the less feasible they rate the measures. The results underline the necessity of employing well-trained pedagogical staff to supervise children with ADHD. A number of interventions can be identified that the support staff deem to be both effective and feasible, and that promise a high level of implementation in practice. At the same time, more attention should be given to potential obstacles to using recommended measures in training and further education.
Early Intervention in Gaming Disorder: What Can We Learn from Findings in the Substance Abuse Field?
(2018)
What constitutes social work is a central question in theory building. If social work wants to be more than a model idea, we cannot answer this question without looking at social work practice.
The article presents ‘doing social work’ as an approach to theorising social work through
ethnographic research. In addition to the basic theoretical and methodological characteristics of the approach, we present four modes of doing social work, which have been developed based on a comparison of different ethnographic studies in different fields: deciding in uncertainty; playing with ambiguity; using categories of difference; and disciplining the everyday. In the following, the mode of playing with ambiguity will be singled out and presented in detail, as it has an important impact on doing relationship while doing social work. In the article, we will use ethnographic data and examples to show how actors actively deal with different roles without making this explicit.