The global shipping industry, responsible for delivering over 70% of the world's goods (in volume), has increasingly adopted cost minimization policies, contributing to precarious employment ...practices that adversely affect seafarers' wellbeing. This study focuses on the intricate relationship between employment precarity and food provision on cargo ships. By presenting seafarers' perspectives, we aim to understand how precarious employment practices and cost minimization in the industry influence power dynamics related to food and impact seafarers' wellbeing. Drawing on empirical data collected through shipboard observations and interviews with seafarers, this study examines the often-overlooked experiences and perspectives of seafarers. The research sheds light on the precarity of employment in shipping and its inherent impact on the provision of food on board and its implications for seafarers' physical and emotional health, including the availability of nutritious and sufficient food and its impact on their daily lives. Through in-depth interviews, seafarers' insights into their experiences of food including the quality, availability, and cultural appropriateness of food on board are explored, as well as the standard of training for cooks. Through this research, we found substandard conditions on some of the ships, cost-focused decision-making, and lack of standardized food preparation practices on board. These findings underline the need for improved regulations, better training opportunities, and increased consideration for seafarers' wellbeing. These changes are essential to ensure the provision of adequate and nutritious meals that promote the physical and mental health of seafarers on board ships. Specifically, the research underscores the need for policy and advocacy initiatives to improve seafarers' lives and promote fair working conditions in the global shipping industry. By amplifying the voices of seafarers and providing evidence-based insights, this study contributes to the larger discourse on workers' rights and the importance of decent working conditions. It calls for greater attention to the provision of adequate, nutritious, and culturally appropriate food on board cargo ships, recognizing its significance for seafarers' physical and mental wellbeing, as well as a call for standardized training for ship's cooks.
Teachers in rural China are considered disadvantaged compared to their urban counterparts on several measures, including working conditions, remuneration, and access to professional development ...opportunities. We argue that teacher wellbeing plays a crucial role in teacher quality because quality teachers require optimal functioning and wellbeing to teach well. This study reports on the qualitative element of an exploratory sequential mixed-methods research design investigating Chinese rural teachers’ attitudes towards wellbeing. The results of this study confirmed that remuneration, access to professional development opportunities and social status of rural teachers are behind those of urban teachers in China. However, several rural teachers excelled in the profession, showing a passion for teaching that transformed the lives of rural students. This study discovered a gap in the current research on the wellbeing of rural teachers in China and suggested that policymakers should promote the unique positive aspects of rurality, including teachers’ passion for optimal outcomes for their students, rather than focussing on the negative aspects of rurality.
Material hardship has emerged as a direct measure of deprivation in the United States and an important complement to income poverty, providing different evidence about the ways in which deprivation ...may affect wellbeing. This study addresses gaps in our knowledge about deprivation as the first to examine patterns of material hardship over time. Using data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, this study examined five material hardship types (food, housing, medical, utility, and bill-paying) experienced at five timepoints over 15 years. Employing latent class analysis and latent transition analysis, this study identified six longitudinal patterns of material hardship experience, characterized by trajectories of stability or movement and relative severity of material hardship experience over time. These findings improve our conceptual understanding of deprivation and move us towards understanding the impacts of material hardship on wellbeing and identifying policy approaches to prevent deprivation or mitigate negative consequences.
•Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are positively associated with health conditions.•Associations are similar across child race/ethnicity and gender.•ACEs may exacerbate existing social ...disparities in health.
Adverse childhood experiences (ACE), potentially stressful or traumatic experiences that are concentrated among already vulnerable populations such as children of color and economically disadvantaged children, can accumulate throughout childhood. The stress process perspective suggests that ACEs, such as parental incarceration or violence exposure, can have deleterious implications for childhood health. This analysis used data from the 2016 and 2017 National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH), a nationally representative sample of non-institutionalized children ages 0 to 17 in the United States (N = 71,811), to estimate the association between number of ACEs and children’s health (including three general and 12 specific health indicators). ACEs are common, with nearly half (45.3%) of children exposed to at least one ACE. Exposure to three or more ACEs, compared to no ACE exposure, is positively associated with fair or poor overall health, activity limitations, and recurring school absence, adjusting for an array of child and parent characteristics. Exposure to three or more ACEs is also positively associated with specific indicators of children’s mental (such as depression, anxiety, behavioral or conduct problems) and physical (such as asthma, allergies, headaches) health conditions. These associations exist when restricting the sample to children with similar risks of ACE exposure based on their age. These associations are also similar across child race/ethnicity and gender. Given that ACE exposure is concentrated among already vulnerable children, ACEs may exacerbate existing social disparities in children’s health.
Background In the context of clinical research, investigators have historically selected the outcomes that they consider to be important, but these are often discordant with patients’ priorities. ...Efforts to define and report patient-centered outcomes are gaining momentum, though little work has been done in nephrology. We aimed to identify patient and caregiver priorities for outcomes in hemodialysis. Study Design Nominal group technique. Setting & Participants Patients on hemodialysis therapy and their caregivers were purposively sampled from 4 dialysis units in Australia (Sydney and Melbourne) and 7 dialysis units in Canada (Calgary). Methodology Identification and ranking of outcomes. Analytical Approach Mean rank score (of 10) for top 10 outcomes and thematic analysis. Results 82 participants (58 patients, 24 caregivers) aged 24 to 87 (mean, 58.4) years in 12 nominal groups identified 68 outcomes. The 10 top-ranked outcomes were fatigue/energy (mean rank score, 4.5), survival (defined by patients as resilience and coping; 3.7), ability to travel (3.6), dialysis-free time (3.3), impact on family (3.2), ability to work (2.5), sleep (2.3), anxiety/stress (2.1), decrease in blood pressure (2.0), and lack of appetite/taste (1.9). Mortality ranked only 14th and was not regarded as the complement of survival. Caregivers ranked mortality, anxiety, and depression higher than patients, whereas patients ranked ability to work higher. Four themes underpinned their rankings: living well, ability to control outcomes, tangible and experiential relevance, and severity and intrusiveness. Limitations Only English-speaking participants were eligible. Conclusions Although trials in hemodialysis have typically focused on outcomes such as death, adverse events, and biological markers, patients tend to prioritize outcomes that are more relevant to their daily living and well-being. Researchers need to consider interventions that are likely to improve these outcomes and measure and report patient-relevant outcomes in trials, and clinicians may become more patient-orientated by using these outcomes in their clinical encounters.
Purpose This study aims to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore mental health in Australian construction apprentices from the perspective of key stakeholders in the apprenticeship ...model. In particular, this study explored how construction apprentices, Vocational Education and Training (VET) teachers, industry employers and mental health workers understood the construct of mental health, factors associated with the dimension of psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, and factors associated with the dimension of mental wellbeing. Design/methodology/approach This study used an exploratory qualitative research design. Data from 36 semi-structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Participants comprised 19 Australian construction apprentices, 5 VET teachers, 7 industry employers and 5 mental health workers. Findings In total, 14 themes were generated from the data set. Participants across stakeholder groups reported a limited understanding about mental health. Participants cited a range of negative personal, workplace and industry factors associated with psychological distress/symptoms of mental illness, but only reported a few factors associated with mental wellbeing. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to use the dual-continuum model of mental health to explore the mental health of Australian construction apprentices, and to explore the factors associated with both dimensions of this model from the perspective of key stakeholders in the Australian construction apprenticeship model.
Catholic worship prioritises in-person ritual contact, but due to COVID-19, most Australian places of worship closed during 2020. An online survey of 1173 Australian churchgoing Catholics using the ...Spiritual Well Being Scale found no significant difference in Existential and Religious Wellbeing scores between groups who were still experiencing church closures and those who could attend church again. In those still experiencing church closures, standard multiple regression revealed significant and positive relationships between age and virtual worship engagement and both Existential and Religious Wellbeing scores. However, in those who could attend church once more, pre- and post-closure Mass attendance rate, and both virtual and real-life worship during church closures were all predictive of higher Existential and Religious Wellbeing scores. These results support the provision of access to both virtual and real-life worship during church closures, and their positive effects on both existential and religious wellbeing in a churchgoing Catholic population.
as the longevity of the population increases, attention has turned to quality of life of older people as a component of healthy ageing. The objective of this study was to use Welch Saleeby's model of ...the capability approach to explore the determinants of subjective well-being among older people.
this analysis used data from a sample of older people, aged 50-87, from 2012 wave of the New Zealand Longitudinal Study of Ageing (NZLSA) (n = 2,793). Structural equation modelling was used to examine the relationships between the commodities (number of chronic conditions reported, physical and mental health), and personal and environmental factors (economic living standard and discrimination), on the capabilities of older people to achieve well-being.
the findings supported Welch Saleeby's model. Capabilities mediated the relationship between commodities and well-being, indicating that increasing the range of real opportunities available to older people is a key step in increasing well-being. Age and gender were also found to be significant moderators of these relationships. The relationship between economic living standards and well-being was weakest for the oldest participants, but experiences of discrimination had a stronger effect on well-being in this age group.
Welch Saleeby's model of the capability approach provides a useful framework for advancing the ethics of care as it highlights the multidimensional nature of well-being in later life. Focusing on expanding capabilities for older people enables policymakers and practitioners to understand the resources and supports required to enable well-being in the context of health challenges.
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