Exploring Social Work Interventions in Health, Education, and Social Care to Promote Community and Individual Wellbeing

A special issue of Social Sciences (ISSN 2076-0760). This special issue belongs to the section "Community and Urban Sociology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2025) | Viewed by 1197

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Allied Health and Social Care, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
Interests: social work; social work education; mental health; the recovery approach; family carers

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Health, Education and Social Care, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK
Interests: social work; child and family work; child protection; fostering and adoption

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Guest Editor
Faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Interests: disability studies; domestic violence; social inclusion of expert by experience into research; supervision in social work

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Social work interventions to promote wellbeing are undertaken in a variety of settings such as health, education, and social care. Social workers are required to develop a number of different skills managing multiple forms of interventions to promote wellbeing and empowerment. In a world that is impacted by climate change, austerity issues, economic crisis, war, and natural disasters, social workers need to develop culturally competent practices with different communities and service users with diverse clinical and social needs. 

This Special Issue invites contributions from an international audience that captures the richness and diversity of social work in all its forms. It recognises that within social work, social workers can be agents for change as activists or can be boundaried by the mandates of the state; however, social work is both an academic and practical discipline underpinned by a commitment to social justice and community and individual empowerment. This Special Issue hopes to capture contributions which show the scope of social work and its different forms of intervention, highlighting it as a practice and academic discipline within health, education, and social care that promotes both individual and community wellbeing.

Dr. Joanna Fox
Dr. Debbie Amas
Dr. Petra Videmšek
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • community wellbeing
  • individual wellbeing
  • child safeguarding
  • adult safeguarding
  • international social work
  • multi-disciplinary interventions
  • diversity and inclusion
  • social justice and empowerment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 1317 KiB  
Article
A Control Theory Approach to Understanding the Dynamics of Cognitive Wellbeing
by Ioan Susnea, Emilia Pecheanu, Adina Cocu, Paul Iacobescu, Cornelia Tudorie and Simona Susnea
Soc. Sci. 2025, 14(3), 158; https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci14030158 - 5 Mar 2025
Viewed by 557
Abstract
(1) Background and Objective: The debate on the stability and variability of subjective wellbeing (SWB) is decades old. However, despite the wealth of literature on this topic, there are relatively few studies that aim to explain the “why” and “how” of the dynamics [...] Read more.
(1) Background and Objective: The debate on the stability and variability of subjective wellbeing (SWB) is decades old. However, despite the wealth of literature on this topic, there are relatively few studies that aim to explain the “why” and “how” of the dynamics of SWB. In this context, the objective of this exploratory study is to test the plausibility of a model of the cognitive component of SWB (CWB) inspired by the control theory. In this model, a measure of future life expectations (FLEs) serves as a target in the control loop regulating cognitive wellbeing (CWB), while general self-efficacy (GSE) and affective wellbeing (AWB) are mediators in the direct and feedback loops. (2) Method: To test this model, we collected data from a convenience sample of N-98 Romanian students in Computer Science using well-established questionnaires measuring CWB, GSE, AWB, and FLE. Mediation analyses and path modeling were conducted to evaluate the feedback-based model of the interplay between these variables. (3) Results: The findings confirm a significant relationship between FLE and CWB (β = 0.62, p < 0.001). GSE partially mediates the link between FLE and CWB (β = 0.139, p = 0.02), while AWB mediates the feedback from CWB to FLE (β = 0.297, p < 0.001). The model explains 42% of the variance of CWB. (4) Conclusions: Our study remains exploratory in nature, but preliminary data suggest that a model of SWB based on feedback control is worth attention as it might provide a better understanding of the dynamics of SWB. Full article
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