Search Results (14)

Despite ongoing efforts to reduce maternal mortality in Nigeria, the uptake of skilled birth attendance remains persistently low, especially in rural areas. While structural and socio–demographic barriers have been widely studied, less attention has been paid to psychological determinants of maternal healthcare-seeking behavior in low-resource settings. This study explores how the locus of control influences the use of skilled birth care among postpartum women in rural Edo State, Nigeria, and whether neuroticism serves as a mediating factor in this relationship. We draw on data from a cross-sectional survey involving 1411 women aged 15–45 who had given birth within the two years preceding the study. Participants were recruited from 20 randomly selected communities across two rural Local Government Areas. Data were collected using structured interviews that included validated measures of locus of control, neuroticism, and self-reported use of skilled birth care. We applied the Baron and Kenny mediation framework using linear and logistic regression models with standardized coefficients, adjusting for education, household wealth, and women’s decision-making autonomy. The findings show that women with a more external locus of control were significantly less likely to utilize skilled birth care (p < 0.01), and that neuroticism partially mediated this effect. Higher levels of neuroticism were associated with a reduced likelihood of engaging with skilled maternity care services. These results highlight the importance of psychological traits in shaping maternal health behaviors. Integrating psychosocial interventions, such as emotional support, cognitive reframing, and community health education, into maternal healthcare programs may improve service uptake in marginalized rural populations. Full article

Muslims living in non-Muslim countries may experience marginality, which has associations with exclusion, poor socio-emotional health, higher rates of family violence, and poor quality of life. Faith-based strategies have the potential to bridge the gaps and improve the outcomes for these communities. We undertook a reflective evaluation of the individual and group interventions of a Muslim start-up NGO, Community Development, Education and Social Support Inc. (CDESSA) (Adelaide, SA, Australia). Qualitative data were generated via dialogue, storytelling, and making connections with meaning based on observations of the lived experiences of the narrators. The analysis involved revisiting, reordering, refining, and redefining the dialogue, and conscious framing around a theoretical model of community cultural wealth. The results showed the growth of family and community engagement in CDESSA’s support and intervention activities, commencing with a small religious following in 2021 and growing to more than 300 Muslims regularly joining together for faith, health, welfare, and social wellbeing activities. Reflections on the dimensions of aspirational, navigational, social, familial, ethnoreligious, and resilient forms of community cultural wealth showed that the range of individual and group interventions, involving religious leaders, contributed to improving health and wellbeing, thereby growing community capital as a mechanism for strengthening families in this community. Full article

Cerebral palsy is one of the most prevalent groups of motor disorders affecting children and adults across the world. As increasingly more children with cerebral palsy are living longer into adulthood, it is ever more crucial to ensure access to timely and needed early intervention from the onset of diagnosis, on a continuum, to optimize medical, developmental, socio-emotional, and academic outcomes for these children over time. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in collaboration with the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine (AACPDM), substantially revised the clinical practice guidelines for cerebral palsy in 2022, after their prior publication of the guidelines in 2006. The revised guidelines account for a range of considerations that are in line with the biopsychosocial, risk and resilience, and family-centered care models as well as promote a more strengths-based approach to care. Furthermore, there is increased emphasis in the guidelines on promoting equitable access to care as part of contributing towards health equity for all children with cerebral palsy. In addition, the 2022 guidelines clearly present recommendations for earlier diagnosis of cerebral palsy, potentially as early as infancy, as the basis for activating access to early intervention services for children that can bolster their neuroplasticity and global development from an earlier age onward. We consolidate the existing literature on caregiver perceptions, beliefs and concerns surrounding earlier diagnosis of cerebral palsy and connect them to the recommendations in the revised guidelines. We also delineate several considerations surrounding education for healthcare providers and caregivers of children in navigating the chronicity of cerebral palsy in both community and healthcare contexts. There is a scant amount of literature on cerebral palsy across traditional and nontraditional sources of media in published studies, which we also review. Lastly, we present a wealth of recommendations for further research and practice that account for the revised 2022 guidelines, caregiver preferences and acceptability of care, and health equity as the bases for strengthening equitable access to care for children with cerebral palsy on a continuum as they transition into adulthood. Full article

Family firms are considered a function of the family’s influence on the firm’s strategic choices by pursuing the family’s vision for the firm. Based on the premise of the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) theory, this study investigates whether they follow CSR as a strategic choice to grow and preserve SEW and embrace social norms. Using a sample of 88 publicly listed founder-controlled firms in India, this study found that more family member participation improves CSR performance. The relationship is more robust when participating members serve as owners and managers. Further, the relationship between family members is augmented when the member is a female participant. The findings of additional analyses show that family members are more attuned to environmental performance than the other two dimensions of CSR (social and governance). Finally, CSR is related to firm performance as assessed by ROA and Tobin Q. The findings support the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) theory as family members’ participation has incentives in choosing CSR as a strategic decision. CSR as a strategic choice offers economic and social benefits for family enterprises. Full article

Successfully engaging in social communication requires efficient processing of subtle socio-communicative cues. Voices convey a wealth of social information, such as gender, identity, and the emotional state of the speaker. We tested whether our brain can systematically and automatically differentiate and track a periodic stream of emotional utterances among a series of neutral vocal utterances. We recorded frequency-tagged EEG responses of 20 neurotypical male adults while presenting streams of neutral utterances at a 4 Hz base rate, interleaved with emotional utterances every third stimulus, hence at a 1.333 Hz oddball frequency. Four emotions (happy, sad, angry, and fear) were presented as different conditions in different streams. To control the impact of low-level acoustic cues, we maximized variability among the stimuli and included a control condition with scrambled utterances. This scrambling preserves low-level acoustic characteristics but ensures that the emotional character is no longer recognizable. Results revealed significant oddball EEG responses for all conditions, indicating that every emotion category can be discriminated from the neutral stimuli, and every emotional oddball response was significantly higher than the response for the scrambled utterances. These findings demonstrate that emotion discrimination is fast, automatic, and is not merely driven by low-level perceptual features. Eventually, here, we present a new database for vocal emotion research with short emotional utterances (EVID) together with an innovative frequency-tagging EEG paradigm for implicit vocal emotion discrimination. Full article

Diabetes-related distress (DRD) is defined as an emotional state experienced by people with diabetes (PWD) who are worried about their disease management, the emotional burden from the condition, and/or potential difficulties accessing care or support. The psychosocial aspect of diabetes management is a factor that directly influences patients’ well-being as well as the chronic management of the condition yet is not a primary clinical problem being addressed within the healthcare setting. This review advocates for a re-evaluation and subsequent adjustment of the current DRD screening methodology by implementing the five primary components (Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Organizational, Community, and Public Policy) of the Socio-Ecological Model of Health (SEMH), bridging the gaps from a public-health perspective. We searched two electronic databases for studies published in the United States from 1995 to 2020 reporting the effects of social determinants of health (SDOH) on DRD. Articles that contained at least one of the five elements of the SEMH and focused on adults aged 18 years or older were included. SDOH, which include circumstances where individuals grow, work, and age, are highly influenced by external factors, such as the distribution of wealth, power, and resources. Current DRD screening tools lack the capacity to account for all major components of SDOH in a comprehensive manner. By applying the SEMH as a theory-based framework, a novel DRD screening tool addressing sex, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background should be implemented to better improve diabetes management outcomes. By exploring the relationships between each level of the SEMH and DRD, healthcare professionals will be better equipped to recognize potential stress-inducing factors for individuals managing diabetes. Further efforts should be invested with the goal of developing a novel screening tool founded on the all-encompassing SEMH in order to perpetuate a more comprehensive diabetes treatment plan to address barriers within the SDOH framework. Full article

Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics have been studied in a wide variety of business contexts, but the field of family business has mainly devoted attention to Corporate Social Responsibility, with less attention paid to the field of ethics. Being two closely related fields, they should be analyzed jointly in order to study the evolution of the field. To achieve this objective, we use two different bibliometric techniques, a co-word and a document coupling, as they are complementary and allow us to identify research topics and, therefore, to establish future research lines. Results show that the differences that exist between CSR in family businesses and CSR in non-family businesses continue to be a central focus, and that ethics should be found in the roots of that question. However, the underpinning factors and the linkage of the different CSR policies and ethical values to performance still require more attention. To be more precise, topics such as socio-emotional wealth, financial performance, ethics, firm, and management remain at the core of the field. Full article

Scholars have dedicated significant efforts to understanding the factors that influence the environmental strategy of a firm, in order to mitigate the negative impacts on the ecosystem. Learning more about the factors that encourage environmental behavior allows managers and policy makers to improve action and advance correctly in this direction. Despite this academic interest, the literature regarding family business has undertaken limited attention over the issue. Hence, our paper aims to advance in this line of research, by empirically examining the relationship between government support in family firms and their investment in environmental protection. Specifically, we intend to analyze whether the family nature, and the government financial support, influence their environmental strategy. The empirical analysis is developed with a sample of 1802 manufacturing firms in Spain, using a binary logistic regression to evaluate the existence of dependency relationships between the analyzed variables. The results show this dependency, confirming family nature and government support as significant factors for a proactive environmental strategy, funding the idea that family character positively affects environmental performance in line with the socio-emotional wealth approach, and these differences are greater if the company operates mainly in a local area. Likewise, family firms that receive state direct and indirect funding, invest more in environmental issues to mitigate negative external impacts. The practical implications of the results obtained are especially useful for managers of family businesses as well as for central governments and local institutions as a matter of reflection. To reduce administrative processes and costs for family firms in terms of direct and indirect support is of great importance, as an inadequate process may become a barrier to develop environmental strategies. Full article

Society is increasingly concerned about aspects of work related to sustainability. This leads organizations to reflect on the economic, environmental, and social problems that affect both current and future generations. When companies identify an environmental problem, they try to respond to it through changes in their environmental policies, aiming at the transition towards sustainability. In this context, the circular economy appears as a regenerative industrial system that replaces the concept of “end of life” with that of “restoration”. It is oriented to the use of renewable energies, eliminating the use of toxic chemicals, which are harmful to reuse. The theory of socio-emotional wealth describes the behavior patterns of family businesses in response to the environmental changes that occur and the reasons derived from the family character that make them move towards the circular economy model. This article studies the case of the Spanish textile manufacturing and distribution multinational Inditex, analyzing the information collected in its environmental balances in the period 2013–2018. The analysis allows us to observe the speed of Inditex’s transition to the circular economy. For this, transition speed indicators were formed in each of the dimensions of the circular economy model. The results of the study indicate areas in which the company is moving faster and those in which more effort is needed. Finally, a collection of good practices related to the CE used by Inditex is provided. Full article

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the predominant form of firm in the economy worldwide, so it is becoming increasingly important to understand the role they play in the green transition. It is urgent to understand how SMEs establish their goals that reorient their strategies and activities towards the creation of greater environmental value. From a stakeholder perspective, this study analyzes the environmental and social goals that create value in SMEs. We identify family influence as an important determinant for the establishment of environmental goals in SMEs that has not been sufficiently studied. We tested the hypotheses in a sample of 132 Spanish SMEs. Our findings indicate that setting social goals and having family characteristics have a direct positive effect on the environmental goals of SMEs. In addition, family influence positively moderates the effect of social goals, increasing its effect in the establishment of environmental goals for the creation of value in SMEs. This is due to the desire of family SMEs to increase their socio-emotional wealth and their transgenerational intention by incorporating the requirements of stakeholders. These findings highlight the importance of particularly considering the family characteristics of SMEs when analyzing the role that SMEs play in the green transition and should also be important for policy makers when designing environmental policies. Full article

Two-thirds of the world’s private companies are family owned. It is an organizational model that, despite the arrival of large corporations, remains and is still totally in place. The survival of these organizations is not easy, and is conditioned by multiple factors. The research that addresses the sustainability of family businesses is numerous and has been conducted from multiple disciplines. This document investigates the trends in scientific production related to family businesses and their sustainability, using bibliometric techniques and SciMAT software. A total of 286 articles were analysed between 2003 and 2019 from the journals indexed in the Web of Science (WoS). The results suggest that, although there is a growing interest in the study of the sustainability of family businesses, there is instability in the centrality of the topics, which denotes the existence of a wide margin of development. The most influential and trend-setting themes emerge mainly concentrated in three lines: those that analyse factors that drive sustainability, such as socio-emotional wealth and stakeholders; those interested in knowing about methods or practices that favour sustainability, such as CSR, performance, management or innovation; and those that investigate factors that endanger survival, mainly intergenerational succession processes. The contribution of this work is that, through bibliometric techniques, it sheds light on the groups of topics that condition the sustainability of family businesses, which will help the scientific community in the orientation of future work in this field of research. Full article

Sustainability addresses environmental and social issues affecting this and future generations. When family businesses perceive that the community is disrupted, recognize an environmental problem and respond by implementing new environmental policies or regulations, the family business’s socio-emotional values press to transition to a more sustainable production system, such as the ‘Circular Economy.’ Drawing on the Dubin (1978) methodology—a paradigm for building models through deduction—we design a sustainable model, which shows family businesses’ responses to changes in the environment. It explains the reasons why family firms transition to the Circular Economy, based on the theory of Socio-Emotional Wealth (SEW). We check the model through the case study of the food retail leader in the Spanish market—Mercadona—which applies policies about energy, resources and waste to become a Circular Economy business model. Because of the strong family character of Mercadona, this case can be useful for the decision-making of other family businesses. Full article

We analyze the largely unexplored differences in sustainability reporting within family businesses using a sample of 230 non-financial Italian listed firms for the period 2004–2013. Drawing on legitimacy theory and stakeholder theory, integrated with the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) approach, we study how family control, influence and identification shape a firm’s attitude towards disclosing its social and environmental behavior. Our results suggest that family firms are more sensitive to media exposure than their non-family counterparts and that family control enhances sustainability disclosure when it is associated to a family’s direct influence on the business, by the founder’s presence on the board or by having a family CEO. In cases of indirect influence, without family involvement on the board, the level of family ownership is negatively related to sustainability reporting. On the other hand, a formal identification of the family with the firm by business name does not significantly affect social disclosure. Full article

Our study uses the Socio Emotional Wealth Perspective (SEW) to test our contention that Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) founders are more inclined to satisfy first their non-economic goals rather than satisfying the economic goals of REIT shareholders. We test our hypotheses with an unbalanced panel dataset that includes an average of 66 publicly-traded equity REITs from 1999–2012 that produced 921 REIT-year observations. Our exploratory results provide evidence of SEW preservation as REITs led by founders’ successors tend to underperform; however, the family identification with the REIT affects performance positively. This is one of the first studies that merge the REIT and the family business streams of research. Future directions are suggested. Full article