Social Work

The investigation of spiritual/religious factors in health is clearly warranted and clinically relevant. This special section explores the persistent predictive relationship between religious variables and health, and its implications for future research and practice. The section reviews epidemiological evidence linking religiousness to morbidity and mortality, possible biological pathways linking spirituality/ religiousness to health, and advances in the assessment of spiritual/religious variables in research and practice. This introduction provides an overview of this field of research and addresses 3 related methodological issues: definitions of terms, approaches to statistical control, and criteria used to judge the level of supporting evidence for specific hypotheses. The study of spirituality and health is a true frontier for psychology and one with high public interest.

The present article focused on the development and measurement of a factor model of the expressions of spirituality. Study 1 (N = 534) involved the use of factor analysis to examine the latent factor structure in a sample of 11 measures of spiritual constructs. Study 2 (N = 938) focused on the replication of Study 1 results and on the construction and initial validation of an instrument to operationalize the factor model of spirituality. Results indicate that at least 5 robust dimensions of spirituality underlie the spirituality test domain. These dimensions were labeled Cognitive Orientation Towards Spirituality (COS), Experiential/Phenomenological Dimension (EPD), Existential Well-Being (EWB), Paranormal Beliefs (PAR), and Religiousness (REL). The measure developed, named the Expressions of Spirituality Inventory (ESI), takes the form of a 98-item instrument that generated scores demonstrating satisfactory

Neglected and AbandonedChildren are the most vulnerable group in any society. However,a large segment of children face vulnerability in the family, even under parental care. Family-related vulnerabilities are inherently varied due to the diverse lifestyles and cultures across different tribal groups. The present study is a pilot study focused on assessing family-related vulnerabilities of children from a tribal village in Wayanad, Kerala. The research data was collected from a sample of 45 children from three tribal hamlets usinginterviews and the Score Vulnerability Assessment Tool. Results of the study showed that the difference infamily-related vulnerability to life conditions among male and female children is negligible, wheremost male and female children fall in the moderate to severe range of exposure. The findings disclose that 87% of children in the sample used some kind of substance (p<0.05), with asignificant score for the high rate of alcohol and substance abuse. 

The article reviews the empirical evidence for trafficking and human smuggling in Europe. It argues that a market for irregular migration services has emerged, in which the mechanisms and forms of organization are still relatively unknown. Irregular migrants using these services are exposed both to unscrupulous service providers and to the immigration and policing authorities, thereby generating a dependence on safeguards provided by the trafficking networks. Thus a symbiosis has developed between trafficker and trafficked.

Youth are the hope of the future of the world or in other words the future of the world lies in the hands of the youth. They are the pillars who build up the nations. They are the resources of our country and the development of our nation depends on their empowerment. They are productive and active people who are capable of large undertakings.  In the midst of their strong and stubborn nature we realize the fact that there are several problems among the present day youth. These problems are most often psychological and are developed during their stages of development. There is no other way but to recognize, identify and find out remedies to such problems of them. The science of psychology and the Psycho analysis has been contributed much to the youth related problems and solutions. Youth psychology is a branch of psychology that develops very rapidly .The society as a whole has got an obligation to help the youth in their psychological needs. They are to be well educated in psychological disciplines and the parents also should be aware of the psychological stages that a child passes through. This paper is an attempt to point out the major psychological problems of the youth, the causes behind it and discusses a few remedial measures.

Aswathy Nair is a social worker, medical representative and a law student. She is the founder of Jwala Foundation, an NGO that provides food and shelter to the displaced and elderly. Aswathy's future works include coordinating with other social workers across the State and starting a home for the destitute where all inmates can have an inclusive lifestyle and keep themselves occupied at all times.