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Pathway to academic well-being: The role of institutional social capital in the well-being of academics in five Central and Eastern European countries
85-98Views:6This study examined the relationship between institutional social capital and the emotional well-being of academics in Central and Eastern European higher education systems. Building on Pusztai’s conceptual framework, this study distinguishes between intragenerational social capital, referring to collegial cooperation and communicative exchange, and intergenerational social capital, referring to informal interaction with students beyond formal teaching. The analysis draws on survey data collected in 2023 from academics in five countries (Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia, and Ukraine) (N ≈ 800). Institutional social capital is operationalised through indicators capturing the frequency and diversity of interactions, while emotional well-being is measured using Warr’s Affective Well-being Scale. The results show that intragenerational social capital is a significant positive predictor of well-being, whereas intergenerational social capital has no independent effect. The findings suggest that collegial relational embeddedness constitutes a relevant, albeit limited, resource for emotional well-being in academic work.
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Supporting Background, Caring Practices and Perceptions of Care in Narratives of Parents of Children Living With Autism Spectrum Disorder
Views:200This study explores the childrearing practices of parents raising children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), using D. H. Morgan’s family practices framework (Morgan, 1996, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2011), the concepts of care capital and Bowlby’s thoughts on caringscapes (Bowlby, 2012, 2017, 2019). It also addresses questions of care and autonomy within the context of disability. The author’s dual role as both researcher and parent plays a significant part in the research process. Using Grounded Theory methodology, the study involved 19 interviews with Hungarian parents of children with ASD. The findings reveal that parenting practices are shaped by the lack of formal care. Deficiencies in institutional support shift additional care responsibilities to the primary sphere of care (Lynch, 2007), intensifying parental care burdens. Parents are forced to stretch already limited resources, which can restrict both their own and their child’s experience of autonomy. Furthermore, the availability of formal care alone does not ensure a sense of agency or control for parents. Some parents with greater resources extend their roles beyond individual caregiving. They challenge dominant perceptions of autism and strive to reshape local caringscapes, effectively “rewriting” societal understandings of otherness and disability.
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Dropped-out Students and the Decision to Drop-out in Hungary
31-40Views:1193The interpretation of the phenomenon of student dropout, which represents a waste of a relatively large proportion of human and material capital in the social, individual and institutional domain, is impossible without examining dropout students. In this study, we analysed the DEPART 2018 database, which contains data from 605 Hungarian dropout students. We tried to identify higher education dropout scenarios and pointed out that higher educational dropout is a complex phenomenon. Based on the students' reports on their interpretation and evaluation of their dropouts, four student clusters were created. We compared the groups with their socio-cultural background and their decision to drop out from higher education, and their assessment of that decision. The most important result of the study is that it identifies a new group in addition to the international dropout types, and provides a detailed picture that calls our attention to the diversity of dropout groups, thereby moving beyond the over-generalised image of the dropout student.