Tiltai

The article discusses the declining juvenile crime rate in Klaipėda between 1995 and 2019. The city of Klaipėda was chosen as an empirical illustration allowing not only to focus on a social phenomenon but also to identify possible directions of wider interpretation and causal links. The authors have already presented a sociological reconstruction of the identities of Klaipėda between 1990 and 2010,* and therefore the dynamics of juvenile crime discussed in the light of new statistical, sociological and especially legal perspectives should be approached as a continuation of the analysis of juvenile crime in Klaipėda. Placing juvenile crime in the context of social problems, the authors see legal changes and programmes in juvenile justice as possible reasons for the declining juvenile crime rate. However, with the conclusions and discussion in the article being based on four hypothetical assumptions for the declining crime rate (delinquency is caused by the process of juvenile biological and social development; a completely opposite hypothesis: with the end of maturation, delinquent behaviour also ceases; links between delinquency and socially vulnerable families; a return to K. Mannheim’s idea of a contract between the elite of society and youth) provoke a continuation of research in the field of youth crime.

Present social and personal spiritual crises make it necessary to actualize the significance of a personal return to God. The Church invites to evaluate again the importance of religious conversion in preventing various social and personal spiritual pathologies. In this context, discussion and specification of a multidimensional phenomenon of religious conversion is problematic. Following the objectives of the Church to deepen the faith and renew evangelisation, this research aims to answer the following scientific questions: what are the typical features of a religious conversion? What are the factors that can influence the dynamics of this process? What are the changes a personal religious conversion may inspire? This article presents a theoretical analysis of a phenomenon of conversion. The research has shown that personal transformation and existential fulfillment of one’s personal life is an essential meaning of a religious conversion. Religion performs a positive psychotherapeutic function, it gives a meaning to a human existence and contributes to a personal maturity, also leads to a wholesome relationship with God where the meaning of human existence is completely fulfilled. Religious conversion may be considered as one of the fundamental elements of a spiritual health within the context of the present life challenges.

In the article, the activities of presidents in the creation of welfare states are analysed. The main factors behind successful effectiveness in the creation of the welfare state are: public opinion towards the president, his/her individual philosophy, clear communication, and relations with political parties. The case of Gitanas Nausėda, the President of the Republic of Lithuania, with his vision of the creation of the welfare state as the main aim of governance and social rights, is presented in the article. The role of President Nausėda is significant because of the proposals and changes he has inititated. The president not only supports the welfare state, but also suggests concrete proposals for changes to the tax environment in the country, improving social security conditions and conditions for the disabled, enforcing equal opportunities, etc.

This paper explores the relationship between paternal religious affiliation, practice, and health behavior, namely consumption of alcohol. This research models alcohol consumption as an aggregate sum of weekly glasses of wine, 50 ml vodka shots, half-liter bottles of beer, and cocktails. The model includes religious confession among other independent variables including self-reported health status. In confessional comparison, the largest fraction, Catholic, is the reference category opposite Orthodox, Protestant, Other non-affiliated believers and Atheist. Significantly, Other believers and Lithuanian Protestants consumed significantly more alcohol than Catholic respondents. A unit increase in prayer or religious reading did not significantly predict a change in alcohol consumption. However a unit increase in weekly work hours significantly decreases alcohol consumption in contrast to a unit increase in time spent with children. Higher consumption is associated with lower self-reported health status.

The de-institutionalisation of the last two decades brings a poignant focus on social inclusion, exclusion and how to facilitate informed lifestyle choices among people with intellectual disabilities. This study explores some of the developments and challenges in participatory inquiry involving lay experts such as people with intellectual disabilities, their advocates and service staff in sheltered occupational sites. The core outcomes in this study are the collaboration between all involved actors identifying and implementing the service improvements needed. It was concluded that an inclusive joint research methodology may be a key and fundament for the development of supporting and empowering social care practice for this said population.

The article deals with the profession of Caritative social worker, its legitimate status in Latvia, as well with historical roots of the profession and its methodology. It is based on the Judeo-Christian anthropological paradigm and is reflected in European guidelines for Social work development, stemming from the founders’ of the European Union concept of the Social stand of man and human dignity as spiritual subject.

The article deals with the problem of domestic violence against women and assesses the expression of this phenomenon in the context of a society approach. The statistical construct of this phenomenon confirms the assumption that the establishment of legal fundamentals for protection against violence is linked to a process of changing the society approach to this issue. The analysis of theoretical and legal discourse of domestic violence reveals that the consistent implementation of the strategy of legal protection of victims against domestic violence has enabled the creation of a specialized comprehensive assistance infrastructure system throughout the country, which provides access to appropriate medical, psychological, legal assistance and at the same time entitles the society to develop prevention programmes that help to establish intolerance towards violence. The Republic of Lithuania Law on Protection against Domestic Violence (2011) has laid strong foundations for the establishment of specialized assistance centres and implies the development of necessary infrastructure.

This article is about the empirical research of the relationship between the components of communicative behaviour of young people. Article describes the basic components of communicative behaviour: communicative tolerance, social communicative competence, perceptual-interactive competence. These components make it possible to investigate holistically and comprehensively communicative behaviour of a person, as well as to build a correctional program for effective social dialogue construction. We describe the procedure and statistical methods to research communicative behaviour components. Analysis of relationships between components shows that the communicative behaviour of a person is build up through various systems of relationships between its components. Based on this, we found that components of communicative behaviour were dependent on characteristics of the educational environment (of such specializations as: humanitarian, technical, military). The revealed features of communicative behaviour can be used to resolve problems of discrimination, both within the student group and beyond.

The article presents the concept of self-regulation which is based on social cognitive theory of self and identity. The study involves the self-integration and specialization of psychological knowledge of subject-activity theory, structural and functional specificity of self-learning of students with developmental delays, improvement of self-interpretation of mental activity of a student in the learning process. In given conditions teaching self-regulation to students with developmental delays is considered as an act of “trial and error” analysis of conditions, the task of understanding the existing knowledge assumptions (hypotheses), thinking and planning meaningful actions and focused management of substantive actions within integrated system of effective actions and operations, including cognitive processes.

In the article there are analysed factors influencing implementation of innovations in Klaipėda city tourism sector. There are discussed the global changes noticeable in Lithuania tourism sector as well. On the basis of conducted in-depth interview with experts there are identified factors, which impede the realization of plans of implementation of innovations in enterprises of the tourism sector such as the following: lack of funding; the problem of attracting investors; unfocused tourism policy, formed in Klaipėda city; not prepared city tourism strategy and its underlying goals; insufficient efforts to attract tourists from neighboring countries. Analysis of the findings showed that with all identified failings there are named technological factors (IT technologies) as the most influencing factors determining implementation of innovations in Lithuania tourism sector, on the basis of which working efficiency may be enhanced and service quality may be improved.