Tiltai

Scientific journal Tiltai / Bridges / Brücken published by Klaipėda University (established in 1991) is devoted to the issues of social sciences, and seeking academic dialogue, also to other human and society functioning-related humanities and biomedical sciences, with expand and interpret different social phenomena and current issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. The publications attempts at analysing and solving actual problems of economy, management, demography, social geography, geopolitics, political sciences, history, education, religious, regional planning and land use, other social problems. Science has no borders. Therefore scientific cooperation is one of the most important elements in the progress of world’s community. Scientists from different countries of the world are kindly invited to write for and contribute to the journal.Tiltai / Bridges is the scientifical periodical magazine, which publications, by the decision of Lithuanian Science Council, are recognized as convenient for doctoral dissertations and pedagogical scientific names.

This study is based on Intervention Research, where initially a literature study and a needs assessment of community caregivers regarding the content of an empowerment programme for caregivers to facilitate HIV and AIDS patients’ adherence to antiretroviral treatment, were undertaken. From these results an empowerment programme for caregivers was developed. In this article the evaluation of the programme will be reported on by means of quantitative measurement. An experimental design was utilised with both groups comprising of 12 caregivers with a pre-test, post-test and post-post-test. The results of the measurement indicated that the community caregivers were empowered and that such an empowerment programme is needed.

The current study (N = 514) explores the relationship between humanistic spirituality as it is conceptualised in the proposed Humanistic Spirituality Model and parenting experiences defined herein as authoritative, authoritarian and permissive parenting styles, parental behavioural and psychological control as well as secure and insecure parental and adult attachment styles. The study has found that of the three parenting styles, only the authoritative style is a significant positive predictor of spirituality, though secure attachment in adulthood and the two demographic variables, age and female gender, serve as even more salient predictors. Both parents’ behavioural and psychological control forms do not predict humanistic spirituality, whereas secure attachment to the mother furthers spirituality indirectly as it is a significant predictor of one of the most important determinants of spirituality, secure attachment in adulthood.

The article analyzes the motivation for military service of the soldiers the Lithuanian Armed Forces based on their opinion. It presents the theoretical approach to motivation for military service, emphasizes the significance of values in the process of motivation, identifies the expectations, based on V. H. Vroom’s expectancy theory, which determine the motivation of soldiers under continuous mandatory service. According to the analysis of the completed research, it is stated that the soldiers are only partly satisfied with the current motivation system. In addition, the results of the research confirm the hypothesis that the motivation for military service differs between volunteer soldiers and conscript soldiers.

Scientific literature, LR legal acts and analysis of research conducted in Lithuania shows that the process of teachers’ qualification development is related to adult education and organization of teaching / learning, is relevant as a source of improvement of teachers’ pedagogical as well as andragogical activity and acquisition of new competences. But this process is complicated and consists of professional activity’s self-assessment / assessment, planning, self-improvement / improvement, practical application, reflection and as an aspect of quality assurance it is a repeated cycle of actions to improve quality. Knowing that andragogue organiser’s professionalism is one of the most important conditions for this process to be successfully and qualitatively implemented, the issue raised in this article is: what is the role of andragogue organiser’s professionalism in striving for effectiveness of teachers’ qualification development? The conducted quantitative research confirmed the importance of andragogue organiser’s professionalism for the effectiveness of this process. It is found that the main objective of teachers’ qualification development, that is, the quality of their professional activities and the acquisition of new competences will be achieved if the andragogue organiser will professionally implement the teachers’ qualification development process beginning with analysis of learning needs and ending with practical application of acquired competences. In the practical approach empirical data presented in this article can be significant in: 1) seeking to reveal the effectiveness of activity of Klaipeda District Education Centre that provides teachers’ qualification development services; 2) improving and ensuring the quality of this process; 3) achieving andragogue organiser’s professionalism (internal professionalism – improvement of professional competences by examining the analysis of research results, external professionalism – justification of andragogue organiser’s role of professionalism in the effectiveness of teachers’ qualification development).

The article discusses the results of value-based communication analysis in the electoral programs of winning parties in Republic of Lithuania Seimas’2016 year election (LVŽS, LSDP, TS-LKD, LRLS, TT, LLRA-KŠS). With the application of three criteria of programs’ analysis – the volume of thematic parts, semantic segments, and ideological values – these questions were addressed: the connection and differences between winner parties’ attitudes towards values; whether traditional parties have preserved ideological identity; what coalitions after the election in the Seimas were possible based on values. The research data revealed that communication of values relevant to society in all analyzed programs is very similar, and, through cluster analysis, the connections between ideological values’ communication were established foremost between traditional parties (first cluster). The second cluster consists of less related programs of other parties. Almost identical results were established when analysing this aspect based on programs’ structural parts. Thus two separate structural elements with stronger (first case) and weaker (second case) interconnections were determined.

In the article the notion of “sustainable development” is analysed gnoseologically, onthologically and axiologically, and the historical meaning of the term is presented. The article is of analytical review type, which is implicating the remarks on theoretical and practical analysis of the phenomena by formulating and implementing the aims of sustainable development. Substantial attention of the readers is drawn to the tasks and aggregated indicators of sustainable development, which encompass the environmental, social and economical aspects, and the significance of sustainable development for mankind’s survival and prosperity is underlined. The authors stress the harmful impact of the extreme economization of social and environmental spheres, and affirm that only the balanced and sustainable development has the future, if we do not want to take away the resources from the future generations and want to improve the present social life and environmental quality.

The article presents the research that reveals the complexity of the patient hospital choice process and, in the context of the research data, enables the evaluation of the patient hospital choice factors influencing their decision. The problem of hospital choice is topical both in Lithuania and other EU and world countries. It is a complex process that requires the evaluation of the poly-functionality of the choice factors: the character of the patient disease and their state of health, the characteristics of the hospital, the interactive relationship between the hospital staff, the patient’s relatives, and Internet access. The research sample consisted of 477 participants aged between 18 and 89, treated in various hospitals throughout the country. Based on the results of the research presented in the article, one can argue that the factors having the greatest impact on patients’ choice of hospital include the advice of friends and significant others, personal experience, and the advice of their family doctor. The main prerequisites for choosing a hospital named by the patient respondents were the qualification of the medical staff, the quality of health care, communication between doctors and patients, the geographical location of the hospital, and its accessibility.

The spectrum of the links between the quality of life and health has been expanding due to the phenomenon of health acquiring features of a social phenomenon and growing complexity. The research evidenced that health was considered to be one of the most important, and often the most important, dimension of the quality of life. To more comprehensively identify the health-related factors that affected the quality of life in general, the concept of the health-related quality of life has been developed. In our research 1763 children filled KIDSCREEN52 surveys which evidence tendency as follows: even though two thirds of the children did not indicate they had health disorders, only one third of them assessed their health as excellent and very good. This demonstrates that, in the children’s assessment of health, both the absence of a disease or disability and also psychological and social factors are important.